Vegan Red Velvet Cupcake

So many people love red velvet cake and cupcakes. I haven’t ever really been one of them, probably because I was never given too many opportunities to try them. When I finally had a red velvet cupcake several years ago in New York, I was underwhelmed. The flavor wasn’t very memorable – mainly it was just pretty. But then I made them myself a few weeks ago, and I got why they were special: chocolate.

Don’t mistake me – red velvet cupcakes don’t have a very strong chocolate flavor, but you do have a hint of it, which is sometimes all you need. This particular recipe is a winner because the flavor, color and texture is all exactly what you’d want in a red velvet cupcake. It’s sweet, mild on the chocolate, the color is a lovely shade of dark red, and moist, plus the cupcake holds together pretty well. The frosting is not very thick, but it complements the cupcake with a creamy, sugary finish. I shared these cupcakes with some friends, none vegan, and they all agreed that they were delicious!

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes
This recipe is taken from Food.com
Yields approximately 12 cupcakes

For the Cupcakes:

• 1 cup vegan milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup vegan granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vegan red food coloring* or two small bottles of red food coloring
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon chocolate extract, optional (this can be hard to find, so omit it if you cannot locate it in your local store)

For the Frosting:

• 1/4 cup vegan butter, softened
• 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups vegan powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line muffin pans with liners.

Whisk together the vegan milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. Note that I have only used soy milk in this recipe, so I do not know if other vegan milks will thicken in this step.

Curdling soy milk with apple cider vinegar

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.

Sifting the dry ingredients

Add the oil, food coloring, chocolate extract (if using), vanilla extract and almond extract to the curdled soy milk. Whisk well to combine.

You'll use about two small bottles of red food coloring

Make well in center of dry ingredients and gently fold wet ingredients into dry, mixing until large lumps disappear. Do not over mix, or your cupcakes will turn out gummy – small lumps are okay.

Finishing up the batter

Fill cupcake liners about three-quarters full as these cupcakes will rise fairly high. And make sure you use the right size of cupcake liners – mine were too small for my pan, but I used them anyway!

Filling the liners with the batter

Place in hot oven and bake 18-20 minutes until done, or until toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes in the pan for five mintues, and then transfer to a cooling rack or surface to cool completely.

Cooling on the rack

Using a hand mixer (or by hand), cream together the vegan butter and vegan cream cheese until just combined.

Mixing it all by hand

Whip in the powdered sugar in 1/2 cup batches. Scrape down the sides and mix until smooth and creamy. Mix in the vanilla.

Now it just needs to chill to firm up a bit

Keep tightly covered and refrigerated until ready to use.

When ready, spread some frosting on each of the cupcakes.

Spreading frosting on red velvet cupcakes

Then serve and enjoy!

Worth it.

What is your favorite cupcake?

Vegan chocolate truffles

Time for some sweet confessions on when I was not vegan one afternoon nearly a year ago. It was late March and I had surprised my husband with a long weekend to Cape Cod for his birthday. If you have ever been there, you’ll know that this is not exactly the best time to go to the Cape as far as weather is concerned – it’s cold, windy and rainy, but in some ways it is the best because traffic is light and innkeepers and shopkeepers are more likely to spend extra time with each customer.

Such was the case at this little chocolate shop we randomly found as we drove around exploring the area. The Chocolate Peddler is located slightly off the beaten path in Brewster, Massachusetts. When we stepped through the door, it felt more like we were walking into a parlor or salon, with a very friendly (and large) dog greeting us. The place, although small, was bursting with rich reds and golds, and we soon met the Chef Paul himself. As we were his only customers for the better part of half an hour, we got to sample more than our fair share of his very creative truffles. As soon as we thought that we had tasted the most exotic one, he’d bring out another, then another and then another.

When I used to think about truffles, I’d think of dark rich chocolate – and not much else. But that was completely turned on its head in this little chocolate shop. Think passion fruit, black pepper, mint, coffee and truffle oil. Think truffles with the names of Toes in the Sand, Georgia-Ray and Little Red Corvette. As a self-proclaimed foodie, I knew that we had stumbled upon someone who appreciates not only putting together a good quality piece of chocolate, but unexpected art.

