It's a BUNK CAKE! And it's vegan.

Man I love that movie (My Big Fat Greek Wedding for those of you who may have missed the reference in the title of this blog). Did that movie inspire me to make a bundt cake? No. But did I feel the strong urge to put a plant in the "hole" of the cake? Maybe a little...

The other day I stumbled upon a recipe that called for a Bundt pan. Since I've really never delved into the world of cake baking, I thought the bundt would be the perfect first step. It seemed simple enough, and if it failed? Well, who really eats/makes bundt cakes nowadays? I could claim that the times, well they are a changing.

I didn't make the recipe that I had initially intended to make, but instead tried to work with some ingredients that I already had in my kitchen. I also have mentioned a few times that I hate the idea that much of vegan food is attempting to taste like something else. Why can't it just BE what it's SUPPOSED to be? So, trying to find a vegan recipe for a cake that did not include some sort of egg imitator was pretty difficult. And I had started to believe that all vegan desserts tasted rather uninspiring, but alas, this little gem won me over.

It was incredibly easy to whip this up. I got a teeny bit nauseous when I mixed in the apple cider vinegar (this is because I went through a phase where I tried to drink 2 tablespoons of straight apple cider vinegar a day to try and combat acid reflux...I tell you, the things I've done because the internet tells me to is really ridiculous), but you couldn't taste it at all when the cake was finished. The cake was very moist and sweet. I would have liked a little liquid-y type frosting or something to jazz this up, but all in all, this was a great success.

Matt helped me pull the little flip-a-roo maneuvre that is required with the bundt cake and he made it look effortless. Once I had it flipped onto a plate he came over and tapped on it four times and it was out. That man has a gift...

I found this recipe here and am pretty impressed by vegetariantimes.com. Does anyone out there receive their magazines? Would this be a good investment for me?

Maple Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

Serves 12

3 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups pure maple syrup
2/3 cup canola oil
2 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. maple extract
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly coat 10-inch Bundt pan with cooking spray.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in bowl.
3. Whisk maple syrup, oil, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar, maple extract, and 1 1/3 cups water in large separate bowl. Stir in flour mixture until just blended.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and cake begins to pull away from sides of pan. Cool in pan on rack 20 minutes. Unmold onto rack, and cool completely. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.