Sunday, January 13, 2008

For the love of chocolate cake

With the start of the new year, I officially passed the 6 month marker in my vegan journey. My decision to begin down this path was not motivated out of "necessity" (aka "poor health") but a desire to live in compassionate care for all that God has made. Every dining decision thus represents my commitment to live in harmony with creation. There are times my decisions reflect that commitment better than others. I call those non-vegan decisions my "exceptions". They are the handrails I initially placed along the edge of my planet-friendly plan.

While my exceptions are "non-vegan" indulgences, they do fall in the realm of a vegetarian diet as they are foods, which contain animal products like eggs, milk, butter, honey, and yogurt. I have 4 exceptions:
1. Dining out
because (as I blogged last month) I don't like being the "high maintenance one" who comes with a laundry list of questions about what is in a vegetarian entry and how it is prepared.
2. Indian buffets
because of the ghee (butter), cream, and other dairy additions in the dishes, especially my favorite, Saag Paneer. (I do however stay away from the meat entrees.)
3. The "celebration dessert" because when at a special occasion, like a birthday, it seems rude not to partake of the special dessert that has been prepared. And of course...
4. Chocolate cake
because I developed a craving for it after losing weight, and now love indulging in a slice with a glass of cold (once cow, now soy) milk.

With holiday celebrations, travels to see family, dinners out, and other events with the obligatory cake, I've unfortunately made more "exception" decisions in the past few weeks than I've made in the past few months. In other words, I've had quite a few slices of chocolate cake.

I don't consider myself a "chocolate cake snob", because I will always give a piece a try (or a second try - we're talking Tower Cafe in Sacramento). However, I do have my preferences when it comes to the "perfect" chocolate cake. And when I say "cake", it also includes cupcakes, brownies, and other chocolate baked good.

My taste buds appreciate a dark, moist, subtly bittersweet chocolate cake, which is rich, but not overly dense, topped with a dark chocolate frosting which complements the simple beauty of the cake because it is the cake, not the frosting, that should be the star. I don't ask for much in my chocolate cake, really. Unfortunately, I have only tasted a few that measure up to my standards.

Though a friend has an excellent recipe from her sister, my favorite homemade chocolate cake was created by my godkids' aunt, who cut down the sugar in a recipe she had, played with some ingredients, adding yogurt for moisture. The cake is in a word, beautiful. Though she will often use store bought frosting, she once melted ganache chocolate for a homemade frosting. Oh my Jesus. It was beyond words. It was absolutely heavenly. One reason why chocolate cake is my exception.

When it comes to restaurant or store-made favorites, I have few, if any. Unfortunately, most restaurants have very little to blog about in terms of a good chocolate cake, and nearly all do not offer soy milk to accompany it. While some restaurants serve an excellent lava cake, most have a drier chocolate cake which is covered with a too sweet frosting, or a fruit filling which I do not like and will scrape off. (For me, it's really all about the chocolate.) If I had to choose a favorite restaurant chocolate cake, however, it would be the 6 layer Chocolate Chocolate Cake at Salt Grass Steak House (located primarily in the south and in Texas).

All the chocolate cakes I've really enjoyed have been "vegetarian", until this past Christmas. While all the other chocolate baked goods that have met my exacting standards have used animal products (eggs, milk, butter, cream, or yogurt), my cousin gave me a variety of VEGAN chocolate baked goods. It was THE best gift I received this year. Though my cousin bought them at Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco, they were made by Black China Bakery.

The vegan chocolate cupcake and brownies were simply excellent, beautiful -- dark, rich, moist, not overly sweet - heavenly - everything that I ask for in my chocolate baked goods, and more, in that no animals were exploited for my chocolate pleasure!

As I savor the last bites of my last vegan brownie and wash it all down with a glass of cold soy milk, I am rather sad as I finish up this blog. I am not sure when I will indulge in vegan chocolate baked goods again. Sigh. Too bad there's no home delivery up here in the mountains.

2 comments:

eightize said...

i am so honored to have played a part in your search for the perfect chocolate cake!

Jen P. said...

Oh yeah, desserts are definitely a weak spot for this vegan! I can't eat anything with much dairy, though, because it makes me sick. But brownies are my ultimate weakness, and I have yet to find a good vegan recipe for brownies......if you find one, let me know!