Sunday, December 26, 2010

Trust Me Cake with Gaggy Frosting, and Christmas 2010

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year in our home, and I hope you did too! I was trying to think of which dish I made that I should post, when I realized that I had forgotten to take any pictures of the ones I brought to the family potluck dinner. So, by default, here's another cake! We all love cake, don't we? Every year I make a Happy Birthday, Jesus, Cake, but what kind of cake it is changes year by year. I call this year's cake Trust Me Cake because it doesn't have any margarine or oil in it. But, it does have a cup of Vegenaise, kind of like the old mayonnaise cakes. Now, trust me! It tasted good! I have to thank G for the inspiration for the frosting's title. I tried to make a glaze, but it came out very stiff and unforgivingly thick. However, it screamed chocolate, and you have to swallow hard to get this frosting down. So, as only a kind husband would do, that's now permanently spoiled by good vegan food, he said, "This is gaggy." The children loved it, though, and I'm not an objective judge of chocolate because it's all good to me. I think this frosting reminds me of a firm piece of fudge being forcibly spread on cake. So, depending on how that sounds to you, this will be an enormous failure, or an incredible success. So be it. Here it is, along with some other food pics, pictures of GR's room (which I'll explain below), and of some firefighters. My apologies for the absolutely terrible lighting of the food shots. They were either blue, orange or totally blinding with light. Use your imagination, please.

Here's our menu for this year:

Breakfast:

Trust Me Cake with Gaggy Frosting
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies made by ten-year-old GR!
Tiger Balls
Pecan Pie Cookie Cups
Chocolate Chip Pecan Bars
A variation on my Scrambled Tofu - this year I made it with asparagus and mushrooms
Molasses Touched Pancakes with Homemade Maple Syrup
Homemade Breakfast Links - I've come up with a mind-blowing recipe, I must say!
Fried Red Potatoes with Red Bell Peppers from my mom
A Fruit Platter from my mom
Coffee
Yum Berry Juice
Apple Cider

Dinner and Dessert with the extended family:

Manicotti Lasagna - was supposed to manicotti, but transformed into lasagna
Tofurky with gravy
Gorgeous Round Rolls, which I forgot at home
Pecan Pie Cookie Cups


Trust Me Cake. That frosting hardened so fast and so firm, I could probably have set a cup of water on it, and it wouldn't have given way. The nice thing is, I was able to make some pretty swirls. Do you like my pretty swirls???


Here's a slice of that cake. Again, I didn't trust the amount of my frosting. I had way too much on top and barely anything in the middle. I was actually going to call it Trust Me Frosting, as well, until G said it was gaggy. Then it was a no brainer; I had to use that. Anyhow, feel free to put way more in the middle than I did. G said he would prefer much more in the middle and would even sacrifice the frosting on the sides of the cake to ensure he would have enough in the middle. He's very helpful like that. Did I ever tell you that before he met me, he only lived on peanut butter sandwiches and oatmeal? Now, he's full of very helpful suggestions - I can't thank him enough. Do you have helpful husbands, as well, that offer advice but never pick up a spatula?

Our Christmas Cookies: GR made the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip ones all by herself, on top are Tiger Balls, and the Chocolate Chip Pecan Bars and Pecan Pie Cookie Cups are on the bottom.

Christmas Breakfast Table: Cookies and Trust Me Cake with Gaggy Frosting, Scrambled Tofu, Homemade Breakfast Links, Molasses Touched Pancakes, Homemade Maple Syrup (in blue pitcher), my mom's Fried Red Potatoes with Red Bell Peppers, a Fruit Platter, we had Yum Berry Juice, Coffee, and my mom brought Apple Cider. It was good!

I couldn't fit everything on my plate, so I had the fruit, fried potatoes, my homemade breakfast links and tofu scramble.

