which came first?

which came first? the chicken or the egg? in this case, neither! again we had some family visiting, i think it has been a frequent thing for the past few months. well, one of my cousins that was was visiting, kelsey, is vegan. for those of you who do not know what it means to be "vegan" i will fill you in. basically its being "a vegetarian who omits all animal products from their diet"(so says dictionary.com). very interesting idea. even more interesting the many baked goods you can make without dairy products!! in addition to this cake, we also got to make a blueberry crumble pie, which i admit did not turn out as well as i had hoped:-p but, you live and learn...anyways, back to the cake. this recipe actually came from my lovely sister...

this is  my sister corie^_^

well, back to the story...she had sent me those cards of recipes that i had never gotten around to. i had made the banana muffin one, that i had to tweak to make more appetizing. and i had seen the one for a chocolate cake that was vegan, however, until kelsey showed up i had never made it! BIG MISTAKE!! well, when i was working my cousin and family ended up making it, kelsey also added a vegan frosting that was so yummy!! when i got home i tried it and i was pretty blown away! so i had to make it again! i actually wanted to make it for my workers and see if they could tell the difference between a regular cake and this one, call me a sneaky boss^_~ but this is basically the breakdown...

best cocoa powder to bake with!

all the dry ingredients...

all the wet, no eggs^_^

mix and bake...

OoOoOoOoOO...

frosting time!!

mix! and...

spread...i couldn't wait till it cooled! i had to have some! YUM YUM YUM!!^_^

i had to add this in there too! i went to sur la table again with my auntie liane when she was in town. bought myself some heavy duty baking sheets, and i got an early birthday present!! a set of three spring form pans, thanks auntie liane!!!^_^ you know what this means?! cheesecake to follow soon!!^_^

CAKE RECIPE:

preheat oven to 350 degrees

grease a 9x13 baking dish

3 cups flour

1/2 cocoa powder

1 t. salt

2 t. baking soda

2 cups sugar

2 T. vinegar

3/4 cup oil

2 cups cool water

• mix flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and sugar together in large bowl
• in separate bowl mix vinegar, oil and cool water
• while mixing add the wet ingredients to the dry ones till just incorporated
• pour batter in dish and bake for about 40 min. depending on the strength of your oven
• take out and let cool completely before pour frosting on top^_^

CHOCOLATE FROSTING RECIPE: (i only used half of this recipe to cover my cake and it actually was a good amount, but if you are a frosting fiend more power to you in using the whole recipe^_~)

1/2 cup shortening (i used earth balance)

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup soy milk

1 t. vanilla extract

1 1/2 t. almond extract

• combine cocoa and shortening 
• add in powdered sugar, soy milk, and extracts. 
• beat for about a minute, or until good consistency. pour over cooled cake^_^

Just to follow up, my workers couldn't even tell the difference and some of them even asked for the recipe!! i'm glad it was such a hit!