Apricot Upside Down Cake

Do you like food? Have you ever browsed the pages upon pages of deliciousness at smitten kitchen? Far too often I find myself transfixed by her photos, and wishing her recipes could all happen to be vegan. No such luck on that vegan detail; curse the miraculous wonders of eggs and butter. Most recently I've been inspired by her everyday cakes, so I'm taking it upon myself to find, modify, or invent some decent vegan recipes.

This recipe turned out quite nicely. I only used 2 tbsps vegan butter, and added 2 tbsps applesauce and 2 tbsps vegan yogurt. She also doesn't say how much sugar to put in the cake batter, so I guesstimated and went with 1/2 cup. I baked it in a 9" cake pan, and the thing totally overflowed and smoked up my poor oven. That was the only pitfall, though. Despite my sub-par photography skills, this cake was bright and beautiful when it popped out of the pan, and the taste and texture were awesome. I'll definitely be making this guy again.

I'm going to take just a couple of lines here and sum up my 6 months of absence. Here goes:

- Some time in January I decided I needed a doctorate, picked a school and found an awesome teacher, applied and prepared an audition, bombed said audition, cried giant tears over my crushed dreams, and then got accepted.

- During the middle of that process, Fred and I were informed that our landlords wanted to sell our apartment as a condo and would not extend our lease. The clock was ticking, so we found a place within a week and moved within a month, all during the busy season.

- Despite my aforementioned love of cake, I've managed to drop a decent chunk of weight in the past few months. Yay for taking charge of my life! I'll say more about it some day if I ever reach "goal," whatever that turns out to be.

- My sister had her baby!

- My Dad and step-mom drove up from Texas to visit with us and then to meet the new baby! They were on the road for a 28 day round trip, and it was so good to host them at our new apartment.

- Base miles have been logged and marathon training has begun so that I might conquer that elusive first marathon.

- We went to see Fred's brother in Minneapolis. I had never been, and now I want to move. We'll see what happens in 3 years, after I finish this doctorate.

- The quintet landed a new tuba player. He landed a job in China 2 months later.

- The quintet landed a new new tuba player. He rocks.

- The quintet's trombone player landed a job in Japan. He leaves in September. We're hugely excited for he and his wife, and hugely sad for our loss.

- The quintet landed a gig as an Ensemble in Residence at Tanglewood this summer, coaching for their Young Artists Wind Ensemble!

- The year has nearly ended, I've wrapped up a significant amount of my teaching and playing to focus on school, and summer is nearly upon us. Thank goodness!

I think that's the most of it, in a nutshell. I'm looking forward to finding center again this summer, remembering how to relax, and exploring new projects. This year has been a doozy, that's for sure. It's a goal to be here more often too. Probably with cake :)