People ask me, "But how do you make a cake without dairy or eggs?"

Birthday Cakes from April 2011

The very first cake I ever baked was vegan. 

      No one in my immediate family is a cake baker, I grew up on the occasional homemade carrot or coffee cake and the rest were store-bought varieties.  When I decided to try baking a cake for the very first time, it was when I was a sophomore in high school (I had been a vegan for six months).  It was a big deal, we didn't own any cake pans.  My mother took me to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and bought me two 9-inch cake pans and my first roll of parchment paper.   My cake baking has been serious from the very beginning.  It was January, my dad's birthday and I attempted Isa Chandra Moskowitz's recipe for Raspberry Chocolate Blackout Cake with Chocolate Ganache.   I followed the instructions carefully, and cut the parchment paper into perfect rounds that fit the cake pans, and the cakes came out wonderfully.  However, the ganache proved challenging; I had to figure out how to get it to be the right temperature.   I remember sticking it outside in a snowbank so it would cool faster and become spreadable.   

      After that first cake I was hooked!  I loved how impressive the cake tasted and how good it looked even with my messy chocolate ganache.  I felt so proud of what I had created for my dad's Birthday and how much it meant to me that I was able to make it myself.   From that day forward, I wanted to make more cakes and better cakes.  I made the same cake again for a party my mom hosted in February.  I was surprised how the cake became the center of attention once I placed it on the table.  The ganache was the perfect temperature this time and poured over the cake in a beautiful way; on top of the cake I placed fresh raspberries in a circle.  Certainly there is nothing more exciting than cake?  People responded to the cake in such a positive way that I knew cake baking was something more than I had thought previously.  Cake is powerful, it brings people together and brightens up the mood of an entire room.

      Almost five years later, I am still using the two 9-inch cake pans that I used for that very first cake.   Cake is an art--it is a culinary art, a sculpture, and a performance--it moves people in ways that are impossible to completely document.   My calling is making cakes.  More specifically vegan cakes.  Because no cake needs dairy or eggs.  No cake should be created by the exploitation and killing of animals.   Vegan cakes have a conscience; they are compassionate cakes.    

     

So, in response to the original question, "How do you make a cake with dairy and eggs?"