Home    Tex-Mex   Asian    Mediterranean   Soul Food

Desserts

Chocolate Cake

Put the sifted flour back in the sifter, add the cocoa, soda, sugar, and salt and sift this directly into a greased square cake pan about 9x9x2 inches.

Now you make 3 grooves in this dry mixture.
Into one pour the oil; into the next the vinegar, in the next, the vanilla.
Now pour the cold water over all.

You'll feel like you're making mud pies, but beat it with a spoon until it's nearly smooth and you can't see the flour.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Rice Pudding

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
Mix all ingredients in bowl and place in 1-1/2 quart lightly oiled ovenproof dish.
Bake, uncovered, for 3 hours, or until the pudding sets.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Yield: 8 servings

TOPPING

CAKE

Preheat oven to 375 F.

TOPPING:
Drain pineapple slices completely, reserving 1/4 cup juice.
(Drink or refrigerate the remainder of the pineapple juice from can.)
Coat the bottom and sides of a square 13" x 7" glass baking dish (or similar pan) with 1 tablespoon oil.
Sprinkle granular sweetener evenly over bottom of pan, then pour the reserved pineapple juice over sweetener until evenly covered.
Carefully lay pineapple slices over bottom of pan, cutting some slices into smaller pieces to fill centers and spaces between rings.

CAKE:
Using an electric mixer, beat together thawed pineapple juice concentrate, oil and flavoring until thoroughly combined.
Add flour, baking soda and salt; beat just until batter is smooth.
Immediately pour batter over pineapple slices in prepared pan.
Bake 25-30 minutes.
Cool in pan 10 minutes.
Run a knife around edge of cake, then invert pan over a flat surface to remove cake.
Cut into squares to serve.

Variation:
Try using apple or pear slices instead of pineapple, and apple juice concentrate instead of the pineapple juice concentrate.
Substitute 2 teaspoons of baking powder for the baking soda, and flavor cake with ground cinnamon and cloves.

Chocolate Mousse Pie

Crush 1 package of Hydrox cookies and mix the crumbs (reserve some for garnish) with about 1/2 stick melted margarine (vegan).
Press the mix into the bottom and part way up the sides of a large 12" springform pan.
Set into freezer while you make the filling.
(If you don't chill crust it will crumble later.)

Blend (in batches) 5 10.5oz packages of Mori-Nu* tofu til smooth.
Melt 1 12 oz package of non-dairy choc chips over hot water in double boiler (classic no-fail method) or in the microwave very carefully on low power stirring every couple of minutes (brash modern method...the chocolate can scorch very easily if you set the power too high or don't stir often enough.
Scorched chocolate tastes and smells awful!!).
Mix melted chocolate with blended tofu either in batched in the blender or with a spoon in a large bowl.
Add a tablespoon or so of Kahlua coffee liqueur if you like, or some vanilla extract, or some creme de menthe if you want a choc-mint pie.

Pour filling into crust and let sit in fridge 3 or 4 hours.
Garnish with some reserved cookie crumbs and/or an edible flower.
A big purple pansy and a couple of mint leaves look fabulous against the chocolate.

Cook's notes:
*I have tried other "fresh" silken tofus and they all tasted beany.
Too short a chilling time will result in a runny pie.
I haven't made this with the 12.3 oz MoriNu packages, but the filling is pretty forgiving, so probably 4 of those would do, even if the math isn't exact.

If you have a smaller pan or a small number of guests, just subtract a package or two or the tofu and some of the chips.
I have never added sweetner to this, but you might want to add some maple syrup or raw sugar while blending. I like my chocolate dark and I've never heard any complaints about it not being sweet enough.
Mostly I hear pleased-sounding comments that "it's not too sweet".
Use a blender, not a food processor.
The blender makes the tofu much creamier.
The food processor invariably leaves the texture a little grainy or lumpy.