I made a cake!

This past week Mike celebrated his birthday and I decided to bake him a birthday cake.

I'm not a baker, but I must say that I have been enjoying baking more and more.

I grabbed our go-to baking cookbook, "The Joy of Vegan Baking" by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and I got to work.

Mike's favorite recipe out of that book is the Chocolate Cake recipe. I also used the chocolate frosting recipe!

The cake came out perfect and delicious. Mike loved it.

Now don't laugh at the photo! I said it was deliciousness, not that it came out photo worthy!

The reason I wanted to write a post about this is because making the cake was so simple! I communicate with blog readers all of the time and many of them  don't bake because they believe they couldn't do it, that it takes too long and is too complicated. The chocolate cake took less than 15 minutes to make!

Grab a recipe you think looks interesting and go for it! Make something delicious for someone you love or a neighbor or a co-worker. You will have a blast and you'll be able to spread vegan deliciousness which always is a win!

Thanks for reading.

Nonviolent action against discrimination

If you are connected to me on Facebook, Twittter, or Pinterest you know that I recently found out about a bakery in my own town told a gay couple this past week that they would not make them a wedding cake.

My first thought was that this could not possibly be true. Don't get me wrong, I am not ignorant to the reality of the world. But in Lakewood, CO.

Within a half hour my friend Drew Wilson (Mile High Gay Guy) spoke with the owner of Master Piece Bakery who confirmed that that would not be serving the gay community.

I was stunned.

I did not want to react with anger, hostility or violence, in my actions or in my words. So I went to my world of social media and I got busy.

First to Yelp. Dozens of people had already posted comments and reviews. I wanted to post something on Yelp for the same reason I am writing this blog: so people who support equality and are against bigotry and discrimination in any form will know not to shop at this bakery.

I then got onto Twitter and Facebook and asked those connected with me there to spread the word.  And boy did they.

As all of this was happening I began to write about nonviolence. For this guy to not want to do business with the gay community, well, that's his right. I doubt I can change his mind. (He has not stated why. His only comment was "use your imagination". What I can do is make sure that we, this amazing community of people who will not accept bigotry and discrimination, will not financially support his business. I will keep telling people about this and keep asking them not to shop there.

And I will ask them to speak out against this in a nonviolent way. No threats of violence, no curse-laden phone calls. Simply saying "I heard about your decision on not making a wedding cake for a gay couple, I'm sickened by that, and I will not shop with you" is just fine.

We can stand our ground and fight the good fight without becoming people we do not want to be.

Now I am hungry for cake. Good, vegan cake. I wish Beet Box would deliver to me right now!

Thanks for reading and thank you for your support. My email is vegandude@msn.com is you would like to email me. If you would like to read Drew's blog about his trip to meet the owner of Master Piece Bakery, click here: http://www.milehighgayguy.com/2012/07/masterpiece-cakeshop-serving-up-cakes.html