When I was thinking a few days ago about what I wanted to make for Valentine’s Day, I realized that I wanted to make something that I’ve not yet tried. Then I thought back to that lovely little encounter with Chef Paul and I said to myself, I’ve got to make vegan truffles. I came across a very simple recipe with a lot of rave reviews and decided to use it as a base. I can’t say my truffles turned out quite so creative as those in Cape Cod, but they are dark, rich and creamy and would be perfect to give to that special someone (even if that special someone is yourself).

Vegan Chocolate Truffles
Based upon the Vegan Truffles at Recipezaar
This makes approximately 50 truffles

• 3/4 cup raw cashews
• 3/4 cup cold water
• 1 pound bittersweet chocolate (I used Trader Joe’s Pound Plus dark chocolate)
• cocoa powder
• 1/8 cup raisins, optional
• 2 tablespoons rum or brandy, optional
• 1 or 2 tablespoons peanut butter, optional
• 2 tablespoons pistachios, chopped, optional
• powdered sugar, optional

If you choose to use rum or brandy-soaked almonds in your truffles, mix your raisins and rum or brandy together in a small bowl and set aside.

Soaking raisins in rum

Put cashews and cold water in a blender and blend at high speed for 1-2 minutes.

Blending cashews

Scrape the sides down and blend again until the mixture is the consistency of heavy cream.

Get your double boiler ready. If you do not have one, you can use two pots, with the bottom pot holding water that you will bring to high heat. This will allow your chocolate to melt more slowly, which is what you want.

Homemade double boiler

Put your chocolate in the top pan and stir constantly until it is all melted, then take it off the heat. I used a 72% dark chocolate from Trader Joe’s. This is not a bittersweet chocolate, however it still produces a very dark and rich truffle and it is vegan.

Melting chocolate

Cool the chocolate until it’s comfortable to work with and fold in the cashew cream (making sure not to stir too fast or you’ll create bubbles).

Stirring in the cashew cream

Cool the mixture in the fridge for 2 hours (to set).

Using a small spoon or melon baller, scoop up a small ball of chocolate and then roll it into a ball with your hands.

Creating my first truffle

Roll it in the cocoa powder, then set into a dish that you will use to cover and store the truffles in the refrigerator or freezer.

Rolling the chocolate truffles in cocoa powder

If you want to add filling like the rum-soaked raisins, peanut butter or pistachios, you can roll out the chocolate into a ball then flatten with your palms.

Truffle fillings and cocoa powder

Place a small amount of filling in the middle, then fold the chocolate around it and roll into a ball again. Roll the truffle in cocoa powder. Repeat until all of the truffles have been made, then store them in the refrigerator so they will set.

Adding filling to a chocolate truffle

In the end, I think these turned out well, but I think that the fillings were sparse and the cocoa powder was bitter. My suggestion, if you try these, is to increase the filling or to mix up the filling with the chocolate. I would also suggest mixing the cocoa powder with powdered sugar or rolling the truffles in an alternative ingredient like coconut or nuts.

Pistachio, rum raisin and peanut butter truffles

Have you made truffles before? What flavors did you make?

Vegan chocolate truffles

Happy and Sweet Valentine’s Day! xoxoxo

Cinnamon & Chocolate Rolls

A few days ago when I was going through all of my old recipe posts and tagging each with the appropriate ingredients, I soon realized that there was a little bit of a trend going on that I had not really noticed before. I have thought for most of my life that I am not a big one for sweets, but after tagging many of my recipes with the ingredient “sugar”, I realized that I do indeed have a sweet tooth. If anyone has this concept in their minds that a vegan diet is healthy, all they need to do is visit my blog and have a look at the “Browse by Ingredients” list. Sugar, vegan butter, salt… Now that we have that out of the way, let’s jump in and take a look at my latest sweet success (which, dear reader, was made as a thank you to my husband for all of his hard work on helping to make this redesign even possible).

