Vegan Vanilla Cake for the Feast of the Cross

Mat. Emily's cake is my inspiration for this 

cake for the Feast of the Cross.

Years ago I made lemon-strawberry cake for a baby shower,

so I knew I had it in me to decorate with strawberries again.

Here it is!

I have not made a vegan vanilla cake before,

I used the same recipe that Mat. Emily used,

save that I used coconut vegan creamer

in the frosting instead of soy.

It was amazing that this ...

...a rather pasty water white batter cooked to a lovely yellow!

 

The cake was well loved.

I also made it into cupcakes.

I did not know how long to bake it for so had 

some real learning curves and a few "oops-es" along the way...

*

I had been going by this rule of thumb for converting 

cake to cupcake recipes in terms of baking time... 

and erred on the 'less baking time' and had to add time.

When the toothpick came clean, 

I took them out...

but only to find out that the bottoms of these

cupcakes were too soft/undone.

So I quickly put in them in the oven on a flat plan,

tops down....

Yep. Oops # 2.! 

But you know the great thing is that no one knew

and two, it equaled more frosting per cup cake and 

I made lots and they were all gone! 

I made some chocolate ones too with

better success, using the tried and true recipe 

that I use for my St. Nicholas Cakes.

*

I am really pleased with now knowing the frosting trick of 

adding shortening - non-hydrogenated vegan shortening - 

I used earth balance.

I was so pleased to have a thicker frosting!

This picture is before I added the 1/4 cup of coconut creamer

and the vanilla.

It am going to add a bit less of the creamer next time 

and mix it also for less time as I found

by three minutes it was very soft, light and airy, which

is great and everyone loved it but I was looking for

a denser frosting. 

None the less it was a real hit and all the cake was gone

by the end of coffee hour!