My very FIRST vegan cake. The couple met at a book store (both are avid readers) when he offered the buy the book on the top of the cake for her. So the theme for the wedding was books and doctor who blue. She was a friend from High School that I’ve known for several years, and their reception was probably one of the most unique and beautiful ones I’ve ever been to.

This cake presented a lot of new challenges that I wasn’t prepared for, but worked with them/around them. I used coconut oil and Earth balance in place of butter, coconut/almond milk blends for milk, coconut cream in place of heavy cream, applesauce in place of eggs and Satin Ice fondant (certified vegan). This caused the cake to very dense and sink, needing almost double the amount of cake than originally planned for because the layers were so thin I couldn’t torte them.
The cake was also VERY soft, and even after giving it lot of time to rest and shrink, it continued to do so after applying the fondant so there was a lot of buckling towards the bottoms of each cake (more noticeable on the bindings of the books). This also caused the books to become misshapen… (they were perfect when I first started!).

However, when it came down to brass tacks… People sat around the reception eating the cake and exclaiming how it was the “BEST CAKE I’ve EVER eaten!”. I didn’t know anyone except the bride and groom, so no one knew I made the cake. It was very nice to hear. When people at my table started talking about how good it was, I told them it was vegan and you could see their brains explode and confusion cross their faces. <3

The groom even said “You win at vegan baking” . :D