Vegan Frendsgiving/Thanksgiving Spice Cake

Vegan Spice Cake
Vegan Spice Cake

The recipe for this delightful morsel of a cake has been passed down from my great-grandmother. It was one of the first recipes I posted when I started my blog several years ago. I didn’t have a picture of it, and I never uploaded one, until today. Just in time to celebrate the start of the holiday season. This cake is ultra moist, full of warming spices, and somehow never too sweet. It is perfect for dessert, breakfast, or as an addition to a holiday brunch. It also takes about 5 minutes to make and makes a big impression with its amazing fall flavors. This is the cake to bake when you have company as the whole house smells like you’ve spent hours in the kitchen as the warm fragrance of fall baking spices waft through the air.

Makes 1 9×9 cake

Ingredients

  • 1 cup non-dairy milk, or dairy milk
  • 1 tsp. vinegar (apple cider or white, but I’ve also used rice in a pinch)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 TBL vegetable shortening
  • 1 TBL chia seeds mixed with 2 TBL water, or 1 egg, or equivalent of 1 egg in whatever form you like
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp. cloves
  • 1/2 tsp. salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 370F.
  2. Add vinegar to milk and set aside.
  3. Cream together sugar and shortening until smooth.
  4. Add the chia seed/water mixture to sugar and mix together.
  5. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
  6. Alternate between adding flour mixture and soy milk to the shortening, mixing thoroughly between additions.
  7. Pour batter into a greased 9×9 cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until cake pulls away from the edges of the pan and a cake tester comes out mostly clean.
  8. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes if you can.
Advertisement

Vegan Apple Spice Cake for a Perfect Fall Day

Vegan Apple Spice Cake
Vegan Apple Spice Cake

It’s Halloween! One of my favorite holidays. I love costumes and dressing up, and the general fun that Halloween brings. It’s a day when it’s ok to be silly, to take life a little less seriously, and be playful. It’s also a chance to try out different aspects of your personality and play them up in the spirit of Halloween. Even with my love of Halloween we haven’t been able to celebrate much the last few years:( Also my husband doesn’t love Halloween and I really have to push him to do anything that involves costumes. That being said, this year is different! This year we have an adorable child to dress up, and even my husband is excited. He is so excited, he came up with joint costume for he and my daughter, it’s a T-Rex. So cute. Anyway, Grammy made the costumes and I can’t wait to dress Wolfie up!

Is this post about food? Maybe… When I was growing up we used to have super fun time on Halloween. My brothers and I would make haunted houses, we would make our own costumes, carve pumpkins, and my mom would make a big pot of chili and a camp fire. She would sit by the fire and hand out candy while my brothers and I went Trick or Treating, then we would come home and sit by the fire eating chili and the 5 pieces of candy she allowed us to have on the actual day. Side note: this rule was developed after my brothers made themselves throwing up sick on candy by trying to consume it all in one sitting. Silly boys.

This year I’ll probably make chili because of tradition, and I’ll round it out with this apple cake. The base of this cake is my great-grandmother’s spice cake with some apples tossed in. This is a great way to use up apples that are maybe not as crisp as they once were. It is full of warming spices, has the delightful bits of apples that caramelize as the cake cooks, and is exactly what you want on a chilly fall day (plus it smells amazing as it cooks). So Throw you chili in the crock pot, bake this cake, and have a happy Halloween.

Apple Spice Cake 

Ingredients

  • 1 cup non-dairy milk
  • 1 tsp. vinegar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 TBL vegetable shortening
  • 1 tsp. chia seeds or psyllium husks mixed with 2 TBL water, or an egg if you aren’t vegan
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp. cloves
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 large, or 2 small apples peeled, seeded, and chopped

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 370F.
  2. Add vinegar to milk and set aside.
  3. Cream together sugar and shortening until smooth.
  4. Add the chia seed/water mixture to sugar and mix together.
  5. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
  6. Alternate between adding flour mixture and milk to the shortening, mixing thoroughly between additions.
  7. Stir in the apple.
  8. Pour batter into a greased 9×9 cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until cake pulls away from the edges of the pan.
  9. Great for dessert, breakfast, or a snack!