A couple of years ago I was really craving cinnamon rolls – the warm, gooey and total comfort-food kind – and so when I came across a vegan recipe that had rave reviews, I thought that I had a winner on my hands. Unfortunately, the cinnamon rolls were a complete disaster and I wound up defeated and deflated. Of course, I gave up, that is, until a few weeks ago when I was craving them again. I did another search for a good recipe online and came across a recipe that claimed to be better than the rolls you can get at Cinnabon. Again, people raved. Again, I decided to follow the masses. Yet this time, I was so utterly blown away that I purposely held off on taking pictures and writing a blog post because I wanted to be sure to “have to” make them again for you. I finally succumbed and here we are, but believe me I’m trying to come up with another excuse to make them again very soon.

Cinnamon Rolls and Chocolate Rolls

Based upon this Better-than-Cinnabon’s recipe

Rolls

Note: One thing I want to point out is that I have only made this with flax seed as a binder and I have not used Ener-G egg replacer. I have no idea if this recipe turns out exactly the same or comparably if Ener-G were to be used instead. Because the flax has worked so well for me and because I have not been able to taste it (I hate the taste of flax) I just haven’t allowed myself to try the alternate method. If you do try it with Ener-G please report back to let us know how the rolls turned out for you.

• 2½ teaspoons active dry yeast
• ½ cup unbleached sugar
• 1 cup vegan milk, warmed
• 2 eggs worth of egg replacer OR 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds whisked together with 6 tablespoons hot water
• ⅓ cup vegan butter, melted
• 4½ cups unbleached flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup vegan butter, softened
• Optional: chocolate chips, raisins, nuts

Frosting

Note: If, like me, you don’t care that much for icing or prefer to let your cinnamon or chocolate rolls shine on their own, then these are perfectly fine without. I will say, however, that this is a good icing recipe and I sometimes will have some. The reason why I probably like it is because it isn’t just about the sugar. The Tofutti cream cheese and the vegan butter give it a smooth and creamy flavor that you wouldn’t get if it were just a plain sugar icing.

• About 3/8 (3 ounces) of a container of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
• ¼ cup vegan butter, softened
• 1½ cup vegan powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅛ teaspoon salt

Mix yeast, sugar, and heated vegan milk in a large mixing bowl and let stand until foamy. Add egg replacer, melted vegan butter, flour, and salt.

Letting the yeast activate, then adding the other dry ingredients

Mix well and knead for 5-10 minutes. The dough should be firm and smooth, not sticky.

Mixing the dough in the Kitchenaid Mixer

Set the dough aside in a covered bowl and let double in size.

I allowed my dough to sit for about an hour to an hour and a half

After the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a floured work surface, cover, and let rest for 10 more minutes.

Letting the dough rest

Meanwhile, divide your brown sugar into two small bowls.

Getting ready to mix my cinnamon/chocolate roll fillings

Mix the cinnamon into one bowl of brown sugar, and mix the cocoa powder and vanilla into the other bowl of brown sugar.

Fillings are now ready!

Note: If you just want to do cinnamon rolls, increase your cinnamon to 2 tablespoons and mix it into the full amount of brown sugar, omitting the cocoa powder and vanilla extract. If you just want to do chocolate rolls, increase the cocoa to 2 tablespoons, the vanilla to 2 teaspoons, then mix it into the full amount of brown sugar, and omit the cinnamon.

After the dough has rested, get it into a shape that you can easily divide into two equal halves with a knife or by pulling it apart with your hands.

Dividing the dough in half

Note: If you are doing only one type of roll (i.e. cinnamon rolls) you will not need to divide your dough in half.

Take one half of the dough and roll it out into a rectangle. Here I am using the Vic Firth French Rolling Pin which I am totally and completely in love with.

Rolling out my cinnamon and chocolate roll dough

June 19: Be sure to enter my first ever giveaway for the chance to own your own french rolling pin. The giveaway ended on June 21st. See who won!

Spread dough with vegan butter, then sprinkle each dough evenly with one of the sugar mixtures.

Adding the filling to the cinnamon and chocolate rolls

You can add other items to your filling, like chocolate chips or raisins. I didn’t have any chocolate chips on hand, but I did have Trader Joe’s dark chocolate, which I just chopped up into chip-sized chunks.

I've added raisins to the cinnamon roll filling, and chocolate pieces to the chocolate roll filling

Roll the dough on the longer side.

Rolling the cinnamon and chocolate rolls

Cut the rolls so that you have even slices. I like to cut straight down the middle first (1), then cut straight down the middle of the two sections (2), and finally cut down the middle of the four sections (3). In the end you should have eight evenly sized rolls (or thereabouts) if you follow this method.

