my vegan cake did not go over well with my omni SIL
So i made the super moist chocolate cake with chocolate frosting from this site with rave reviews from other vegwebbers and my bf and I.
Brought it over to SIL who can't have dairy cause her baby is lactose intolerant.
And my bf came home with 75% of the cake! :'(
She was gracious my bf says but didnt like it! She did like the chocolate silken pie from this site though.
She introduced the cake to her meat loving hubby as a cake with no milk....who promply got a glass of milk to eat it.
My bf says its because we are sensitive to taste now that we eat vegan much more than an omni who is used to milk and eggs.
I think if I had found a cake that required a cup of earth balance or oil then maybe it would be accepted. I only used a tablespoon of oil.
Well she did like the chocolate tofu silk pie...
I know no biggie...I did get up very early (at least for me) to make it fresh.
Was just hoping to wow her. :-\
I'm sorry to hear that. Sharing food is a communal activity and so in the respect of your each spending time preparing food to bring together it sounds like she was appreciative of your effort. Did you like the cake?
It's true, your tastebuds' perceptions do change the more you change your diet. I know that when I have been back to the States, nothing tastes like much because they don't use all the herbs and spices we do (especially garlic--and Spanish garlic is different to theirs anyway). Sorry it didn't go over well, but there are lots of different recipes to try, I hope you find one soon that she likes. I'm sure there is a real "wow" on this site. Gee, maybe you'll just have to bake your way thru the list... :D---that could be fun. Hey, I'll be over to taste-test!! ;D ;D
Sorry your SIL was a pill about the cake. It was so nice of you to bake it for her!
Here's a great omni-friendly one from Isa Chandra (author of 'Vegan With a Vengeance' and 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) www.theppk.com
Rich Chocolate Cake
Submitted by Isa
prep time: 15 minutes | cooking time: 25 minutes | makes 12 slices
Well the name says it all. This is the richest chocolate cake around. To make it a 2 layer cake, multiply the ingredients by one half and divide into 2 separate springform pans. If you don't have springform pans, cover the bottoms in parchment paper or it will stick.
Equipment:
springform pans, 2 good sized bowls, a whisk, saucepan
Ingredients
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all purp unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup good cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain soymilk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9 inch springform pan with non stick cooking spray.
Sift together flours and baking powder and baking soda.
In a saucepan, heat the soymilk on low-medium heat. When it is slightly bubbling, add the cocoa powder and wisk well until it is dissolved. Remove from heat.
Combine the other liquid ingredients in a bowl and whisk well. Add the cocoa mixture and combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry.
Pour batter into prepared pan, bake at 350 F for 25 minutes until a toothpick or butter knife comes out clean. Let cool completely and frost with your favorite frosting.
I hate when that happens. Every now and then I'll go out of my way to make a special dessert for my husband and it bugs me when he doesn't like it.
BTW, I've recently been thinking about margarine, and how when I was growing up in my omni house, we always used margarine. Butter was too expensive and times were different then. We were essentially middle class, but butter was a luxury and not something to be used interchangeably with margarine. The basic formula for what we now call "vegan" chocolate cakes --flour, sugar, cocoa, vinegar--that was a popular cake recipe. I used to make lemon tea cookies with margarine, too, in fact the Betty Crocker kiddy cookbook I got the recipe from called for "shortening." And I have a whole bunch of cooking pamphlets that my ancient neighbors gave me when I was a kid that have recipes using things like "Spry," which was a form of crisco. These pamphlets were from the 1940s and 1950s. No butter anywhere.
Okay, so margarine wasn't the greatest thing for you either, but now you can get earth balance and non-hydrogenated margarines. I just don't know how or why butter has become so prevalent in the everyday american cooking repetoire. I sort of want to blame this on the Martha Stewart revolution.
These thoughts are only occurring to me because it is in 2007 that we call a chocolate cake "dairy free" and people turn up their noses at it, but if it were the 1930s everyone would have devoured it and praised you for your ingenuity!
Blech, Martha Stewart gloats over here "1234" cake rule. 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 4 eggs! (there's also milk added). I mean, why all that crap?
FYI--usually vegan cakes taste 400% better after they've sat for a day or too. Make the cake two days ahead of when you want to serve it. Let it sit covered up on the counter. Make the frosting a day ahead. Let it sit in the refridgerator. Assemble everything a bit before serving.
thanks ashley...i agree since my bf brought it home I tried it this morning and it was better...so much better that my bf requested we not make cake for a long time...the scale is creeping up since I discovered baking. And I have no impulse control when it comes to sweets!
JKL: The butter revolution started in the mid-80's. I was already living here, when my mother discovered cable (she was still speaking to me in those days). She would send me videos of US TV and leave the commercials in. I distinctly remember when the whole "you deserve the best" ("the best" being whatever wine, sauce packet, etc. they were selling) marketing strategy came in on the "lifestyle" type channels...it was all about exclusivity and how you could, no, you *should* be a part of it. (Remember those annoying Grey Poupon commercials? WHO eats mustard on a croissant??) And of course that included "give yourself a little pat of butter". Translated from the vulgate: overproduction, the need to create a market. (We know a lot about "butter mountains" here in Europe! ;D) People were turning away from butter and milk products to other things, and they were very loud about how few calories a pat of butter has, etc. Except it depends on stopping at that one little square, not lavishing it on everything in sight!
I think the same can be said for the whole "got milk" campaign; it started to happen about the same time decent soymilk (as in doesn't smell like greenbeans! ;)) started to be very popular.
i thought the supermoist chocolate cake tasted good and chocolatey, but it was very dry. my omni friends weren't impressed.
and it probably did not help that you did not use all the oil--just a thought
You know, I am of the opinion that even if you hate something, if someone went to all the trouble to make it for you, you should at least eat it! And not let anyone know you don't like it!
I'm sorry had that experiance. Did you tell her it was vegan...she might have been gearing up to hate it. I never tell anyone what they are eating is vegan until after they have enjoyed it. ;)
And I agree, vegan cakes are usually better a few days later!