Friday, February 26th, 2010
For once in my life I followed the recipe almost exactly. I found the recipe through Cheap Healthy Good; here is the original recipe. Here is what I did:
First I mixed up my 1.5 minus 1-ish tablespoons of flour (I measured with the soup spoon I use to scoop the flour into the measuring cup), 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup dark cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt in a big old glass bowl.
Then I dutifully made three divets, and poured in 1 tbs white vinegar (Heinz of course), 1-ish tsp vanilla, and 1/3 cup of canola oil. It was the cheap kind because it was supposed to get me 30 cents in CVS cash except that Ira paid for it and I forgot to swipe my card.
The normal Nicola would have just dumped all that liquid any which way. But this cake scared me because it is all vegan and doesn’t have eggs and whatnot, so I just did what the recipe said. My dough/batter looked like clumped kitty litter:
But then I remembered my 1 cup of icy cold water. I put ice cubes in it and everything.
I’m not quite sure I used a whole cup, but my batter was looking lovely and wet. So I poured it into my pan and baked it. I used a cake pan! 
Then I dusted it with powdered sugar, forgot to take a picture, and shared it with my coworkers. I may have had a slice and a half, and while it was tasty, it erred on the side of cakey rather than fudgy. It had a light chocolate flavor, which I guess one could expect from a vegan treat. (Even if mine wasn’t strictly vegan: I used Publix brand flour and sugar) I wouldn’t say it is my favorite manifestation of chocolate cake, but it was good enough. And my coworkers gobbled it up, so clearly other people really like it.