Chocolate Zucchini Cake

What do you do with all that zucchini when the neighbors decide you need some of their bumper crop? Well the first thing you might do is to sauté with some onions and mushrooms for a delicious supper, but when you still have three quarters of this squash left you may want to try making something sweet.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 Cups Sugar
3/4 Cup Cocoa
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
4 Eggs equivalent Egg Replacer
3/4 Cup Olive Oil
3/4 Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
3 Cups Grated Zucchini

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare 7" diameter spring form pan or equivalent sized cake pan by greasing lightly with olive oil. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir until well combined. Add egg replacer, oil, and applesauce and stir until well incorporated. Add zucchini and mix thoroughly. Poor mixture into prepared pan and bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake. Allow to cool before attempting to remove cake from pan.

This cake is super moist and can be complemented with a simple drizzle on glaze.

Chocolate glaze

3-4 Tbsp Icing Sugar
1 Tbsp Cocoa
1 Tbsp Soy Milk
1 tsp Rum Extract

Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl or cup until light syrup is formed. Drizzle over top of your wonderfully delicious Zucchini Cake and enjoy.

Delicious Apple Sauce

Ingredients

Patience
Time
Lots of Jars and lids
A good knife
Peeler (optional)
Large canning pots and,
All the apples you can handle.

Begin by preheating a large canning pot with water. Take all the apples you can find and clean them up. Quarter and core each apple after peeling, (peeling optional). If you have access to a juicer, juice all the cleaned apples. Then recombine the pulp with the juice in a large pot. If you don't have the juicer place the apples in a large pot just covered in water. Boil until cooked, drain and then mash. Bring sauce to a boil over med-high heat. Place sauce into sterile caning jars, cap, and process by submerging capped jars in boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Makes as much as you've made. Enjoy.

the three cakes of birdie boy

Hi!

The Man has finally invited me over to blog on his vegan site, which I really appreciate because I've got loads to say.

Thanks, Man!

I'm going to start with a little bit of appreciation for vegan cakes. I know everyone thinks vegans are skinny and eat only brown things with no flavor, but in reality, there is endless amounts of sweet, goopy, not so healthy stuff for vegans to eat. Like cake!

We've had the opportunity to enjoy a lot of cake lately with celebrating Birdie Boy's first birthday no less than 3 times seperate occasions over a week. Once with my family, once on the day with our dayhome kids, and once with The Man's family. And it's a good thing too, because it took Birdie that long to warm up to the concept.

Here is cake numero uno. The cake wreck.

It sorta looks terrible, but it tasted great. Unfortunately, birdie got it some 2 hours past his bedtime and was not. in. the. mood.

So, cake number 2. Which was actually cupcakes. With cookies.

All good, right? Babies like animal crackers, right?

Not so much.

Onwards with the celebrations. Third time is a charm. As usual, The Man went all with the cake.

I don't know how I managed to land such a domestically skilled Man, but I'm glad I did. Because if it was up to just me, Birdie would still be crying (see cake 1 and 2, which were, I'm ashamed to say, mostly my fault).

Alright, let's see how the boy liked it.

Oh, damn, another cake. Okay, let's see how fast this one makes me cry.

Heeeeey, this isn't so bad!

Has anyone else had a go at this?

Here uncle, give it a whirl.

Yummers! Thanks dad! Now let's all agree to not let mama make my cakes anymore and it'll be all good now.

A Busy Life

Sorry I haven't written since before Christmas. Here is a recipe to tempt your pallet until I can find time to spend some additional time here. This was one of the Solstice dishes. Enjoy.

Pineapple Yams

2 med. Whole yams
2 cups pineapple juice
2 tbsp cornstarch
½ tsp salt
1 14 oz can of pineapple rings or one whole pineapple, cut
6 maraschino cherries (optional)

Bake yams in skin until tender. Peel, slice, and place in bottom of oiled casserole dish. In a small saucepan, dissolve cornstarch and salt in pineapple juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook until mixture turns clear. Pour the pineapple mixture evenly over the yams. Top with the pineapple rings and garnish with maraschino cherries. Bake in preheated oven at 350◦ for about 45 minutes.

Solstice, and my first attempt at Fondant

Finally, we can welcome back the sun as the winter Solstice has arrived. The days will gradually see more light and my work ritual will no longer see me going in the dark and coming in the dark. The solstice is a big deal for my immediate family. This is the time in which we congregate with our close friends over a feast of delicious food and fun. This is also the when Vegbee, Smootch, Birdie and I exchange our holiday gifts.

This year I volunteered to handle a part of the dessert as well as my assistance in preparing our vegan feast and decided on an ice cream cake. I quickly set out to design my cake...

The concept is the sun conquering the night. Layers from bottom up are gingerbred cookie, chocolate mint ice cream, gingerbread, cranberry ice cream. Then repeated for the top layer. Mmmm.

This would be my first attempt at using fondant and locating a vegan recipe was not too easy. Alas, I stumbled upon this simple no cook recipe...

Fondant

1 cup Light Corn Syrup
1 cup Vegetable Shortening
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
2 Lbs Icing Sugar

In a large bowl, stir together the shortening and corn syrup. Mix in the salt and vanilla flavoring, then gradually mix in the icing sugar until it is a stiff dough. If you are using a stand mixer, use the dough hook attachment. Otherwise, knead by hand. If the dough is sticky, knead in more confectioners' sugar until it is smooth. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

To use, roll out on a clean surface that has been dusted with icing sugar until it is 1/8 inch thick or thinner if you can. Drape over frosted and chilled cakes and smooth the sides down, or cut into strips to make bows and other decorations.

I am no pro at it yet but I think it turned out okay.

Perfect Pancakes

For the longest time my family and I have made pancakes for breakfast every Sunday morning. We have tried many different recipes but I think I like this one the best.

1 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Powdered Sweetener
1/4 Cup Flax Meal
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Coconut
1/4 Cup crushed Pecans
1 Ripe Banana, Mashed
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 3/4 - 2 Cups Soy Milk

Lightly season griddle with a little olive oil and preheat to 300°F. In a large bowl, mix together all but the last four ingredients until well combined. In a small bowl, mash the ripe banana with a fork until it forms a paste. Mix the olive oil and vanilla in with the banana until well blended. Poor banana mixture and milk into the dry ingredients and stir until completely incorporated. Poor mixture onto griddle in 1/4 cup increments. When bubbles rise to the top of the pancakes and leave tunnels when they pop the pancakes are ready to be flipped. Continue to cook until crusty tops soften. Makes 12-14 4" pancakes.

Lemon Herb Tofu

I don't believe in dressing a wolf in sheeps clothing and I typicaly don't condone trying to make food into something it is not. However, if you are a fresh convert and you find yourself craving lemon chicken give this dish a try. Just remember this is tofu, not chicken.

3-4 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp corn syrup
1 pinch of black pepper
1 – 350g package extra firm tofu cut into squares 1/4"-1/2” thick

Preheat oven to 375°F. In an 8” x 12” baking dish, combine all ingredients, with the exception of the tofu, until well blended. Place tofu within mixture and stir gently until all sides are coated. Bake covered for 15 minutes, turn tofu over and continue baking uncovered for an additional 15 minutes stirring after 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before serving. Serve with a cooked grain such as quinoa, wild rice, or brown rice.