What would summer be without fresh strawberries? Winter, that’s what! Okay, maybe not, but it wouldn’t seem like summer for sure. After finding gorgeous strawberries at the downtown farmers’ market, Chris and I were craving strawberry shortcake. While looking for a recipe for vegan angel food cake (impossible!) or shortcake (elusive…), I flipped through an old issue of Vegetarian Times (April 2007) and found a recipe for vanilla pound cake. The original recipe includes a lime glaze, which I skipped for the time being, but I intend to play with it soon. I wasn’t able to locate this particular recipe on the website, so here it is:
Vanilla Pound Cake
5 oz. silken tofu, drained
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 vanilla soymilk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
- Preheat oven to 350F. Coat 9X5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
- Blend tofu, suga, oil, soymilk, and vanilla extract in food processor until smooth.
- Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Fold in tofu mixture. Pour into loaf pan and bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Learning experience: I had never used cake flour before. It’s ridiculously fine! And even messier than the original! Brilliant! Also, I made this before getting my new oven thermometer, and I think the temp discrepancy may have been responsible for the sub-par rising.
While maybe visually disappointing, the pound cake had a fantastic taste–vanilla-y but not too vanilla-y. Topped with a strawberry-sugar mixture (half as much sugar as Chris wanted, twice as much as I wanted; hey, marriage is about compromise, right?) and vanilla Soy Dream ice cream, it more than satisfied my strawberry shortcake craving!