Cutting the rolls

Place rolls in a lightly greased baking pan (or two). (A cookie sheet also works fine.) Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tip: Use a pie pan or a larger pan where your rolls are allowed to expand. I found that the chocolate rolls made in the pie pan were fatter than the cinnamon rolls made in the straight-sided glass dish.

Allowing the cinnamon and chocolate rolls to rise

Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Cinnamon (bottom) and chocolate (top) rolls straight out of the oven

While rolls are baking, beat together Tofutti, vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Making the vegan cream cheese frosting

Unless I’m told a better recipe exists or I somehow lose this recipe, I will never try another. The rolls are amazingly fluffy and gooey and are just perfect straight out of the oven. If you were to take these to your non-vegan friends no one would be the wiser. These taste and have the consistency of what you or they would expect in a cinnamon roll, and there’s no reason for them to suspect that they are vegan. They are seriously that good and perfect.

This is a great foundational recipe, too, because once you have dough that works this well, you can get very creative. I recently saw on The Pioneer Woman Cooks a marmalade/butter filling and an orange flavored icing. I think you could do other jams (strawberry jam sounds great!) or you could try fresh fruit. You could probably do vegan caramel or toffee. If you like coffee, you could probably even go there, too. But for me, my absolute favorite is just the basic, gooey cinnamon roll. Perfection.

Vegan cinnamon rolls

As an average baker, it was a little overwhelming to see The Daring Bakers‘ latest challenge. As a vegan, it was absolutely frightening. Two words: Opera Cake. Don’t know what an Opera Cake is? Well, essentially it is a lot of layers of cake and cream and sugar topped off with a glaze. If you’re lucky it will take approximately four hours to construct, and if you’re good it will look perfect when cut.

And why was this frightening for me as a vegan? Well, aside from the necessary endurance factor, it had around 14 eggs in the original recipe (six of those are egg whites, so if you want to get really technical…). It was pretty clear that this cake depends heavily upon our fine feathered friends. But what is a challenge if it is not challenging?!

First, a disclaimer. My vegan version was quite tasty, but not very cake-like. If you follow my recipe, then keep in mind that I did what I thought would work. So, you may want to experiment with my recipe and not follow it exactly.

The final cake is comprised of four recipes. So follow along. :)

Vegan Opera Cake

Joconde
Note that you can make the joconde with other nuts/seeds if you don’t want to use almonds.

What you’ll need:

• 2 12 1/2 x 15 1/2-inch jelly-roll pans
• A few tablespoons melted vegan butter
• Parchment paper
• Mixing bowl

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup water or almond milk (I used more than this, but soon regretted it because the batter wound up too runny. You may want to add 1/4 cup at a time until the batter is at a good thickness.)
• 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
• 2 cups ground blanched almonds (I blanched these myself. Here’s a good post on how to blanch almonds)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• Vegan substitute for two eggs (I used Ener-G egg replacer)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp. vegan butter, melted and cooled

Divide the oven into thirds by positioning a rack in the upper third of the oven and the lower third of the oven.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line two jelly-roll pans with parchment paper and brush with melted vegan butter.

Mix all the ingredients together except for the butter and egg replacer, then add the egg replacer last.

Divide the batter between the pans and spread it evenly to cover the entire surface of each pan.

Place one pan in the middle of the oven and the other in the bottom third of the oven. Bake the cake layers until they are lightly browned and just springy to the touch. This could take anywhere from five to 15 or 20 minutes (I think it took mine longer because it was more liquidy).

Take the pans out of the oven and run a sharp knife along the edges of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Cover each with a sheet of parchment or wax paper, then turn the pans over and unmold.

Carefully peel away the parchment, then turn the parchment over and use it to cover the cakes. Let the cakes cool to room temperature.

Syrup
Note that the syrup can be made up to one week in advance and kept covered in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 to 2 Tbsp. of the flavoring of your choice (I used vanilla)

Stir all the syrup ingredients together in the saucepan and bring to a boil.

Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Buttercream
Note that the buttercream can be made up to one month in advance and packed in an airtight container. If made way in advance, you can freeze the buttercream. Alternatively you can refrigerate it for up to four days after making it. To use the buttercream, simply bring it to room temperature and then beat it briefly to restore its consistency.

