five-minute vegan chocolate cake

I do have lots of excuses for not posting this last month...lots of good ones that include hiking in the alps and sitting in a diary archive. It's actually a tragedy that I am missing the best months of summer produce by not cooking, and being en route to somewhere all the time. I'm currently touching base in Ann Arbor for less than 36 hours before heading on a road trip to Minnesota... and last night a friend cooked for me, and tonight friends are cooking for me, so I thought I would whip up a dessert to bring along. This recipe sprung to mind because I made it for Katie and Peter once before and Peter really liked it. You can't really go wrong with chocolate cake, and I didn't need to go to the store. :)

There are lots of variations of this cake recipe on the internet. I discovered it once and really loved it. It's almost as fast as buying cake mix, you probably have all the ingredients in your cupboard - no egg needed (it happens to be vegan!). Super easy, super moist and tasty - can't go wrong!

All you do is mix together the dry ingredients (whisk them to mix well), mix together the wet, and then add wet to dry. Because of the vinegar it will fizz a bit. Then pour it in a cake pan (9-inch springform is my favorite) and bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes. You can frost it, or top with just a dusting of powdered sugar.

dry ingredients: 
1 1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa (unsweetened)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
*other variation: add a dash of cinnamon, or add a tiny dash of cayenne for "mexican chocolate cake"

wet ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cider vinegar

whole-grain salad with mushrooms, fennel, feta, walnuts and parsley

I'm returning from a month of silence - whew. And posting from Germany, no less. It's been a busy month. Michael was in Minnesota with me, we ran a marathon, spent time with family. I had a big work deadline and was preparing for my three weeks abroad... so I wasn't cooking much while in transit and didn't really have time to post anything. And now while spending time in Germany (and a few days in Switzerland) I'm also eating a lot of good German food and not doing much cooking. My first night I wanted to have Schnitzel, at Felix Austria, which is still my favorite place to go for Schnitzel in Berlin. I've had some Kuchen, all though not too much yet...., also really good Thai food at Fehrbelliner park (Thai people gather there on weekends and sell "street food" in the park - delicious), and Turkish grilled marinated meat with parsley-red onion salad and soft bread. Yum. So good to really enjoy things you can't get in the US - at least not where I'm living.

Berlin varieties: Turkish dinner, Kaffee und Kuchen, Schnitzel and Wurst

But in the airport I did spend a lot of time going through my cooking magazines and tearing out good recipes. Eating Well had a great issue - almost took out all those pages. :) And the other night I got to hang out with my friend Anne, and after a nice long walk to get super-delicious ice cream...we made a nice home-cooked meal. :)  Anne also gave me some recipes from her trusted binder of good ones... I am excited to try those out.

I love grain salads. They're very satisfying and feel really healthy at the same time. This one is inspired by a recipe in Cooks Illustrated. Anne made some cocktails with a homemade rosemary-lemon simple syrup (yum yum) and it felt super summery and perfect to balance out the halloumi, pizza, and schnitzel from the last few days. :)