Ultimate Chocolate Cake

Friday was the birthday of both of my room mates, Carla and Helen. I am all about festivities, so I volunteered to make the cake.

Now, I will admit that I made the offer partially out of selfishness. I wanted to be able to eat cake too, which meant secretly making it vegan. Besides, I figured that they would be a game enough crowd to turn into my guinea pigs for a night.

If I hadn't told anyone, not a single soul would have suspected that this cake was not filled with butter and cream--that's how good it was. It was so fast, so easy, and so delicious. Incredibly chocolaty and very reminiscent of a moist brownie. Yum!

This recipe is from aliciak on Instructables.com.

First, combine 1 1/4 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt in a baking dish (I used 7x9). Stir everything together with a fork.

Stir together dry ingredients.

Next, add to dry ingredients 1 cup of warm coffee, 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, and 1 tsp of distilled white or apple cider vinegar. This part is very important! If your vinegar isn't distilled and is diluted with water the cake will turn out to be a gooey brick. That would be a waste of perfectly good chocolaty awesomeness, so be careful. Mix everything thoroughly.

Cake batter after the wet ingredients are mixed in.

Next, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Mine actually took only 25 minutes, so keep an eye on it and adjust for the size of the pan you are using. Let cool completely.

Fresh out of the oven.

Lastly, pour the icing mix on top (see recipe below). It will cool very, very quickly so spread it fast. Let cool one hour.

The icing is almost more like a ganache.

Finally, decorate and serve! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did--I think that every single one of us went for seconds!

So delicious!

For the frosting, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 4 tbsp margarine, 2 tbsp almond milk, and 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder in a small pot. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and then simmer for 2 minutes while stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir for an addition 5 minutes. At this point the icing should go from gloopy and bubbly to smooth, silky, and glassy. Stir in 2 tsp of vanilla extract and ice cake immediately.

So shiny you can see your reflection in it...

I will be playing with this recipe for sure in the future. I made it exactly the way the instructions said this time, but I'd like to experiment with whole wheat flour, apple sauce, and some sort of unprocessed sugar. Stay tuned!

Baked Cardamom Pears

This was dessert for day seven of the 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart.

Cardamom Baked Pear

This is probably the easiest and mess-free recipe in the meal plan I have been following. All I did was cut a pear in half, scoop out the core with a spoon, fill the core with golden raisins, sprinkle the whole thing with ground cardamom, and bake in a covered dish at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven.

While these are fairly sweet, it is all natural sugar enhanced with a little bit of spice. I bet these would also be wonderful as a warm, homey breakfast. I kept pestering Helen about having one, and she finally acquiesced to a little bite. She found it to be so good that she ended up eating the whole pear half. I think we've got a keeper!

Bananas in Berry Artesia

Oh my goodness, was this an awesome recipe. This was listed as dessert for day three, but it was my breakfast for day four. If you've got some fresh berries lying around, please try this quick and fuss-free recipe. While it was good on my sliced banana, I bet it would be heavenly on some pound cake. *drool*

Bananas in Berry Artesia

The first thing I did was to put half a cup each of the following into a small pot: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apple juice, grape juice. I also added one bay leaf, a vanilla bean (with the empty pod as well), and one tablespoon of maple syrup. If you don't have a vanilla bean--goodness knows they are insanely expensive (I've been saving this one for a special occasion)--it is perfectly find to use vanilla extract. Let all of this simmer for 5 minutes.

Let the berries, juice, and flavorings simmer for 5 minutes.

Next you want to get one tablespoon of cornstarch in a small bowl and ladle a few spoonfuls of the hot liquid in with it. Once you've got the cornstarch dissolved add it back to the pot, making sure to stir well while you are doing this. Simmer for about a minute longer.

Once the cornstarch is mixed in simmer for 1 minute longer.

Remove the sauce from the heat, discard the bay leaf as well as the vanilla bean if you are using it, and you are ready to serve over crepes, pastries, fruit, or whatever else you can find. It reminds me of berry cobbler filling. And so easy! The amounts in this recipe make one general serving.

Along with some blueberry oatmeal, this was my breakfast this morning.

Breakfast for Day Four

Day 3

The menu for today is:

Breakfast:
Citrus and Sage Oatmeal (recipe)
Multigrain Toast
Orange Slices

Lunch:
Balsamic Zucchini Sandwich (recipe)
Artichoke Heart and Tomato Salad (recipe)

Dinner:
Red Beans and Rice with Collard Greens (recipe)
Bananas in Berries Artesia (recipe)

I am very, very excited about this last recipe, the Berry Artesia. Supposedly it is a dessert from New Orleans. If you know me at all, then you know I am all about dessert!

I do have some self control though. Carla was so sweet yesterday and brought home a cookie cake for us all. I'm sure it had milk, eggs, and butter galor. Alas, I could not partake. I told Carla that I'd have to appreciate it with my heart, not my stomach.

Sweet, beautiful cookie cake...

So yes, I am very excited to have a vegan dessert. I have watched the show Cupcake Wars a few times, and there is a girl that won twice with completely vegan recipes, and that is over top of normal recipes with butter and the works. I may have to look into how she makes those. It's making me hungry just thinking about it...

Carla, Darren, and Helen hanging out enjoying the cookie cake.