The Best Chocolate Cake You’ll Ever Eat

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This is the only chocolate cake recipe you’ll ever need.  Here’s what I love about it:

• It’s the moistest, fudgiest, and softest chocolate cake you’ll ever eat.

• It only takes one bowl! What is better than that?! Separating wet and dry is the worst.

• This cake is fool-proof.  I’ve made it dozens of times, both gluten-full and gluten-free, and it comes out amazing every time.

• It’s vegan by nature! Meaning you don’t have to do any substitutions for eggs or butter, like in other vegan recipes.

• People who have eaten it have told me that this is the best cake they’ve ever had…vegan or not vegan.  You need to try this.

Here’s how I found it. 

A few years ago, my sister went to the Humane Society of the United States Conference in DC for a few days.  She heard amazing people speak and came back with a bunch of free samples, pamphlets, and information.  One pamphlet she passed my way had this cake recipe on it.  

HSUS created this recipe and I’ve adapted it.

Top it with your favorite frosting (I’ve played around with everything from peanut butter to mocha to super chocolate) and have at it!  I promise this cake won’t last long.

Yield: 12 cupcakes, 2 6″ round pans, 1 9″ round pan

Ingredients:

• Cake pans
• Earth Balance and flour for pans
• 1 1/4 c. flour (same amount for gluten-free, plus 1 tsp xanthan gum)
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 c. unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or any non-dairy milk)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar)
• 1/3 c. vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Put all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Whisk the dry ingredients together.  Then, add the wet ingredients to the large bowl and mix until combined.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

 

 

 

My First Post!!

Hello dairy-free fanatics!

Today I want to look back at a For Goodness Cakes favorite, a cake that kick-started my love for baking and this whole she-bang: Paula Deen’s Deep Fried Pumpkin Layer Cake with a Cream Cheese and Orange Frosting (see recipe here).  Now regardless of what you think of Paula’s personal beliefs and actions, this. cake. is. amazing.  Just look at that cake. Dripping with delicious deep-fried goodness.

That’s right…deep fried cake.

I decided to take on this monstrosity of a dessert for boyf’s birthday.  Before this cake, I had made him a few things here and there: slice-and-bake cookies, brownies from a box, and my personal favorite: cupcakes piped in icing that read, “I love you, you bum” (For serious Rocky fans only).

 

Now I know what you are thinking:

Hey, For Goodness Cakes! None of those items are dairy-free!

And my response is,

woah, there, woah.

All those items were pre-For Goodness Cakes: before my lactose intolerance discovery, before I learned to make treats from scratch, and before my amazing kitties.

Did you know most adult cats are lactose intolerant too?

This was the first real dessert I tried, and the results were worth it. 

Let me break it down for you: First, forget about any calorie count you may have had for the day. This cake will surpass your wildest expectations, and any belt loops you already created. First step: make a pumpkin cake, two layers of moist, fall goodness baked to perfection.  Second: make the orange and cream cheese frosting, creamy and delicious. Third: whip up some good old “fry batter” (as Paula likes to call it), also known as funnel cake batter. Heat up a tub full of oil, soak the cakes in the batter, and drop those babies in to fry.

I remember fearing for my life that day, wondering what sort of splatter-design my third degree burns would take. Paula Deen doesn’t tell you exactly how to fry a large cake without losing layers of skin, so I adapted, assembling the best tools I could find: spatula, tongs, slotted metal spoon, and several oven mitts.

After I fried each layer and let the cakes cool, I assembled the cake, smothering on that amazing cream cheese frosting. Not only was the cake as good as it looked, it was definitely worth the trouble, and almost losing my epidermis.

Note: While this cake was made before I pledged myself to a dairy-free life, it could definitely be adapted to be dairy free with vegan milk, cream cheese, and butter. I would also in the future not use a box cake mix for the pumpkin cake, and instead make my own. Box mixes are for fools.