Holiday Madness & A Vegan Cake

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:

1. 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

2. 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

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line two cake pans with parchment paper and grease.

2. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

3. Add all the wet ingredients including Espresso in a second bowl and mix well.

4. 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.

5. 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

1. Almond Milk added 1 Tbsp at a time. This batch took about 8 Tbsp

2. Combine Shortening, Cashew Butter, and powdered sugar together and mix in a stand-up mixer.

3. Add Almond Milk 1 Tbsp at a time until it reaches the consistency you like.

4. To Assemble:

5. 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!