Cardamom Vanilla Bean Cake with Sumac Lemonade

I went to a fun wedding  this last Saturday.  My youngest son's best buddy got married.  We've known Ben since he was a little guy in second grade, so it was a family wedding for us. I felt like the honorary mother of the groom.  It was a lovely day for an outdoor wedding and the grounds up at the Haas' are beautiful.  90 degree weather, blue sky, and and a wonderful way to spend a summer Saturday afternoon.  It was pretty easy to eat vegetarian or vegan too.  There were many salads and vegetable dishes to choose from. There were even cooked vegetables separate from the animal products.  I made a batch of my Cheezy Kale chips and some Raw Teriyaki noodles to add to the table.

When we got home I realized we didn't try any wedding cake.  We left before the wedding cake was served and I didn't think I wanted to eat it anyway.  I would rather have a nice vegan cake made with some fresh whole ingredients. I wanted some cake so I whipped up a great one.  I started with a basic cake recipe from my Vegan Fusion Chef training book. I used a vanilla cake base using vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract, some freshly ground cardamom I had around from a recent recipe, and used some Sumac lemonade I had made up the day before for the liquid.  I covered it with some Cashew Coconut Creme glaze made with fresh orange juice and orange zest.  This cake came out with a delightful flavor.  I'd make it again, but the Sumac lemonade is seasonal as the flowers bloom once and it takes a good grocery bag full to make a batch of lemonade.  A tart fruit juice such as cranberry or raspberry would add a good flavor to this cake.  Try some experimenting with your favorite juice or herbal tea.

Cardamom Vanilla Bean Cake with Sumac Lemonade
          Vegan & Gluten Free

Dry Ingredients

2½ cups Bob's Red Mill organic gluten free all purpose baking flour
1½ teaspoons Xanthum Gum
2 cups Sucanat (I used coconut sugar)
1-1½ tsp ground cardamom, depends how much you like cardamom
1½ teaspoons baking soda
½ tsp sea salt, or to taste

Wet Ingredients

6 TB Sunflower Oil
2¼ cups water or fresh fruit juice
2 TB raw apple cider vinegar
Seeds from one vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract


Preheat Oven to 350º

Place dry ingredients in large mixing bowl and mix well.  Combine wet ingredients in a small bowl.  Add wet to dry and mix well.  Pour into a parchment paper lined 9" x 13" pan or two 8" cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, approximately 35-40 minutes.  Let the cake sit for 5 to 10 minutes before flipping onto a wire rack to cool.  Cool completely before frosting.

I wanted to make a nice frosting, but didn't want to use a lot of sugar.  Most the frosting I have made lately has been similar to whipped butter-cream frosting using a lot of powdered sugar.  I wanted something sweet, creamy, but light to go with this flavorful cake. I started with a raw icing from a 30-Minute Vegan recipe substituting cashews for coconut butter and doubling the amount. I doubled the orange zest, and added a little dissolved Agar.  It worked out pretty well, I wasn't thrilled about the color once it chilled.  A lot of it was absorbed in the cake, I think.  I added a layer of fresh blueberries mixed with a couple tablespoons of fresh blueberry/raspberry sauce Rachel made when we were canning cherries.

The Icing
     Adapted from: Raw Cinnamon Rolls, The 30-Minute Vegan

1 cup raw cashews soaked for two hours
The thick cream from one chilled can of coconut milk, about ½ cup
¼ cup agave nectar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract, or seeds of ½ vanilla bean
2 TB Orange zest
¼ cup fresh orange juice, water (or use your favorite fresh juice and change the flavor)

Blend all of the icing ingredients until smooth.  Ice the cooled cake and chill for at least an hour.

Enjoy!

Cardamom Vanilla Bean Cake with Cashew Coconut Orange Glaze

Vegan & Gluten Free

Vegan Lemon Almond Cake

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there.  I've got a tofu quiché in the oven with fresh picked organic spinach, asparagus, yellow and orange bell peppers, and green onions.  Looking forward to seeing how that comes out.  While it's baking I thought I'd share a quick lemon cake I made last weekend.

