The Most Delicious [Vegan] Chocolate Cake Recipe

There are a lot of chocolate fans in this house so for birthdays we have a favorite vegan chocolate cake recipe. I made these yesterday but used the wrong frosting recipe and ended up with burned-and-hard-as-a-rock stuff...which I later scraped off. Today I found my good allergy-friendly ganache recipe and had a do-over. And my little helper man decorated them with star sprinkles. So, future self, here is the allergy-friendly recipe we like:

Cake Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use regular or dutch-process)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients together. Add liquid ingredients and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips (optional). Pour into an 8x8 pan or 12 cupcake liners. Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes for cupcakes or 30 minutes for an 8x8. Check that a toothpick comes out clean before removing from oven.

Glaze Ingredients

2 T rice milk
1/2 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips
1 T agave nectar
pinch of salt

Bring rice milk to a simmer over medium high heat. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips, agave, and salt. Let cool to room temperature before spreading on cupcakes.

Black and Red

I made my little man a new shirt and vest last month. This is another Bookworm Buttonup by Blank Slate Patterns with a few modifications to fit Clark a little better. For the vest I repurposed a sweater I bought earlier in the year from Target that I decided looked more like a dust rag than a suitable women's top (it was on clearance!). I used the BBC Vest pattern from Shwin Designs with a ribbed knit band on the bottom instead of the shirttail hem since that's the only way I could make it work with my dustrag sweater, which, by the way, looks much better in its new form as a boy's vest.

Christmas Cards 2014

 As per our annual tradition we took our Christmas card photo on Thanksgiving with a couple of Steve's siblings. These beautiful red doors--that I've always had in mind for a family photo--are very near my in-laws' house and since we had Thanksgiving there this year it was a no-brainer for our photo location! My sister-in-law snapped this one of us. She got everyone to look AND smile!

I decided to try my hand at addressing all the cards in calligraphy this year on black envelopes I purchased separately. I had most of the cards addressed after four evenings of watching Hallmark Christmas specials. But...I waited and waited for my cards to arrive but they got lost in the mail so the company sent me a new order of cards which didn't arrive until Dec. 19th. Luckily, the envelopes were all ready to go! I also hand-calligraphed our address and had a local company in Houston make me a rubber stamp. The white ink didn't make as crisp of an impression on the black paper as I had hoped but now I know!

As fate would have it the original order of cards arrived on Dec. 24th. Merry Christmas Eve to me!

Christmas Morning 2014

We all had so much fun on Christmas Eve that we all slept in the next morning. Steve and I got up at 7:30 and the kids were still fast asleep. Seeing their excitement as they came out of their room was priceless. We had a lengthy breakfast before opening gifts. We were glad Aunt Katie could join us for all the festivities! Clark was eager to sort all the gifts into piles and of course he wanted to open all his as fast as he could. Lana took a more leisurely approach and got a little overwhelmed, or maybe just bored, after a little while. All in all it was a slow, relaxed day that we got to enjoy with each other.

Lana trying out the kitchen | Clark amid his pile of discarded wrapping paper | Lana getting help

Lana giving her new socks a test run | More gift opening

Extra Christmas cards come in handy for non-readers | A toy robot? | Trying out the toys

Lana zoned out for a little while and resorted to pulling faces | Clark even had to lie down for a bit

 Clark's favorite gift was the car rug+construction equipment from Grandma B and Katie | Lana shared her new stuffed owl with Daddy

The Best Christmas Eve & Pageant Ever

This year was one of my most memorable Christmas Eve's ever! We had a chicken dinner, then Steve put on an apple tasting while the kids decorated cookies. We then had a live nativity, starring the most adorable actors and actresses. Steve narrated and it was pretty much the adorable thing ever. Then we had a musical program with piano duets by Wade and Jen, and Phil and Jen, and I played violin accompanied by Steve. It was a fun night--hopefully the kids had as much fun as I did.

Of course we had to take a picture of all the cousins in their Christmas pajamas. Then Clark opened one of his favorite gifts ever--construction equipment-- from Aunt Katie. At the end of the night Steve helped Clark write a letter to Santa that read: "Dear Santa, I've been good. qualified. (he loves saying that word!) Thank you for the toys. -Clark" He's still not quite sure what to think about Santa but I took the kids to see him for the first time ever and Clark asked for a toy robot.