Vegan Chocolate Cake

For her birthday, "V" asked me to bake a cake from scratch. I had to oblige. She is not vegan by any possible definition of the word. Not a vegetarian either. She is a true meat lover. Still, I made two cakes: one regular, and one vegan. This recipe is for the vegan one.

A cake with no eggs!? Is that even possible? It sure is. It's all a matter of chemistry. Or is it physics? Weird science apart, the idea is that eggs will help the cake grow and at the same time hold the ingredients together while it grows so that the resulting cake is spongy and keeps moist. So, how do we make a cake spongy and moist without those eggs?

Sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid.

Ew! Chemicals go into my food?

Yep, but those are only fancy nerdy names for baking soda and vinegar. Nothing to worry about here. The nitty gritty detail is that the acid in the vinegar reacts with the baking soda to produce carbon dioxide bubbles, giving the cake its spongy texture. Then, if we make the batter a bit more runny, we can make sure all the ingredients are kept close together while it's baking. We can even use flavored vinegar so that the cake is infused with its taste.

Voilà! Vegan Cake!

To produce this marvel of the culinary sciences, we will need the following ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of flour, the regular kind
3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups of soy milk
5 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons raspberry vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake in 3 steps

Mix the dry ingredients in a big bowl.
Add the wet ingredients while mixing well.
Bake in a 9-inch cake mold for 26 minutes at 350F.

Why 26 minutes? The real reason is because that's how long it takes my washer machine to do a laundry load, so my timer was already set to 26 minutes. Neat, huh? Bake a cake and wash clothes in less than 30 minutes.

Wait, what about the frosting?

I almost forgot. A cake is not complete without a frosting. A warning, though; you really really really want to let the cake cool completely before applying the frosting. You've been warned.

You just need the following:

1 cup of granulated sugar
6 tablespoons corn starch
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup of water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

This one is harder than the cake, but the idea is simple: mix all the dry ingredients along with the water in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat. As soon as it starts to boil, turn off the heat and leave it on the stove to bubble with the remaining heat for about a minute (or less). Stir in the oil and vanilla. Spread on cake. Eat. Enjoy.

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