INTRODUCTION

Hello there, old and new friends, and welcome to Plantcakes! You may remember me from Coco Cake Land—the blog, the book, the persona—a colorful buttercream-frosted world of cute animal cakes, piped flowers, gentle jokes, and all-around good times, with a delightfully friendly side of feminism. Since starting Coco Cake Land, I have baked and decorated thousands of cakes of all flavors, shapes, and sizes, but in the last few years I’ve pretty much got obsessed with plant-based baking. It’s become like a personal challenge to me: can I make absolutely delicious and beautiful cakes, designed and decorated in my Coco Cake Land style, that are completely plant-based too? It turns out that yes, I can! And I’m so excited to share the recipes with you in this book!

Plantcakes is a book for everyone who loves cake. Whether you’re fully plant-based, or you’re plant-forward, plant-curious, or plant-adjacent, this book will give all plant people the confidence you need to make a beautiful plant-based, buttercream-frosted cake for the special folks in your life—and yourself!

When I refer to my plant people, I mean those who are:
PLANT LOVERS: Eating 100%-plant-based foods.

PLANT-FORWARD: Eating a majority of plant-based foods, and making daily choices that almost always include plant-based eating.

PLANT-CURIOUS: Discovering the delicious joys of plant-based eating, and making a conscious shift in eating patterns toward it.

PLANT-ADJACENT: Have family members or close friends/loved ones/partners who are plant-based and want to be able to make them delicious, beautiful plant-based cakes.

PLANT DISCOVERIES

Many folks decide to try plant-based eating for a myriad of factors, including animal welfare, environmental concerns, food restrictions, or health reasons. I believe that the more we can influence people to make plant-based choices, the better—and my philosophy is to try to do that in an encouraging, positive, and delicious way. I call myself “majority plant-forward” because mine is a primarily vegetarian family, and many of the meals we eat at home are also vegan. I still remember when I first learned about veganism—I was in my early twenties and living with my best bud roommate during university. By then I’d already been through several “lazy vegetarian” phases, yet I knew very little about cooking or nutrition. Lunch would be opening up a can of cream of mushroom soup and heating its gloopy contents on the stovetop, or making toast with peanut butter, or pouring a bowl of cereal. My roommate’s partner at the time was vegan, and a kitschy, colorful book called How It All Vegan! showed up in our living room one day. I started reading through it, drawn in by the cute retro 1950s vibes. I had never ever thought about removing animal products completely before—they were simply a part of my life, seemingly as natural as tying a shoe. Upon reading How It All Vegan! though, my fragile little mind was blown. I liked the non-judgmental and encouraging nature of the book, all about the most earth-friendly things you could do—like how they suggested not to throw out your leather belt or shoes, but to continue to use them until they’re completely worn, and then replace them with your future, plant-based choice, so as not to be wasteful. It opened my eyes to another way of thinking, and it definitely piqued my curiosity about veganism.

A few years later, I went on my first date with my now husband, Rich. With his faded black jean jacket, red Converse sneakers and Tin Tin hair, he was very cute, very cool, and . . . very vegan. This was intimidating to me, and I remember being terrified to eat anything that wasn’t vegan around him—even though he is such a gentle, non-judgmental, and open soul. (Our first few months of dating featured lots of peanut butter on celery sticks!) Back then, over two decades ago, finding delicious vegan things to eat in stores or restaurants was not easy. Nowadays, being plant-based or vegan is so common that no one bats an eye, and plant-based eating has exploded with delicious options all over. The days of wondering “what do vegans eat” are long gone—one quick Google search will yield millions of hits for amazing plant-based meals—and food companies both large and small are following suit by expanding their offerings. Feel like eating a plant-based burger and fries? You can drive through a fast-food chain in any major city now and satisfy your craving. Supermarket aisles have dedicated sections for plant-based products, and the dairy cooler is stocked with plant milk and dairy-free butter alternatives.

My dear friend Sharon has been a huge inspiration to me in plant-based eating. Sharon has been vegan since forever, and always has the most delicious food at her parties—cheeseballs, pâté, lasagna, desserts. Encouraged by her, I’ve been adjusting and “plantifying” recipes for many years now (my favorite veganized dishes include a karaage-style fried “chicken” made with twice-frozen-twice-thawed tofu, and my latest Chinese comfort-food creation, BBQ pork buns made with marinated seitan caramelized in the oven, then stuffed into white steamed-to-juicy-soft-bunned-perfection bao), including some desserts, and it was Sharon who first inspired me to experiment with “plantifying” my cake recipes too. It’s been a fun personal challenge to create super delicious plant-based cakes that everyone can happily enjoy, all without anyone noticing they are vegan!
Plantcakes falls within the same non-judgmental and encouraging parameters in which plant-based eating was introduced to me. Perhaps you, like many others, have realized how easy and delicious it is to be vegan or eat more plant-forwardly! Or maybe making more plant-based choices is something you’re curious about, or it’s reflective of how you naturally tend to eat and you’d like to learn more. Wherever you are on your plant-based journey, this book is for you!

IT'S ALL IN THE ATTITUDE

As a child, I heard that more times than I could count. My mom loved to say it when I was having a grump attack, or when I was nervous about starting something new. Of course, now I find myself saying it to my son, Teddy, all the time—because it’s true! A positive attitude can really make the difference in life. As a cancer survivor, I know this to be true—trying to keep positive and finding the twisted humor through cancer treatment helped buoy me up, and being appreciative of life’s many gifts is something I’ve learned through experience. Life is precious, and it will fly by, and the days will pass no matter what—so you may as well try to live it with an easy laugh. Thankfully, delicious cake has the ability to put a smile on quite a few faces.

If you’ve never baked before, it can feel intimidating at first. My advice is to start with a simple snacking cake—a single-layer cake iced with an easy glaze or frosting. Baking can be so satisfying because it feels like a mini achievement (or sometimes a gargantuan achievement!) when your cake comes out springy and soft and your kitchen smells like warm vanilla. From the snacking cake, you can work up to two-layer cakes, then graduate to a three-layer showstopper! Don’t worry if your early attempts at baking don’t end up as you imagined—try, try, and try again. Practice makes better and perhaps eventually, perfect(ish). I still bomb in the kitchen sometimes, and heck, this is my second published cake book. Plus, if a cake looks like garbage, you can always add lots of sprinkles to cover it up, hehe, and it will likely still taste great.

Whether it’s a tender-crumbed funfetti vanilla cake with buttercream frosting, or a moist chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache frosting, or cupcakes with buttercream piped flowers for a special birthday or bake sale, Plantcakes has the goods to make your special celebration—or just a random Wednesday night—a real treat! I hope you have fun with Plantcakes—and that it brings joy to you and your loved ones in the form of soft, moist cake and creamy frosting. As I like to remind myself, life is short, enjoy the good times, treasure your loved ones, choose kindness . . . and eat that caaaaaake!

Happy cake making to you!

XO Lyndsay