Chocolate Cake

In addition to Crisis Bownies, cookies, pie and cheesecake, I like cake.

Not just this kind of cake:

But cake, cake.

You know, Devil's Food cake, pound cake, Angel Food cake, red velvet cake... Just, cake. I decided that today was a good day for cake - a lazy Saturday at home with my kids, unrelenting snow outside, yes. Time for cake. I didn't want a lot of cake though, just enough for the 3 of us for a few days without leaving use feeling like complete gluttonous deviants. I also was out of eggs, so it limits what kind of cake I can make.

For our super-chocolate cravings,  this vegan chocolate cake really delivers. You really would not know that this cake is vegan unless someone told you. Of course, there is nothing vegan about the buttercream frosting. Nothing dietetic either, but it is so worth it. :)

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Makes one 10 in. round cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 cup brown sugar*
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/8 cup vegetable oil
• 1  tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Sift flour, sugar, salt,  baking soda, and cocoa together in a large bowl.
3. Add the vinegar and stir. Pour in the oil and stir well. Pour in the cold water and mix until everything is well-combined.
4. Pour batter into a round 10 in cake pan that has been buttered or sprayed with butter-flavored cooking spray.
5. Bake for 30 to 35, or until cake tester inserted comes out clean. 
6. Put the pan on a rack and let cool for a half hour and then turn the cake out onto a rack to finish cooling before frosting.

Simple Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:

• 3 T salted butter
• 1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar (approximately)
• 3/8 cup milk (approximately)

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl.
   
2. Add the cocoa power and stir to combine well.
   
3. Stir in the vanilla extract and mix.
   
4. Add the confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup at a time and alternate with a litlte milk to moisten it, and beat, not stir, but really beat it well to break up all the clumps of the powdered sugar and get it into the mixture.
   
5. Continue to add the sugar and milk and beating, tasting as you go, until you have the taste and consistency that you like.

Notes:

• I really prefer brown sugar to regular white granulated sugar in chocolate baked goods. I swear I read something once that said that the molasses in the brown sugar enhances and intensifies the chocolate flavors. I think that brown sugar also tends to make baked items moister because it is already wetter than regular white sugar.

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