I began with a recipe from the Flexitarian Cookbook and veganized it.  That didn't take much to veganize.  I used Ener-G egg replacer and millet milk. Millet milk is something I recently learned to make, it's very creamy. I really like using the Ener-G egg replacer for baking.  It whips up like an egg does and gives a fluffy texture to the batter.

Lemon Almond Cake

1½ cups unbleached whole wheat white flour
1 cup sucanat, raw cane sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼  teaspoon salt
Egg replacer for two eggs, Ener-G or flaxseed meal and water
½ cup non dairy milk, I used home made millet milk
½ cup sunflower, or other light oil (Don't use olive oil for this cake)
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
4.5 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup sucanat, or other sugar

Preheat oven to 300º Lightly grease a 4 x 8" loaf pan or 9" cake pan

In medium bowl sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate small bowl whisk together the egg replacer, milk, oil, almond extract, and lemon zest.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until no lumps remain.  Don't mix it too much.

Spread batter into prepared pan and bake about 30 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, combine the lemon juice and sugar in a small pot or skillet over medium heat.  Cook until the sugar dissolves.

When the cake comes out of the oven, use a skewer to poke holes through the cake to the bottom, about 20 holes. Let the cake cool about 20 minutes and pour the lemon glaze over the cake.  I sprinkled a little lavender on my cake.

Serve warm

Millet Milk

1 C cooked millet
1/3-2/3 Cup raw cashews or almonds, soaked two hours
2 quart water

Blend the millet, cashews, and 1 quart water in a high speed blender such as a Blendtec or Vita-Mix until creamy.  If your blender is large enough, add a pinch of salt, and the rest of the water.  If not, just pour into a two quart pitcher, add a pinch of salt and the other quart of water. Whisk together and chill.

Vegan Strawberry Cake with Buttercream Frosting

This is my second attempt at this recipe.  The first time I tried it with gluten free ingredients.  They rose very nicely and tasted great.  But, the gluten free cooking takes some practice.  Even though they rose like cake should, they didn't level off and were very unusual looking. I'll keep trying though.

This recipe made with the wheat flour worked very well.  My friend Bill told me he'd be interested in a vegan cake when I could get it "Betty Crocker" moist and fluffy.  Well, I think I've finally managed it.  The Coconut Cupcakes had a wonderful texture. I think they got better after chilling overnight. 

This is another recipe from Vegan Thyme.  I really like visiting this blog, she has some great cake recipes.  While writing this and looking up her link, I noticed a great buttery cake with chocolate frosting I think I'm going to have to try this weekend. I didn't change much in her recipe.  I didn't have vegan sour cream, but made my own with the coconut creme and lemon juice.  I used coconut sugar and my egg replacer comes in bulk at People's Coop, so I am not sure if it's the same.  I really like it though, it whips up frothy like egg whites.  I have two more bags of frozen strawberries left from last season. They're from Crawford's Strawberries 'n Cream Farm, so this is truly Strawberries & Cream cake. I baked my little cakes in heavy pans similar to bundt pans so the outside was kind of crispy and the center moist.  Donna said they'd pass as a 'fried' doughnut from a shop.

Vegan Strawberry Cake

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup vegetable margerine

1 1/3 cup Florida Crystals or other "healthy" sugar

3 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons warm water (equiv. of 2 eggs)

4 oz. of vegan sour cream

1 1/2 cup puree of fresh strawberries (a pint and a half should do it)

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350º. 

Lightly spray two-8" round cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment paper. Slice your strawberries up and place in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar (this helps them soften up a bit.) Set aside. 

Prep your Ener-G egg replacer and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, cream the margarine with the sugar and set aside. Add the egg replacer to this and mix well. 

In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. 

Puree your strawberries so that they mixture is pretty smooth--pour them into a small bowl. You'll still have a few chunks, that's okay. Whisk your strawberry mixture with the sour cream and vanilla. 

Next, in alternating additions, add about a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mix well. Next add a third of the berry mixture, mix well. Repeat this--ending with the flour mixture. Be sure to just hand mix after the final addition of the flour--this will help create less gluten formation. 

Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Vegan Pink Buttercream Frosting

4 tablespoons vegetable margarine or Earth Balance butter

4 tablespoons vegetable shortening

2 cups powdered sugar (or more depending on thickness you want) 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

1 drop red food coloring (or any amount you want depending upon your "pink" craving)

In a large bowl cream the margarine and shortening with about a 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar. Then add the extracts. Continue mixing with blender, adding the powdered sugar until desired "fluff" has been met. Add a drop of red food color until desired "pink" has been met! Frost the cake only after it cools completely! 

   

Yummy Vegan Coconut Cupcakes

Oh my gosh, these are good. Those were words from my husband and I every time we split one of these last night.  So glad I immediately popped most of them in the refrigerator.  That way they aren't in our view to pick up every time we walk in the kitchen. We really do have to give these away today because although they are vegan, they do have lots of sugar.  We shouldn't be eating all of these. My friends Christy and Les are moving today.  They have lots of help, I am sure, she has at least four children around as well as some cousins to help.  I'll drop a dozen over for a nice treat for the hard working crew, her large family.  They'll know what to do with them.

Our local vegan/vegetarian potluck is next Friday so I thought I'd practice a dessert.  There are lots of guests at our potluck who are new to plant based eating and I do like to lure them in with the sweets.  I want to let people know that eating a plant based diet doesn't mean just chewing on raw celery, carrots, and broccoli.  There are so many fun things to enjoy, but many of us in the U.S. just weren't raised with cakes and cookies made without eggs and milk.  I was surprised when I learned to bake vegan six years ago.  I had no idea I could get a beautiful, moist fluffy cake without using dairy or eggs. These are a winner and I plan on making them next week: Coconut cake with coconut creme Frosting.  The cake is rich and fluffy and the frosting creamy and full of flavor. This cake rose very nicely, a challenge for most vegan cake baking.  I've had quite a few cake attempts become 'brownies' or 'bars'.  Fresh lemon juice and zest are added to both the batter and the frosting so they have a nice citrus flavor burst.

The recipe I used is from a blog post I recently ran across called Vegan Thyme.  I bookmarked it immediately.  She makes other items, but so far I haven't gotten past her cakes yet, beautiful tasty cakes. It looks like a blog similar to my own.  The author says she created her blog to remember.  I understand that, so many things I have cooked in the past I'd like to make again, but don't remember all the ingredients because I didn't really measure and I didn't write anything down.  Keeping the blog has helped me record some of the creations I make as well as keep recipes and links I'd like to reference again.

I made cupcakes instead of a layer cake.  This recipe yielded 24 beautiful cupcakes.  I baked them for about 25 minutes at 350º.  I toasted large coconut flakes and added a little lemon zest to the top of the cupcakes. I didn't flatten the batter to make it even in the cupcake pans as the cake recipe suggests.  I just used a 3 oz. scoop and let the cake do what it does.  As you can see, it turned out just great.

Vegan Coconut Cake

*Adapted from Ina Garten

Makes two 9-inch cakes

3 sticks unsalted vegetable margarine (cut into cubes and set out at room temp. for 30 minutes)

2 cups sugar

5 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replace mixed with 1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup of water (or the egg replacer of your choice equivalent to 5 eggs)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup unsweetened non dairy milk
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
zest of half a lemon

Preheat oven to 350.

Line two 9" cake pans with parchment paper, then spray with non-stick baking spray.

In a large mixing bowl (the stand mixer works best)--add the room temperature margarine and sugar and beat on medium speed for about five minutes until the mixture is very light and very fluffy.

Prepare the dry ingredients in a separate bowl--the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk well to combine. Set aside.

Mix together the egg replacer powder with the water. Now, add this to the sugar mixture and beat on medium speed for another two minutes. Add the extracts to this and mix well. Now you add the milk and flour mixture in the following manner: first add a third of the flour and then a third of the milk to the sugar/egg mixture. Mix well after each addition--about fifteen seconds of mixing--then add another third of the flour mixture, another third of the milk and repeat this step until the flour and milk are all used. Remove the beaters from the bowl and fold in the shredded coconut and lemon zest to the batter with a spoon. Don't overmix it!

