Vegan Baking

This is carrot cake's long lost brother, featuring parsnips which are slightly spicy and astringent. Parsnips are teamed up with pineapple, golden raisins, non-diary yogurt and a touch of cardamom to make a flavor that's lighter and spicier than carrot cake but every bit as tasty. Like carrot cake, Parsnip Cake should be liberally frosted with cream cheese frosting or a variant thereof for best results.

Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts during the holidays. This variation pairs pumpkin with Easy Caramel Sauce for a great way to end a feast. Try to find the non-hydrogenated vegan cream cheese so you can avoid trans fats. This cheesecake also goes great with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

New Englanders seem to get inordinately excited for Fall every year, and while they claim it’s the foliage and the seasonal Starbucks drinks, I’m pretty convinced it’s all the baking they’re suddenly inspired to do and consume.  Mass consumption of sugary, fattening, delicious baked goods isn’t an alien concept to me, even though I hail from San Francisco, the land of health food and hippies.  My heritage is largely (no pun intended) German, and if there’s any bit of culture my German-American relatives have retained, it’s their love for two things above all else: (1) beer; and (2) cakes.

Trying to find a "from scratch" recipe was difficult, finding a vegan recpe was impossible! So after much research I finally dreamed (literally) up a recipe that is truly from scratch, truly vegan, truly easy and most importantly, truly delish! The cake comes out so moist that frosting is definitely optional.

This is the first thing I made after ordering Dandies Vegan Marshmallows from Chicago Soy Dairy. I feel like a kid again. Be sure to make these as close to your eating occasion as possible because Rice Crispy Treats love to dry out. All the recipes required for preparation are included in this recipe. If you need to make them a day or so beforehand, keep them in an air-tight container.

This cake is fun because it's easy to make, wheat free and doesn't require baking. The hardest part is waiting several hours for it to firm up in the fridge.

This is a natural take on a vegan cheesecake that doesn't use space age ingredients. I tried to strike a good balance between unprocessed ingredients and high quality flavor.  You won't be able to fool non-vegans into thinking this is real cheesecake but it still delivers on the taste buds.

This is a coffee cake with layers of cherry jam and almond butter.

This cake has a nice, subtle apple flavor and goes perfect with a vegan cream cheese frosting.

This white cake's subtle flavor is delicious on it's own. It won't compete for flavors if you're interested in adapting it into more complex cakes as well.

This cake is perfect for special occasions or cravings during the fall season.

This chocolate cake can be simple as is, or more complex by the addition of shredded coconut or cherries. 

This is the classic vegan cheesecake recipe of dinner party legend.  Try to find the non-hydrogenated Tofutti cream cheese or a similar brand.  Hydrogenated oils should, arguably, not be in the food supply.

When I was little, I noticed my Mom eating cake. When I asked what kind of cake it was she replied, “you won't like it, it has carrots in it”. Later in life I realized that she said that so she could horde the best type of cake in the world all for herself!