Birthday Bonanza and Devil's Food Cake with Super Sweet Cream Cheese Frosting

My oldest and youngest blessings, SR and JK, have their birthdays just six days apart. SR turned thirteen, and JK turned four, so we had a long Saturday with two birthday parties. Also, I always make a special dessert and a kid-picked dinner for their actual birthdays. I've included a recipe for one of the desserts below.


This was SR's birthday dinner pick: make-your-own-burritos and homemade fries.

SR requested a four-layer birthday cake - two vanilla layers, two strawberry layers and chocolate frosting.

I apparently sliced my layers a little unevenly. I also added fresh strawberries with each layer. Cake is served with soy strawberry ice cream.

This is JK's Batmobile cake that I made for his party.

I used a toothpick and a lipstick brush for the detail work.

These are SR's cookies 'n' cream cupcakes for her party. We love the recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World; we've made these often. Some have chocolate cream cookies, and some have vanilla.

Here's a close-up of those cupcakes!

This is the post-parties birthday dinner courtesy of Papa Murphy's Pizza. GR likes hers with artichoke hearts, olives and mushrooms. SR likes her with olives and pineapple. G and I had the gourmet veggie, and JK ate off of all three. Red pepper flakes and vegan Parmesan cheese are the toppings in the background.

This is JK's birthday dinner: Tofu with ketchup on the side, rice, and artichoke hearts. I thought it appropriate to show the dinner on his plate.

This is JK's birthday cake: Devil's Food with Super Sweet Cream Cheese Frosting.

Here's a slice of that yummy cake. I made so much frosting that I actually could have stuffed the middle with more of it.

I thought this would be a great picture to add this post. This is GR, who about a month ago made a "Parents' Cake" - that what she called it. She is my budding baker. She pulled out my Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook and made the Chocolatetown Special Cake with the Quick Chocolate Frosting and veganized it all by herself! She was disappointed that it cracked when taken out of the pan, but I assured her cracked cake tastes just as good as uncracked cake, and it did! I'm very proud of her.

Happy Birthday, SR and JK!

Devil's Food Cake with Super Sweet Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

Cake:

3 squares Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate
2 and 1/2 cups cake flour
1 and 3/4 cups vegan sugar
1 and 3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup shortening
1 and 1/3 cups soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbs. Egg Replacer
4 Tbs. water

Frosting:

1 - 8 oz. pkg. of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 Tbs. soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pinch of salt
5 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Chocolate Sprinkles

Directions:

For the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two round cake pans with Pam. Put about a tablespoon or so of regular flour in each pan and shake it around, coating the pan. Shake off the excess flour, and set pans aside. Melt the chocolate squares in a small bowl in the microwave, stirring every twenty seconds or so. Set aside to cool. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: cake flour through salt. Add the remaining ingredients to the flour mixture and beat for three to five minutes, slowly working your way to the highest speed. The end result will look amazingly like frosting and taste unbelievable. GR asked, "Why does this taste so good?!" Spread half in each cake pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on cooling racks.

For the frosting: In a medium bowl on slow speed beat the all the ingredients except the powdered sugar. Add the sugar a cup at a time, finishing with the half cup, and continue beating at medium low speed. Beat for at least two minutes; my beaters get a little overworked with this thick frosting, but if yours can do it okay, go for it. This makes ample frosting to frost a two-layer cake. Make sure you put a nice, thick layer of frosting in the middle. Sprinkle the top liberally with chocolate sprinkles!

This is a yummy, moist cake that feeds five hungry vegans for a couple of days.