Now, for GR. My girl loves Christmas v e r y m u c h !! She allowed me to take pictures of her bedroom, which is decorated for Christmas all year round. Except for a Patrick Starfish picture and her soccer trophies, these are her only decorations. All year round. Did I tell you she likes Christmas? I didn't even take a picture of everything, there is so much more! Welcome to her room... Here she is on her bed with her snowman and her penguin friend next to her. And, of course, she's wearing her Christmas peace symbol necklace. Various strings of lights surround her room. By the way, her room is painted shades of Christmas colors. Her windowsill is decorated with fluff, presents, there's a Grinch there and a snowman. On her little lamp table is a reindeer. She has a snowman rug on the floor, stockings and wreaths are on all the walls, and snowflakes line every wall and hang from the ceiling. You can see the new icicle lights that we bought her for Christmas to add to her decorations.


This is the top of her dresser. I like how she mixes religious items in her decorations, as well, because in our home we remember the spiritual aspect of the holiday. Just to the right of this, is a small, decorative sleigh hanging on the wall.

Here's a decorated wall, with candy canes lining the floor. You can barely see the Christmas tree night light. To the left of this shot, she has decorated her closet doors with the message "Merry Christmas" with hand-made snowflakes falling into a waiting snowdrift below.


I tried and tried to turn this picture, but it wouldn't cooperate for me. GR has hung massive amounts of garland from her doorway that you have to walk through before you can even enter her room. It's Christmas all the time in there, and you can't help but cheer up when you go in! Thank you, GR, for sharing!


We also deliver Christmas cookies every year to the firefighters on Christmas Day. SR stayed home to watch a new video, but GR and JK came along. They both got helmets afterwards.

Trust Me Cake with Gaggy Frosting

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 cups of flour
2/3 cup of cocoa
1 and 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 and 2/3 cups of vegan or raw sugar
1 and 1/2 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
6 Tbs. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup Vegenaise
1 and 1/3 cups of water

Frosting:

2 - 4 oz. pkgs. of Baker's German Sweet Chocolate
2 Tbs. vegan margarine
6 Tbs. water
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two round cake pans with non-stick spray and flour the bottom and sides, shaking away the excess flour. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder. In a large bowl, mix with an electric mixer on medium speed the sugar, Egg Replacer, the six tablespoons of water and vanilla extract. Beat until well creamed together, perhaps three minutes. Add the Vegenaise and mix on medium-low speed, until there are no lumps. Alternately add the flour mixture and the one and one-third cups of water and continue to mix on medium speed, until well blended. Divide batter between the two pans and bake for 30 minutes, until a skewer or toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pans on cooling rack for fifteen minutes, then invert cakes onto rack to finish cooling.

For the frosting:

When the cakes are completely cool, put the chocolate, margarine and water in a small pot and heat over medium heat, until all is melted. Stir frequently. In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and salt. Add the chocolate mixture little by little, whisking after each addition. Add the vanilla, and whisk thoroughly. Makes enough frosting for a two-layer cake. Feeds five hungry vegans for a few days.

11 comments:

  1. hey! i jsut wrote out a huge comment and my computer died! we have been having non stop computer problems over here!

    anyway! yes i get helpful tips fom my husband:) of course they are appreciated! *laughs*

    your daughters room is out of control spectacular! "liking" Christmas is an understatement!

    i love your birthday cake to Jesus, i have heard of people doing that, i think its nice. the reason would be lost on my when i was younger, i would just wnat some cake! but i "get it" now:)

    "So, depending on how that sounds to you, this will be an enormous failure, or an incredible success."


    im thinking success! calling chocolate frosting gaggy is punishable by...NO CAKE!!!

    i bet the firemen love to see you coming! what a wonderful tradition. i was just talking to my husband about how (if we ever have kids) i would like to start traditions. i really like how you have so many in your family. we had some small things but it would be fun to do something really "giving" like this.

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  2. looks like you guys had a blast...I am so happy you all did. Our Christmas eve and day was real nice and playing with my grand-daughters all the games they got for Christmas was great.

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  3. A smorgasbord! A groaning board! I have never had and probably will never have such a spread of homemade vegan goodies. Much jealousy in the state of Virginia.

    I greatly enjoyed the Justin-Bieberless tour of Gal Young Un's room. Quirky individualism FTW!(Does she have a little figurine of the baby Jesus w/frosting in his mouth?).

