Cake = Really tasty and Really sweet

by Anne

So the (mostly) vegan cake was deeelicious. The only downside was that I used regular sugar instead of a vegan type. Whatevs, baby steps to being totally vegan, baby steps.

It was ridiculously sweet so if you like things that are only subtly sweet, this cake is not for you. It's  mostly the frosting that makes this cake so crazy sweet. Next time I make it I'm going to try a less sugary recipe.

Here's the recipe for the cake:

3C flour

2C vegan sugar

6T Hershey's cocoa

2t baking soad

1t salt

3/4 C vegetable oil or 3/4 unsweetened applesauce (next time I make it I'm trying it w/ applesauce)

2T white vinegar

2t vanilla

2C cold water

Mix dry ingredients until they are well blended. Add wet ingredients to the dry mixture one at a time (don't blend them separately). Stir until smooth. Pour into greased and floured pan (can't emphasize enough how important it is to flour baking pans!)  the pan can be either one 13x9 pan or two 8" or 9" round cake pans.

Bake in 350 degree oven 30-40 minutes until the skewer comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from pan or frosting.

It's very moist and very tasty.  Next time I make it I'll probably just top it with a little vegan powdered sugar or maybe dust it with some cocoa powder. The only vegan vanilla frosting recipe I found got dreadful reviews. I might try a peanut butter one or maybe, if I were making it for someone else, a mint one. For the record, I hate mint. The only mint I like is wintergreen gum and wint-o-green lifesavers.

If you see the previous post, vegan sugar isn't some crazy new -angled product. It's things like Sugar in the Raw or Florida Crystals; sugar that hasn't been refined in a process that uses bone char.

In unrelated but still vegan food news: I discovered that almond milk, despite being made from a nut, is much lower in protein that soy milk and cow's milk. Oh well, I'll just have to be more conscientious about my protein intake. The more I read about soy and think about a family member who drank soy formula as a baby and all the health problems she's had and how soy might have contributed to them, I'm trying to avoid it as much as I can. It's not easy considering LOTS of things have soy protein in them. It's not AWFUL in small quantities but a lot of small quantities add up to a large quantity.

Tomorrow I'll be cleaning out the fridge and making do with leftovers for myself while I make a macaroni and (real) cheese bake for my Mom for dinner. I found a few really tasty sounding recipes to test out in the next few days.

Experimenting With Veganism, Days 1 and 2

by Anne

This is my third blog, my second active one. My other active blog is on the highly vegan related topic of hockey. Check it out on the side if you're a hockey fan, particularly a Sabres fan or a Kings fan.

Anyway!

I'm tired of being unhealthy and feeling lie garbage(soft g) all the time. So, starting on Wednesday June 9, 2010, I am transitioning into life as a vegan.

It hasn't been an easy switch. First of all, no one in my immediate family,  close group of friends, or anyone I know well at all, is a vegan, or even a vegetarian.

My Mom is, as usual, supportive. She always endures these random forays into health I decide to make every few years.

I've decided that I can't go cold-turkey, so to speak. There are things that are going to be difficult to weed out of my diet, frankly because I don't realize they aren't compatible with a vegan lifestyle. I ate Cheez-its today and yesterday, because they are in my cabinet and I don't want them to go to waste. That's not good. 

I made the mistake of looking at an exhaustive list of animal products that can be found in food, and that just made my head reel. So, for now, I'm trying to make educated decisions and eating as many foods that appear to vegan, even if they aren't certified vegan or anything like that. 

The first two foods I tried that I've never had before were vanilla soymilk and quinoa.

Yesterday I had a small bowl of cereal with some Silk:

The cereal tasted good with the vanilla flavor, but I don't think I'll be swigging down a glass of this instead of milk anytime soon. I've had chocolate soy milk in the past and it was completely disgusting. I think I'll try vanilla Silk with chocolate syrup before I'll have chocolate soy milk again.

However, reading a few articles today has shown me that too much soy is not good for you, so I'll be trying rice milk next. I was relieved to hear that soy might not be as great as previously reported, because I'm looking for any excuse not to have to eat tofu. Tofu is disgusting, plain and simple.

Then, for dinner tonight, I ate some quinoa (keen-wa). I just ate it mixed with some Earth Balance vegetable oil spread and a little salt.

It looks like couscous but isn't as dry, and has a subtle nutty flavor to it.

I'm looking up more recipes to use quinoa because it's pretty tasty, and would definitely be good as a rice replacement. I've found a recipe for stuffed peppers I'm going to try sometime. Maybe my Dad will eat one of them, because my Mom doesn't like peppers.

Next up is some rice milk ice cream. It's "chocolate" peanut butter, so we shall see how that goes.

Thanks for reading!