As a photographer, one of my favorite things to do is drive around and come to a halt whenever something catches my eye. One day recently, I had my Canon AE-1 sitting on my passenger's front seat, pondering what I might like to photograph with it. I got no further than my very own street, when I spotted this car sitting outside one of the houses. Of course, I stopped my car, jumped out, and snapped a few shots.

I have a great love for classic cars. I think this comes from my childhood, when our  family car was a 1954 Pontiac Star chief which my father had named "Kawliga." Dad even had the car's name painted on the side of the car. We attended classic car shows often, and sometimes put our car in the shows. This was a big part of the culture of my family when I was a child. So when I began doing photography, old cars were among my favorite subjects. To be cliche, I'd say "they just don't make 'em like that anymore."

When you see a photo I have taken of one of these beautifully-crafted automobiles, you'll know that I've photographed it for far deeper reasons than because I wanted to make an interesting photograph; I've photographed it because cars like that are a piece of who I am.

I decided the best way to get to the bottom of the matter was to just to start testing these recipes. Seemed like a good excuse to make some mini-cakes and start some taste-testing (PURELY for research purposes, mind you...)

Test one: Vegan White Birthday Cake recipe

I know I make this cake look goooood, but it was not quite what I felt it should've been. I'm pretty good at being able to figure out what I do or don't like about a recipe and then tweaking the recipe to be more to my liking. I thought the flavor was good on this, but texture wasn't right, the batter was too thin, and it just didn't rise the way I thought it ought to.  I didn't eat half the cake and then take this picture; the layers were so thin that I had to slice each one into two semicirlces - yielding four layers. Yes, there are only three layers in the assembled cake...I had to do a taste test on the fourth semicircle! There were parts of this recipe that I felt were good, and which I knew I would keep in mind for future cakes.

Test two: Vegan White Cake recipe

If I had to use one phrase to describe this cake, it would be: old-fashioned. I hadn't realized what a difference using a solid fat in a cake, such as margarine or shortening, made in comparison with using oil in a cake. The texture of the cake brought to mind the types of cakes I'd have at my Mamaw Coley's house growing up. I'm guessing using butter or shortening in a cake is old-timey thing to do. As you can see, I didn't use white icing on this white cake. I KNOW how to make a good buttercream icing like the one I used on the first white cake recipe.  I thought I'd give my taste buds a little variety by using the chocolate icing recipe that was given with the recipe for this cake. The chocolate icing was old-fashioned style also. It uses oil rather than butter and shortening like buttercream-type recipes do. It yielded almost a fudge candy-like chocolate icing. So sugary that you feel it's teeth-shatteringly sweet, but yet you want to lick every last drop of the icing off the plate. The verdict for this cake recipe: passable, but not really what I was looking for. The old-fashioned style of it was dense and, while certainly tasty, just not what I like in a cake.

Trial Three: Vegan White Birthday Cake, redux

I decided there were aspects of the first recipe I tried that I really liked, and the fact that it didn't turn out right just seemed like a fluke to me. I tweaked this recipe just slightly the second time around, using tried-and-true cake making techniques that I felt would improve the outcome of the recipe. Boy, was I glad I gave this cake another shot! I was worried that I had made a mistake when I halved the original recipe size to make it fit the mini-cake, so I went whole hog and made the full-sized recipe this time. It baked up beauuuuuutifully. I did have to add more flour to the batter since it was still thinner than I thought it should be. I knew I had had cake overload already that week and COULDN'T be soley responsible for disposing of this whole cake. I said to myself "What am I gonna do with this ginourmous cake??" Thankfully, it was the day before Halloween and the perfect excuse to decorate the cake and take into work.

We have a winner folks! The texture was wonderful, the flavor was outstanding, and it baked up tall and proud. I now have a solid standard white cake recipe in my arsenal!

Nikon FE. 24 hour diner. After David Bazan's show.