This is a bit ambitious for me. Here’s what happened: I wanted something from Africa for The Lion King. I discovered malva pudding, which originates in South Africa. While I was searching through recipes online to see what I could use as a base for a vegan version, I came across this very intricate and multi-faceted recipe from The Chocolate Academy. The Lion King is my absolute favorite Disney movie of all time, and a complete masterpiece, so I wanted to make a dessert worthy of it. The recipes you see here are not usually a one-for-one recreation, but for this very special occasion, I had to try. Here’s the original if you want to give it a try, too. Plus, bananas seemed fitting, considering “asante sana, squash banana”

So we have quite an extensive list of ingredients for this one.

• Sliced Bananas
• Malva Pudding
  • 1 fake egg of choice
  • 200g white sugar
  • 230g soymilk
  • 13g vegan butter
  • 5g baking soda
  • a pinch of salt
  • 50g apricot jam
  • 20g vinegar
• Sauce
  • 212g coconut cream
  • 60g vegan butter
  • 125g boiling water
  • 196g brown sugar
  • half an orange peel
• Ice Cream
  • 77g vegan white chocolate
  • 150g soy milk
  • 150g soy whipping cream (or coconut cream)
  • 30g sugar
  • 10g agave syrup
  • a pinch of salt
  • 2 fake egg yolks
  • 5g cinnamon
• Honeycomb
  • 200g sugar
  • 86g honey
  • 52g water
  • 8g baking soda
• Pecan Crumble
  • 11g pecans
  • 110g turbinado sugar
  • 175g self-raising flour
  • 10g ground cinnamon
• Ganache
  • 120g coconut cream
  • 28g agave syrup
  • 25g sugar
  • 5g simple syrup
  • 25g vegan butter
  • 190g vegan chocolate chips

If you don’t want to make ice cream or don’t have an ice cream maker, skip ahead to preheating the oven.

The day before you plan on doing most of the baking, create the ice cream base. In a saucepan, heat the white chocolate, soymilk, coconut cream, and agave syrup together in a double-boiler. Vegan white chocolate chips can be hard to find, but I used Enjoy Life White Chocolate Mini-Chips. King David’s also has a white chocolate, and Pascha’s is a last resort (they don’t melt very well). For whipping cream, Silk has a great one.

In a separate bowl, combine the fake egg yolks, agave, sugar, and cinnamon.

Temper the fake eggs by stirring in the hot mixture 1/2 cup at a time while continuously stirring, then return the entire mixture to a low heat and stir it until it reaches 170F. Tempering the fake eggs might not be necessary since they’re not real eggs, but you definitely want to keep whisking to avoid that scrambled egg texture once it’s on the heat. Once the mixture reaches temperature, cool it over an ice bath, and refrigerate it overnight.

The next day, strain the ice cream base and churn it with an ice cream maker. I use the Kitchen-Aid attachment.

Moving on to the actual malva pudding, preheat your oven to 340F or 170C. Then, whip together the fake egg and the sugar until it is light and fluffy. Alternatively, you can use 50g aquafaba. Then, warm up the soymilk and vegan butter.

Gently add the flour, baking soda, and salt to the egg mixture. Fold it in, trying not to knock too much air out. Then, add the milk, butter, apricot jam, and vinegar and stir until just mixed.

Slice up 1-2 bananas and place the slices in the bottom of your desired cake mold, then pour the batter on top. Bake the cake for 10-15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. (I used quite a thick cake pan so it took closer to 25 minutes.

Now on to the sauce. Simply place all the ingredients into a heavy pot and bring it to a boil. Then, once your cake is out of the oven, pour the sauce over it immediately.

While the cake is cooling, make the honeycomb. Boil together the sugar, honey, and water until it reaches 300F. Then add the baking soda and whisk until it bubbles. Once it bubbles, pour the mixture into a metal bowl lined with baking paper and let it set. This is a kind of candy-making, requires attention, and burns easily.

Final two things- the pecan crumble and the chocolate ganache.

To start with the pecan crumble, lower your oven temperature to 330F. Chop the pecans, then place all the ingredients into a food processor and mix together. Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until it is golden and crumbly.

For the chocolate ganache, heat the coconut cream in a saucepan, then add the agave syrup, sugar, and simple syrup. Heat it to about 104F. Add the chocolate, then use an emulsion blender (or regular blender) to make sure it’s as smooth as possible. Finally, add the vegan butter. Pour the mixture into a piping bag and pipe it once it’s firm.

To serve, flip the malva pudding over so that the bananas are on top, then sprinkle it with sugar and torch it with a kitchen torch. Cut a slice and plate it. Add a scoop of pecan crumble to the plate and top it with the ice cream. Add a few pieces of honeycomb, and stylistically pipe the ganache onto the plate.

(I did burn my honeycomb but everything else turned out great!)