Chocolate Cake and Soccer Stars

I received this exciting piece of news in my e-mail yesterday:

Soccer stars Abby Wambach, Hope Solo and Alex Morgan who spearheaded the U.S. women’s team to the World Cup final will be part of the race weekend activities at the 2011 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. The trio will be part of a charity relay team on race day at the October 9 event.

All three of them, in Chicago, my city. I am super excited and I will be stalking them, don't you worry.

As many of you know, I am slightly obsessed with the U.S. Women's Soccer team.   They are strong, confident and completely awesome. 

Abby Wambach and I will be running in the same race.  I may even run beside her and we may high five.  Who knows, this could be the start of a lifelong friendship. 

The Huffington Post wrote about it here.

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I thought I would share the chocolate cake recipe with you that I made for Angela's birthday.  The one we ate half of last night.  It was incredibly delicious.  Below is the cake recipe I used, but they suggest a ganache as a topping.  I went with a vanilla frosting, regrettably, as it was a bit runny and more of a glaze than anything.  It was certainly tasty enough but it wasn't quite as aesthetically pleasing as this cake below. 

Side Note: I forgot to add the canola oil and guess what!  It turned out delicious!  I accidentally cut hundreds of calories and it was still fantastic. 

from Post Punk Kitchen

Just (Vegan) Chocolate Cake

1 cup almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular (or a mix of both)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350?F.

Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla and almond extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).

Lightly grease an 8 inch springform pan. Pour in the batter and bake for 32 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted through the center comes out clean.

Gooey (Vegan) Ganache

2/3 cup almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
8 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

In a small saucepan bring the milk to a boil then lower heat to a simmer. Add the chocoate chips and maple syrup and mix with a fork. Turn heat off and mix until thoroughly melted. Let cool for about 15 minutes before using.

To assemble:

Just pour the ganache over the cooled cake and kind of tilt the cake at all angles to get the ganache to drip down the sides. Refrigerate to cool and set the ganache.

ENJOY!