Okay! It is now 2 weeks into 2020 and I’m just getting out of the holiday haze and back to my normal routine. Seriously, was this holiday season a bigger whirlwind then usual? There was only three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Christmas to New Years was a blur of holiday parties, family events, and constant eating and drinking. I didn’t bake anything new for Thanksgiving, Dan and I smoked a duck, I made a side dish, and I made my Millionaire Bars. For Christmas I had big plans to make cookies and cinnamon bread and biscotti, but time was not on my side.
The only thing I baked the whole Holiday Season was some of my Sugar Cookies for Santa which the boys decorated. I just let them do their thing and didn’t micromanage or freak about the mess. I also baked a Vegan Chocolate Cake with a Vegan Cashew Buttercream frosting for my sister DD’s birthday. Her birthday is on the 28th and this year it had to be shared with our extended family Holiday Party, a Great Grandma Truglio legacy. After the party some of us went back to my parents’ and we sang Doodle ‘Happy Birthday’ and chatted before calling it a night.
I made this cake with my cousin Angie, while Bowie napped, and Sawyer was at the Trampoline Gym with my Saint of a husband, who woke up at 8:30am and got himself and Sawyer out of the house for an impromptu Daycare Friends outing at 9:00am. We giggled through the whole bake and had a few glasses of prosecco (it was the Holidays, who care if it was 9:30am).
Baking Tips:
I’ve said it before. It's not that hard...you will always have to add a fat replacement, an egg replacement, a dairy replacement, and a rising agent. My go to is Apple Sauce, Almond Milk, and Baking Soda & Baking Powder
Vegan Bakes can sometimes be too wet and dense, so I like to feel it out and add the wet ingredients bit by bit to make sure the batter doesn't get too wet
What is Non-hydrogenated Shortening!
Thank god I was a Biology Major in college and Organic Chemistry was my demise, so I know what Non-hydrogenated means. What I feel like it means for baking purposes is “less greasy.” Shortening like Crisco is so greasy looking, Non-Hydrogenated looks and acts like butter.
Cake:
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup apple sauce
1 cup almond milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp Instant espresso dissolved into 1 Tbs hot water
1 cup hot water
Preheat oven to 350 and line two cake pans with parchment paper and grease.
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Add all the wet ingredients including Espresso in a second bowl and mix well.
Slowly add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until it reaches a cake batter consistency. It will be similar to a brownie consistency except the rising agents let it become fluffier.
Split batter between the two pans and bake until a skewer comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
Cashew Buttercream
3 cups non-hydrogenated shortening
8 Oz Vegan Cashew Coconut Butter (or any vegan nut butter you prefer)
4 1/2 cups powder sugar
Almond Milk added 1 Tbsp at a time. This batch took about 8 Tbsp
Combine Shortening, Cashew Butter, and powdered sugar together and mix in a stand-up mixer.
Add Almond Milk 1 Tbsp at a time until it reaches the consistency you like.
To Assemble:
I went with a rustic look and spread huge dollops of frosting in-between the layers and on-top and I think it came out really pretty.
Try it, play with it, enjoy it!
