Soil Horizons Cake for Earth Day

How better to celebrate Earth Day than with a soil cake? We didn’t just want a boring chocolate “dirt cake” with gummi worms in it; we wanted a proper soil profile with the different horizons represented (see the printout at the bottom of the photo below). In the end we discarded some of our more fanciful ideas and went with a relatively design involving 3 layers plus toppings. Here are the components prior to assembly:

For the bottom layer (E horizon) we wanted “rocks” of different sizes so used the health food store equivalent of cocoa rice crispies and cocoa pebbles in a vegan marshmallow base (basically heterogeneous vegan rice crispie treats), shown at left in the photo above.

On top of that we wanted sort of a tan cake for the leached B horizon, so after considering mocha or spice cake we kept it simple and went with a vegan vanilla cake recipe and just added 1.5 Tbsp of cocoa powder. The cake recipe was terrible though, so this layer came out fairly dry, and next time I’d use a tried and true vanilla recipe before mixing in a bit of cocoa. We put basic powdered sugar icing (with a bit of cocoa to match the color) above and below this layer to help bind it to the other layers (top cake in photo above).

The top layer was a mocha cake (the bottom cake in photo above), lighter than a pure chocolate cake but still a nice rich brown for the A horizon. Then we put a mocha ganache on top of that to hold the oreo crumble on top (we used oreo thins with chocolate filling), and topped with a few sugar cookie “leaves.” We also planned to have pretzel stick “twigs” but the dog got into the bag of pretzels the night before so had to give up on that.

Here’s how it looked once assembled:

Once it was assembled we cooled it in the fridge before cutting the edges flush for a neater look:


Here's an oblique shot from above:


Sadly the time in the fridge dried out the cake a bit, so we had to serve it with vegan Breyer’s cookies and cream, and poured some of the new vegan Bailey’s Irish cream on the cake as well.  But that's not an awful worst case. We had some of the leftovers in glasses as a trifle and it worked pretty well.

We also wanted to make roots / mycorrhizae out of white cotton candy which we could jam into the cake, but couldn’t find it. But a simpler idea would have been to bend up a hangar into a jagged shape, poke several sinuous holes in the cake from above, and fill each with thin white icing, so that when you cut into it you can see the roots. Next time!

Gingerbread Vodka

I've come up with a lot of recipes in my life, but this is probably the one I'm the proudest of. The idea came about on a trip to Urbana in 2007, and after perfecting it it's been a holiday staple ever since. It's fairly simple to make, here's how.

Ingredients:
1 L vodka*
2 long strips lemon zest (from end to end)
2 cinnamon sticks
10 cloves
1/4 cup minced ginger (1-2 inches)
2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp blackstrap molasses

*You may want to use extra vodka in each of the three infusions, both because it lets you tweak the flavor balance better, and because it's always nice to have extra of the component vodkas (e.g. the cinnamon-clove vodka is good in apple cider). I like using Russian Standard (which is really good), but if you want to save money Svedka probably has the best ratio of quality to price. Also, using a good dark rum (e.g. Barbancourt) instead of vodka for the 250 mL that gets infused with cinnamon-cloves will taste even better, but it's harder to tell when the infusion is done using color as a guide, since it doesn't start clear. So you'll have to taste it more often.

Pour the vodka into three containers: one with 500 mL of vodka, and 250 mL of vodka each in the other two containers (or ideally have at least 50mL extra of each so you can adjust the flavor balance at the end).  Add the ginger to the 500 mL, the lemon to one 250 mL, and the cinnamon and cloves to the other 250 mL. Cover and let them sit at room temperature. The lemon needs at least 2 days to be good, but it's OK if it sits longer. The cinnamon-clove is usually ideal after about 3 days, and the ginger sometimes takes longer depending on how strong your ginger is (4-5 days) - use more ginger if you need it to be ready faster! Basically taste each one and make sure you think it has enough flavor.

Here's what it looks like after 3-4 days (I started the ginger one day early, and lemon one day late):


Using a strainer or cheesecloth, pour most (but not all) of each vodka into the original bottle and mix well. Taste it, and decide if you think it needs more of any of the three components (if so, add them). If you like it as is, add the rest of the vodka. Sometimes one component ends up too strong, so it's nice to be able to balance it at the end. Here's what it looks like after you've mixed the three infusions:


Finally, add 1/2 tsp vanilla and 3 Tbsp blackstrap molasses (or more or less of each according to taste) into the bottle through a funnel. Shake very well, until no traces of molasses are visible on the bottom of the bottle or the neck (the two places where it tends to accumulate). Taste and decide if you think it needs more of anything else. If you like sweet liquor, you may want to add more molasses or even some brown sugar. Here's what the finished product looks like:


It is good straight or on the rocks, but just ludicrously delicious in soy nog (I like Silk Nog best). It cuts the inevitable harshness (even though Russian Standard is quite mellow, it's still vodka) and the creamy base allows the flavor to blossom in a way that never fails to surprise and delight me. If you can't get vegan nog due to the season, unsweetened vegan creamer, or a mix of vegan milk and melted vegan ice cream can be OK in a pinch. Let me know how it works for you in the comments! I've made many many liters over the years and people still go nuts for it every time. In fact, this year for Halloween I'm going as the gingerbread man and will have a bottle of this (and a sack of ginger snaps) to share with the world.