A birthday is only as good as its cake

Baby Pickering has not arrived yet! The birthday cake this post is about is mine! Jason and kids allowed me to make my own birthday cake this year. It's good for me to bake when I'm getting close to due date, call it nesting. Anyway, I made a vegan vanilla/chocolate swirl cake with my favorite chocolate frosting. I topped it with chocolate covered strawberries. It was super rich, and yummy and put out my cake light for sure! Perhaps we will still have some when baby arrives, and we can eat it in celebration of his birth also. Only time will tell...

Recipe for Dark Chocolate Frosting: (From TidyMom.net)
1/2 Cup +1 Tbsp boiling water
1/2 Cup + 1 Tbsp Cocoa powder
2 1/4 Cup unsalted butter (4 1/2 sticks)
2 Cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 lbs semisweet chocolate melted and cooled

Combine cocoa and water till dissolved
Beat butter sugar and salt
reduce speed to low, add melted semisweet
beat in cocoa mixture
Frosting is very soft, not decorator frosting consistency, but it is really delicious!

My vegan cake recipes:
Mud Pie Cake:
1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp. white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 Cup water

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in smaller bowl. Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees F in a greased cake pan. Cool 20 minutes. Makes one 9 inch round. 

Vegan Vanilla Cake:
2/3 Cup Castor Sugar (simply food process granulated sugar until a fine powder)
1 1/4 Cup all purpose flour 
1/4 Cup oil
1 Cup milk (any kind of milk. original recipe calls for almond)
3 Tbsp honey
2 Tsp vanilla extract

Sift together sugar, soda, flour
Beat oil, milk vanilla and honey
slowly add flour, beat 2 minutes
Bake 35-40 minutes 350 degrees F. Makes one 9 inch round.

My latest finished project: a dress I hope to fit into post-baby. I fell in love with the fabric!


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