Single-Layer Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Sauce

Well, if you live in New England or know someone who does, then you may have heard about Winter Storm Nemo. Apparently we're supposed to get more snow this weekend than we've had in the past several years combined. It's been snowing all day and is really quite beautiful out. However, it's supposed to be windy later, and wind + snow = losing electricity, so I'm not too excited for this. In the meantime, I'm charging all of my electronics and I'm about to take what may be my last shower for a while. Woohoo.

I actually made this chocolate cake a few weeks ago, but I've been saving it for Valentine's Day, so I could be like every other food blogger in the world and post a chocolate cake recipe this week. But really, this cake is fantastic. You could double it and coat it with some chocolate frosting for an incredibly chocolate dessert. I, however, was in the mood for something lighter, so I made a single layer and covered it with a gooey strawberry sauce. No matter how you choose to serve it, it will be sure to satisfy that chocolate craving. 

Single-Layer Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Sauce

Chocolate Cake

• 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (or a combination of AP and white whole wheat)
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons canola oil or other mild-tasting oil
• 1/4 cup brewed coffee
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a round 9-inch cake pan.

2) In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.

3) In a medium bowl, mix together remaining ingredients.

4) Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until combined.

5) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.

6) Place on wire rack and let cool completely.

Strawberry Topping

• 1 1/4 cup strawberries, sliced
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, or other liquid sweetener 
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1) Using a potato masher, mash strawberries until no whole berries remain (there should still be some chunks though)

2) Combine berries, syrup, and vanilla in a small saucepan. 

3) Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce to medium heat and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until thickened, stirring constantly (keep it at a slow boil).

4) Remove from heat and let cool before spreading on (completely cooled) cake.


Optional: Decorate cake with ground walnuts or coconut flakes. 

Christmas 2012

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! I had such a nice day.

On Christmas Eve, after church, we drove through the neighborhood to look at the luminaries. I went on a walk later to take some pictures. My neighborhood is the only one in my town that has luminaries, and it's always been one of my favorite things about this holiday. Ever since I was little, the first thing I'd do when I woke up on Christmas morning was look out the window to see the dim lights of the remaining luminaries (of course, I couldn't do that this year because it snowed overnight, but that's okay because snow is even prettier).

Christmas at my house is always very relaxed. Basically, we get up whenever we feel like it (9:30 this year!), and start the morning off with coffee, cinnamon rolls, and opening stockings. We didn't have stockings this year, since we now have cats who I'm sure would have loved to have pulled them down from the mantel. But we did have what may be the greatest cinnamon rolls! I used this recipe, and really, it was great. There's only a few changes I'd suggest. Don't use nearly as much margarine as it calls for in the filling and the pan sauce, because that's really disgusting and it doesn't need it at all. When you roll out the dough, it's going to be pretty huge (I don't have the measurements), but don't worry that you did something wrong. Roll it up so that's it's long, not short (I can't think of a better way to explain what I'm trying to say…..), and cut it into what looks like mini rolls. They will expand plenty once they rise and bake, and you should be able to get about 14 decent sized rolls from it.  I'd also really recommend baking them in a springform pan, if you have one, because that way you can pop the sides off and drizzle on the icing and have a very nice arrangement.

We got a Christmas present for our cats - a shelf for the window. Needless to say, they spent the entire day there, birdwatching.

After we ate our breakfasts, we spent most of our day sitting in front of the fire, opening presents, and eating snack food. We always keep out tray of crackers and cheese (and Daiya cheese), dips, and veggies, plus a pot of soup with some bread, to snack on all day, and I really like it so much more than planning a huge meal. It's such a relaxing day! We used this recipe for a spinach artichoke dip, and it was way better than I had expected it to be; even my brother (an omnivore) liked it! We also made a potato soup that was pretty fantastic.

I don't normally like to brag about what I got for Christmas, but I am going to mention that with a couple new vegan cookbooks plus a brand new food processor (!!!), you can expect some fabulous recipes in the near future.

Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful holiday, and that 2013 is a great year for you! :-)

Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Spinach Artichoke Dip Recipe

(Pretty Much Refined-Sugar-Free) Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

It's almost Christmas! I thought I would be posting loads of cookie recipes, but I really haven't been baking many of my own recipes lately. Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar is my most used cookbook, and even though I change the recipes a lot, to reduce the fat and omit the sugar, I have never made a single cookie from that book that I didn't like. It's a beautiful collection and would definitely recommend it!

Anyway, it's almost Christmas! It snowed a couple days ago and thankfully I got to take some pictures of it before the rain came and washed it all away. Tomorrow's supposed to be more rain (and apparently wind gusts up to 50mph?!), but I'm hoping for at least an inch or two of snow by Christmas. Honestly it doesn't feel like Christmas without snow. That is, unless you're eating one of these fantastic peanut butter blossom cookies! Delicious, soft peanut butter cookies with little pieces of love and joy placed directly in the middle. I only allow myself to make these at Christmas, due to them being so darn addictive. 

