Two is Better than One (and Vegan Chocolate Cake)

I always thought that having two children would be exponentially more difficult than having one. For the first few months, I found this to be exponentially true. Two kids with two totally different needs, on different time schedules . . . How did I cope? But, lately, we have reached a fantastic point. My kids can actually play together!

Little Ladybug (who will be one next week) adores her brother and only wants to play with him, to do what he is doing, to be wherever he is. Z-man always wants an audience and a playmate. Well, aren't they a pair? This is them this morning, playing with one of the many big plastic toys that are throughout my house, so ugly, but so entertaining.

They were having so much fun and playing so well together without needing me to intervene, that I even attempted another baking project this morning!

I had promised my friend A, who is now the mom of three (an almost 4 year old and 7 month old twins) that I would bake a vegan cake for her birthday. A is such a devoted mom that she has given up dairy and many other foods because she is breastfeeding her babies and they do not tolerate a whole slew of things. So, in addition to being way more exhausted and overwhelmed than I can imagine (or could tolerate myself), she has also had to deprive herself of a great deal for her babies' health and well being. Of course she deserved a cake, even two weeks late.

So, I googled "vegan chocolate cake" and the first hit was "The BEST chocolate cake ever . . . that just happens to be vegan". Well, alright alright alright. This one, I almost timed right to bring to the library for story time. However, the icing took a little longer than I had thought, so, of course, I was 10 minutes late, but on time enough to give A her belated birthday cake.

However, I had to go home before lunch and A was taking her kids to meet some of our friends for lunch, so there went the second thing I had baked in 12 hours that I had not tasted.

Luckily, after lunch, A stopped by, bringing the few pieces of cake that were left for us to sample. Yay! This cake was actually really delicious! It is one of the moistest cakes I have ever had and was also extremely rich and velvety. Would I say that it was the BEST? No, but for a simple one-layer cake, it was pretty outstanding. I would definitely make it again. You would never guess that it is vegan, and never miss the eggs or dairy.