Rainy Happy Vegan Birthday!

The morning I entered a new decade of life started out with gray skies and rain. But I certainly did not feel down or depressed.  "Today I turn thirty," I thought, "hooray!" I can honestly say that I am thankful for every year of the life I've had, rain or shine. Being taken as a 25-year-old is in some ways a compliment; but on the other hand, I feel that I have earned each year of my life. I'm happy for the wisdom I have gained, the people who have been part of my life, and the diverse and distant places where I have lived and traveled. My 20s contained a crazy variety of experiences that I could never have predicted, and I anticipate just as many adventures and life lessons in the decade ahead.

Besides, the rain outside my bedroom window was soon outshone by the flowers that my parents had placed all around the house before I woke up, including on my bathroom mirror:

 Flowers, family, and a nice bowl of oats - great way to start out a birthday morning!

Got this idea of adding pumpkin puree (and maple syrupe) to my oatmeal from my good friend Mipa. Another great product of Pennsylvania - pure maple syrup.

The pumpkin puree was completely unsweetened and therefore... kind of bitter and bland. But adding a tablespoon or two of real maple syrup made a rich and creamy blend that was just sweet enough to start off the morning.
Speaking of sweet.... I had decided that turning thirty would not be the only milestone happening this day. I also wanted to bake my own vegan birthday cake. I'd never before even baked a cake from scratch. First cake from scratch. First vegan cake. Thirtieth birthday. A day to celebrate indeed!

First, I gathered all the ingredients needed for this recipe of vegan chocolate cake. And by "chocolate" I mean chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Oh yeah. This recipe's reviews looked very promising, so I just went for it - no substituting agave for sugar or using part whole wheat flour... I wanted this cake's degree of delicious-ness to stand up to this day's degree of special-ness. Even if it might cause some sugar highs!

Because I was expecting eight people to eat the cake, I doubled the recipe to fill two cake pans. Here they are, fresh out of the oven, looking spongy and decadent. As per the recipe, I let them sit to cool (without taking them out of the cake pans, which i probably should have done) for two hours.

The little tuperware container in the picture has all the icing ingredients in it, which I cooked up on the stove later. It's technically called a "glaze" in the recipe. And I'm not sure what consistency it was supposed to be.... Probably I didn't let it boil long enough, but I sure did stir it for seven minutes like it said! Oh well, it never got that thick. I poured it over one layer of cake, placed the second layer on top, and then poured it on that layer too, spreading it around with a spatula to get all surfaces covered.

Gooey? Yes. Drippy? Yes. As planned? No. Delicious anyway...?

Yes! Dad and I each took spoonfuls of the leftover glaze, dragged them through the batter that stuck to the pans and treated ourselves to a pre-dinner snack of chocolate heaven! The glaze tasted just like the frosting of the family famous "Grandma's Chocolate Cake."
It was difficult to tear ourselves away, but we drove down to Nikki's Thai Kitchen to meet up with Janet for my birthday dinner!

I love coming to this place because I've gotten to know Phii Wit, the woman in charge who is from Bangkok.

We chat about her family, Thailand, and life here, and I get to practice my Thai.  On top of that, every dish I've ordered here has tasted exceptional. It's about as authentic as I've ever had outside of Thailand. Always beautifully presented with top-notch friendly and attentive service.
We started off with our favorite appetizer - spring rolls with a peanut dipping sauce:

This appetizer is a great deal. Only $6 (less at lunchtime), and plenty for three people to chew on while awaiting the main course.

Tofu, rice noodles, lettuce, carrots and fresh basil... Actually, similar ingredients to the main dish I ordered for myself: spicy tofu and cashews with vegetables. I even asked her to leave out the fish sauce this time, just to make sure it was vegan.

Great gobs of crispy chewy tofu, plenty of crunchy cashews, lots of veggies, a nice spicy kick, balanced out with brown rice.

So much food in this serving, the plate practically looks like a serving platter. I saved half for next-day leftovers and prepared my stomach for an amazing dessert.
And here it comes, my vegan chocolate cake in all its blazing glory!

For multiple reasons - my focus on the flavor, the family conversations, the indulgence of the moment - I did not get a picture-perfect shot of the cake. But you can see that the frosting did indeed not harden. Instead, it seeped into all the tiny air bubbles of cake, creating a very moist cake. Soft, sweet and oh so chocolatey.

And it went deliciously with my favorite chocolate peanut butter soy ice cream. There was enough of this ice cream to go around, so having everyone eat vegan cake and ice cream on my birthday was a present in and of itself!

In addition to family members, a certain canine was part of the birthday party as well. This little silky terrier has won my heart over during the last few months. As I've worked with her on barking and aggression issues, she's learned not only to respect me (her pack leader, hehe), but how to provide some evening entertainment. Zoey and I did a little showing off, performing "crawling" on command and even playing Hide & Seek, not only with me, but with my three young nieces as well! Made me proud. :)

Honestly, my body was so shocked by all that sugar that by the end of the evening I was sick to my stomach. Still, it was a great day of chatting with friends, celebrating with family, and feeling thankful and content to experience it with love and kindness towards all - humans and animals. And besides, I wasn't the only one who collapsed at the end of the day.

And here's the recipe, taken from instructables.com, which is by no means a vegan website. Nonetheless, the name of the recipe is: "The BEST chocolate cake ever... that happens to be VEGAN. I kid you not!"

Cake Ingredients:
1 1/4 c flour
1 c sugar
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c warm water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar

Chocolate Glaze Ingredients:
1/2 c sugar
4 tbsp margarine
2 tbsp soy milk
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract

Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix together in a bowl dry cake ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt).
Add water, vanilla, oil and vinegar; blend together well.
Pour batter into an 8x8-inch square pan/dish.
Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.
Cool on a rack completely (2 hours).

Glaze:
In a small sauce pan, bring sugar, margarine, milk and cocoa to a boil.
Stir frequently; then reduce to a simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
It'll look gloopy, but it's just the bubbles.
[If it doesn't look like this, then the heat is probably not high enough.]
Remove from heat and stir for another 5 minutes.
Add vanilla, stir, and immediately pour onto cake.
Glaze dries really quickly, so spread it immediately and add any sprinkles now if desired.
Let this cool for an hour, if you can wait that long!