VeganMoFo2019 Day 20: Decadent Is As Decadent Does

Lettuce and celery all day long
it's the only thing vegans eat, amiright? DOH!

My friend Kelley had a birthday. When I met her I thought she was older than she is not because she looks old but because she takes on a ridiculous amount of responsibilities in her life. She once told me she thought I was younger than I am when we met. She didn't reveal her reasoning, although I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I act like a 5 year old most of the time (consider this insert an apology to any offended 5 year olds). I don't know why, but these 2 facts amuse me. All that said, Kelley is a pre-vegan who is already vegan, she just needed to nail down the food issue. She has rescued more animals than I can count, and I mean serious risk rescues. She is involved in animal causes, and gets down and dirty for the greater good, this includes people, animals and environmental issues. She is quite a Renaissance woman in my opinion. Currently she is committing to veganism with that missing puzzle piece of food. For me that meant she MUST have a very bad ass birthday cake, and so she did. Here is what I made for her! This is a chocolate fudge cake, with chocolate fudge frosting, drizzled with caramel sauce that I salted afterwards, decorated with salted triple chocolate decadence cookies. The middle of the cake is piled with Gretchen Price's marshmallow icing which I torched, and then piled Dandies mini marshmallows (torched them too). When all was said and done I gave it another hefty dose of Gretchen's caramel sauce, a bit more sea salt and shaved dark chocolate in lieu of sprinkles. What makes those cookies a triple chocolate threat is the fact they have cocoa powder, melted chocolate, chocolate extract AND chocolate chips. Technically it's a four-threat, but triple threat sounds more ominous, dark and bad ass. Any cake that gets torched is indeed extra wicked in the best way possible.

When I bake cakes like this of course it's an expression of love for the person I'm baking for, but in the bigger picture I so want people that see and eat them to understand that there is zero reason not to be vegan, it's not about "giving up" anything (other than letting go of cruelty and ego). Once again, a little cake goes out the door as an ambassador to all things compassionate and delicious.

Cake #20 down and done. Oh my goodness, only 11 days left.

xo