vegan birthday cake

February 19, 2004

my favorite vegan cakes are made by derrick's cakes. they're moist

and perfect in every way possible, and you can order one through

juicy lucy's: 415-786-1285

On 02/18/04, sfholiday <sfholiday wrote:

> Greetings : ) Does anyone have any suggestions for where to get a

> vegan birthday cake in SF, preferably not made with sugar, honey or

> cane juice? Ready-made is fine, since I need it by Friday afternoon.

> It's my mother's 76th birthday, and, since I have to bring the cake,

> I'm going to force my fast-food-flesh-feasting-family (Ooooo, I'm

> proud of that alliteration) to eat vegan <VBG>.

>

> Thanks : )

>

> Chris in SF

>

> BAY AREA VEGETARIANS (BAV) is a community group for veggies to network

> & find support. Free membership and lots of free events :-)

>

> Event Calendar, Charter, FAQ (/) and More!

> http://www.bayareaveg.org/

>

> Bookmark this page! Don't miss local events!

> http://www.bayareaveg.org/events.php

>

> Message board

> http://www.bayareaveg.org/forum

>

July 15, 2009

As a chef for a catering company in Sacramento California, I have received

requests for unusual foods, ethnic foods, fish and game. Recently my office

manager booked a small birthday party featuring a vegan birthday cake.

The price was agreed on, the contract was signed Melange Catering was committed.

tried to pass this assignment off to our baker but she declined citing a rare

and exotic illness. I suspected she just wasn't up to the challenge of the

vegans.

With no one else to hand it off to I decided I would give it go. Let me say

first off I am a chef not a baker. I bake on occasion but the results are less

than the perfection people expect when they are paying you.

I do bake bread and cinnamon rolls but when it comes to fancy confections I feel

it is best to leave it to the professionals.

I met with the vegans, an intense group of lesbians, to get an idea of what they

expected. Lesbians are usually easy to please when it comes to food but not the

vegans.

Vegan adhere to a higher standard than the rest of us. A vegan will not eat any

animal products or any product that may have been used by animals to make the

product or any product that an animal may have once looked at.

I found a recipe and armed with a list of ingredients, off to the market I went.

The recipe called for margarine and something called soy milk. I stood in front

of the dairy case and stared at the assorted tubs, everything had milk in it and

other stuff that I couldn't identify but was sure would not be good for you.

As I stood there reading ingredients I began to realize why the vegans were so

intense. It wasn't easy to be a vegan and I was sure nothing they ate could have

any flavor.

I wasn't able to find a substitute for the butter so I called my client and

asked her what she used. She told me she used Crisco Butter Flavored Shortening

for baking and a vegan vegetable spread for regular stuff like toast.

Curious I checked out the stuff and sure enough it is the same type of stuff

some cities have banned KFC from frying their chicken in because it is bad for

you.

What's a little trans fat between friends I always say, so bought the stuff

along with the soy milk (is it soy or is it milk, it can't be both) and headed

home to bake the cake.

Birthday cakes have layers, with icing. That's how a birthday cake should look.

This vegan cake was so heavy and moist it would not support itself, when I tried

to stack the layers, the top layer smashed the bottom one and created a huge

mess on my counter.

Back to the oven for another try at the cake. This time I made it in a half

sheet pan deciding to forgo the layer idea. It baked up nicely and I slid it out

of the pan onto a cooling rack hoping for the best.

The heavy cake pressed into the rack and it developed ridges but it did not sink

all the way through as I was expecting.

After the cake was completely cool I whipped up a fluffy butter cream like

frosting. I covered the ridges and the cake with this chocolate flavored, trans

fat filled goo, decorated the top and sides and called it good.

The vegans were delighted with the cake, it was beautiful and according to them,

the best cake they had ever eaten.

I tasted the cake, it was good, was it great? No. The frosting tasted heavy and

left an oily feeling in my mouth, but it did taste somewhat chocolate-like.

For first time I really looked at the vegans and they looked malnourished. They

were all painfully thin, except for one woman who looked like she had eaten a

couple of the other vegans. I think she was the only one not eating the soy ice

cream.

I am understanding of the whole lesbian thing, we mustn't eat animals, they are

our friends, but why must vegans take it too far?

We only get one life, I say, live as though you may die tomorrow. Do things,

travel, laugh and eat the real chocolate.

Author: Tricia Jaussaud

Tricia Jaussaud is an Examiner from San Francisco

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

•2 cups flour

•1 cup sugar

•1 tbsp cornstarch

•2 tsp baking soda

•1/4 tsp salt

•1/3 cup cocoa

•1 1/2 cups applesauce

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt cake pan. Note: You can

use other cake pans, but because this cake is a bit heavy, layered cake pans are

not recommended.

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Add applesauce and mix well until batter is smooth.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, until done. You can always tell that a cake is finished

baking by sticking a toothpick in the center of the cake. If the toothpick comes

out clean, that is, not covered in batter, then your cakes is done baking.

Frost, if desired, and enjoy!

Nutritional Information:

Makes 8 fat-free cake slices.

Calories per slice: 242, Calories from Fat: 7

Total Fat: 0.8g, 1% RDA

Cholesterol: 0mg, 0% RDA

Sodium 390mg, 16%

Total Carbohydrates: 56.9g, 19%

Dietary Fiber: 2.5g, 10%

Protein: 4.0g

Vitamin A 0%, Vitamin C 1%, Calcium 1%, Iron 11%

July 15, 2009

This is a pompous piece of poorly written, bigoted and unnecessary literature (?).You may be a chef; but your unnecessary commentary to go along with your mediocre recipehardly merits room on this board.ShenPlease consider the environment before printing this e-mail.