this here, my friends, is a very delicious applesauce cake that i made for a party we had last weekend. i had been thinking that i really wished this recipe was vegan because i missed making applesauce cake. and seeing as we have a lot of applesauce, it seemed like a good idea to figure it out. it really was quite easy, once i came to the conclusion that this pretty much is a dense cake (sort of like banana bread, or any other quick bread), and therefore my standard 1T ground flax plus 3T water as an egg replacement would work great. i had considered getting more adventurous and tweaking the recipe even more, replacing some of the sugar with maple syrup and combining that with oil to replace the egg, but i'm glad i stuck with the flax, as it was delicious.
my mom discovered this recipe back when she was a preschool teacher. it is from some kids baking book and she used to make it with her kiddos. she also made it for us. and i think it was some time in college that i asked her to copy it for me, as the cut out photocopy is taped into a small spiral notebook that is my first collection of recipes that i began my second year in college when i lived alone in the basement of a dorm and had a communal kitchen down the hall from my room. i don't know how many evenings i spent in that kitchen baking cookies, breads, and bars when i probably should have been in the library. but it was just something about that single dorm room in the basement of the most sterile, generic college dorm building that drew me towards that kitchen to bake and bake and bake.
speaking of recipes. i mentioned that i'd share my thanksgiving menu here today. seeing as we are having thanksgiving on friday, and we are hosting a somewhat vegan and/or gluten-free crowd, we are going a bit alternative here (most notably, in the absence of a turkey). on friday evening, we will be dining on:
butternut apple curry soup
roasted garlic mashed potatoes (from veganomicon)
root vegetable hash (from autumn 2010 3191Q)
cranberry apple casserole
green salad of some kind
roasted vegetable of some kind (these two dishes are being brought by guests)
mini cranberry muffins
mini corn muffins
pear frangipane tart
gingerbread cake with orange ginger sauce (from voluptuous vegan)
sounds good to me. let's get cooking! [we will also be attending a thanksgiving on thursday to which we'll be bringing more root vegetable hash, and a cranberry orange tart (also from voluptuous vegan)].
if you're still in search of the perfect dessert for your thanksgiving meal, might i suggest an applesauce cake? or, if you already have your menu set in stone, it would be quite the easy post-thanksgiving dessert to whip up.
vegan applesauce cake
ingredients:
1/2 cup nondairy margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
2T ground golden flax seed + 6T water
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1 cup applesauce
for the glaze:
1 T softened nondairy margarine
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 T nondairy milk
preheat oven to 375. combine flax seed and water in a small bowl. in a large mixing bowl, cream together margarine and brown sugar. add flax/water mixture and beat well. in a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking soda, salt, and spices. slowly add flour mixture to creamed mixture, alternating with applesauce. mix well, but do not overmix. pour batter into a 6 inch greased bundt pan (if you do not have a bundt pan, get one, they are so fun! but really if you don't have one, you can use any cake pan). bake for 45 minutes. allow cake to cool and then spread with the glaze. delicious.
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