Channel-surfing for a cooking show this morning, I caught Christopher Kimball, the pompous and intensely annoying host of America’s Test Kitchen, deriding vegetarian food and a tofu dessert he ate somewhere.
“It is terrible,” he and another cook went in unison, talking about chocolate mousse made with tofu.
Now maybe the particular mousse these people ate was terrible and warranted that criticism. But is that good enough reason to tar as terrible any dessert made with tofu– or for that matter made without dairy or eggs? No way!
Cooks like Kimball don’t want to admit to the possibility that dairy-free and egg-free desserts can be delicious for the simple reason that doing that would render their own animal-product-filled desserts redundant. After all, as any intelligent person would have to agree, if one can make a great-tasting recipe without using ingredients that hurt animals, it would be a no-brainer to go with it, wouldn’t it?
The problem is, for those among us who look at celebrity cooks like these for guidance, their words become the gospel. For as long as people have been baking cakes and cookies, no one — until fairly recently — thought of questioning the tradition of using eggs and dairy. In fact, I remember when I first started baking all I heard was the importance of butter and cream and eggs in turning out a good baked product or dessert.
Then along came some innovative vegan cooks who showed us that not only is it possible to make wonderful desserts that are vegan but that they taste better too, and, cherry on the icing, they’re better for you. I, for one, am so glad that I dared to try what they had to offer. It changed the way I cooked and baked and I am happier and healthier for it.
What’s more, even Desi who is quite the critic when it comes to his favorite sweets admits that the vegan versions are tastier.
To anyone who still has doubts that making cruelty-free desserts is a breeze, I’d challenge you to try my Apple Cake with Caramel Pecan Glaze. This cake is moist, delicious, full of flavor, and not only is it vegan but it is whole-wheat and low fat. Best of all, it’s super-easy to make.
This cake would look really pretty baked in a bundt pan, but I don’t have one so I just made it in a tube pan. But if you do have a bundt pan, use it.
Here’s the recipe. Hope everyone’s having a great weekend!
Apple Cake with Caramel Pecan Glaze
Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside
In a small bowl mix together:
3 Granny Smith apples, cored, deseeded, then chopped into a fairly small dice
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp molasses
(you can use dark brown sugar instead of the regular sugar and skip the molasses. I love the molasses with the apples because it really deepens and enriches the flavor of the fruit)
In a large bowl, whisk together the following wet ingredients:
3 tbsp flax meal
+ 9 tbsp water
1/2 cup canola oil or other flavorless vegetable oil
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup crushed pineapple
Now add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until well-blended, but do not overwork.
Add in the apples and mix together so they are evenly distributed through the batter. This is a pretty thick batter so you’ll get a good workout for your hand.
Pour the batter into a greased and floured tube or bundt pan and smooth the top.
Place in a 350-degree oven and bake around 80 minutes or until a toothpick inserted close to the center comes out with moist crumbs sticking to it.
Remove and cool on a rack about 30 minutes before sliding a knife around the edges and then unmolding.
Caramel-Pecan Glaze
Mix in a saucepan:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp water
Simmer over medium-low heat until the syrup turns brown.
Turn off the heat and very carefully and slowly (because it will splatter), :
1/2 cup of soy milk and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Now add 1/2 cup lightly toasted pecans and stir (you can chop the pecans if you like)
We made this cake for Thanksgiving yesterday and it was absolutely delicous! Everyone loved it and went back for seconds. I bought coconut cream whipped toppingat the store and it was a crazy good combo. My daughter and boyfriend came for Tofurkey day and honestly we were worried about what to make for desert that was vegan. Worry no more! This cake was moist, flavorful, sweet and delicious. Thank you for the recipe!!!
Just love your blog . Can you tell me what is wheat pastry flour. In mumbai this is not available. Can I use the wheat flour we use to make our rotis.
I like to read what you write. Its beautiful.
Thanks dear.
Hi Smita, yes you can definitely use the atta flour you get in India. Thanks for your kind words!
We made this cake a few weeks back and it was a huge success.
Moist, sweet and spicy, with just the right sourness from the apples.
We served the cake warm with rice-icecream.
I didn’t have flax meal so I used Chiaseeds instead.
Love your website btw! Greetings from Norway. 🙂
Hi Carmen, so glad you tried the cake, and it must have been amazing with ice cream. Great idea to sub the flax with chia. Thanks for your kind words about the blog, and great to hear from a reader in Norway! 🙂
I made it today with only wheat flour I use for roti. Apple cubes were little more , even then cake came out excellent. I divided the batter in two 9 inch pans since I don’t have tube or bundt pan.
Cake was a hit for a friend’s surprise birthday. Credit goes to your full proof recipe. I blindly follow your recipes even with little modifications of my own, these vegan cakes never fail. I love your site!
Jan, that’s good to know! Glad you enjoyed the cake. Using the chapati flour is a very good idea– it makes a good substitute for whole-wheat pastry flour.
Nice recipe
instead of bundt pan can I use regular 9″ round cake pan or square pan. would it affect on baking the center part of the cake?
Anonymous, thanks for the feedback and for your kind words. The glaze sounds delicious!
This was so good! I didn’t do the pecan topping because I wanted to share some of it with my friend whose son has nut allergies. Instead I put a glaze on it (1 cup confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons rice milk, 1 tablespoon maple syrup and about a quarter to half teaspoon of vanilla). My kids loved it and I’m taking some to my friend tomorrow. Also, I shredded the apples b/c I thought my kids would be more likely to eat it that way. Didn’t have any pineaplle on hand so I added an extra apple. Thanks for sharing your recipe, it’s definitely a keeper! I love your site and plan on trying more recipes.
It’s so true! I’ve been doing vegan baking for almost three years, and nearly everything I’ve ever made has been amazing (as well as considerably less fat-laden than its non-vegan counterparts). I was reading an article recently by a chef who listed all the pitfalls of baking without dairy and eggs (won’t rise, strange texture, etc) and none of these things have ever happened to me. It ain’t rocket science, people.
And the cake looks fantastic – think I’ll make it for Shabbat this week.
I too keep wondering there are no vegan/vegetarian shows in Food TV. I can understand that in other channels where food is not the main, they cannot have a separate show for that. But it’s a shame that even Food TV doesn’t consider us.
They should get Isa/Terry and other leading vegan chefs on TV to get even the omnivores excited about vegan baking.
That’s a lovely cake Vaishali. I’m bookmarking a lot of baking recipes from your blog. I wish I get the time to bake at least a few.
Kimball is an arrogant snob! He’s the reason I don’t watch ATK and stopped subscribing to Cook’s Illustrated and Cooks Country.