    Did you ask those hero firemen if they calculate the ratio of middle frosting to outside frosting on their cakes? I'm thinking 'no'. I'm thinking they have more important things on their mind. They can probably even eat Bok Choy without gagging. Just sayin'...

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  4. Hi, Ladies!

    Michelle, So sorry your computer keeps breaking down on you - that's bothersome and would make me nervous. When I was growing up, all holidays were strictly secular; I didn't even know there were any religious significance to them at all. So, it's been a real pleasure for me to teach my children about the spiritual aspect of some of our holidays. We love giving to the firemen, and I keep hoping to be more organized and give to them throughout the year, as well.

    Millie, we did have a great time, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the holiday with your family. I'll check to see if you posted something on it. :-)

    S.V., FTW?? I am so out of touch - what is that? Thankfully my girls do NOT have a thing for Mr. Justin, and they only found out who Britney Spears was b/c she was on the news a few years ago shaving her head. But, now they have a friend who lines who wall with posters, but they confound her by asking who's that, who's that? It's pretty funny. I burst out laughing at the bok choy remark. I shared that with G and said that people are finally getting a good picture of him. ha ha. As for the smorgasbord, we always have room for Mr. and Mrs. S.V. Come on over - that's what the holidays are for! Then you can see some hilarious gagging in person.

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  5. I love that you did a Happy Birthday to Jesus cake! That is such a cool idea...and the cake looks wonderful! It can't be gaggy if it contains chocolate! :o)

    I love your daughter's room! Looks like you have a little decorator on your hands...what a happy room!

    You're so sweet to take the firefighters baked goodies like that. I know they appreciated it very much!

    Sounds like you had a blessed Christmas. What a spread you guys had too...look at all that yummy food.

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  6. Gaggy Frosting...that's funny! How helpful G is. I get lots of valued feedback of similar ilk from Mr D. It looks super yummy. And the swirls are very pretty. Looking at your Christmas breakfast spread is making me hungry!

    Tell GR I think her room is awesome! Certainly better than posters of pop figures. Some of my most cherished toys as a child were a snoman and a plastic Rudolph (Reindeer).

    Sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas. Thanks for sharing it with us. I love the idea of taking cookies to the firefighters!

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  7. I love when people make birthday cakes to Jesus :)
    You look like you had a great Christmas with lots of lovely vegan food! I wish I had people to enjoy vegan food with. I make it, but no one eats it except me.

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  8. Thanks, Michelle. We started the cake tradition several years ago, and we really like it. We sing Him a song, too! GR is very creative, much more than me. Her children will be very lucky. We love taking the cookies over to the firefighters as a way to say thank you.

    Rose, I thought of you when I wrote about G. We've had our "talks" before about our hubs. I'll pass your message on to GR.

    Carissa, Your note makes me kind of sad. I wish they would at least try your food. Just keep making it, and maybe something will happen down the road. I hope so!

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  9. Is cake all you eat? I'm just kidding. I think we all "trust" you. I have heard people rave about mayo in cake so I have no doubt the vegan version is even better. So fun that you shared pics of your daughter's room. I bet she'll be a really fun mom one day. I am also overly impressed by your Christmas menu. I think I was standing around, saying, what do you guys want? Cereal? Oatmeal? A muffin?

    My husband regularly has suggesitons, and they are usually very good ones. However, they usually also make my blood pressure rise a bit. Such as - why don't you start making all of bread from scratch? :) And he keeps asking if I've figured out how to make chestnut soup like we had on vacation. I'm standing in the middle of the kitchen, having not even showered yet at 6 p.m., and I say, "Have YOU figured out how to make chestnut soup yet?" :)

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  10. I love your cake. It looks so good! The decorating is so cute too. What a great idea to deliver cookies to firefighters. I bet you made their day!

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  11. Jenny, you made me chuckle. I think GR will be a very creative and patient mom. She already blows me away with those qualities. I like making the big breakfast b/c I'm treating my parents. It may not be so big if it was just my family. :-) You're not going to like this - making bread from scratch is a great idea! Saves money, you know. But, I have to agree with you: let him find the recipe for chestnut soup so he can make it while you finally shower!

    Jacklyn, Thank you! We love taking the cookies to the firefighters.

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