I wanted to share a recipe for cake.  I know this is under ‘Simple Eating’, but trust me… this sure isn’t hard.   Really I think it is a great shame that we have box cakes.  I think they taste yucky and, because of them, most people have never tried to make a cake from scratch or are afraid to try.

Trust me, it isn’t hard and it is sooo worth it.  Not only does it taste better it is healthier and there is no goofy, fake ingredients in it.  I will walk you through it, we will do it together

This recipe started from Better Homes and Gardens New Baking book… and I have adapted to make it vegan and healthier.

First assemble the ingredients and set oven to 375 degrees.

• 1 cup unbleached white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp flax seeds ground
• 1/4 cup oil (I use canola)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (you can use brown or other natural sugars or use less than this if you want)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups milk (soy, almond, rice, whatever your prefer)

Next put some oil on the pan and then dust flour over the oil (I used some butter… sorry to the die hard vegans, it works fine without it, it was just what I grabbed).  Put about 1 tbsp of white flour in the pan and then shake it around till it covers bottom and sides and then dump out the extra.

Not a very exciting picture… but you get the idea.

Next mix the dry ingredients.  This is the flours, baking powder, salt and ground flax seed (not the sugar…even though it is dry).

Next, in another bowl mix the sugar, oil and vanilla.

Measure out the milk and add about 1/2 cup to mixture to make it runny (as shown above).

Alternate adding about about 1/2 to 1 cup of dry ingredients and mixing and then adding some milk to thin it back out until all the dry and milk are mixed in.  Milk, mix, dry, mix, repeat.

Then divide into the two cake pans.  Let mixture sit for 15 minutes.  This lets the whole wheat flour soak up some moisture.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean or you tap it on the top and it is firm.

Let cool for 10 minutes and then pull out of pans.

There you have it.  Isn’t it beautiful!  And the house now smells awesome.  You have now done what an embarrassingly small percent of women ever try, you have successfully baked a cake from scratch.

Let it cool for an hour or more and then you are ready to frost.  This recipe can also be made into cupcakes, it only takes about 20 minutes (or less so watch them close) to bake them.

Ok, so I cheated here too.  I frosted it with whipped cream.  I really dislike the super sweet gritty frosting and really like the whipped cream taste with the yellow cake.  Maybe sometime I will make up my chocolate version, I have a good vegan chocolate frosting that is super good.  This cake was for Grandma’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Grandma!