#two. my mom did not buy vanilla extract. we ended up using some sort of powder vanilla instead.

[maraschinotopped]

Me and my mom got a new stove recently, so we wanted to test out the oven portion by baking cookies. It didn't go exactly to plan

#multiple things went wrong. #one: we realized a bit too late that the oven we have doesnt have a preheat option. the recipe said to preheat #so we had to manually heat it to 190c. and then we accidentally let it cool down too much so we ended up cooking it at 150c #two. my mom did not buy vanilla extract. we ended up using some sort of powder vanilla instead. #three. the recipe was to make 4 dozen cookies. we ended up having 60+. we could not fit 60+ comfortably onto both. #four. we placed the trays in wrong; so one whole tray of cookies just melted almost immediately into a blob #the result: two full trays of slightly-undercooked chewy cookie stuff which has an aftertaste of baking powder #ok yeah. they're not... inedible #but they're not the best djsfhgsfjdghfdh

[foodandotherthings]

vegan chocolate cake

i honestly don’t remember when it was the last time i made a cake, of any sort. i remember that i baked a strawberry cheesecake with a friend before, during high school. and towards the end of my high school years, i made a very easy strawberry cake for my mom’s birthday.

and at one point, for christmas, i made some brownies that went awry (it turned out to be extremely hard to chew) and i had not made anything since.

to me, it seemed that making cakes is a very wasteful thing: the amount of sugar, butter, and eggs can definitely suffice for several meals for a single person, whereas a cake can at most only be a snack or a desert that is consumed very quickly. plus when i eat cake, i really like to eat a lot of it at once...yeah. 

during this global pandemic 2020, it really is best to limit the times you go to the supermarket. i try to go only once every week or every 10 days, whereas before the pandemic i went two to three times per week. so one day, i find myself really craving something chocolate-y. all i had at home was cocoa powder, and i needed my eggs to be part of my main meals (poached, scrambled, sunny-side-upped.) because i am slightly intolerant to dairy and i have the impression that consuming dairy may cause me to have allergic reactions to pollen, dust, etc, i also hardly ever buy any milk products.

and because only certain supermarkets that are further away from my home carry non-GMO soy-milk, i also had no soymilk at home.

what could you do with just cocoa powder?, i thought. chocolate cake...maybe.

so i googled “chocolate cake no milk no eggs” and came across recipes of vegan chocolate cakes, what a blessing!

 the vegan chocolate cake was not hard to make at all. on the contrary, it was extremely easy.

in one bowl, i mixed the dry ingredients:

- 1 & 1/4 cup flour

- 1/2  cup sugar

- 1/2 cup cocoa powder

- 1 teaspoon baking powder 

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

in another bowl, i mixed the liquid ingredients:

- 1 cup water

- 1 teaspoon white vinegar

- 1/3 cup vegetable oil (use one with a rather neutral taste. for example, i used sunflower oil)

(- 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar (dry) or vanilla extract (liquid), neither of which i had, so i left this out)

i mixed the ingredients until there were no more clumps and the batter was smooth. i was supposed to use a 8 x 8 inches pan but i had neither cake form nor any pan that was fit for the oven, so i used aluminum foil to form a cake form, which totally worked.

i preheated the oven at 350 degrees Fh ( 175 degrees Celcius), and baked for 30 minutes, and i was super surprised that after around 20 minutes, i could smell the heavenly delicious chocolate smell, and that at the end, the cake came out so well!

to be honest, i did not have any high expectations, i just wanted it to be edible, but this cake completely beat all my expectations by far. it was such a surprise.

i ate the cake while it was still warm, and the warmth, fragrance and richness of this cake enveloped me like a big loving hug.  To some degree, it felt like love. 

i am hesitant when it comes to doing something that i perceive is “risky.” i usually am indecisive, and have to think a long time before doing something that may not turn out that well. baking a cake for the first time in such a long time means investing the time, the resources, and accepting the risk of all of it going to waste. but i really, truly wanted to eat cake, and i truly wanted to try and see what would happen if i tried to make one. and i am so grateful for the websites that have posted this recipe online! and i am truly grateful to myself for deciding to make this cake and taking actions and a leap of faith.

i used to see making food as a very mechanical process: this much this and this much that, complete this action and then do that. 

however, it is actually not mechanical at all. it is actually extremely creative, and like all creative activities, it invites a lot of play, and play by definition means trying to do something untried for fun and delight. 

the cake was very rich, so, for the first time, i tried to pair chocolate cake with a more refreshing green tea ( i have had chocolate with matcha tea before, but not with regular green tea.) and it tasted really amazing.

i believe that limitations are conducive to creativity, and this experience is just an example of that.

i believe that often, too much availability and choice of resources will inhibit our creativity as it will delay our decision making, and that a smaller, confined number of choices will propel the decision making process and taking actions towards a creation.

even though a lot of what would be our “normal life” is limited now to staying at home as much as possible, this time can be a very creative one full of love and play, of appreciation for what we have, of confronting the self and our old ways, of reflection, and of coziness.

original recipe is from here.

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