A Purple Birthday Cake

Purple Velvet CakeWe made a special cake in Claudia’s favorite color for her Birthday this year.

Almost every year since we have been together, Claudia has requested an Angel Food Cake with berries and Cool Whip icing for her birthday. Since it falls just after the holidays, she has said that she’s had enough of rich foods by the time her birthday arrives.

In October of last year, she shared a recipe from the Shaireen’s Delight Facebook Page, tagging me and our child, saying “My next birthday cake?”

I’ve only baked cakes from mixes in the past, and those only rarely, so I was thankful that I had a couple of months to review the recipe and work out my anxiety about before actually baking.

It turned out really good, although quite moist and dense – almost like the texture of brownies. I think this is because I overworked the batter, adding the purple food coloring a little at a time and remixing it each time. If I were to make the recipe again, I would just go for broke when first adding it, and hope for a little airier crumb.

Not bad for a first attempt at a scratch cake, though. Kid did the decorating, and it turned out right pretty.

We used sparkler candles, and they were quite trippy. Would probably opt for something simpler next time.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Oatmeal Muffins

Oatmeal MuffinsEach month, during shelter season, I take at least one meal to the Fortitude Community Outreach homeless shelter. Sometimes it’s for an evening meal, but most of the time lately it’s breakfast.

This week, one of the items on the breakfast menu was “muffins, banana bread, or similar.” Not being the baker in the family, I was a little insecure to sign up, but I figured I could always opt for store bought if necessary.

Luckily, I found this recipe for Oatmeal Muffins from John Kanell’s site and it looked simple enough for even a novice like myself.

I used Old Fashioned Oats, and they turned out great. Not only tasty, but also lovely to behold. Yay.

I made these according to the recipe, substituting oat milk for the dairy. At some point I’ll experiment with using applesauce or chia seed instead of egg to keep it 100% plant based.