Vegan Chocolate (Cup)cake Recipe.

Today I got quite a bit done. I created some posts about celeb gossip (doesn't sound so productive, when you put it that way!), wrote about breastfeeding, and kicked off trial run numero uno of Ava's birthday cake. I've baked about a trillion cakes of all sorts in my lifetime, but never a vegan chocolate cake. That is, until today.

I didn't take any pictures because I am an idiot, but let me assure you, it was TASTY. I mean, seriously scrumptious, I-may-be-a-vegan-convert type of tasty. I'm pretty sure that trial number one was such a raging success that we've found our birthday cake recipe, friends!

Without further adieu:

Easiest Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups organic all-purpose flour
2 cups organic cane sugar
1 cup organic unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
2/3 cup organic canola oil
2 teaspoons organic white vinegar
2 cups cold water

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans, or place liners in 2 muffin pans for 24 cupcakes. Set aside.
In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix the vanilla extract, oil, vinegar, and cold water.
Slowly whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix. The mixture will be quite wet, but this is okay.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. For cupcakes, the baking time is 24 to 26 minutes.
Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool.

I chose cupcakes, mainly because I'm leaning towards doing cupcakes for her birthday, with a little Ava-sized smash cake for her to demolish. Seeing as how the lovely Danielle posted this cupcake-cake design for me earlier, I'm glad I did. Thank you, Danielle! That looks awesome!

I guess I know what is on the agenda for later this week...