Making A Vegan Cake

By Aadya Raikar

Cake to me defined as a rich spongy melt-in-the-mouth creation of butter, eggs, milk and flour, infused with some delightful chocolate or fruity flavours. When I first heard of Vegan cake, I thought it meant an eggless cake, but I soon found out that not only was it eggless, butterless and milkless, but it was often sugarless and flourless as well, leading me to imagine it as more or less formless or abstract. But let me tell you there is nothing abstract about it! 

My first encounter with veganism was in my own home, my sister no less. A passionate animal lover and social worker, she turned vegan after volunteering at an animal shelter. While I appreciated the principle of abstaining from using animal products, especially in a diet, I could not imagine following it - especially in a diet! My sister though was diligent and devoted to her choice 

Saturday is cake day in my family of cake lovers and I often observed that despite her resolve my sister craved a piece of her favourite dessert. So I decided to bake a vegan cake for her. Naturally, I first started substituting ingredients from conventional cake recipes and ended up with soggy masses that rose beautifully in the oven but caved in like imploding volcanoes immediately after. They were sickeningly sweet, and no amount of baking soda or baking powder could get me the crumb I was looking for. Meanwhile, I was becoming an expert at baking up moist sunken discs. 

Eggless! I decided that was the problem! Oh, and flourless too! Surely there must be a reason that bakers have been using those ingredients for at least a hundred years. I decided that I was either going to have to

pioneer a dessert based on sunken discs, take up skeet shooting, or figure out this cake veganization thing once and for all. I figured that I had to stop treating this vegan cake like a traditional cake, they were different animals and needed to be reworked with vegan-specific building blocks that buck the traditional cake. 

Finally, I rerouted the quest with a recipe map, exploring Google searches and YouTube videos. Most ingredients sounded like Greek and Latin and needed a trip to Greece to buy them! It was exasperating! Finally, I found a small ray of hope in a recipe for a double chocolate banana cake with a hint of cinnamon and that is what I baked 

I chose my sister’s birthday for the grand reveal. It was a special surprise for her and when I presented it at the dining table, I could see that my family was as surprised. Even more surprising was that the flavours and textures were perfect like any other non-vegan cake. My family applauded my efforts and I was proud of having completed my challenge to myself. I have now decided I will challenge myself to make new varieties of vegan cake for my sister every year for her birthday.

By Aadya Raikar