Chocolate Fudgey Puddin' Cake

As part of Legacy’s Recipe Vault series, vegan foodie Bianca Phillips talked with us about how recipes connect us to those we’ve lost (and help define the legacies we leave behind).

As part of Legacy.com's ongoing Recipe Vault series, food bloggers and network stars share how recipes connect us to those we’ve lost.

Bianca Phillips is the author ofCookin' Crunk: Eatin' Vegan in the Dirty South, a soulful collection of down-home comfort food recipes made without meats, eggs, dairy, or other animal by-products. She lives in Memphis with her partner Paul, two mutts, six cats and a rescued squirrel, and blogs daily at Vegan Crunk, where she posts photos of everyday eats, recipes, reviews and the occasional adorable cat picture. Here, she shares one recipe that reminds her of someone she loves and misses.

How did you first get interested in cooking?

Bianca: I kind of grew up in the kitchen, with my mom and my grandma both. I would follow them around. When I was 14, I went vegetarian [and] started cooking for myself a lot more, because my mom didn't really get it at first. I would come up with my own weird recipes. [But] many of the recipes in the cookbook are things they made when I was a kid that I have veganized.

What’s your favorite thing about cooking?

Bianca: Well, probably eating. Can I say that? I love cooking, but I cook to eat... It's also very meditative, I think, when you're dicing things and stirring and measuring.

What's one recipe that reminds you of someone you've lost?

Bianca: My Chocolate Fudgey Puddin' Cake, from my book, Cookin' Crunk. This is actually a recipe that my grandma gave me to include in the book.

Growing up, any time Granny made dessert for a holiday or just after dinner, we always knew that my Pa [my grandfather] would finish it off. It was never an issue of, "I've got to send you home with the cake," because Pa would eat it. He loved dessert so much. I remember he always had those little hand pies around. So this recipe really reminds me of him… it's chocolate, and he loved chocolate. It's a simple cake that's not necessarily the kind of thing you'd bring to a party, because it's not pretty. It's just a frosting-less chocolate cake with pudding underneath, but it's delicious.

My Pa died in December 2012, right after Christmas. He was alive when she made [this cake] for me first, and I tried it with her. My memory of that time is vague – I remember trying it, but I don't remember the day. But I'm certain that he finished off whatever we didn't eat that day. You know, I tried a bite, my mom probably tried a bite, and my grandma tried a little bit, and I'm sure Pa finished the rest of it off. That's the way any kind of dessert went, growing up with him.

If you were to be remembered by one recipe, what would it be?

Bianca: Definitely Southern cooking. That's mostly what I eat, because it's where I live. As far as from my book, the recipe that has gotten the most traction on the internet would be my Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits and