Soy Nog Bundt Cake

I replaced all of the liquid in the Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake in Veganomicon with Silk nog, eliminated the shredded coconut, and added some nutmeg. Nog cake!

Unfortunately, I didn't love it. The flavor was good (although more vanilla than noggy), and my substitions seemed to work well, but I didn't like the texture of the cake. It came out sort of spongy and almost bready. I may have overmixed the batter and overdeveloped the gluten. Maybe I overbaked it. Maybe both! It was midnight and I was tired.

Not bad with a cup of coffee, though. Not bad at all.

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Chocolate Chocolate Chip Walnut Butter Cookies

I made a batch of chocolate walnut butter a couple weeks ago that I wasn't happy with (cocoa powder in nut butter = grainy nut butter), so after it sat in the fridge forever, I finally decided to bake it into something. It already sort of looked like cookie dough, so I just went with it. The cookies came out pretty good, considering they were totally improvised. I just threw a bunch of stuff in a bowl and hoped for the best. That's usually a recipe for failure for me when baking, but I got lucky this time. They came out crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside: ideal qualities in a cookie.

I ate three tonight, so I now need to get them out of my house. I'm sending them to my mom's office tomorrow; I hope her co-workers enjoy them! I wish I'd written down the recipe because I would probably make these again.

I have learned not to cheap out on chocolate chips, though. I bought some from the WinCo bulk bins because they're considerably cheaper than the packaged brands, but they're just not as good.

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Chocolate Vegenaise Cupcakes

I despise mayo.

I love chocolate cake.

I found myself with a full jar of Vegenaise. I did the only logical thing I could do.

I used this recipe from Vegan Thyme, who veganized it from Fannie Farmer. It's a great cake recipe: rich, moist, fluffy, and totally simple. Perfect for a last minute cake emergency. The only downside is that the batter tastes a little funky, so licking the bowl isn't as enjoyable as it should be. Fortunately, the mayo taste completely cooks out.

I made twelve very large cupcakes from the recipe and reduced the baking time accordingly. They rose like crazy, so next time I won't fill them as much.

The tops came out crackly like muffins, so I glazed them with a basic ganache of equal parts chocolate chips and coconut milk, plus a splash of vanilla extract. They look a little lumpy and, er, rustic, but they taste fantastic.

Someday I'll showcase my vegan sprinkle collection. It is a source of great pride.

The weather is starting to get a little less scorching hot, and all I want to do is bake! Dangerous. 

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Vegan Planet Chocolate Chip Cookies

My boss has been bugging me to make him some chocolate chip cookies for weeks now. He's kind of a jerk about vegan food, so the cookies had to be really good. I decided to try the Vegan Planet recipe for the first time. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of maple syrup, but I only had a maple-agave blend, so I used that instead.

Pros: No margarine required. They stay soft and chewy. Not overly sweet.

Cons: They lack the rich, buttery flavor I've come to expect in a good chocolate chip cookie. There's half a cup of oil in the recipe, but I feel like they almost need more fat. No crisp edges. Requires egg replacer.

Overall: Eh, they're okay. I don't know if I'll share them (I probably will, but only because I don't want to eat two dozen cookies by myself). I try to avoid Earth Balance most of the time because it's expensive, but I've never found a satisfying oil-based chocolate chip cookie recipe. The search continues...

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