Partial transcript from episode: What's in Your Oven? Enjoy the Ease and Decadence of Vegan Baked Desserts.
Art and I, my husband and I, have been married now for 41, almost 42 years, and we're both Virgos. Imagine that, two perfectionists. Aye. But every September, our birthdays roll around only 10 days apart. So this year marks our first birthday celebrations as vegans. So of course, because I am so enjoying this new culinary road that I'm on, I had to experiment with baking a vegan birthday cake. And let me just say, not only was it super simple, but the end result was, "Muah!" Chef's kiss, delicious.
So there are a couple of ways of doing this, the made from scratch version and the lazy version. And honestly, I think it depends a lot on your mood and energy level, at least it does for me. I mean, there are days that I cannot wait to be in the kitchen, slicing, dicing, cooking, baking, blah, blah, blah. But there are most definitely days when I am exhausted from other projects and I just want to prepare something really quick and easy. The best part of baking vegan cakes is that you can have it both ways. So I'm speaking from experience when I say that I did experiment with both the made from scratch version and the super lazy version of this cake. And I will admit that both versions were really, really good. The upside to baking from scratch, of course, is that you can avoid all those nasty chemical ingredients that they put into the commercial cake mixes. And if you don't believe me, ooh, check out their label, their ingredient labels, eek. I mean, they are downright scary, but as far as taste and consistency go, either one of those versions would win a prize for moistness, deliciousness, scrumptiousness.
I mean, they both taste really good. So what I did for my made from scratch cake was I took a simple white cake recipe and I substituted vegan ingredients, super easy. So for example, when a recipe calls for eggs, you have a couple of really great vegan options. You can use either unsweetened applesauce, like one ounce would equal one egg. And I did this way back even before I was a vegan. If I had applesauce and I was out of eggs, I could substitute applesauce really easily. Or you can do what I did for this cake and use one 2 .5 ounce carton of silk non -dairy vanilla yogurt. So you just take it out of the fridge about an hour before you start your cake so that it's closer to room temperature and it works great. It's super easy to spoon it right out of the container and into your mixture. I mean, super simple.
So when a recipe calls for butter, I simply substitute vegan butter in the same measurements. I like to use Country Crock plant -based spreads. It's the one that you buy in the cubes. They're easier to measure when you buy the cube butter in the box. And then of course, when a recipe calls for milk, I just substitute almond milk. I've tried all the other plant -based milks and they're all good. But honestly, what I have found to be the closest in consistency to real milk is the regular unsweetened Almond Breeze brand. That's the one that is my all -time favorite.
Now with this cake for Arthur's birthday, I have this really beautiful Bundt cake mold. And so I decided to make a Bundt cake. I don't usually do that for birthdays, but you know, this year's a little different. So the icing recipe that I've listed with the cake, with the cake recipe, is in measurements that are to make icing for a drizzle, to drizzle over a Bundt cake. If you decide that you want to make a layer cake, you'll need to probably double the measurements in the chocolate icing recipe. But honestly, making the Bundt cake was a great decision because it looked absolutely gorgeous. I mean, it was like a mountain with chocolate lava pouring down the sides. And when he saw it, he was just like, oh my gosh, look at that. It is so beautiful. And then the icing, I mean, the recipe for the icing, it is such a decadent treat. I use Confectioners sugar, along with pure unsweetened cocoa powder, a little bit of softened vegan butter, some vanilla extract, and five or so tablespoons of almond milk.
So if you're going to make a drizzle icing, you know, for your Bundt cake, you'll want to thin it out with the almond milk. If you decide that you want a thicker spreadable frosting, hold off on the almond milk and add just one tablespoon at a time as you're mixing to get exactly the right consistency that you need.
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