What you’ll need:

• A small saucepan
• A candy or instant-read thermometer
• A stand mixer or handheld mixer (I used our food processor)
• A bowl and whisk attachment
• A rubber spatula

Ingredients:

• 14 Tbsp. or 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. vegan butter
• 1 pkg. Tofutti cream cheese
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract or powder

Beat the vegan butter and Tofutti cream cheese together in your mixer or food processor until well combined.

Combine the sugar, water, and vanilla in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves. Continue to cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 225 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the syrup reaches the correct temperature and you remove it from the heat, turn on the mixer or food processor to a low speed. Begin pouring the syrup down the side of the bowl very slowly and being careful not to splatter the syrup into the path of the whisk attachment or blade. Make sure it mixes well with the vegan butter and Tofutti cream cheese.

If you want to do a flavored buttercream, add it now. Some people have done fruit flavorings or rum or just plain vanilla.

Put your buttercream in the refrigerator, and it should thicken over the span of about 20 minutes to an hour (I found longer was better). Stir it a few times while it is setting.

Glaze
Note that it is best to make this right when you’re ready to finish the cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp. almond milk or another vegan milk
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract or powder
• 1 tsp. vegan butter

Melt the vegan butter and add to the rest of the ingredients. Mix until creamy.

Let it cool for 10 minutes and then pour over the chilled cake or cakes if you are doing several smaller cakes.

Now, the original directions said to create one large cake, but I decided to go with individual round servings of cake. It was likely more involved, but at the same time I think that they turned out pretty well.

I would suggest letting the buttercream sit in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to an hour before you begin to assemble, otherwise it will be too runny. You’ll see I was too impatient in just a moment.

First, I used a cookie/biscuit cutter to cut round pieces out of the joconde.

Then I decided to experiment. I used the same cookie cutter and placed it on my pan (now covered in foil as you can see).

I placed the first round piece of joconde into the cookie cutter.

Then I added a little syrup to the top of that first layer. I will say that my cake wasn’t very absorbent, so it may have been just as well to leave the syrup out of the recipe.

Now I added a layer of buttercream.

Finally I add the next round piece of joconde on top of this.

Repeat this process again, then add a final layer of buttercream to the top. You should have the following:

-Buttercream (Top)
-Syrup
-Joconde
-Buttercream
-Syrup
-Joconde (Bottom)

As you can see, I was a bit anxious to get started on assembling, so it kind of looks like a creamy puddle of sugary blobs.

I got my act together, though, and the rest were beginning to look like cake! Finally, when they were all assembled I added the final layer of glaze.

First off, let me say that while this was challenging, I do think that the end product was truly a lovely indulgence.

I will give a couple of observations, however.

1. This was way too sugary. I like sweet, but my palate enjoys a subtler sweet. Even my husband, who doesn’t mind really sweet things thought that this was way too sweet. I discovered that if I took off the glaze, it tasted much better.

2. The original recipe says to serve this cake slightly chilled, but I found that it tasted better after sitting in the refrigerator overnight.

Overall I’d say that this cake was pretty amazing. Definitely my joconde was not cake-like, but the taste was still quite good – especially so since I blanched the almonds myself.

A quick word on the vanilla. I was in Whole Foods a few weeks ago in their spice aisle and saw some jars of powdered vanilla. I had never seen vanilla in this form, so decided to grab it – and it was approximately the same price as the extract that they had on the shelf, so I thought, why not?

It seems to work comparably to vanilla extract, however it is better mixed with other dry ingredients. It tends to clump if you add it to wet ingredients.

I also just want to say congratulations to all my fellow Daring Bakers. I was peaking at your blogs today, and my – what beautiful cakes you all have made!

Our wedding was unconventional. We didn’t want to have the cookie cutter wedding that so many people seem to have these days. Instead, my husband suggested, why don’t we do a picnic? That seemed like an interesting idea, and one that eventually caught on.

