By Bobby Tran turns fifty on August 3rd, but this week I'm thinking about the year ahead, not the birthday. Tyler is married. The restaurant is in motion. Ava is crawling. Huong is coming in June. The Vietnam trip happened. The house is mine. Fifteen years sober. This is a man's life at fifty: full, imperfect, built from the wreckage of the things he broke and the stubborn insistence on building new things from the pieces.
Lily and James signed the letter of intent on the Westheimer space. It's real now. Not open — not for another three years — but real in the way that a foundation is real before the house goes up. They're working with an architect on the build-out. James has designed the kitchen layout with my input: the smoker visible through the front window, the cook line in the back, the prep area flowing into the cook line efficiently. I drew the equipment list and estimated costs. Forty-eight thousand dollars in kitchen equipment alone. My forty-thousand-dollar investment is a piece of it. But it's the first piece, and the first piece is the one that makes the rest possible.
Saturday at Mai's. She was on the phone with Huong when I arrived. They were arguing — in the way sisters argue — about whether the pho in Da Nang is as good as the pho in Saigon. This argument has been ongoing for six weeks and shows no signs of resolution. I sat at the table and ate a spring roll and listened to my mother argue with her sister about soup, and I was so happy I couldn't breathe. This is what Mai lost in 1975: the right to argue with her sister about something that doesn't matter. And now she has it back. The trivial argument is the miracle. The mundane disagreement is the proof that they're sisters again, not just survivors.
Made a big Sunday dinner: the full Bobby Tran spread. Brisket, spring rolls, pho, thit kho, the smoked queso for good measure. Emma and Daniel brought Ava. Lily and James brought jollof rice and puff-puff. Mai brought her pho pot and her opinions. We ate at the table in my house — my house — and Ava sat in her high chair and banged a spoon and everyone talked at once and the food was hot and the people were warm and I looked around the table and thought: four hundred weeks of this blog. Four hundred weeks of cooking and writing and living. And the story is only getting better.
The brisket was gone, the pho pot was scraped, and Ava had banged her spoon into submission—and still the table didn’t want to break up. That’s when you bring out chocolate cake. Not because anyone saved room, but because a meal like that deserves a punctuation mark, something sweet and final and worth slowing down for. I’ve been making this vegan version for years—it’s the one that travels well, feeds a crowd, and doesn’t ask anything complicated of you, which is exactly the kind of dessert you want when the cooking is already done and the people around your table are the whole point.
Decadent Vegan Chocolate Cake
Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup brewed coffee, cooled (or water)
- 1/3 cup neutral oil (such as avocado or vegetable oil)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Chocolate Ganache Frosting:
- 1 cup dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup full-fat coconut cream
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt until evenly combined.
- Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the cooled coffee, oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract.
- Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined—a few small lumps are fine. Do not overmix.
- Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 33–36 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the ganache. Combine the chocolate chips and coconut cream in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth and fully melted. Remove from heat and stir in the maple syrup and salt. Let cool for 10–15 minutes, until it thickens to a pourable but spreadable consistency.
- Frost and serve. Pour the ganache over the cooled cake and spread to the edges, letting it drip naturally down the sides. Allow to set for 20 minutes before slicing. Serve at room temperature.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 295 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 42g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 210mg