Spread the batter in the cake pans and flatten with a spatula to make sure the batter is even on top. Bake for 45 minutes. The edges of the cake should be golden brown in color and just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool in the pans for about 30 minutes. Carefully remove the cakes from the pans and allow to cool completely on cooling racks.

Vegan Coconut Butter Cream Frosting

5 tablespoons vegetable spread
5 tablespoons unsalted vegetable margarine
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
3 cups of powdered sugar--or more if needed
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract (*this is a key flavor enhancer!)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut (for sprinkling over the cake after it's frosted)

Cream together the first three ingredients then begin adding the powdered sugar one half cup at a time. Continue adding the sugar until the desired consistency of your frosting is reached. Add the extracts and lemon and zest. Mix well. If you see that you need more powdered sugar, add only about a quarter cup at a time.

Cosmic Curl Girl's Vegan Carrot Cake

This is a recipe from the Vegan World Fusion Cusine.  I'm very excited the way this cake turned out.  I'm getting much better at this vegan baking thing.  It does take practice.  I think the biggest challenge is judging the consistency when replacing sugar with other sweeteners like agave or stevia. Replacing eggs in recipes is a bit difficult too at first.  Are the eggs making it more dense or fluffy? Making up for what they add can be a challenge. Should I use bananas or baking soda?   I've learned it depends what type of flour I'm using whether I should use baking soda, yeast, or baking powder.   I've spent a long time taking recipes we grew up with from our dear friends Betty Crocker and Julia Child and veganizing them.  Some things work most do, but the beauty of plant based cooking is that I just call it something else, there are no mistakes.  A cake that doesn't rise is now mousse. Burnt the quinoa, it's now toasted.  You get the idea.

This was a successful carrot cake.  No "veganizing" required.  I made the ginger juice myself.  Burnt out the juicer with it too. But we got it at Goodwill pretty cheap, I'll find another.  I was ready to make fresh carrot juice, but not without a juicer so the carrot juice was not fresh, but it was organic.  The carrots are compliments of the garden.  The only change I made was to use toasted Brazil nuts on the topping instead of walnuts.  I also used whole wheat pastry flour instead of spelt flour. It came out dense, but not too dense, and very tasty.

Cosmic Curl Girl's Carrot Cake

     Vegan World Fusion Cuisine, pg 160 

Dry

31/4 C Spelt flour

     2 C Sucanot

     2 C Carrots, shredded or grated

11/2 C Raisins

1 TB Baking soda

3/4 tsp Cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp Sea salt, or to taste

1/4 tsp Allspice powder

Wet

13/4 C Carrot juice, fresh

  1/2 C Filtered water

  1/3 C Ginger juice, fresh

  3/3 C Safflower oil

2 TB Apple cider vinegar, raw

1 tsp Vanilla extract, alcohol free

Loving Preparation

1.  Preheat oven to 350º.  Place all dry ingredients except carrots and raisins in a large mixing bowl and whisk well.

2.  Place wet ingredients in a small bowl and whisk well.  Add wet to dry, along with carrots and raisins, mix well.

3.  Pour into a well oiled 11” spring form pan and bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.  All ovens vary, I think I baked mine for about 5-10 minutes longer.

Cashew Creme Frosting

1 C Cashews, soaked two hours or longer, drain well.

2/3 C Coconut milk, or more to achieve desired consistency

1/3 C Dates, or to taste (I used about seven and soaked them until soft)

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract, alcohol free or the seeds from 1/2 a scraped vanilla bean.

Place cashews, dates, and vanilla in a blender or food processor with 1/2 C coconut milk and process until smooth, adding coconut milk as necessary until mixture is smooth and still thick.  

Place in refrigerator for 20 minutes or more before frosting cake.  Please wait until cake is completely cooled before frosting.  Topped with shredded carrots and some roasted nuts.

Looking forward to that piece waiting for me in the refrigerator. 

Lemon Pudding Cake - The Process

 

I made this Lemon Pudding Cake from the Vegan Dad's Cookbook again so I could get some pictures of the cake in process.  It's the strangest looking cake I think I've put in the oven. If I had not been experimenting with so many things I would have no confidence that this would come out as pretty and tasty as it did.  This cake looks like dishwater in the cake pan when it's put in the oven.