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (alternatively, you could do 1 cup AP flour plus 1 cup whole wheat)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegan margarine, softened
• 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
• 2/3 cup pure maple syrup (or agave nectar or brown rice syrup)
• 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Sugar for coating cookies (you could probably use coconut sugar for a refined sugar-free version if you want but I wouldn't know for sure because I've never used coconut sugar before)
• Several dozen chocolate candies*

1) Preheat oven to 375°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2) In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. 

3) In a large bowl, mix together margarine, peanut butter, and maple syrup until smooth and completely combined. Stir in flaxseed and vanilla. 

4) Add flour mixture to liquids, and stir until a soft dough is formed. 

5) Shape dough into balls the size of walnuts. Roll cookies in sugar and place on baking sheets.

6) Bake for 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven. Top each cookie with chocolate candies, pressing down firmly so cookie crack around edge.  Return to oven and bake for 1 minute, or until golden brown. Cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes, then transfer cookies to wire racks and let them get some nice rest until they're completely cool and the chocolates have hardened.

Makes 3-4 dozen cookies

*Traditionally you would use Hershey Kisses, but obviously that's not an option, as they're not vegan. However, if you know of any good brand that sells vegan chocolate in a similar size and/or shape as Kisses, you can definitely use it! If you can't find any premade chocolate, you can make your own! It only takes a few minutes to do. :-) You can use this imitation Hershey Kiss recipe or use my vegan chocolate recipe (except omit the fillings and instead pour all of the chocolate into the entire mold and freeze it only once - rather than painting the sides and freezing and adding fillings and freezing again and everything). I used cute heart-shaped molds because who doesn't want chocolate in the shape of hearts?? I don't have a sugar-free chocolate recipe yet, but I plan to look for one soon!

Almond Snowball Cookies ( + seeing Conor Oberst live)

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First off, I just need to say that these are in no way sugar-free or low-fat or even just healthy in general - but they're absolutely delicious. I feel like these are one of those cookies that every person already has a recipe for, and every cookie cookbook includes, but in case you happen to be a rare case and don't have a recipe of your own, I'm posting this one. It's supposedly a family recipe, but it's probably just a Betty Crocker recipe that my family first made in the 60s. Either way, they're incredibly good. Nothing says winter quite like these cookies.

Almond Snowball Cookies

• 1 cup margarine, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus more for rolling
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup almonds, ground [use a food processor or even a clean coffee grinder)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1) Preheat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2) Cream margarine in a large bowl until light.  Add powdered sugar, creaming well until mixture is light and fluffy.  Stiff in vanilla. Set aside.

3) In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, ground almonds, and salt. Pour flour mixture into the margarine and stir until completely combined.

4) Shape dough into small balls and place on cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes. Pour additional powdered sugar into a small bowl or dish (about 1 cup).

5) Remove cookies from oven and immediately roll in additional powdered sugar, then set aside. Once cookies have cooled, roll in sugar again.

Also, I feel like I just need to add an update since I haven't made a post here in a while. My week was rather uneventful, except for on Thursday when I went with a friend to the Conor Oberst concert in Boston. It was probably the most wonderful concert I've ever been to. Every single song on the setlist was perfect. I saw Conor almost two years ago with Bright Eyes in Portland, Maine, and he was incredible then too (also, I had front row that time and he touched my hand, NO BIG DEAL), but I think I enjoyed it more this time. Periodically throughout the concert, I would realize that I was actually in the same building as Conor Oberst and start crying. He's such a beautiful and talented person, and it's really a life-changing experience to see him live. I can't wait to see him again some day!

Also, just to keep this on topic, Conor is, or at least was at some point, a pescetarian. In case you were wondering. 

(I took this during the encore, when we moved closer. We had a better view during the rest of the show though. It looks like we were really far away, but we were actually pretty close the entire time. Forever regretting not having a phone with a better camera.)

Pumpkin Muffins (Refined Sugar-Free)

 
So this morning - a Saturday - I woke up early without meaning to, and randomly had too much energy to fall back asleep. And this is weird because 1) I don't wake up early on Saturdays and 2) I don't have energy when I wake up early on Saturdays. But I thought I'd make the most of my time, so I baked these muffins, then cleaned the kitchen and some of the house, and painted a picture, and basically just had a productive morning. The muffins are really good. I'll admit it's pretty much the pumpkin muffin recipe in Vegan With A Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, just with a bit of tweaking to make it with unrefined sugars. The turbinado sugar is optional, so feel free to omit it and the molasses if you don't eat sugarcane products at all. I think if you wanted to add some chocolate chips or carob chips to the batter, it definitely wouldn't hurt.

Pumpkin Muffins (Refined Sugar-Free)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 5/6 cup agave nectar or maple syrup (okay, weird measurement, I know...just do your best)
• 1 cup pureed pumpkin (fresh or canned)
• 1/3 cup non-dairy milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil or other mild-tasting oil
• 2 tbsp molasses
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar, optional

1) Preheat oven to 375° and lightly oil a twelve-muffin tin.

2) In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Set aside.

3) In a medium bowl, mix together the agave, pumpkin, non-dairy milk, oil, and molasses.

