Vegan Cake Redemption

I haven't featured any recipes of my cooking endeavors in awhile. I've still been cooking. I've had a few misses but mostly, I've been making lots of hits. The Mr will be a vegetarian before you know it! Okay - that's just wishful thinking on my part. I'm just glad that he's open-minded enough to eat the vegan dishes I've been making instead of ridiculing my diet like most of the people I know.

He was having a rough week last week with school and whatnot so I thought I'd be a nice person and bake him a cake. A part of me wanted some sweets too and with my rotten tooth (I'll save that story for another day), I needed a good reason to make a dessert. Why not make a "Yay! I'm proud of you!" cake? I also thought it was a good opportunity to use the heart shaped cake pan that Kristin gave me at my bridal shower that I've never used before.

Because I'm also concerned about how awful my diet has become in terms of junk food and sweets, I googled "healthy cake recipes" and, much to my surprise, was presented with a list of vegan cake recipes.

I've traveled down this road before with disastrous results (see Great Cake Disaster) but how can you go wrong with chocolate… from cocoa powder and NOT fake chocolate chips?

I give you…

Vegan Mexican Chocolate Recipe

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp white vinegar
5 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup cold water
2 tbsp powdered (Confectioner's) sugar

Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9 inch cake pan.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, cunnamon and cayenne. Add the vanilla, vinegar, oil and water and stir until just combined.
Pour into the cake pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with the powdered sugar.


Clearly - I didn't sprinkle it with powdered sugar. I decided to frost with my favorite vegan frosting (the only good thing from my disaster of a first attempt at baking a vegan cake).

There isn't anything bizarre in the recipe aside from the cayenne pepper and its f'n amazing. Even Kristin and Jackson liked it. The cayenne pepper may seem weird but I think the spicy flavor works well with the chocolate. TRY THIS. It's ridiculously easy to make and it's so good. And look - no cholesterol! Okay maybe some… but there aren't any eggs and apparently that's what makes this healthy because it sure as shit not the sugar that makes this cake good for you.