It's a simple cake and made with few ingredients.  First I started with simple batter: whole wheat pastry flour, sugar, (I used a zero calorie, low glycemic, natural sweetener this time, Erythritol.  Erythritol has not been found to affect blood sugar or insulin levels and has a zero glycemic index.), baking powder, baking soda, a dash of salt, 1/2 cup non dairy milk, 2 TB sunflower oil, 1 TB lemon zest and 1 TB orange zest, and the juice of 1 lemon.

Then I whisked together 1 cup of the Erythritol, use the same quantity as the sugar required, and 1/4 cup flour and sprinkled that evenly on the batter. Then poured 1 cup boiling water mixed with the juice of 2 lemons on top of that.  It looks so strange, like dishwater going into the oven. 

See the layers:

In 40 minutes it looks like cake with a wonderful lemon pudding on the bottom and bubbling up the sides.

It's great warm with homemade coconut milk vanilla ice cream.

Lemon Pudding Cake with Coconut Milk Vanilla Bean Ice Creme

I just made this Lemon Pudding Cake from The Vegan Dad Cookbook.  I got to browse through his book last night and it wasn't difficult to find a few recipes I wanted to try.

This is a very easy cake to make, I used fresh lemon juice, date sugar, and sucanot for the sugars. The date sugar is what gives it the brown color. If this were to be made with white sugar, the pudding would be more lemon yellow.

It tastes like lemon meringue filling with a crispy cake. It's a very different recipe. I should have gotten a picture before it went in the oven. First a thick batter is made and poured on the bottom of the pan. Then flour and sugar are blended and sprinkled evenly over the top of the batter. Then a cup of boiling water with lemon juice is poured over the top. I've never made a cake like it. Next time I will get a picture because it is strange wet looking mess going into the oven. But, it sure came out nice. I made some coconut milk and vanilla bean ice cream too. They went very well together.

Beans, Greens, & Cornbread, Vegan Peach cake and Ice Creme

Beans, Greens, & Cornbread

Had lunch with my granddaughter this weekend.  We had some Cannellini beans  simmered with a little chopped onion, peppers, fresh carrots, and chopped summer squash over steamed beet greens.  I made some quick fried cornbread, dairy free, and some fresh cucumber and tomato salad.

She's a veggie luvin' kid and that makes me smile.  She's only six, but so far she likes what grandma serves her.

We also made some dairy free chocolate chip ice cream and a peach upside down cake together.  We used raw cashews and almonds, coconut, non-dairy milk, a little agave, seeds from a vanilla bean, and wheat sweetened chocolate chips.  I would have liked just the vanilla ice cream, but it was fun for her to add something to the mixture.

Dairy Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake

It's that time of year, zucchini will be everywhere soon.  We have four kinds of zucchini ripening in the garden:  golden yellow, black beauty, eight ball zucchini, and the usual small green zucchini's that most of us see all the time.  I've incorporated shredded zucchini in our pot of beans this week, put together a raw lasagna using the zucchini sliced thin as lasagna noodles, and made some chocolate zucchini cake.  I used garbanzo bean flour and no dairy products. This little cake contains whole grains, protein, fresh vegetables and raw agave. It has a rich chocolate taste, you'd never know this was good for you.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

2/3 cup raw agave
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
Egg replacer for two eggs
     I use one from Bob's Red Mill, it's made with soy flour, wheat gluten, corn, and Algea, a seaweed food.  You can use ground flax seed and water as an egg replacer.  It works great.
1 cup garbanzo bean flour
3/4 cup w/w flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
dash of ground cloves
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups finely shredded zucchini
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

In a mixing bowl I sifted the dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl I whisked together the agave, oil, and egg replacer until blended.  I added the wet ingredients to the dry and folded in the zucchini.  The batter is very thick.  I added just a little water, a few drops at a time until the batter was the consistency I wanted.  I poured them into one of my little cake molds, and baked for about 25 minutes.  I mixed 1 teaspoon powdered sugar and 1/4 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder and sifted on top of the cake for a sweet touch.

