Chocolate Yum: The Addiction Continues

Ok, so I am going to dazzle you with something sweet AND dare I say it VEGAN! So I would advise you to omit the vegan part when you are about to serve, as it inevitably solicits unfair bias before any food touches any taste bud thereby adulterating the first luscious taste of this chocolate masterpiece!

Like any human being my love affair with chocolate began early. Who can forget the chocolate bunny overdose of 1985 followed by the bellyache birthday of peanut butter melt-a-ways? Yes, I am smitten with the rich velvet of cacao nectar. If there was one thing that would have broken my vegan commitment, it would have been forever leaving chocolate (and I mean good chocolate) out of my life. So renouncing the smooth taste of milk chocolate was tough at first, but when I sliced into this soft creamy cake for the first time I knew that I would have no regrets leaving the dairy behind. My addiction runs strong, and I have, on one occasion eaten this entire cake in a day. (Well, ok, let's be exact, I ate most of the cake within a 48 hr period, and my husband had a slice or so - but the important thing is that it is good enough to move me to overdosing!)

This is called Chocolate Yum and it is a hodgepodge of all the recipes that I have used and failed to follow correctly to make the perfect, fluffy, chocolate-doughnut-icing smothered layer cake!

***Initial thanks goes out to the following cookbooks: Vegan with a Vengeance (Freaking lifesaver that one!), Veganomicon, La Dolce Vegan and The Joy of Vegan Baking. You culinary queens have made my kitchen a peaceful, bearable, rather pleasant place to be.

CHOCOLATE YUM
Ingredients:
3 C flour
1 C sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tsp vanilla abstract
2/3 C canola oil
2 T distilled vinegar
2 C cold h2o

Frosting:

1 C h2o
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 C sugar
1/4 C cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 C h2o
1/4 cup vegan butter (or margarine)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla abstract

1. This recipe is for the best frosting that I have ever had! Thanks to La Dolce Vegan! Whisk together h2o, cocoa, sugar, cornstarch in a saucepan and bring to boil to thicken.
   
2. Once thick take off of heat and add butter and vanilla.
3. Cool and put the entire pan in the refrigerator while you make the cake.
   

Next for the cakes!

1. This is an adaptation of the cake recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. Preheat oven 350 degrees and grease two 9" round cake pans.
2. Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa together.
3. Add the wet ingredients: vanilla, oil, and h2o and stir until combined.
4. Pour into cake pans and bake about 20 min.
5. Let completely cool! (I have ruined many cakes with my impatience!)
6. Cut the bottom of one cake to fit squarely on top of the other.

Ok, you are ready to ice the cake! The icing should be a bit runny, that is why I love it so much, but it also means that it is a pain to work with. Place your bottom cake on a wire cooling rack and then pour or spoon your icing on top. Next place your second cake on top of the iced bottom and pour the rest of the icing over the entire cake letting the excess drip to through the wires. Once the icing sets transfer cake to a plate and enjoy!

This cake is a little messy, but is is so good!!!