Vegan Practically

I turned 60 this week. And it strikes me as a great opportunity to write about how becoming vegan back in 2011 didn’t require me to miss a single beat in the birthday cake department. This surprises a lot of people, who are under the misconception that there is no good baking without eggs, butter, and cream.

Rest assured, there is no reason to worry about delicious vegan baked goods, including birthday cakes. I have written before about carrot cake with cream cheese icing. And for my birthday with a few friends at my favourite vegan restaurant, we had two cake options — chocolate fudge (pictured above) and coconut cream. Both delicious.

Maybe they weren’t super fancy, the way these “show-stopper” vegan birthday cakes are, but they were both really, really yummy. The availability of good cake options is, to me, an important reassurance. I once had myself convinced that I would be deprived of all manner of treats as a vegan. I have since eaten, and baked, countless absolutely amazing vegan cakes.

You just need to search Nora Cooks website for cake to find four pages of possibilities. I can already recommend the tried and true Best Vegan Chocolate Cake. And I’ve bookmarked a couple for future experimenting: 1-Bowl Vegan Coconut Cake and the seasonally appropriate Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake, which I think I will make for Canadian Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks (I might skip the espresso in the butter cream, taking out the “latte” part). I’ve also made a vegan pumpkin spice bundt cake from one of my favourite cookbooks, Vegan on the Cheap. That one has chocolate glaze. It’s not online (I do recommend the cookbook), but if a pumpkin bundt cake appeals to you, Domestic Gothess has one, and her recipes have always worked out beautifully when I’ve tried them.

I’ve been wanting also to try making a vegan black forest cake, but need the right occasion. Two possible recipes for future trying are the one from Namely Marly and the one from Bianca Zapatka, neither of which have any alcohol in them.

If you have a favourite vegan cake recipe, please send it my way. If not, I recommend starting with Nora’s site and going from there.

Here’s one more picture of my birthday cake.

Bon Appétit!