Chocolate Orange Cake

I made SusanV's Chocolate Orange Cake on Saturday, to take over to my friend P's (since she was cooking me dinner on Sunday), and to take the remainder into school with me on Monday. I did not have a bundt-cake-pan, however, so I ended up baking the recipe in two loaf-pans, but it still turned out delightful.

The recipe is deliciously orangey and zingy. It's also wonderfully chocolatey, enough so that people were (and will be) amazed that it's fat-free.

When I took this into school yesterday, people cowed it all down very quickly and LOVED the recipe and the fact that it tasted so rich despite being fat-free.

I was happy that I brought it in, until my one instructor decided to subject me to not one, not two, but THREE of my vegan pet-peeves as he scooped a piece of the cake onto a napkin for himself.

PET PEEVES:

• "So is this vegan then?" It's a minor pet peeve, granted, but it drives me just a TINY bit nuts when people know you're vegan but ask if an item you have made is vegan nonetheless. I always wanna be like, "Well, actually THIS recipe called for the blood of 100 sacrificed babies, so I guess it's not vegan after all!" I forgive it with most people, because usually it's asked out of interest and not intended disparagingly. But when it's followed up by the next two pet peeves, it's hard not to want to KICK SOME ASS over it.



• "It looks just like normal cake!" This is what my instructor said to me. Um, yes. I guess I didn't realize there IS such a thing as "abnormal" cakes and "normal" cakes. I thought cake was pretty much just cake. And who, praytell, my dear instructor, decided that non-vegan cake is the norm?



• "Well, I guess I'll just have to go have it with a nice cup of coffee... WITH CREAM. [chuckling to self]" Yeah. That's fucking the fucking funniest thing I've heard EVER, dude. No one's EVER played that kind of funniness on me before! OMG YOU ARE SO FUN FUN FUNNY THAT MY SIDES ARE ACHING!
  
  *eye roll*
  
  Seriously: I don't understand why people constantly feel the need to undercut other people's veganness, especially when IT'S NOT BEING MADE AN ISSUE OF. I mean, I was nice; I brought in cake to share with everyone; I didn't stand up and say, Before you eat this cake, here's why you all should go vegan!; I just offered the cake up, verified it was vegan if anyone asked, and that was that. So I don't get it. I mean, even though I believe in, say, the right to choose, if I asked a classmate if they were at a pro-life protest over the weekend, and they said that they were, I would NEVER respond to their comment by being like, "Well, I think I'm gonna head on off and rip me a fetus out of my womb before I head home! Ha ha ha!" Only an asshole would ever say something like that. So I don't understand what compels non-vegans to always make smart-ass comments about vegan shit constantly.

What redeemed the moment, thankfully, and allowed me to bite my tongue was when I noticed that there was a large cat-hair stuck to the end of the piece of cake my instructor was lifting towards his mouth. Sweet sweet pacifistic revenge!

God bless my cats!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 c. unbleached flour


• 1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour


• 1 1/2 c. sugar


• 2 t. baking soda


• 1 t. salt


• 1/2 c. cocoa


• 1 t. cinnamon


• 3/4 c soy yogurt


• 1 t. vanilla


• 2 T. balsamic vinegar


• 1 1/2 c. water


• 1/2 c. fresh orange juice


• 2 T. grated orange peel


Chocolate Icing:


• 1/2 c. powdered sugar


• 1 T. cocoa


• 2 t. orange juice


• 1/4 t. vanilla extract (or 1/8 tsp. if double strength)


• --plus extra orange juice as needed


Orange Icing:


• 1/2 c. powdered sugar


• 1 t. orange juice


• 1/4 t. vanilla extract (or 1/8 tsp. if double strength)


• --plus extra orange juice as needed

DIRECTIONS

Spray a Bundt cake pan (or two bread-loaf pans) with non-stick spray and dust it lightly with unsweetened cocoa. (Poop--I just realized that this part was cut off in my printed directions, so I actually greased mine with margarine. Ah well.) Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add the yogurt, vanilla, balsamic vinegar, water, and orange juice. Beat by hand or with a mixer on low speed just until well-combined, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in the grated orange peel, and pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes for the bundt cake (30-35 for two loaves), until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert it onto a serving platter and cool completely.

When the cake is cool, make the icings. For each icing, mix the ingredients in separate small bowls. One half teaspoon at a time, stir in enough extra orange juice to make a drizzling consistency. Drizzle the chocolate icing over the cake, wait a few minutes for it to set, and then drizzle the orange icing.

(Recipe from The FatFree Vegan)