Monday, February 18, 2013

A Valentine's Vegan Apple Cake


vegan apple pecan cake
Our SSFC theme last week was to make a sweet treat for Valentine's Day. One of my goals since last new year's has been to improve my baking skills, and I've been experimenting with vegan recipes. I am not vegan but I frequently use non-dairy butters and almond milk to give my body a break from dairy. It seems to help with my allergies. I'm also intrigued at the thought of making tasty desserts without butter or cream. We have a relative who is allergic to eggs and dairy, and he's usually left out when everyone else is enjoying dessert, so I want to make desserts that he can enjoy too. Actually, he has recently been tested again, and his egg allergy is gone, but he still has the dairy allergy.


I got this recipe for an iced vegan apple pecan cake from The Kind Diet, Alicia Silverstone's book about vegan eating. The recipe actually calls for walnuts, but I bought pecans by mistake. Here are the ingredients:

apple cake ingredients
Flour, sugar, canola oil, salt, baking soda, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, vanilla, pecans, and apples. The apples were my only locally sourced ingredient. They came from West Virginia and I bought them at the farmers' market.


diced apples for the cake
The cake turned out great! It's like a very soft apple-cinnamon french toast. The oil kept everything moist and I didn't miss the butter at all. These apples are very sweet, so I used 1/4 cup less sugar than the recipe called for, but next time I'll probably use 1/2 cup less because the cake turned out really, really sweet. And can I tell you how divine the house smelled?? There is nothing like the smell of apples and cinnamon baking.

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I've been eating squares just as they are, but I was thinking about cutting off a huge block and putting in a bowl with almond milk. I think that would be really good for breakfast.

Although I made this cake for my sweetheart, this is probably something I would make next time we head out to my father-in-law's.
Click on the SSFC badge to see what other challenge participants are making this week. I thought my blog friend Emily's idea to make sweet potato and kale soup was a clever way to do the assignment. I hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day!

8 comments:

  1. that looks so delicious! vegan baking is awesome once you get used to it. i'm so accustomed to using egg replacer, even though i have my chickens' eggs now, i still use substitutes most of the time when i bake.

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  2. Oh my gosh, that looks soooo tasty! I had a plentiful supper and Cherry pie for dessert, but you've managed to make me hungry again. ;-) That Apple cake would be yummy with a glass of milk or ice cream--but then it wouldn't be vegan I guess. I eat so many dairy products, it would be near impossible for me to go vegan. Vegetarian maybe.

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  3. What a wonderful looking cake. Apple anything is wonderful and the smell of baked apples is divine. Nice nice nice

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  4. Looks yummy! You are always so creative with these challenges. I try to eat vegan (not real good at it - my family calls me a chegan (cheating vegan)). :) I may have to give this cake a try!

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  5. Thank you so much for this, I intend on having a go at baking it as it looks so delicious.xxxxx

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  6. This sounds amazing and I like the breakfast idea!!!

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  7. Mmm, it makes my mouth water. I usually cut back on the sugar for recipes, too. Otherwise, it's too sweet.

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