What's Another Word for Delicious?

A Mini-Workshop and a Recipe

Julia Child once said, “A party without a cake is just a meeting,” and I couldn’t agree more. Many of you know, my love for writing is about equal to my love for cake. It’s what led me to begin my own small baking business almost a decade ago. That venture began with a casual offer to a friend to make her wedding cake. Why start small, right? I had been a confident baker for years, so how hard could it be?

There was however, one caveat: she is allergic to eggs, and her husband is gluten intolerant. So I needed to make a vegan, gluten-free cake. And they wanted chocolate. And they wanted ginger. And they wanted to taste my various attempts. In other words: I learned a lot.

Luckily, I had been inspired about a year before, when I stumbled upon an artisan market in a funky old warehouse in East London. There I met the Vegan Cupcake Queen (now defunct, I fear), a self-proclaimed furry fairy: a gay bear with a full beard, who sat nonchalantly behind a table stacked with beautiful cupcakes.

“These are vegan?” I asked, doubtful that they could be any good.

“Yes, love,” he said.

My experience with vegan desserts at the time was that they were mostly dry. But I bought a chocolate one, unwrapped it right in front of him, and took a big bite. It was surprisingly moist, with a tender crumb. Chocolatey. Smooth.

“Wow!” I said. “How did you do that?”

“Are you a baker?” he asked, wanting to make sure his advice wasn’t a waste of time. I nodded. “Find a rich vegan butter without salt,” he said, as he began to clear away some empty cake stands, “and use silken tofu for your egg substitute.”

He was right. Back in the States, I poured through recipes online and found that 1/4 cup silken tofu and 3/4 teaspoons of plant milk, blended to the consistency of kefir, is a great vegan substitute for one egg. And so began my journey to make the perfect vegan cake.

That journey has taken me a lot places. Mostly to the aisles of funky co-op grocery stores, and the cookbook section of bookstores as far away as Reykjavík. It also helped me to bring the cake in the photo above to my friend’s wedding, along with about seventy cupcakes. I nearly dropped that cake when I slipped on some loose gravel in the parking lot on my way to the reception, which prompted me to ask, “What do you do after you drop the wedding cake? Call the Safeway Bakery?” But it all worked out in the end. And now you get to experience the possibility of enjoying this cake yourself, because I have included the recipe below. (I promised there would be recipes here, and I am delivering!). I adapted it from a loaf cake recipe I found online. It’s delicious with any kind frosting, but chocolate, or the vegan German chocolate cake filling in this recipe, are my favorites. It’s also good without frosting, all on its own.

May you enjoy this cake with loved ones, or even all by yourself, with a good strong cup of coffee.

But first: our writing quote for the day, from Laurie Colwin:

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No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menu of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.

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And a writing prompt for you too: The 4 x 4

Generate four lists of four: Note this can be from your own life, or from the POV of a character you’re working with.

1. Snack foods you currently love

2. Things you like about spring

3. Places in the world you like to visit, or would like to live

4. Animals, birds, or insects that you bring you joy (or you find very interesting/fascinating)

Once you have four lists , choose one and write in response. My list ended up being:

Salty plantain chips

When the house finches come back to nest in the carport 

Daffodils and tulips beneath the Vista Francisco sign at Crestline and Burnett Ave.

Wasps

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We’re doing things a little differently this week: in addition to my written response to the prompt, you’ll also find my recipe below. It will be like that on days when I offer recipes. As always, I end the workshop with a poem. Bon appétit!

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First, what I wrote:

A few years ago, if you would have told me that one day I’d be eating a slice of vegan “cheddar cheese” on a gluten-free seeded cracker, humming with pleasure, I would have laughed. But I’m becoming a connoisseur of vegan cheese now, and can tell you that it’s hard to find a good sliced one that melts properly, just as it’s challenging to find a vegan yogurt that doesn’t remind you of wallpaper paste. (Note to reader: try cocojune, the only one worth eating). And yet my quest for an anti-inflammatory diet, after years of worrying about the symptoms of psoriatic arthritis, have led me here. And they often lead me to the refrigerated aisle at Whole Foods, where I can honesty admit there’s only one sliced vegan cheese I like, and it’s made in Greece. So much for American ingenuity.

This week, my aching knees and hips sent out a shot of cortisol that told my brain, “Watch what you’re eating!” and then I remembered the lobster roll on brioche I recently devoured, as well as the wheat toast with a slather of very sugary homemade orange marmalade. Come to think of it, I had a few cocktails last week, an entire bag of fried plantains, a healthy scoop of tater tots from the food truck, and several spoonfuls of my own tri-citrus curd (made with honey, but still). While all this is far from the confessions of a binge eater, that recent menu is off the anti-inflammatory grid.

