V-day is in a week and I am presenting another vegan dessert for you today: orange bundt cake with chai cashew cream frosting. This one, it might be my most creative yet. I was looking at my whiskey cake recipe last week, and wanted to turn it into an orange cake. That was easier than I thought it would be. Then, as I was baking the cake, I had a craving for chai tea – and, sure enough, turned that craving into this chai cashew cream frosting. Wow, it’s great. And almost no sugar in the frosting! Yahoo.
What this post is all about is lovey-dovey stuff during the month of love. Not that we need a Hallmark holiday to get us in the mood for love, but here I am, and here I go.
The best way I have found to love yourself and the people in your life is:
Keep a journal.
Yep, for real.
Here’s the part that matters: when you wake up, open your journal to a blank page, and start writing all the shit that’s on you mind. If you’re a typer, do it on the computer, no biggie. Get it all down:
- How much your partner pissed you off last night.
- How your dog won’t stop barking when you sleep.
- How your mom picked over your appearance, again.
- How your boss cut you off in the meeting.
- How the person in front of you was driving like he owned the world.
- How the doctor was late, again.
- How your kids are simply the worst people on this planet.
Write all that shit down.
Keep doing it – fill at least a page, if not 2, if not 4.
Do this everyday.
You will love yourself more, and you will love those around you more, and here’s why: All that crap that doesn’t need to be talked about, the words that are just boring unneeded conversation that fill space, now it has a place to go. You don’t have to then see your partner or your child and vent about some absurd thing they said last time they saw you or some medial thing that happened in your day. That all now has a safe space to be.
You will be surprised at what comes out, especially after a few days of keeping the journal. So surprised, that, like me, you’re fearful of you dying and that someone will come along and read your words before you have a chance to shred the journal. In that case, every few weeks, I fill up a page with: “THIS JOURNAL IS MEANT FOR ME TO GET THE SHIT OUT OF MY HEAD. NONE OF THESE WORDS SHOULD BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.”
Because let’s face it, this journal is meant for no one to read. This journal is not even meant for YOU to read: I am serious. Don’t read what you wrote. Just write, get it down on paper, close the book, and notice how much better you feel already.
Now, you can go along with your day and have a freer mind and more space to listen and observe and be aware of those around you.
Try it for a week. It’s free! It’ll take maybe 30 minutes! I promise you’ll be hooked.
And, I promise it’ll make you love yourself and those around you a little more. You’ll have more space in your mind to focus on their words and listen to their conversations. You’ll have less chatter in your mind and less of the thoughts that can often bring you down. It’s a win-win for you and for those you love. I hope you give it a try.
Love, Jen.
Orange Cake with Chai Cashew Cream Icing + Loving Yourself and Those Around You
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 2 oranges, peeled and sliced
- 3 tbsp. flax seeds, ground
- 1/2 c. butter, melted
- 1/2 c. natural cane sugar
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 1 c. orange juice
- 1 and 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 c. almonds, chopped
For the Icing
- 1 c. cashews
- 2 tbsp. natural cane sugar
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 6-7 tbsp. orange juice
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp. cloves
- 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp. ginger
- 1/8 tsp. allspice
Instructions
For the Cake
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray out bundt pan with coconut spray, butter or oil. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, simmer the oranges with 1 tbsp. water for 30 minutes. Remove from heat.
- In a small bow, combine the ground flax with 9 tbsp. water. Stir every few minutes until the flax becomes slightly thick.
- Place the oranges in a blender with the orange juice, and blend on high until smooth.
- Heat the butter in the saucepan, remove from heat, and stir in the sugars.
- Add the orange mixture to the sugar mixture along with the vanilla and the flax.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the baking soda. Then pour the flour mixture into the orange mixture, 1/3 at a time, removing clumps before adding more.
- In your bundt pan, sprinkle the almonds. Then pour in the orange cake batter. Bake for 45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
For the Icing
- In a high powered blender, combine the cashews, sugar, vanilla and orange juice. Pour into a bowl and then stir in the spices.
- When the cake is finished baking, poke holes int he bottom and pour 1/3 of the icing onto the bottom of the cake. Then cool the cake completely, invert, and pour the remainder of the icing over the top of the cake.
- Slice and serve with your favorite coffee or tea!