Dairy Free Blueberry Creme Pie

This is one of Dr. Andrew Weil's recipes from Eating Well for Optimum Health.  This was one of the first books I read when I decided to go head first into cooking for health as well as enjoyment.  I have had it a long time.  I can tell because I have weight watcher's points written in the book near recipes.  I haven't kept track of what I eat like that or counted calories for many years.  I just eat a plant based diet as much as I can and I don't have to count calories or points.

This is a very light dessert, with added protein and less sugar than your average blueberry creme pie. It's made with tofu masquerading as cream cheese and since fresh  blueberries are abundant right now, it's time for pie.  I had great fun watching my husband and granddaughter trying to get just the right picture without eating it.  The model got so small by the end of the second serving at lunch the next day, there was only one small piece left. I did make some changes, as I usually do, reducing the processed sugar where I can.

  Dairy Free Blueberry Cream Pie

1 pound silken tofu

1/4 cup sugar, or more to taste

      I used a few drops liquid Stevia

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

     I used the seeds from half a vanilla bean

freshly grated zest of 1 fresh lemon

1 baked Easy Pie Crust, (follow link to recipe)

1 pound fresh or frozen blueberries

1/4 cup light brown sugar 

     I used a little less than 1/4 cup raw agave

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

11/2 tablespoons arrowroot powder

     Agar can be used in place of the arrowroot powder

2 tablespoons water

1. Drain the tofu well and process in a food processor until smooth.  Add the sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon zest, and blend well.

2.  Pour the tofu mixture into the pie crust and chill in refrigerator.

3.  Place the blueberries in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until they begin to boil.  Boil gently for about ten minutes.

4.  Add the brown sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon, and cook for another 2 minutes.

5.  Mix the arrowroot well with the water, and pour mixture into the simmering blueberries while stirring.  Cook, stirring, until the mixture becomes clear and thick.  Continue to cook for 1 minute.

6.  When blueberry mixture is cool, spoon it over the tofu mixture, and refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

Vegan Pineapple-Carrot Cake with Vanilla Frosting

This recipe is definitely "under construction."  It's another test recipe, but I wanted to make it my way, fresh, vegan, and with as little added sugar as possible.  The recipe called for roasting the carrots before making the cake and I kind of thought that was weird to cook the carrots before cooking.  I made a raw carrot puree in the food processor instead of roasting them.  I also used 2 teaspoons of liquid Stevia instead of the 2 cups of sugar called for in the recipe.  That's where the "under construction" part comes in.  In my efforts to make up for the liquids by replacing the sugar with Stevia, I added more crushed pineapple and a banana.  I think I overdid the extra liquids a bit.  It doesn't have a cake like texture, it's more like a dense cake with a pumpkin pie kind of texture.  It is very, very tasty though, my husband likes it a lot.  I think the recipe called for a little too much oil too.  It also called for walnuts, but I used some pecans I brought home from Alabama this last April.  I did make the vanilla creme cheese frosting as directed with organic powdered sugar, but I made a cream cheeze with tofu instead of using dairy creme cheese. I will try this another time soon and post the recipe when I am sure someone else can make it without any problems.  I served it with a fresh Washington apricot.

Pineapple-Carrot Cake with Vanilla Frosting

Chocolate Beet Cake with Raspberry Frosting - Vegan

It Looks Like Summer

There were fresh raspberries as well as strawberries at the farmer's market this weekend. I found a great cake on another food blog, Vegalicious. It's made with beets and chocolate and almost has the density of a brownie. It's very moist and sweet, no one needs to know there are beets in it.  We had to cut two pieces to get just the right picture.  We didn't mind at all, the subjects of the photos were yummy.

I only made a couple substitutions. I used pure maple syrup instead of brown sugar. I used a little bit less to make up for the moisture, just a cup instead of a cup and a half. I used organic chocolate chips for dark chocolate, 1½ ounces isn't very much chocolate, but combined with the cocoa, it really did the job.I made the frosting a bit different than this recipe called for.

for the frosting:

¼ cup coconut butter
½ cup raspberries
½ seeds scraped from a vanilla bean
1 cup organic powdered sugar
about ½ tablespoon almond milk.