Jammy-Broken Heart Cake

So, this recipe has been in the making for months, meaning I’ve been making it for months. That said, I might have lost that last stubborn baby-five but for this cake. I might also have gotten more sleep. But I WOULD NOT have been happier. You see, there is something wonderful about this unparalleled deliciousness (unless you royally mess it up like I did once, but I blame adding cocoa powder – requested by the birthday girl but NOT GOOD, and substituting frozen strawberries when I found my JUST BOUGHT strawberries were moldy).

So, let me tell you about this cake. It started long ago before I “made the change”. It had eggs and sour cream and butter and all of that white flour yumminess, so of course it was tasty. I put blueberries and peaches in the middle one time and almost attacked my husband when he asked for some. And then the recipe got shoved to the bottom of the pile because I wasn’t ready to figure the veganizing of this one out.

Well, I finally did it. And every time I’ve used strawberries because it’s Spring and they get all jammy and yummy. In the past I’ve read about things that tasted jammy, and they didn’t sound good. I don’t really like most jam. But this is different and unparalleled gooey, sweet, strawberryey jamminess. Just believe me, you want some.

Because I’ve tried it many different ways, I’ll include all of the workable options with the best ones first. I’ll even put in the non-vegan ingredients for you omnis, because really, butter just tastes better than the substitutes. They are, after all, “substitutes”. (Apparently my palate is still detoxing and may be for the rest of my life.)

A quick note on fats: Butter, Vegan Butter/Earth Balance/margarine, coconut oil, and coconut butter are all tasty options, but they obviously each have a different outcome. I would stick first with homemade vegan butter, then coconut oil/Earth Balance, then coconut butter. Coconut butter makes a  more dense cake – still delicious, but mixed halfsies with coconut oil, it could be good and cheaper than the subs.

Oh yeah, and it’s a broken heart cake because for the life of me, I cannot manage to get it out of the pan without at least a little break, and sometimes it’s a big one. But when using 100% whole grain, that’s not a bad thing (except when I eat all of the broken parts…) and pretty remarkable that it stays together as well as it does.

Jammy Broken Heart Cake

Ingredients:
1 c. granulated sugar
¾ c. homemade vegan butter, coconut oil, coconut butter, butter
1 c. vegan sour cream or sour cream
3 egg equivalent substitute: 1 ½ T. Ener-G + 6 T warm water; 3 T ground flax seed + 6 T warm water
2 ½ c. flour: 1 ½ c Kamut + 1 c. whole wheat (pastry); options: sub ½ c. oat flour, all gluten free flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
½ t. salt
½ c. chopped walnuts
1 t. vanilla extract
2-3 c. chopped fresh fruit: strawberries, blueberries, peaches, black/raspberries – any combo is YUMMY
1 T. ground cinnamon
¼ c. granulated sugar

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Lightly grease one bundt pan, but DO NOT flour it. (I tried and it does bad things.)
2.  Cream together 1 c sugar with “butter”. Add sour cream and eggs and beat well until light. Add flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, mixing until combined. Stir in vanilla and walnuts.
3.  Combine remaining ¼ cup of sugar with cinnamon.
4.  Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Add fruit and sprinkle generously with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Cover with remaining cake batter.
5.  Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 8 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for an additional 40 minutes.