Vegtastic!

If you are looking for a decadent dessert idea, gaze no further than this chocolate chip cookie dough-filled chocolate cake topped with velvety ganache.

Yes, this is the most disgustingly indulgent recipe that Vegtastic has ever shared. You will probably get diabetes if you eat this daily.

The idea hit me after eating a chocolate-covered vegan cookie dough truffle at Whole Foods: why not fill a chocolate cake with a layer of cookie dough?

Unlike cookie dough made with raw eggs, vegan cookie dough won’t land you a cameo on Food Safety News. You could make your own vegan cookie dough, though I’m a fan of Eat Pastry’s pre-made stuff, also available at Whole Foods.

The chocolate cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World makes the richest 6″ cake I’ve tasted in recent memory, and 6″ of chocolate chip cookie dough-filled chocolate cake topped with ganache is really all you’ll need for a small army or hungry office.

Chocolate-chip cookie dough filled chocolate cake

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe chocolate cupcake batter from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
• 1/2 cup cookie dough, like Eat Pastry’s, softened
• 1 recipe chocolate ganache from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Instructions:

1. Prepare cupcake batter according to instructions and pour into 2 greased 6″ pans. Bake at the temperature suggested by the recipe for 30 – 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
2. Cool layers on a wire rack. When cool, spread cookie dough onto one cake layer. Top with the other layer.
3. Drizzle spread ganache over top of cake and allow to drizzle down sides.

Serve with a side of cold vanilla soy milk and an insulin shot.

Three words: chocolate raspberry ganache. Make that four words: vegan chocolate raspberry ganache.

These make an incredibly rich and decadent dessert for a party or other special occasion– maybe a New Years’ Eve party? (more…)

May is the best month to bake apple cake.

This statement may sound odd considering that apple season peaks in September/October/November. In those months, you buy fresh apples from the farmers market or grocery store, rinse them off, and eat them straight– crisp and juicy at the end of summer, mealy and cloyingly sweet the closer you get to the new year.

By May, apples are long-forgotten reminders of autumn that appear out of nowhere in the refrigerator during spring cleaning. Like Betty White, these refrigerator apples are shriveled and old, yet some not-to-be-overlooked spark remains. You certainly wouldn’t want to eat them as is, yet you can’t bring yourself to toss them. So what do you do?

Bake an apple cake.

David’s birthday is in the middle of May, and having several of these Golden Girl apples on hand, I decided to bake him an apple cake with maple frosting– a winning combination, in a Vermont-y sort of way. Many apple cake recipes produce dense loaves of glorified bread, but I wanted a lighter, layered, birthday cake-type of cake. I found a basic recipe on Country Living, and modified it to fit the confection in my head. (more…)