Photos by Ann Coen
Recipe By Crystal Dawn Froberg
Baking is my heart, my passion, my love. I got it from my sweet Gram. I remember the sound of her hand mixer whipping up the most decadent icing for the gorgeous cakes she always made for us kids.
Her staple cake was a “doll cake.” Each year she would bake a whimsical cake in the shape of a dome, stick a plastic Barbie® in the top and decorate the cake (and the Barbie) until the frosting was transformed into a stunning ball gown of colors and flowers, bows and ribbons. What sweetness that was.
And so, as her inspired little granddaughter, I was the kid in the back yard with my mom’s old pie plates, making mud pies and decorating them with colorful flowers from the garden. Now I’ve been baking my whole life. Baking is my meditation. I can get into a trance and just create for hours. It’s a huge creative outlet for me.
After years of baking for my dear friends and family, my baking business, Passion Flour, literally bloomed! It all started when some of my fabulous girlfriends started asking me to do cakes for their babies and weddings. So the creating began and here I am eight years later, selling goodies all over the place for many people, bellies, and hearts.
To me, baking is another form of home. It’s nurturing. It’s a form of sacred ritual and nourishment. It’s also nostalgic and allows me to connect to my roots, exploring the same passion my Gram had for baking as it comes right through my hands.
It’s important to me to use organic, local, fresh, and vegan ingredients, along with the secret ingredients: love and joy.
Magic Maple Cake with Apple Pie Filling
Who doesn’t love Autumn and all the treats it brings? To me, it means maple, apple, and spiced everything, all warming my heart immensely. These two recipes always steal the show and all the bellies’ love. Go organic for as many of these ingredients as you can.
Dry Ingredients
2 ½ c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 c. coconut sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
Wet Ingredients
1 c. non-dairy milk (rice, soy, coconut, almond – your choice)
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 c. pure maple syrup
1 tsp. maple flavoring
2/3 c. sunflower oil
Sweetly add all the dry ingredients into one bowl and the wet into another. Whisk each on their own. Lovingly combine all and whisk until smooth and silky.
Butter and flour coat three 6-inch round cake pans and divide batter evenly between them. Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes. Cool and remove cake from pans.
For the Filling
Peel and chop four apples. Sauté the apples in a pan with vegan butter, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Sweeten and spice further, as you like. Cool before spreading in between the layers of
the cake.
For the Frosting
1 c. organic vegan butter
2 - 3 c. confectioner’s sugar
3 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
1 tsp. maple flavoring
2 tsp. cinnamon
Whip up butter with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add maple flavoring and cinnamon and continue whipping. Slowly add sugar, ½ cup at a time. Alternate sugar with maple syrup until wonderfully fluffy.
Stack the cake layer by layer filling in the apple pie goodness and frosting between each layer.
Decorate with some gorgeous Autumn blossoms and serve!