Vegan Glazed Cherry Cake

Finally a vegan cake with great texture! I haven't tried much vegan baking, because, you know, as a baker, I believe that everything should have butter and eggs in it. After a friend requested something vegan, I found this recipe. If you're vegan, this is a great cake to try. If you're not vegan, consider the calories you're saving! Here is a link to the original recipe I found, and here is how I adapted it:

For the cake:
3/4 cup flour (whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached white flour)
1/4 cup chickpea flour (or soy flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar 
2/3 cup soy milk (or coconut milk, or almond milk)
1 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup diced peaches or 10 fresh or morello cherries, halved

For the glaze: 
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons soy milk


Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray (or olive oil spray). Measure out the soy milk, add the almond extract, add the zest. Stir together all the dry ingredients with a whisk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined. Stir in the cherries. Pour the mix into the bundt pan and bake for 45 minutes. Cool completely before removing from the pan.

Stir together ingredients for the glaze. When the cake has cooled, drizzle to taste. Gah! I love this cake!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hey I know that you're all probably sick of hearing about everyone's "best" chocolate chip cookie recipes, but I feel like I want to weigh in. I've been raised on grocery store, thick, chewy, chocolate chips cookies, and all the recipes I've tried so far leave me with thin, deflated slivers of chocolate-chip-cookie-flavored leaves. Here's a recipe for an honest-to-goodness, hearty, chocolate chip cookie that's soft, but gives you that nice bite that you want.

Butter, 1 cup
Light brown sugar, 2 cups
Eggs, 2
Vanilla, 2 teaspoons
All-purpose flour, 16 oz
Coarse sea salt, 1.5 tablespoons
Baking powder, 1.5 teaspoons
Baking soda, 1 teaspoon
Chocolate chips, 11 oz

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add vanilla and eggs. Beat for another 2 minutes. Add flour, sea salt, baking powder, and baking soda. After it's homogenous, add the chocolate chips. Scoop out with a standard ice cream scoop (usually 6 per a half baking sheet). If you want a little flatter cookies, press them down, otherwise, they will turn into perfect little mounds. Bake for 15-18
minutes (just before they start browning), cool.

It's really simple, but to me it was a long journey to my favorite cookie.