Deep Vegan Chocolate Cake 5/5 Spoons

OK, I AM SORRY GUYS. I've been in a serious mental and emotional slump the past two weeks and has seriously affected my cooking and baking attitude. I won't get into specifics but I finally feel like I'm getting over one of my humps that was keeping me from being a normal person again. WHEW! It also helped that I watched Julie & Julia today and it made me laugh, cry and smile for 2 hours straight. I felt connected once again and it felt wonderful. So here I am, catching up!

So I made this cake about 2 weeks ago now and I can still vividly remember how it tastes. That my friends, is the sign of a great dessert. My lovely friend Courtney, who is a phenomenal cook, had some people over to her place when I was home for the weekend and made this meal for us to eat (and it was delicious!) Anyway, I decided I would bring dessert and wanted to make this cake for quite awhile. I rarely make chocolate cake anymore because my roommates aren't demented for chocolate like I am but that just encourages me to stretch my baking muscle, right? Right.



(photo courtesy of Vegetarian Times)

I didn't really make any substitutions for this recipe because frankly.... it didn't need it. I had all the ingredients and it was so simple to make. I chose to use chilled coffee instead of the water and I would encourage you to do the same. There is just something weird to me about putting water in a cake batter, but to each their own. Yes, I realize coffee is just water too but it at least has flavor! Or ya know, if you aren't a coffee drinker, use soy milk, no big whoop. Oh and I used soy milk in the frosting too instead of water (just noticed that).

This is definitely the best vegan chocolate cake I've made. It was tender without being too crumbly and had a very wonderful dark flavor to it without being overwhelming. And the frosting..... oh my. This is a great frosting alternative if you don't have any Earth Balance/butter/margarine in the house. It is so simple and has a wonderful fudgey taste and texture with a salty peanut butter kick. Just like Duncan Hines frosting, I swear!

I give this recipe:

5/5 Spoons!

Not sure what I will pick next to write about BUT hopefully I'll do a few today. Thanks for reading! And I will be back to normal again soon. : )