Now, I have no experience with veganism but I was excited at the prospect of trying to make a cake that required no butter, no eggs, no milk. So I searched online for a few recipes, something easy enough to make, that didn't sound totally off the wall, but was still tasty enough that no one would know it was vegan.
I found a few good recipes and decided to try a chocolate one, since who doesn't like a chocolate cake! My first attempt came out ok. Both my husband and I thought it was quite dense and heavy, but still tasted ok. But that wasn't good enough for me. I did some research and found that this recipe could not be over beaten, or over baked. So I tried again. Second attempt was interesting. Two cakes went in the oven, same time, same temperature and yet one cake was completely cooked and the other had a raw center. Never had that happen before. So a third and final attempt was needed to get a second layer for my cake.
After I finally had my layers ready to go, I was glad to know my "buttercream" icing recipe using vegetable shortening was going to work just fine. I iced the cake in a chocolate buttercream, and decided that I hadn't done a basketweave design in a long time, so it was a good time to do it.
Now I realized after I had finished the cake, that technically it is not 100% vegan, as the royal icing flowers were made using Meringue Powder, which contains dried egg whites. This was a minor oversight on my part. Thankfully, these aren't generally eaten by anyone over the age of five!
I wish I had taken a better picture of the basketweave itself, but you get the idea.
So you can have a Vegan cake, and it be tasty too. I was pretty pleased with how good it tasted on my third attempt. I think most people would not have guessed there was no butter or eggs in this cake. I think I would attempt another one if someone asked for it. It was an experiement at least!
