Some of you may know that I have decided to pursue a vegetarian lifestyle, and, I've got to tell you that between my new dietary changes and my bicycling, my horrendous cholesterol has dropped to normal!

Today, I had some free time. So, I decided to make a cake.

A cake without eggs, milk or white sugar. Now, I'm certain that there is a way to make a good cake without the aforementioned ingredients...but I failed. I failed miserably. Now, I've made several breads without any of these ingredients, and they've turned out rather nicely.

Here is my recipe, so that those of you who are brave enough to try baking such a cake will know what to avoid!

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 cup of unprocessed raw cane sugar

1/2 cup of oil

1 cup of soy milk

1 teaspoon of baking powder

3 chunks of unsweetened baking chocolate

I melted the chocolate and mixed all the ingredients together. I looked really good, and the batter wasn't too bad either. Then I threw it in the oven for 30 minutes at about 350. It looked really good. It rose up, and has nice shape. It looked like it has nice texture. It smelled fantastic (baking chocolate always smells good). Then, I took it out of the oven and let it cool down for a moment. After a moment of cooling, I cut myself a nicely sized piece, took a seat on the couch and turned on the TV.

Finally, time for my first bite.

It wasn't bad. So, I took a second bite. Not bad at all! I was actually rather proud of myself. I took a third bite. And that's when I began to notice a strong, not-so-pleasant aftertaste. I took a fourth bite, and couldn't hardly swallow because the taste was so odd.

I decided to let the cake cool for a little bit before trying anymore (I had a rather large piece). It didn't help. This cake was bad. It was easily the worst thing I've ever baked. Even worse than the time I got the sugar and salt mixed up while baking cookies when I was ten! It was horrible! This was death by chocolate, but not the pleasant kind!

Needless to say, I threw the cake away! It's been several hours, and I can still taste the aftertaste.

I'm certainly not going to give up. There must be a way to make a good cake and still maintain my healthy/vegetarian lifestyle. I've actually had several pastry desserts made by serious vegetarians that were quite good. I guess I'll have to break down and email them for a recipe or two.

Well, all this to say: If I offer you cake sometime in the next little while, you might want to make sure that I've tried it myself, first!

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