Vegan Ambrosia

I haven't posted anything in quite a long time, apart from finally pressing "Publish" on a 3-year-old draft just now. (I didn't even check for typos - sorry, folks - I'm clearly not a blogger.) But I threw together this recipe today, and it worked out quite well, so I thought I would share. I did not think to take photos while making them, so there's just the one of the end product. Here goes it. 1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 2. Cover with hot or boiling water and let sit: 2/3 cup raisins 3. Mix wet ingredients thoroughly (using electric mixer if possible): 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used "natural" chunky) 1/2 very ripe banana 1 Tablespoon molasses 1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup but could reduce that) 1/4 cup maple syrup 1 tsp vanilla 1 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T water, let sit for a couple minutes) 4. Mix separately then add to wet mixture: 1 cup flour 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 5. Fold in until well distributed: 1-2/3 cup rolled oats 1/3

I'm not the best cake decorator, but this cake is tasty! My Favorite Cake Vegan chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting Today* is my birthday, so I baked my favorite cake for myself. This cake can be made as cupcakes, a sheet cake, or layer cake. I have 4-inch diameter cake pans that I like to use for this purpose. This recipe made 3 of those plus 4 cupcakes. I'll eat the one layer cake and freeze the rest. Cake Wet ingredients: 1 cup unsweetened soy milk* ⅓ cup applesauce 2 Tbsp canola oil 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar Dry ingredients: 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour) ½ cup raw cacao powder ¾ cup cane sugar 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt *The combination of the soy milk and vinegar and baking soda/powder is what makes the cake rise. Soy works best here because it needs enough protein for the chemical reaction. You could also do half soy and half another kind of milk, like almond or coconut, or substitut