yellow cake with chocolate frosting

For a recent birthday, I made a yellow cake with chocolate icing. It needed to be dairy and soy free to accomodate food allergies, so I adapted this recipe, Moist Yellow Cake on epicurious.com. It turned out so good. I'm still thinking about it. Because I replaced butter and buttermilk with coconut milk, it has a slight coconut taste, but that's all to the good.

3 cups (330 g) cake flour
1 tablebspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 can coconut milk, thoroughly chilled in refrigerator
2 cups (454 g) granulated sugar
5 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
rice milk, or other milk
1 T. white vinegar or apple cider vinegar or lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and line with parchment paper two 8x2-inch (20x5-cm) round cake pans. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Open the can of coconut milk. Drain and reserve the watery liquid, and scoop the solid coconut oil into a measuring cup. You should have one cup of solid oil. With electric beater, beat the coconut oil until light and creamy in a large bowl. Stop and scrape the bowl. It will get very airy and light--even more so than butter. I was amazed at how well this worked.

4.Add the sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add the eggs one at a time.

5. Measure your reserved coconut water, and add rice milk to equal one cup. Stir in vinegar and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk. Mix just until incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix for 15 seconds longer.

6. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a knife. Lift up the pan with the batter, and let it drop onto the counter top to burst any air bubbles, allowing the batter to settle.

7.Center the pans onto the lower third of the oven and let bake 45 to 50 minutes or until the cake is lightly brown on top and comes away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Then, I iced it with frosting based on Billy's Chocolate Buttercream, from MarthaStewart.com, adapted to be dairy free and more chocolatey.

1 cup Earth Balance soy-free margarine (comes in a tub)
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled (I used Enjoy Life brand, which is dairy and soy free)
1.5 tablespoons rice milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2.5 cups confectioners' sugar
several tablespoons sifted cocoa powder, optional

In a big bowl with electric mixer, beat margarine until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add chocolate until just combined. Add milk, vanilla, and sugar; mix on medium until well combined. For extra chocolateyness, add cocoa powder by the tablespoonfull as desired.

My final frosting was a bit stiff--it didn't spread 100% smoothly. Probably the added cocoa powder, not in the original recipe, was to blame. It tasted terrific, though, and without it the icing was very light brown. I thought it needed extra chocolate punch.

This was enough icing for a double-layer cake, but you might want to make a bigger batch for a triple layer cake or if you want lavish icing.

Also decorated the cake with a quick chocolate ganache--3 tablespoons rice milk, boiled in microwave in glass measuring cup. Add 1/3 c. chocolate chips, mix until all melted, cool a few minutes, then place in ziploc bag with a sharp edge. You can then snip off the edge and use it like an icing bag.

Trio of orange vegetables soup

This soup that i threw together last night turned out so good I want to jot down the recipe before I forget it.

2 T. olive oil
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 large leeks, cleaned and roughly chopped
4 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
4 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into large pieces
1.5 cups pumpkin puree (1 small can)
2 sticks fresh rosemary, leaves stripped and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
6 cups water (or vegetable broth)
2 T. white balsamic vinegar
1/4 c. heavy cream, optional (or coconut milk, or 2 T. butter)

Heat olive oil in large soup pot over medium to medium high heat. Saute onion with a sprinkling of salt for a few minutes, then add leeks. Stir frequently until slightly softened and browned. Add carrots, rosemary, and celery and saute a few minutes more. Add sweet potato, 6 c. water, and pumpkin (or more water, if this doesn't seem like enough). Bring to boil, and simmer until vegetables are soft, about half an hour. Turn off heat and puree with an immersion blender until smooth, but not too smooth. There should be some texture and small pieces of vegetables in the soup. If too thick, add a bit more water. Add salt, pepper, and vinegar to taste. Stir in cream, coconut milk, or butter if desired.

I added the heavy cream as an experiment, since i have some left over from thanksgiving. Even a small amount of cream adds a lot of rich flavor. But the soup is very good without also. A little butter or coconut milk would have the same effect. A topping of sour cream or plain yogurt would be nice as well.