Moosewood Chocolate Cake: Layered Stylie

This is essentially the recipe from the wonderful Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, NY--purveyors of delicious vegetarian fare and excellent cookbooks, the spot where I dined as a teenager and burned the memory of a delectable mint brownie sundae forever into my taste memory--but I doubled it, layered it, and strawberry preserved it, then baked it at a lower temp for flatter, more layerable results. Check it, with pics, below. All recipe credit to the Moose.

Chocolate-Strawberry Layer Cake
3 c. unbleached white flour
2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 c. sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
2 c. cold water
4 t. pure vanilla extract
4 T. cider vinegar (measure it into a cup for easier quick pouring)

Lazy Gal's Filling:
1 10 oz jar European strawberry preserves (or any other high quality fruit preserves--no jelly!)

Glaze:
11.5 oz bag Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate (or whatever brand you prefer...)
1 c. hot water
1/2 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Oil a 9 inch pan (two if you have them, otherwise the whole process takes twice as long, which is what I did) and lightly flour. Springform pans work nicely. Mix all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl until well combined. Measure in all wet ingredients EXCEPT for vinegar, and mix until smooth. Add vinegar and stir quickly--it will react with the baking soda and get a little effervescent. Fun! Mix until there are no more light colored swirls in the batter. Pour half of the batter into the pan. If you have another pan, pour the other half in that one. Bake for 25-30 minutes, checking for doneness with a toothpick in the middle.

Let cakes cool at room temp for 10 minutes or so, and if you have the time, wrap each layer in saran wrap and stick them in the fridge or freezer to cool for an hour or two so they are easier to work with (thanks, Smitten Kitchen!).

Then, take one cooled cake and place it gently on a nice big plate. Spread the ENTIRE jar of preserves all over the top. Yum. This makes it really moist and tasty. Carefully place the next layer on top. Let those sit a while while you make the glaze.

Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, microwave it for about 90 seconds, then stir in hot water and vanilla until you get a smooth consistency. Spoon this over the cake. It will get everywhere, but that's OK :) You'll also have a LOT leftover. Save it and reheat just before serving to spoon on top of the cake and the vanilla ice cream you know you want to eat it with. Put the finished cake in the fridge for a least 30 minutes before serving, and if you want to get fancy, throw some confectioner's sugar on top.

Oh yeah, not only is it SO DAMN TASTY, it's also vegan! However, the meat-and-dairy folks I served it to were bout it bout it--this cake is just universally fabulous. Enjoy!

Blue Ribbon Vegan Cornbread?

No, really--it's actually pretty damn good! I made this with a pot of vegan chili with a few adjustments, namely: substituted some grade B maple syrup for some of the sugar, used olive oil instead of canola oil, and added a Tbsp or so of pre-made salsa. The recipe as I freestyled it below, though all credit goes to young Dana Sly.

Surprisingly Good Vegan Cornbread

2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
6 tablespoons water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/8 cup sugar
2 Tbsp Grade B maple syrup
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup soymilk
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp salsa

1. Preheat oven to 425°F
2. Oil an 8-inch-square baking dish.
3. Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan.
4. Add the ground flax seed, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer the ground flax seed in the water for 3 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well-combined.
6. Add the ground flax seed mixture, soy milk, and canola oil to the flour mixture. Beat just until smooth (do not overbeat.)
7. Turn into prepared baking pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool until warm and serve!

Sweet Potato Banana Bread

I made this improvised treat over Christmas, when I suddenly decided to whip up several mini-loaves of Mom T's classic banana bread for some of the office staff at my school. After I'd already begun mixing things up, I decided to double the recipe on the fly. All good, except--I didn't have enough bananas. So, I did what any new Southerner would do--opened up the fridge and pulled out some baked sweet potatoes I had frozen a week or two earlier to take for lunch! This addition lent a bright color, some vitamin A, and a new variant of sweetness to an already fabulous recipe. Well, at least I thought so. The native New Orleanians never did comment...

Sweet Potato Banana Bread

¼ cup butter softened at room temp
½ cup brown sugar (or raw sugar)
1 beaten egg (room temp)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup oatmeal
3 mashed overripe bananas
1 large baked sweet potato, mashed
1 1/12 cups flour (Mom T uses 2/3 wheat to 1/3 white, and for the white she takes one Tbsp. out of every cup and puts in wheat germ instead)
½ teaspoon each cinnamon and ginger
A very scant 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a breadpan or muffin tin. It’s annoying, so get it over with first!
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together ‘cept for oatmeal…make them sit off to the side while you do the fun wet stuff!
3. Cream butter and sugar together, then blend in egg and vanilla.
4. Blend in oatmeal and mashed up bananas and sweet potato.
5. Invite the dry ingredients to the party! Blend it all together, but don’t over work it .
6. Put the dough in the loaf pan, bake at 350 for one hour…check for doneness at 50 minutes. If you're making muffins, check them after 25 minutes for doneness.

So delicious in the morning with butter and coffee, and the muffins freeze really well for later breakfasts. Yay NOLA influenced family classics!