Our wedding was in Central Park near the Bow Bridge. We had everyone sit in a circle on blankets, and after we got settled we had everyone share advice and stories for us. Eventually we expressed how we felt about each other (a.k.a. vows), and then had everyone eat snacks and desserts out of our picnic baskets (really galvanized buckets, but they still looked really nice). Aside from occasional bits of rain, it was nice and it was nice to do something that was more simple and less stressful than a full blown wedding.

As is the case with all weddings there are things that don’t exactly go right. When we look back on our wedding there are a few things that we would change, but one of the major things we would have done differently was our cake. We had purchased a variety of desserts for people to eat because we wanted to make sure everyone had something that they would enjoy. Then we decided to have a small cake custom made for us.

The idea was that this cake would look like a present like so many gorgeous cakes we had seen online. Something got lost in translation with the baker and we got this:

I know – it doesn’t look bad, but I’ll be honest with you – it’s just not what we imagined. And the taste wasn’t as good as what we had hoped for (the cake, among other things, was very last minute).

This last Thursday was our third wedding anniversary, and as with past anniversaries we tried to make up for that weird cake by making at least a better tasting dessert. And let me tell you – this tasted a-maz-ing, but it didn’t look a-maz-ing (maybe next year I’ll try for that).

Chocolate Cake
Known as Excellent Vegan Wacky Cake on VegWeb.com

• 2 Tbsp. cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• 5 Tbsp. cooking oil or vegan butter
• 1 cup water

Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix the dry ingredients into one bowl.

First the cocoa.

Then the flour.

Next the salt.

Very quickly – Real Salt is the salt that I use. My mom introduced it to me. It tastes better than regular salt you get, but it is a little more expensive. Here’s a picture:

Add the baking soda.

Then add the sugar. I used a combination of turbinado and white sugar because I ran out of the first.

I like to mix my dry ingredients with a whisk. I’ve found that the ingredients incorporate better this way than if I were to just use a spoon.

This is how it should look mixed.

Now combine and mix your wet ingredients into a separate, larger bowl.

Vanilla – you’ll learn more about this one in a future post. Also, since this is dry, I should have mixed this with my dry ingredients. I added a little liquid vanilla extract to compensate.

White vinegar. I’m thinking apple cider vinegar might work too.

Add your vegan butter.

Here’s a picture of the tub of Earth Balance. When we were first considering going vegan a few years ago we discovered this vegan butter. It’s a fantastic replacement for real butter or margarine, although a little expensive. Notice it says it’s trans fat free, lactose free, and gluten free.

Then add water.

Mix it all together.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet slowly and mix.

Once it is completely mixed it should look something like this:

The granular bits are the turbinado sugar.

I decided that I’d add some of these Trader Joe’s chocolate chips to the batter. Not a good idea.

It looks like a good idea, but I’m telling you – it’s not.

Pour into a cake pan of your choice. This is not a lot of batter, so I’m not sure that a bundt cake pan is a good idea. it might be better to go with a cupcake pan or a square baking pan/dish.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

When you take it out it may not feel like it is completely done, but don’t worry – it will firm up after a few minutes.

Now this is where I will embarrass myself. Trader Joe’s sells some pretty delicious chocolate, but these chips sank to the bottom of the pan and managed to basically burn to the bottom of the pan. This resulted in a very sad cosmetic tragedy:

This is where we’ll make some chocolate icing and try to cover the cake’s flaws.

Chocolate Frosting
Based on a recipe from VegWeb.com

• 1/2 cup vegan butter (I used Earth Balance again)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. vegan milk (I used almond milk)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• dash of salt

Melt butter or bring it to room temperature.

Add vegan powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, chocolate and soymilk.

Stir ingredients together well.

It’s up to you, but you can stick the frosting in the refrigerator first to get it to firm up a little bit, but it will spread faster and easier if you go ahead and just put it on immediately. It probably won’t be pretty, though.

Let me say that although this had cosmetic flaws, this cake was TO DIE FOR. This was amazingly good. Let me tell you, I made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting last year or the year before and we kept saying, yeah this is good, but it’s weird. THIS WAS A-MAZ-ING.

But let me warn you, this is calorie dense (I didn’t measure, but come on – look at the ingredients). I had a small slice this morning and I bet you it was at least a couple hundred calories.

Happy Anniversary dear. May we have many more to come.

If not because I love you, then because I love this AWESOME cake and I want it next year. But prettier.