Lemon Cake with Fresh Stawberry Sauce

This cake was light, and had a nice lemony flavor. Add to that a fresh strawberry sauce, and it was delicious!

For Cake

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2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup oil

teaspoon vanilla

grated zest from one large lemon

juice from the same lemon

1 1/3 cup vanilla soy or rice milk

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare two 9 in cake pans (with oil and dusted with flour).

Whisk together all dry ingredients in large bowl. Whisk together oil, vanilla, juice, and zest in a smaller bowl. Add oil mixture to dry and stir until the flour is damp. Add "milk" slowly and mix until cake batter consistency. Pour evenly into two cake pans.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Reduce oven to 365 and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown on top. Cool on racks. Vegan cakes can break apart easily, so handle with car.

For Strawberry Sauce

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2 pints of fresh strawberries

1/4 cup sugar (to taste)

pinch salt

Rinse strawberries and remove stems. Take 1/2 the strawberries and 1/2 the sugar and puree in blender or food processor. Pour into bowl. Put the rest of the strawberries and sugar, and chop for a second or two in food processor. Add chopped strawberries to puree. Mix together and add a pinch of salt. Add more sugar if desired. Keep cool until serving.

When ready to serve, put one cake on serving dish. Cover with thick layer of sauce. Put next cake layer on top. Cover with more sauce. Serve with favorite whipped type topping (optional).

Almost Vegan Lasagna

My mother can't eat onions, my father is on a low-cholesterol diet, and Erik doesn't eat ricotta cheese (too much lactose). This yummy lasagna met all dietary restrictions.

1/2 package Lasagna noodles, cooked per instructions on box.

Tofu filling

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2 packages of fresh extra firm tofu

1 bag of spinach leaves, washed, steamed, squeezed dry, chopped

teaspoon salt

Sauce

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2 6oz cans tomato paste

5 cloves of garlic minced

1 tablespoon each of dried thyme and oregano

1/3 cup red cooking wine

4 cans of water (about 1 1/2 cups)

salt to taste

1 1/2 packages of soy mozzarella, grated.

1-2 oz of regular low moisture mozzarella (optional), grated.

To prepare sauce:

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan. Add more water if too thick, but thick is good. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

To prepare filling:

Combine tofu, spinach, salt together in bowl. Crumble tofu and combine with spinach until the tofu is all a uniform size (small).

To prepare casserole:

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large lasagna pan, layer the ingredients as follows: sauce, noodles, stuffing, soy cheese. Repeat. Put a little real mozzarella on the top layer, so it melts/browns better. Bake for 40 minutes or until top is brown and cheese nicely melted.

Update 12/09/2010

Home made pasta makes this lasagna even better. Here is a recipe from Jackie DeCiccio

2 cups white flour

1 cup semolina flour

3 eggs

Water

In a large mixing bowl, fix the flour together. Break in the eggs in the center. Using a fork, mix the egg with the flour, starting in the center and working out. Add enough water to make a stiff, but not sticky dough. Knead the dough into a ball. Cut ball of dough in half - wrap 1/2 in plastic so it doesn't dry. Process the other 1/2 through favorite pasta making machine to make lasagna noodles.