Have Your Cake and Vegan Too (3 page)

THERMOMETER
Does this seem like overkill? You'd be surprised. For example, I have a very trusty, newer oven. Yet, when it says it's preheated it actually has about 50°F to go. And when I need to bake something at 375°F, I need to set it for 365°F. A thermometer is a cheap investment to ensure your baked goods are in the right environment.

PROCESSOR OR BLENDER
Some recipes call for pureeing. A food processor is optimal, but a quality blender can work, too.

CONVERSIONS

VEGAN BAKING: THE 411

Okay, so we're going to bake a bunch of cakes—from classics to zany new creations—and we're not using eggs? We're going to make creamy, fluffy buttercream without butter? We're going to make cheesecake without cheese . . . what?! Yes, I am here to tell you not only will all your recipes be animal-free, they'll be delicious as well. Delicate crumbs. Mouthwatering flavors. Creamy toppings. Your finicky friends and family will never know the difference, and your food will be that much more enjoyable, knowing that you're eating animal-friendly.

Eggs provide moisture, structure, and texture in baked goods. There are many different ways to get around eggs, ranging from applesauce to soy yogurt to flaxseed. When creating a recipe, my goal is to figure out what eggs would normally do for that sort of cake and then formulate my ingredient list accordingly. Here are the tricks you'll most commonly see in this book:

UNSWEETENED APPLESAUCE
Perfect for cakes, applesauce's fibrous nature provides some structure while retaining moisture. It's used in such small quantities that you can't taste it.

VINEGAR
By reacting with other elements in a cake (curdling soy milk, activating baking soda, and performing the gastronomical two-step with cocoa powder), vinegar adds lift to cakes and it locks in moisture. Be sure to use a mild vinegar such as white distilled or apple cider to ensure there is no aftertaste.

SILKEN TOFU
This usually comes in a little aseptic cardboard box, although occasionally you may find it water-packed. The little boxes are shelf stable, so you might find silken tofu in the Asian foods section of your grocery store, although some markets do refrigerate it.

It's much creamier than the traditional water-packed tofu, but if it's hard to find, soft water-packed tofu can work in a pinch but might require a bit more blending to make it smooth.

If you have some nonvegan recipes you'd like to veganize, on page 6 is a handy chart to help rid your baked goods of those pesky eggs. Do keep in mind, though, that very egg-heavy recipes (calling for 3 or more eggs) may need to be slightly reworked in addition to replacing the eggs so they don't get too moist.

Many of the cakes in this book use oil for their fat. Unless otherwise stated, a mild vegetable oil is the best choice (like canola or a vegetable blend).

The butter that you would normally find in cakes that have a denser crumb or in frosting is easily replaced with a quality margarine. Look for brands like Earth Balance or Spectrum in the health food section of your grocery store. If they aren't available to you, look for margarines that are truly dairy-free (many have whey and other pesky milk byproducts in them). Most margarine has salt in it, which is why most of the cake recipes call for less salt than you may be used to seeing.

Earth Balance and Spectrum also produce some excellent shortenings. If you can't find one of these products, Crisco is vegan. Shortening and margarine are sometimes both called for to make buttercream. While the shortening can be replaced with more margarine, be aware of the shortening's purpose: Margarine doesn't have the same levels of saturated fat, so it doesn't stay as firm at room temperature as shortening does. While margarine can replace shortening, your buttercream may be a little soft.

Some recipes call for the margarine to be at a certain temperature. For room-temperature margarine, that's exactly what you want: room temperature. Letting it sit out of the refrigerator for about 30 minutes should do the trick. For softened margarine, I usually microwave a stick in 10 second intervals until it's soft enough that it's easily flattened with my finger or a spatula. It should be creamy but not liquefied. Melted margarine should be cooled but liquid, and cold margarine means straight out of the refrigerator.

The number of nondairy milks is always on the rise—soy, rice, almond, hemp, hazelnut, oat, coconut (both traditional and suited for drinking)—the list goes on and on. These recipes were tested with a variety of milks and unless one is recommended over another, feel free to use what you prefer. I don't refer to nondairy milks as “milk” because they are milks in their own rights, and I find the quotation marks patronizing.

Conventional sugar is processed using bone char, and many companies add bleach. Yum. Thankfully, there are plenty of options out there. From organic granulated sugar to evaporated cane juice and less processed sugar like demerara to liquid sweeteners like maple syrup and agave nectar, there are plenty of ways to please your sweet tooth.

When working with a recipe, it's important to note that the kind of sugar used plays a role in the success of the end product. To swap out a solid sweetener, like cane sugar, for a liquid
sweetener, like agave nectar, can run the risk of throwing off the whole chemistry of the baked good, in addition to its finished texture. These recipes were formulated using organic granulated sugar. If you are ever curious to check out the processing practices of your local brand of sugar, give them a call or drop them a line. Most companies now are familiar with veganism and will promptly respond to questions you have about their processes and additives.

One of the most common questions I get is, “Chocolate isn't vegan, is it?” Such silliness . . . We truly can have our cake and vegan, too. And that includes chocolate.

There are some brands that make exclusively vegan chocolate, like Tropical Source. Whole Foods offers store-brand chocolate chips that are labeled vegan, as well. There are more brands out there because most good-quality semisweet chocolate has no dairy in it. The darker the chocolate, the farther away from milk byproducts you get, but always be sure to read the labels.

If you have questions about the origins of the sugar in your chocolate, contact the producer's customer service department for information.

ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR
Also known as white flour, this is called for in the majority of recipes in this book. To minimize what we're putting into our bodies, I always recommend buying unbleached flour. The color difference between unbleached and bleached is negligible, and who wants to eat bleach? Yucky.

There are two other types of flour sometimes used in cake baking that you may be familiar with that are
not
used this book. Here's why:

CAKE FLOUR
This is white flour that has been processed to have a lower gluten content to make a more delicate crumb. The reason why you won't see it called for in this book is twofold. First, vegan baking doesn't have eggs in it, and eggs typically provide protein (which is what gluten is) and structure (which is what gluten provides). By using all-purpose flour, we increase our gluten content a bit, which helps out our end results. Second, cake flour has less gluten than all-purpose because it's chlorinated. Again, with the chemical baked goods, just say no.