Vegan with a Vengeance

chopped
    Â¾ cup brown sugar
    1 cup chopped walnuts
    Â½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    2 tablespoons tapioca starch
    Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease an 11×17-inch baking pan.
    In a medium-size bowl combine the flour and the salt. Cut in the margarine using a pastry knife or your fingers until you’ve got coarse crumbs. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 12 minutes.
    In a small saucepan place the dates in enough water to cover. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes; drain.
    In a mixing bowl stir together the cooked dates, brown sugar, walnuts, coconut, and vanilla. Sprinkle with the tapioca starch and stir till combined. Spread evenly over the partially baked crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut into diamonds by cutting strips lengthwise, then diagonally.

DESSERTS
    Finally, dessert! The most common cooking-type complaint I hear from people is that they can’t bake. I dont‘ know what the problem is but wouldn’t it be worth it to learn so that you can have cakes and cupcakes and pies? Get an oven thermometer, a timer, and appropriate pans and I assure you, can bake! This chapter is definitely my baby and the one I found myself testing the recipes for over and over and over again. Enjoy!

    Bake Sales
    The election of 2004 was hard on everyone. The day John Kerry lost I went to Prospect Park and sat in the middle of the field. I took comfort in the feeling of the grass and dirt below me as I sat alone in the empty meadow and I was a bit scared to leave because I thought that in my liberal neighborhood there would be panic on the streets.
    Months later people were still analyzing why he lost. Was it fear? Was it homo-phobia? Was it bible-thumping? I thought back to what the lefties did “wrong” and the only thing that I could really put my finger on was this one “Baking against Bush” bake sale I went to. There were actually store-bought items, wrapped in plastic. Good people, that is not a bake sale. I am sure that in Texas, if they were to hold a “Baking for Bush” bake sale, there would be no factory-baked cupcakes. In fact, I am sure something like that would rank right up there with gay marriage. If we as a movement want to succeed, our bake sales must reflect that. We must have fresh-baked cookies, cupcakes loaded with icing. We must take the time to pipe those gingerbread decorations with all our might. Otherwise we are in the business of reselling capitalism. Our bake sales must come from our hearts and our ovens (at the correct temperatures) in order for us to be taken seriously. In this chapter I’ve included some items that will help usher in the revolution.

Ginger-Macadamia-CoconutCarrot Cake
    SERVES 12
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    If I were to make a commercial for this carrot cake it would feature a family in middle America going, “What’s for dessert?” and then the mom, with perfectly coifed hair and dishtowels in her hands says, “Carrot cake,” and then the kids with bowl haircuts say, “Carrot cake again?” and put their face in their hands. The husband puffs on his pipe and buries his face in the newspaper, completely uninterested. But the mom’s got a mischievous look in her eye; she brings out the carrot cake and suddenly there is a calypso band in the dining room and the kids start dancing, heck even grandma joins in the dance. What I am saying is that this is not your average carrot cake. Feel free to replace the macadamia nuts with their more affordable cousins, walnuts.
    2⅓ cups all-purpose flour
    1 tablespoon baking powder
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    Â¾ teaspoon salt
    2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
    Â½ teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
    1 cup pineapple juice
    Â½ cup canola oil
    Â¾ cup sugar
    Â½ cup pure maple syrup
    2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
    Â¼ cup crystallized ginger, chopped (even better if you can find small pieces specifically for baking)
    1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
    2 cups carrots, grated
    Preheat oven to 350°F. Have ready two 8-inch round springform cake pans, lightly greased. Alternatively, this could be made in a 9 × 13-inch baking pan and cut in half lengthwise to create two layers or just iced as one layer.
    In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground spices.
    In a separate large