Exercise helps. I take my daily walks along the ridge of the local city park and marvel at the way it seems new wildflowers bloom every day: orange and occasionally yellow poppies, bright violet lupines with their necks erect, wild strawberry blossoms, splashes of neon yellow oxalis, and a cascade of wild alyssum, which I can smell before I see, like Honeysuckle. 

These walks are good for my joints. Each rocky part of the trail works a new muscle combination in a way I’m told the elliptical machine at the gym I haven’t been to in four years can’t quite reproduce. The common sparrow (what a ridiculous name for those little resilient beauties), the common sparrow let’s out a familiar call, a trill so high and innocent, it almost sounds fake. But it’s real, as are my sore hands that need more warmth on these days, and my feet that sometimes ache in the morning. So I wear gloves on my walk, and practice yoga in the morning after I wake up, with a cup of tea steaming nearby (or on those days when tea won’t do, coffee with the only oat creamer worth buying: Sown, unsweetened).

I can’t say that this condition has changed me much: I still love great Danes and brown eyes, I wish I could find a little plot of land in Point Reyes for a tiny home, and I still love to eat. The difference is all about how I eat, and how I can still find pleasure from eating. How can I continue to enjoy food when traveling, and to bake breads, cakes and cookies that I can enjoy? It’s a challenge, and this rambling little essay it an attempt to show you what resources I’ve discovered, and how you might be able to prepare and enjoy foods that taste good, nourish your body, and bring pleasure.

Dates have become a new obsession, and I’m not talking about coffee dates with men who have a fear of intimacy. I’m talking about dates grown on trees. High in natural sugar, as well as fiber, iron, magnesium and potassium, I’ve come to enjoy eating these guys like chocolate truffles: a treat after dinner, or late in the evening when I crave something sweet. Medjools are my favorite. I’ve even found some grown in California that (sometimes) come in a compostable paper box: Joolies. They’re great for baking pan cookies too, adding a chewy sweetness. Sometimes I eat one with a dollop of almond butter for an afternoon pick me up.

Pistachios are high on my deliciousness list too. While shelling them can be fun, there’s nothing better than a bag of them pre-shelled, raw, and unsalted. Ridiculously expensive pistachio butter is about as close to frosting as you’re going to get on this diet, but you could easily make your own in a food processor. Try it on a crisp gluten-free cracker with some apple-juice sweetened strawberry jam, or a few drips of maple syrup, and you’re practically eating a slice of pie. Or sprinkle them in your granola for a little splash of color and creaminess. You won't regret it.

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The Recipe: Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Almond Gingerbread Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose is best)

1 1/2 cups fine almond flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (sifted, or shaken through a sieve)

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons fine salt

1/2 teaspoon cardamom (or nutmeg)

1/2 cup organic coconut oil

2 cups light brown sugar

1 cup un-sulfured molasses

1 tablespoon bourbon vanilla extract

1 cup silken tofu blended  (plus 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk)*

1/2 cup non-dairy milk (in addition, to be added in while mixing)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350º Fahrenheit. Line two 8-inch cake pans with a piece of parchment paper: grease and flour pan under parchment and on top.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (except the sugar): flour through cardamom (or nutmeg).

Combine coconut oil, brown sugar, molasses and vanilla extract and beat well, until the batter is smooth. Slowly add the tofu mixture,* and the 1/2 cup non-dairy milk. A standing mixer will handle this best.  

Using a mixer, add the dry ingredients in small batches, blending well, stopping to scrape the bowl often.

Scoop the batter into the prepared pans and bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with light crumbs.

Allow the cakes to cool until the pans are easy to handle with your bare hands. Gently remove the cakes from the pans by inverting onto a plate, peeling off the parchment, and them flipping back over onto the cooling rack. Continue to cool on a wire rack to room temperature before frosting the cakes.

Makes 24-26 cupcakes: bake 12-14 minutes.

Note: If you are making cupcakes, fill these only halfway. They rise quite a bit, and the molasses makes them sticky; they can be hard to get out of the pan if they overflow while baking.

*If you want to make these gluten-free but not vegan, substitute 4 large eggs, beaten lightly, for the tofu/non-dairy milk mixture.

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The Poem:

Eating Together, by Kim Addonizio

I know my friend is going,
though she still sits there
across from me in the restaurant,   
and leans over the table to dip
her bread in the oil on my plate; I know   
how thick her hair used to be,   
and what it takes for her to discard
her man’s cap partway through our meal,   
to look straight at the young waiter   
and smile when he asks
how we are liking it. She eats
as though starving—chicken, dolmata,   
the buttery flakes of filo—
and what’s killing her
eats, too. I watch her lift
a glistening black olive and peel   
the meat from the pit, watch
her fine long fingers, and her face,   
puffy from medication. She lowers   
her eyes to the food, pretending
not to know what I know. She’s going.   
And we go on eating.