Last Night In My Early Twenties

I’m watching Nights in Rodanthe right now! Ryan is working late and I’ve read the book but never seen the movie….so far its really cute!

Anyways, back to this afternoon!

Today I tied on the apron and concocted the mother of all vegan chocolate cakes. I’ve dabbled in numerous different recipes now but I have to say, this one might be the best ever. Light and moist, this cake rings in at only about 100 calories per slice. Heaven, huh? No, this isn’t my official birthday cake—my mom is making me a carrot cake on Saturday! This is my “last day of being 23 cake” and I decided to make it to bring to my parent’s house for dinner this evening. This cake comes together in half an hour flat and is perfect for every day…no need to wait for a special occasion—its so healthy you could practically eat it for breakfast (and I just might tomorrow)!

Of course I couldn’t help myself this afternoon and snacked on a slice drizzled with raw almond butter, the new frosting of choice!

If that’s not food porn I don’t know what is.

Half Spelt Chocolate Cake

This recipe makes enough batter for one cake layer, which I like to dust with powdered sugar before serving. To make an actual layer cake, double the recipe and sandwich the layers together with your favorite icing. Using half spelt flour and half regular flour makes the cake light and springy…if you were to use ALL spelt flour the cake would be too dense. Trust me!

1/2 cup spelt flour + 1/2 cup unbleached flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder, preferably fairtrade and organic

1/2 cup unrefined sugar

pinch of sea salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch cinnamon

tiny pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil, melted

1 1/4 cup almond milk (soy or cow’s milk will work fine)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine milk and vinegar. Set aside to let curdle for five minutes before adding the rest of the wet ingredients. Add dry to wet and mix. Pour batter into a prepared 9 inch cake pan and bake for 20 minutes.

As for dinner, I headed to my parent’s house after heading the wrong way on the interstate and driving for about 20 minutes out of the way. I was on the phone with an old friend from high school and just totally wasn’t thinking until I realized that I was heading further and further away from the city. Don’t you just HATE that?! I did some major deep yoga breathes when I finally got turned around.

My mom of course saved the day when I walked through the door and was greeted with a totally delicious dinner!

Authentic linguine with clams or, as in Italy they would say, Linguine con Vongole! Using fresh clams just makes this dish so much better! We had broccolini on the side and I had a glass of merlot.

And then after dinner I was presented this THIS:

My parents already gave me their birthday present to me a few weeks ago, which was my brand spankin’ new camera, but my mom was so sweet to think of me at the farmers market today and buy me a whole sackful of fresh produce!!! They know me so well! I squealed in delight!

All those yummies….I couldn’t wait to dive into everything so I served myself a bowl of coconut milk ice cream with fresh berries and a tiny piece of cake while I started the movie—

Got to go so I can focus on the movie!! Last night of 23!

Don’t forget about Angela’s Shop 4 A Cause tomorrow!! I’m baking some delicious Super Charge Me Cookies for one lucky reader!