Happy Birthday to Mom

Spiced plum vegan birthday cake for my mom

Note to Mom: Sorry this is overdue!

This weekend was my Mom's birthday. Although she's in Hong Kong, I meant to give her a surprise and write about the birthday cake I made for her on this blog. My mom, who became a vegetarian a long time ago, was the first person who told me back in the 90s that a vegetarian diet is much less energy-intensive than an omnivorous diet (read this Mark Bittman NYT article for a detailed analysis). Environmental considerations are one of my top, if not the most important, reasons for becoming a vegetarian. That's why I want to dedicate this vegan, low-fat spiced plum cake to her on her birthday. By the way, my mom looks much younger than she is, which I believe is in part because of her vegetarian diet. Her compassion and selfless spirit certainly help too!

I combined the recipes for the Rosy Peach Cake from FatFree Vegan Kitchen and Spiced Nectarine Cake from Bon Appetit, and substituted the fruits in these recipes with plums. I was on a shopping high at the farmers' market the previous weekend and bought more fruits than I could consume, and by this weekend my fridge still overflowed with plums. My mom is never a fan of frosted cakes, so I thought she would like this simple cake that made use of plums at their peak.

I cut down on the sugar called for and used only two teaspoons of oil in the batter with no detrimental effect. The cake was still moist, lightly sweet, and fragrant because of the plums and rose water in the batter. I sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar on top of the batter before baking to give the cake a rustic, golden-brown hue. As you can tell, I am no expert cake decorator - I simply dusted the cake with powdered sugar to make it a little bit prettier.

Cake dusted with powdered sugar (try pairing it with ice cream!)

Although the cake was great as is, I also tried pairing it with the new coffee ice cream from Starbucks. The combination was wonderful.

Happy Belated Birthday to my mom again!