Food, cooking, eating, and me

I’ve been wanting to do baking and develop recipes for my old favorite baked goods, but I haven’t been motivated to cook the same things over and over until I get all the bugs out, at least not immediately. I’ve decided that when a recipe is close enough so that I like it and think I’ve made some good progress, even if I’d probably play with it a few times before declaring it perfect, that I’ll post the recipe with my observations. If you want to try it, you’ll know in advance what to watch for.

I’ve been wanting to do a cake for a while. Though “cake” may imply “fancy” nowadays (and I have nothing against fancy) I’ve been thinking that making plans that are too complex might keep me from starting the project, considering how busy I am. Also, not having perfected any of the components would make taking on a complete project a bit more challenging than necessary.

The recipe I ended up choosing to play with came in its original form from the latest version of Joy of Cooking. It’s a vegan chocolate cake recipe, and as with many eggless cakes, it can be gummy. Following on the soft and chewy chocolate cookie recipe I was working on last time, I decided to substitute a blend of white and sweet rice flour in the hopes that the sweet rice flour would make it moister and hold together better.

This worked. It is super-moist, as you can see from the name I’ve given the recipe. It is soft and springy, but not at all gummy. Although it is intensely dark, the chocolate flavor is not intense, so I’d probably want to use chocolate next time instead of cocoa. I will probably decrease the proportion of sweet rice flour, as the cake has moistness to spare.