A Cake Fit For My Sister

Being milk/soy free really really stinks. But every once and a while it causes me to try new things and to be a little more creative with baking. This, for example, is probably the best cake recipe I have made and it is kind of my own. I had to modify a recipe I found on line, and with fingers crossed, it came out more than just fine. It came out beautifully. I made a single sized cake in a ramekin so that we could taste test it before serving it to guests at Lila's not-such-a-surprise-65th tomorrow afternoon. It was delicious served warm and paired with a semi soft non-milk/soy coconut ice cream (see recipe in January) that we made with equally milkless/soyless dark chocolate chunks and salted cashews. I am telling you, I missed my calling when I became an Industrial Hygienists. I guess the one good thing about crawling around dirty, grimy, asbestos and lead laden hell holes is that I can't gain 300lbs.

Margo--this one is actually *that* good too. Try it.

Cake Ingredients

• 2 ¾ cups of white flour
• 1.5 cups of cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1/3 cups soy-free and dairy-free margarine (I used Becel)
• 1/3 cup of Apple sauce
• 1/3 cup of oil (I used corn oil)
  
• 2 ½ cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup of rice
  
• ¼ cup of maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly oil two 8” round cake pans and dust with cocoa powder.

2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer at a high speed setting, cream the margarine, apple sauce and oil with the sugar until *fluffy* (it won't actually get really fluffy. It stays rather dense) about 4 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition. Add the rice milk, maple syrup and vanilla, beating until combined. Using a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the wet in several additions until just combined.

4. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pans and bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating half-way through, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.

Frosting:

• 3 cups of icing sugar
• 1/2 cup of cocoa
• 1/2 margarine (used the becel again)
• a little vanilla
• 1/4 cup of water

Beat all the ingredients with a hand mixer until smooth.