CONFESSION: I’m much better at cooking than baking.

Does that stop me, though? NOPE! There are far too many carbs to eat in this world to stop me. Besides, practice makes perfect, right? Right!

I set to work on this cake for two reasons: 1) I was getting hungry, but it was still a little early for dinner); 2) I wanted to eat cake batter. And maaaaan did this batter taste good! Creamy and chocolate-y, it came together really easy. It’s vegan, but you’ll be none the wiser. Andrew actually asked me to stop telling him when things are vegan. Apparently that changes things. The only teeny-tiny problem with this cake was that it baked a little funny.

I lovingly called this cake vertically challenged. It didn’t look like this at all when I pulled it out of the oven. Promise! As it cooled, it sunk. The middle was actually still a little under-cooked, thus the saggy middle. Poor cake, we’ve all been there. Don’t think that I discriminated, though. The middle might have been the best part. It was still fudgy and gooey and slightly cake-like in texture. The edges remained 100% cake in form, so you could have best of both worlds. Thank you, multi-purpose, vertically challenged cake! This cake was so good, in fact, this is what it looked like within 10 minutes of cutting it…

Yes, that was an 8″ x 8″ pan. Yes, that was after eating a huge mess of curry noodles for dinner (recipe to come!). What of it? You can’t say no to good cake! This didn’t even need frosting, glaze, or a dusting of powdered sugar. Just pure, unadulterated cake. Those remaining pieces were gone by the time I got home from work. Actually, Andrew saved me a sliver. How kind of him.

Inspiration: Oh She Glows

Ingredients

1 cup non-dairy milk (almond!)

1 cup sugar (whole cane sugar!)

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon espresso powder

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup spelt flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350º and prep an 8×8 baking pan. In the mixer, add in the milk, oil, sugar, vinegar and vanilla and beat it on medium for two minutes. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix on low until everything is incorporated. Taste that batter. Pour into the baking pan. Use a spoon to get all of the remnants of batter out of the bowl. Put it in your mouth. Bake for 20-25 minutes. 20 if you want the vertically challenged version like mine. Allow to cool. The cake will pull away from the sides. Eat it in almost one sitting. I have faith in you.