Adventures 24/52 & 25/52: Road-tripping with DP (my husband) and Veganizing my favorite summer cake

In my rush to post all of my summer adventures, I forgot to add one of the best …

Adventure 24/52: 24 hours in Indianapolis with DP (my husband) and Jack Johnson
In a whirlwind road trip to Indianapolis in July just for fun, DP and I had dinner with one of his former students at ZING, rocked in a mellow kind of way with Jack Johnson, enjoyed the downtown canal walk, felt the magic at Hinkle Fieldhouse, and got a big dose of LOVE at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The original plan was for a group road trip, but it turned out to be a fun 24-hour vacation for the two of us … we’ll definitely repeat in a different city sometime soon.
And returning to a more recent adventure…
Adventure 25/52: Veganizing my favorite summer cake
Lime Cream Torte. Sounds and looks fancy, but it’s pretty simple to make. Especially because it uses boxed cake mix, which I realized was a little weird the last time I made it. If I’m going to the effort of whipping real cream for the frosting, why am I relying on Duncan Hines processed cake mix? That was the first spark in wanting to try a makeover on this Taste of Home recipe.
Before I go on, let me assure you that I believe in the sacredness and importance of dessert. At a restaurant, I’ll take the chocolate raspberry cheesecake over a fruit cup any day. Sure, at home I’ll satisfy my craving for something sweet with a slice of watermelon or a square of dark chocolate, but I wouldn’t call either of those options dessert. Additionally, though I find myself leaning more toward a vegan diet these days, I don’t like to use soy-based butter and whipped cream and egg replacers when I bake. So, this adventure was more about challenging myself to find less-processed options for making this tasty cake.
The final result definitely tasted more on the “healthy” end of the dessert spectrum than I would have liked, but for my first attempt at recreating a dessert recipe, it stood up to the challenge. I substituted coconut oil and flax seed for the butter and eggs called for in this key lime cake recipe, then I made a cashew-nut based “cream” frosting (using lime juice instead of water) thanks to directions from this lovely blog I discovered. (Note: you should really soak the cashews for 2 hours or more. I was too impatient and I think the texture of the cream was impacted.) I took it to a family gathering on Sunday, and this is all that’s left:
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