Yellow Cake w/ Chocolate Tofu Frosting!!

Cakes often equal celebrations: birthdays, weddings, graduations, baby showers, and the list goes on. For those who try to avoid animal products, cakes can prove a bit of a challenge. There are some bakeries now that make vegan cakes, but these can prove to be quite pricey. So what are you to do when a cake-worthy occasion looms and you don’t want to break your pocketbook?  Make one! My sister Karina, the “professional” baker of the family, has made many scrumptious, beautiful, AND VEGAN cakes, including a wedding cake! While I have much less experience in making vegan cakes than she does, I do occasionally try my hand at it. So, here is my most recent creation. It is a delicious yellow cake with chocolate frosting. You should definitely give this one a try!

Vegan Yellow Cake

1 ½ cups raw or turbinado sugar (alternative: brown sugar)
¾ cup extra virgin coconut oil (alternative: vegan margarine or natural cooking oil)
4 cups flour (white flour can be used or optional blends such as 2 cups barley flour and 2 cups unbleached white flour, or 2 cups white flour and 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour)
1 ½ Tablespoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups soymilk, rice milk, or other non-dairy milk
1 Tablespoon of vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9 x 13-inch pan with some oil, or a non-stick cooking spray. Soften coconut oil in a small pan over low heat if it is not warm enough for the oil to be liquid at room temperature. Place oil in a bowl and cream with sugar and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Add flour mixture and non-dairy milk alternately to the oil/sugar mixture and mix until all is evenly incorporated. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cake cool completely before frosting.

Tip: Make frosting first so it can begin to set in the refrigerator while cake is baking.

Chocolate Tofu Frosting

½ pound (8 oz.) firm silken tofu
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups vegan chocolate chips

Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or microwave. Place tofu in food processor and whip until smooth, scraping down sides several times. Add sugar and vanilla and process. Pour melted chocolate chips into tofu mixture and blend completely.

Variation: If you don´t own a food processor, I just used my handheld electric beater to first beat tofu until fairly smooth, and then added the sugar and vanilla (mix powdered sugar into tofu a bit before turning on the beater so sugar doesn´t fly everywhere), and finally add the melted chocolate chips. It worked well for me.

Refrigerate frosting for at least 4 hours or overnight to allow it to set before spreading on cooled cake.

As a side note, I try to make treats for my family that are not only tasty, but also at least somewhat nutritious. So although this cake does have sugar and a sweet chocolate frosting, I incorporated another whole grain (barley) besides wheat, as well as coconut oil, which has some very healthful properties. If you are concerned about the powdered white sugar not being vegan, (some vegans don’t use white sugar since it is sometimes processed with bone char for whitening) I believe that organic white sugar, including organic powdered sugar, is fine. From what I understand, standards of purity for organic foods do not permit processing with bone char, so organic white sugar is bone char free. 

 

The Vegan Pizookie

It begins with an everyday foodie conversation with a friend or a comment from an acquaintance; it sparks something in me beckoning me to wander off into the world of culinary experimentation and invention. Wherever the inspiration comes from, it always seems to have the same underlying taunt, "I bet that can't be made vegan!" Well, I always did love a challenge! :) Thus, was born a take on a SoCal favorite: the Pizookie. And don't worry my NorCal folk, I had never heard of one of these either until I moved to San Bernardino County in September 2011. The recipe is really simple but has delicious results...Hope you enjoy and please let me know if you give it a try or have any suggestions! Feel free to mix it up and instead of using chocolate chips throw in some macadamia nuts or peanut butter chips...MMmmm!! :D

 

CHOCOLATE VEGAN PIZOOKIE

•2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
•1 teaspoon baking soda
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1 cup earth balance (also works with almost any other margarine), room temperature
•3/4 cup granulated sugar
•3/4 cup packed brown sugar
•2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•2 eggs worth of E-Ner-G egg replacer* (4 tbsp warm water whisked with 3 tsp E-Ner-G powder)
•1.5 to 2 cups vegan chocolate chips (found at your local Health or Whole Foods store)


*Ener-G Egg replacer is a potato starch and tapioca based binding agent that works really well in most baked goods. It comes in white powder form and is mixed as follows: one egg equivalent =  1 1/2 full teaspoons of egg-replacer with 2 Tablespoons of warm water and beat together till combined. It can usually be found at a local Health or Whole Foods store near you or can also be ordered online.

1. PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

2. COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.

3. BEAT earth balance, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl on medium until well combined. Depending on whether your margarine is cold or not, the mixture may be creamy or look somewhat separated or curdled (below left). To make sure it incorporates well, do yourself a favor and take your margarine out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before you are going to use it so it is at room temp and doesn't stay separated as mine did (below, left picture).  Now a word about the egg replacer. I like to use warm water to mix it because it seems to combine a lot better that way and it will also help to bind the sugar/margarine/vanilla mixture as well. Beat the egg replacer until well combined (only about 15 seconds) and add to the sugar/margarine mixture. At this point, I would beat the mixture on high for about 1 minute till it is creamy (below right).   

4. Gradually beat in flour mixture. The consistency of the dough should be soft and mushy, not too firm or dry. Stir in chocolate chips. Now I didn't own a cute little pizookie pan like those found at BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse so I used a regular pie pan tin for my pizookie and it worked just fine. Go ahead and spread the mixture about 1/4 inch thick (or less if you like it thinner) into the pan till it covers the whole bottom of the pan. 

5. Lastly, BAKE for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown if using a pie pan. If using something smaller, you will need to decrease the baking time (possibly by 1/2 however I have not tried with anything smaller so you will need to do some experimenting yourself). The pizzookie should be just ever so slightly undercooked in the middle so that it comes out soft in the middle, and crunchy on the edges. Serve warm with a generous scoop of Toffuti Vanilla icecream (or any other non-dairy icecream) for an amazing culinary experience! I would definitely recommend reclining on your couch and eating this pizookie painfully slow so as to enjoy every delectable bite. I did...:D