Adventures in Baking

The title of this post has probably been over-used a million times - but I think it is fitting, so suck my toe, which is still green from St. Patrick's Day.

I am making some cakes today. Cakes, as in more than one. See, this friend of mine up and got herself married to this dude a few states over and they all, like, fell in love and crap. So some friends of hers are throwing a Congratulations on You's Guys' Freakin' Wedding and Shite party. I'm making the wedding cake. I'm only calling it a wedding cake because the event is to celebrate a wedding, but there wasn't the traditional wedding as some people like to think of it and I am not setting out to confuse anyone.

Anywho, my friend eats everything under the sun, which is cool. Her new boo is a vegan. Before you decide to stop reading further, hear me out, especially since I'm going to put some recipes right here in this here post and tell you where I got them so you can decide for yourself how bad they may come out. I don't begrudge people their dietary choices. The point I get pissed off at is when they act all highfalutin and push their morals on me or pretend to gag if I'm eating a bloody burger. It's also those people who can't live in the same house with meat or have meat-cooked within a 5-block radius of them that really get my goat. I like goat, by the way. Some nice curried goat with a side of dirty rice is fine by me. Hot dog! I didn't even get to the recipes yet.

So I found a recipe for vegan chocolate cake on Instructables. It sounds pretty easy and I think I can make it tasty. I found a vegan frosting recipe on Chow that I'm just going to add some chocolate to, maybe. I like that it sounds fluffy. I can't imagine how fluffy shortening and powdered sugar can actually get, but I'll beat it 'til it creams. (Get your jollies out now.)

The Real-People Chocolate Cake and frosting recipes I got elsewhere but they seem pretty standard, so those will be OK.

I would like to add a note, or sidebar, or something here stating that I am adding a little sumfin' sumfin' extra to the filling of these two cakes to make it not so plain-chocolatey. Yes, I'm speaking of wasabi. There won't be a lot of wasabi in the filling - just a smidge. I want there to be a bite of something in there to get people innerested. That might change, however if I see a shiny can of some fruit in the store and I add that to the filling instead. Only time will tell . . .