Lemon Blueberry Poundcake and Some History

Even though I've always loved chocolate desserts and avoided fruit variations, there has always been a special place in my tastebuds for my grandmother's lemon pound cake.  VM would serve the mildly lemony cake chilled, each slice cut into 4 dense, moist, "sticks" of cake: the perfect treat for small fingers.

When I became interested in cooking I asked VM about the recipe.  She waffled between claiming a mysterious memory lapse and cryptically promising to get the ingredients one day.  VM doesn't cook much, but when she does- look out.  So, I imagined all kinds of secrets involved and waited impatiently- for years.   But when the day finally came it wasn't as momentous as I had expected.  Actually, it went something like this:

Me: Why is there a box of Duncan Hines cake mix in the pantry?
VM: It's for the cake.
Me: What cake?
VM: Grandma's cake.
Me: That's the secret?  That's not an "ingredient".
VM: No, the ingredient is the box of pudding mix next to it.

Yes, sad but true.  Apparently this deified dessert was actually the lemon pound cake recipe that has been printed on the back of every Duncan Hines lemon cake mix box for, by my calculations, at least the last 3 decades.   So, what's a vegan to do?  I got to veganizing.  Both the box of cake mix and pudding were accidentally vegan, so all I really had to do was replace the eggs.  Easy?  Yes?  Successful?  No.  Not exactly the cake of my memory. 

To start, the hue was unpleasantly radioactive, so perhaps my tastebuds couldn't rationalize with my eyeballs.  Either way, I found it inedible.  I really don't think the egg replacer is all to blame; perhaps my memory is faulty or my palate has evolved.  It has also crossed my mind that VM is simply hoarding the real recipe for reveal when she starts her own blog.

Whatever the problem, I was still on the hunt for the perfect lemon poundcake.  Enter Vegan Diner.  After the success of the strawberry double chocolate pie, I was anxious to try another dessert from the same tome.

I'd recently read a tip that if you want to prevent your fruit from sinking to the bottom of your baked goods, simply coat them with flour.  It worked!

Lemon zest was conspicuously absent from the Duncan Hines recipe; perhaps part of the problem?

Before:

After:

Good?  Yes.  Grandma's?  No.

yes, I technically over-blueberried (force of chocolate chip habit)

I'll keep trying...

Strawberry Double Chocolate Pie, Courtesy of Sweet Earth Chocolates and Gone Pie Bakery

I love chocolate and I love contests; when you put them together, it's win, win!  Well okay, not always; but this time it was.  Gone Pie bakery recently held a giveaway for Sweet Earth Chocolates, a company that they've concluded to be the best and most ethical option available (which is saying an awful lot, coming from GP); I was one* of the lucky winners.  Read all about the company and, while you're there, thank Gone Pie for always going the extra mile.

A pound of Sweet Earth chocolate chips arrived in the blink of an eye and even though I wanted to eat them straight out of the package, I knew I had to do something pretty special with the fine morsels.

I didn't want to hide them in a recipe as just another ingredient, so, in order to showcase them, I decided to first go classic: turning to VCIYCJ chocolate chip cookies (p.35-36).  I've never made these before, but my friend made them for me once and they were chocolate chip cookie perfection.

I always manage to eat a few chips while I'm baking, It wouldn't have been very responsible of me to have embarked upon the recipe without first testing the most important ingredient, so I gave the chips the "plain test".  Not overly sweet, they were also less dark/bitter than I expected.  I had an idea that the resulting baked goods were going to be a hit with both dark and milk chocolate lovers, striking a respectable balance between the two.

This, of course, a joke; I never measure chips!

The cookies themselves didn't turn out exactly as I'd expected (I blame the baker), but the chips were great- holding their chippy shape within the cookie until you'd pick one up and be pleasantly surprised by the meltiness.

They even retained the appealing, slight meltiness of just-baked cookies long after they'd cooled.  And, as suspected, both the dark and milk chocolate fans on the esteemed tasting panel enjoyed (admittedly the chips more than the cookies). 

Impressed, I decided to make something else.  I delved into my newest cookbook, Vegan Diner, which was heartwarmingly gifted to me as a housewarming gift even though the extensive renovations rage on.  Strawberry double chocolate pie (p.140-141) instantly caught my eye.

The recipe calls for sandwich cookies for the pie crust, but I didn't have any in the house.  I had to wing it with animal crackers instead.

Before:

After:

When it was time to prepare the chocolate layer, I fearlessy forged ahead with the new chips and they melted beautifully.  I admit that I tend to get a little impatient when melted chocolate is involved, but these were foolproof.  It was absolutely necessary to lick the used utensils before washing, and the melted chocolate did not disappoint.  As great as the chips held up in the cookies, their beautiful melting capability was even more impressive.

I almost hated to cover it up with the strawberries, but that was kind of the point of the recipe.

I did have to let the pie cool in the fridge twice as long as the recipe called for, but it was worth the wait; it was stupendous!  I normally eschew fruit in dessert, but this is pretty much candy: the pie version of a chocolate-covered strawberry, with the added bonus of crust.  And as for the crust, the animal crackers made a wonderful one; I've already noted the substitution in my cookbook.

I haven't exactly figured out the most dignified way to serve or eat a slice of cake haphazardly topped with whole strawberries, but there is no other way to make it; it's just too impressive looking this way.

I highly recommend both Vegan Diner and Sweet Earth Chocolates.  Thanks so much to My Vegan Gut for the gift of the book and to Gone Pie Bakery for the introduction to the chips and for making it easier to make informed, compassionate choices.

* [added 6/13] Another winner, Vegan Activist blog, has a great post on the ethics of fair trade and how it particularly resonates with veganism.