The Last Drop of Wine Has Hit the Floor...Week 52!

Thank you everyone for reading Nevertheless She Persisted. We did it…one whole year of me writing about me and you reading. I heard from so many of you and had some great conversations because of this Substack. I’m toasting us tonight with a bottle of chenin blanc my niece gave me called Final Girl. The label says “for the final girl left standing when the last drop of wine hits the floor.” Seems appropriate.

There were a few things that I never got around to writing about this year, but that’s okay. Maybe I’ll still post occasionally. Now…one last recipe and a few photos. That’s it! Of course, since my birthday is this week, the recipe must be cake.

Let ‘Em Eat Cake

I originally got the recipe for this ginger-coconut-carrot cake from Vegan With a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (also known as the punk rock vegan chef). It’s so good and please don’t let “vegan” scare you. Even non-vegans love this cake.

I’m sharing the recipe for my favorite cake: Ginger-Coconut-Carrot Cake+ Easy Coconut Icing! I hope you try it.

Ginger-Coconut-Carrot Cake

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup pineapple juice

½ cup canola oil

¾ cup sugar

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup macadamia nuts or walnuts, roughly chopped

¼ cup crystallized ginger, chopped

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

2 cups carrots, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Have ready two 8-inch round springform cake pans, lightly greased. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.  In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together the pineapple juice, oil, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in batches, and combine well. Fold in nuts, ginger, coconut and carrots. 

Divide the batter evenly between the two round cake pans. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans. Remove from pans and put a layer of coconut icing (see below) between the layers, and another layer of icing on the top. 

EASY COCONUT ICING

¼ cup nonhydrogenated margarine at room temp

¼ cup coconut milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 cup unsweetened coconut

Cream the margarine until light and fluffy. Add the coconut milk and vanilla, combine. Add the sifted powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add the unsweetened coconut and combine. Refrigerate until ready to use.

What else?

Lastly, a few photos.

Thank you Mary G for serving as our My Friend Mary advice purveyor this past year. I came across this photo today of Mary (on the right) and our friend Laurie Drake. Mary and Laurie were both my neighbors and friends in Santa Monica. Laurie was a former Vogue editor and Mary just looked like one! :)

I never got around to talking about my Army journalist days or my illustrious high school cheer days. I was in a bit of time crunch and couldn’t find the Army photos today, but here’s me as cheerleader. I’m front right, most certainly dying for the shot to be taken so I could get out of those splits.

And I always meant to share this photo, but never got around to it either. So here you go!

Thanks for reading! xoV