Grandma Carlson Day

Last summer, my paternal grandmother passed away. She was diagnosed with Frontal Lobe Dimentia several years ago. If, like many other people, you have watched a parent or grandparent suffer with this disease, you may understand the peace involved with her passing, more than the sadness. Of course, we are all sad to have lost such an amazing woman, but there is relief in knowing that her suffering is over. She has now returned to a God that she loved very much.

As for me, I feel like true bonding can now occur between the two of us. In a sense, we were from different worlds - her a teacher, farmer and mother; me a writer, vegan and spinster - but, in the same sense, we are also the same person.

In preparation for her funeral, I researched her life. This woman kept immaculate records on everything that happened in her life, and to her family. She was the geneologist in our family, and I am trained in history. This fact is one of the reasons her children have allowed me to look through her records, and why I am the first grandchild to ask to see them. She surrounded her life with animals, much like I do. She also wrote articles for the local papers, which is something I did in my youth. Heavily involved in 4-H, both her and I. And knitting, too! But, she never did learn to crochet...and I have little interest in learning how to quilt - as much as I adore the beautiful quilts I have that were made by her. The greatest thing we have in common, though, is our SWEET TOOTH and our love for baking...

As I type this, I am enjoying a cup of coffee in one of her "Souptime" mugs she always drank her coffee from. It is the fifteenth hour in Saskatchewan, her home, and that means it is "Coffee Time" at Grandma's! Every day, as a child, we would rush across our yard to Grandma's house, where we knew she had either the crunchiest chocolate chip cookies we could ever love OR one of her famous chocolate cakes - either sour cream or zucchinni. With that memory flooding back to me today, I made my favourite of those three: Chocolate Zucchini Cake, minus the chocolate chips ('cause I can't keep those in my house!) and veganized from her original recipe. I'm sure that all of my cousins reading this our drooling at this point...and perhaps a bit concerned about sharing this family secret?!? No. I don't think they'll be concerned about that. Grandma was always the first to share her recipes in community cookbooks and at family reunions. And so, it continues, my similarities to her...

Janet Carlson's Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Vegan Style

1/2 cup soft margarine (I use Earth Balance shortening or Buttery Sticks)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I substitute 1/4 cup of this with applesauce, if you are looking for something less fattening; either way it is still GOOD)
1 3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup applesauce (which is replacing 3 eggs)
1/2 cup sour "milk" (like non-vegan bakers, I just add a tsp of vinegar to whichever milk I have in my fridge, either soy (best for baking) or almond, my favourite)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
6 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups zucchini, shredded
1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional, unless my father is coming over)

Cream together margarine, oil and sugar. Add applesauce, vanilla and "milk." Beat well. Sift in flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda. Mix until well combined. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips. Bake at 350F for 45-60 minutes.

Below, I have included (almost) step-by-step photos of creating the cake this afternoon:

Mixing together Earth Balance shortening with sugar.  It looks like fluffy snow!

After adding the oil, but before the applesauce, vanilla and milk...

I always sift flour when I bake vegan...and cocoa, too.  Sifting flour gives your baking more of the fluffiness that you lose when you take out the egg whites.  This handy little sifter came from Ikea years ago, and cleans up really well!  It has a hand pump, which makes sifting ten times faster!

I put all of my dry ingredients into the sifter.  A good rule of thumb is to put the sifter on a plate to do this step.  If not, you lose precious flour before you get the sifter over the bowl!

A close up of the marvelous spices being added to the cake...and the levening agents

and flour, underneath it all.

 After mixing in all of the dry ingredients, but before adding the juicy shredded zucchini, this looks more like brownie batter than cake batter.  I would know as I am a PRO-BROWNIE-BAKER!

The juicy shredded zucchini.  I grew up harvesting zucchini from our family garden in late August, shredded it at that time and freezing it in 2-cup containers for this recipe specifically!  As an adult, I'll buy one or two of these squashes - always extra large - in the fall and run them through my food processor...and freeze them in 2-cup containers, for this recipe specifically!  What else can you do with zucchini..I mean, except stir-frys and the like...

I got to the pan part and realized that I don't have a metal 9X13 pan! :-(  I normally use my 9X13 pyrex pan, but Grandma never used Pyrex for this cake...so I had to use metal today, too!  Luckily, I have two 9x9 brownie pans that worked nicely...

This is the second pan!

Halfway through the cooking - I rotate.  Some people might cringe at the thought of looking at your cake halfway through.  Sadly, I've burned more cakes due to faulty ovens than had cakes fall.  I always rotate! 

First pan done!

Um...I guess the batter wasn't evenly divided between the two pans.  The other one took another ten minutes to finish...

The finger-touching test!  If it bounces back, the cake is done! 

Well, in theory.  I always preferred the toothpick trick instead (stick a toothpick in, if it comes out clean, the cake is done).  Sadly, I do not have toothpicks!

Okay, I was in a hurry to have a piece, that's why it's crumbling...

This is the quintessential picture of Grandma Carlson - coffee (served black, always!) and a sweet!

I love you, Grandma!

Even more than I love this cake! :-D

Now that's steep competition!