Ellen Kanner

soulful vegan writer

  • About
  • Miami Vegan – New Cookbook!
  • CONSULTATION
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • RESOURCES
  • RECIPES
  • Video
  • Shop
  • Appearances
  • BLOG
  • CONTACT
  • $0.00
You are here: Home / DESSERT / Seed Cake

Seed Cake

March 19, 2018 by Ellen Kanner Leave a Comment

Spring Awakening

Originally posted for Huffington Post on 3/30/2015

I’d intended to make this post about Passover and Easter, the two holidays that bookend this weekend. Nature has had other ideas, signaling to me in my favorite kind of way.

The bees have been buzzing around my firebush, the bluejays and mockingbirds are warbling and trilling … and dive-bombing. This weekend, as I was planting new tomatoes and herbs out back, two squirrels chased each other around and around our oak tree. They tore through the seed and nut mix I put out for the birds, exalting in the choicest bits. They spun their tails like lariats. I was just wondering if they were doing the squirrel mating dance when indeed, they began mating.

This was my first glimpse of squirrel sex, and I can tell you it’s inspiring and athletic. Having sex and scampering up a tree at the same time requires a degree of multitasking I have yet to achieve. At one point, the male toppled from the female, plummeted off the oak tree and landed on the white bird palm below. Happily, it’s a palm with broad fronds. He bounced, as though landing on a trampoline. Dignity unscathed, the squirrel bounced, high-tailed right back up and got to it.

Afterwards — how familiar — the male fell asleep. I’ve never seen a squirrel sleep before. But this one just made himself at home, curled up on a branch, in plain sight if you knew where to look, and crashed out for half an hour. The female circled him. Perhaps I’m projecting here, but she seemed to try to nudge him — Really? No talk? No cuddle?

Guys. What can you do?

Still, the squirrels have been doing what comes naturally. So have the birds. They swoop at me fearlessly when I’m anywhere near their nests, where their clutches of eggs are. Birds. Bees. Squirrels. Sex. Add it up.

I do not live in some magical wonderland, I live in an urban area, and if that much libidinal impulse can muscle its way into city living, it’s a sure sign of spring. As I say in my book, “Feeding the Hungry Ghost: Life, Faith and What to Eat for Dinner,” spring “is when life tells you yes.”

We might package Passover and Easter tidily with other things, with a little “Next year in Jerusalem” here and “He is risen” there, but at their heart, both celebrate spring the season of love, of desire and blossoming. Before there was formal religion, there were birds, bees, squirrels and sex.

“God in heaven, there’s nothing like nature,” as Molly Bloom says in James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

Here’s my favorite bit from Job:

But ask the animals and they will teach you,
Or the birds of the air, and they will tell you,
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you…
Which of all these does not know
That the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all mankind.

The bible says we are precious, with a bit of the divine in us all. So at this time of new beginning, of regeneration, consider listening to the animals. Don’t eat them. The animals will teach us. The earth will tell us. We just have to listen.

Slices of seed cake on a plate.

Seed Cake

Seed cake has a small but sexy part in James Joyce's Ulysses. In her lusty soliloquy, Molly Bloom recalls, "the day I got him to propose yes first I gave him the bit of seedcase out of my mouth."
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course Breakfast, Dessert

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup unsweetened oat, almond or other plantbased milk
  • 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds also known as flax meal
  • 2 tablespoons ground chia seeds
  • 2 teaspoons whole anise seeds
  • 1-1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 cup evaporated cane sugar
  • 1/2 cup grapeseed oil or other natural oil
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1/3 cup raisins
  • zest and juice of 1 lemon

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Lightly grease an 8” round cake pan or a 9”x5” loaf pan.
  • In a small bowl, combine oat or other plantbased milk with flax, chia and anise seeds. Stir lightly to combine and let sit while you assemble the other ingredients.
  • In a large bowl, sift together whole wheat flour, baking soda and baking powder. Grate in lemon zest.
  • In another bowl, mix together evaporated cane sugar, grapeseed oil, apple sauce and lemon juice. Add to dry mixture, along with the soy milk, which, thanks to the seeds, will have thickened madly. Stir together, then fold in the raisins.
  • Pour into prepared baking pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the cake is golden, puffed and a tester inserted in the center comes away crumb-free and clean. You can also give it a gentle poke with a finger. It springs back perfectly when baked through.
  • Remove from oven and let cool. Wrapped well and refrigerated, it keeps for several days.
Keyword seed cake

dividerEK


dividerEKThank you for reading my vegan stories and plant-based recipes. I sincerely love to connect with listeners and would like to hear your feedback, takeaways, “ah-ha!” moments, etc in the comments.

Connect with me for discounts, exclusive tips, and other freebies:
• Join my NEWSLETTER for exclusive content & offers
• Join my social networks on LINKEDIN, TWITTER and FACEBOOK

Want to learn more?
Explore more of my VEGAN RECIPES, and my COOK BOOKS.
Do you want a happier life, a greener plate, and a delicious world? Then sign up for VEG THERAPY.



Filed Under: Cake & Tarts, DESSERT Tagged With: seed cake

« St. Patrick’s Day Bubble and Squeak (The Eating of the Green)
MY FAVORITE PEOPLE, MY FAVORITE RECIPES: Chloe Coscarelli »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

VEGAN EXTRAS

  • SHARE YOUR VEGAN STORY
  • RESOURCES
  • MY FAVORITE PEOPLE, MY FAVORITE RECIPES

RECOMMENDED VEGAN READS

Recent Posts

  • Improved Irish Soda Bread
  • The Hunt is Over — Broccoli Rising Now and Forever
  • Plantbased Brunch — Wake up to Delicious Plantbased Possibilities 
  • Get Happy! Get Plants!
  • Coconut Mignardises

EXPLORE VEGAN RECIPES…

  • Sweet Potato Salad with Tahini and Ginger
    Social Justice with Urban Oasis Project | Sweet Potato Salad
  • Earth Month Special: Stone Soup
  • My Favorite People, My Favorite Recipes: Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza
  • Of Cabbages and Kings
  • Vegan of the month – Gene Baur

Archives

Some posts might contain affiliate links of books that I love. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links.

~ Search Site ~

RSS Newsletter

  • Broccoli Rising and a MiamI Vegan in Turkiye May 19, 2025
  • Broccoli Rising, Miami Vegan, and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt 1 May 12, 2025
  • Broccoli Rising and All Over Creation May 5, 2025
  • Broccoli Rising and the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread April 28, 2025
  • Broccoli Rising and 21 Earth Day Actions that Mean the World April 21, 2025

~ Signup for my Newsletter~

~ Follow on Instagram ~

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No feed with the ID 1 found.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to create a feed.

© 2025 ELLEN KANNER