4) Add pumpkin mixture to flour and mix until completely combined and batter is smooth.

5) Pour batter into muffin tins (fill each tin about 3/4 full). If using turbinado sugar, sprinkle about 1/2 to 1 tsp on each muffin.

6) Bake for 20-24 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. 

Serves 12

VeganMoFo Day Twenty-Three: (Refined Sugar-Free) Date Squares

This is the first time I've made up my own recipe using liquid sweetener instead of regular sugar, and I am overwhelmingly pleased with the results. This is loosely inspired by a recipe in The Meatless Gourmet: Favorite Recipes from Around the World, except I pretty much changed the entire thing.  I had intended on using all agave nectar in it, but I didn't have enough on hand, so I used 1/2 agave nectar and 1/2 maple syrup. I think either sweetener would work fine.

(Refined Sugar-Free) Date Squares

cake:

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup agave nectar or maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2/3 cup water
• 4 tablespoons canola oil, or other mild-tasting oil
• egg replacement equivalent to two eggs (I used Ener-g)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup dates, pitted and finely chopped

topping:

• 1/2 cup dates, pitted and finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 teaspoon orange peel zest
• 2 tablespoons walnuts, chopped

1) Preheat oven to 325°. Lightly oil an 8-inch square baking pan (or coat with cooking spray).

2) In a large bowl combine all cake ingredients, except dates, and beat until there are no lumps. Stir in dates. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

3) Bake for 25 minutes or until top is golden and a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan completely on a wire rack.

4) While cake is cooling, prepare topping. Combine all topping ingredients, except walnuts, in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce to medium-low heat and simmer until thickened, about 15 minutes.  

5) Spread topping evenly over cake, then sprinkle with chopped nuts. Cut into squares to serve.

Serves 16

This was also my first time using real dates, and not the type that come in bags (it's been a long time since I made anything with dates though). They taste so much better.

VeganMoFo Day Fourteen: Multigrain Bread

I haven't made bread many times in my life (or anything requiring yeast really), but lately I've been becoming a pretty pro baker. The only bread sold at my grocery store that meets my standards costs far too much money, so making my own has been a nice alternative. I usually make two or more loaves and just freeze the extras until I'm ready to use them. This recipe is originally found here, but I modified it a very small amount (and I basically plagiarized the entire recipe though, so I am not taking any credit for myself!). If you don't have the exact types of grains this recipe calls for, that's fine - you can use poppy seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, millet, quinoa, or basically whatever you want and happen to have on hand. If you don't want to use three types of flours, that's also fine. You can use just whole wheat or just all-purpose if you want; I would recommend at least making sure you use the 2 cups bread flour though, because it really is much better with it.

Multigrain Bread

• 1 2/3 cup nondairy milk (I used soy)
• 2/3 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/3 cup wheat germ
• 1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 cups bread flour
• 2 packages active dry yeast (or about 4 1/2 tsp)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup canola oil, or other mild-tasting oil
• 1/4 cup dark molasses
• 1 tbsp brown rice syrup (or other liquid sweetener)
• 2 tsp flaxseeds
• 2 tsp poppy seeds
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp sunflower seeds
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour + extra 1/2 cup for kneading

Topping: 

• 1 tbsp non-dairy milk
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 tsp poppy seeds
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp sunflower seeds
• 1 tsp quick-cooking oats

1) To prepare dough, cook the non-dairy milk in a saucepan over medium-high heat to 180° or until tiny bubbles forn around edge (do not boil!). Remove from heat.  

2) Combine oats, wheat germ, and cornmeal in a large bow. Stir in scalded milk. Cool until warm. 

3) Combine 1 1/2 cups bread flour and yeast in a separate bowl, stirring with a whisk. 

4) Add to milk mixture and stir well to combine. Immediately add water and next 8 ingredients (through salt). Stir until well blended.

5) Add 1/2 cup bread flour, all-purpose flour, and 1 cup whole wheat flour to milk mixture; stir until a soft dough forms.  

6) Turn dough out onto a floured surface and let rest 5 minutes.  Knead dough until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes), adding enough remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel tacky).

7) Oil dough and place in a large greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, for 1 hour or until doubled in size (Press two fingers into dough.  If indentation remains, dough has risen enough). Punch dough down; cover and let rest 5 minutes.  

8)  Divide dough in half.  Working with one portion at a time, roll each portion into a 13- x 7-inch rectangle on a floured surface.  Roll up each rectangle tightly, starting with a long edge, pressing firmly to eliminate air pockets; pinch seam and ends to seal.  Place each roll, seam side down, in a greased 8- x 4-inch loaf pan.  Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size (Press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough). 

9) Preheat oven to 375°. 

10) To prepare topping, combine milk, water, and ground flaxseeds in a small bowl; brush over loaves.  Combine poppy seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and oats in a small bowl, then sprinkle mixture over loaves.

11) Bake at 375° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and bake 20 minutes or until loaves are browned on bottom and sound hollow when tapped.  Remove from pan; cool on wire racks.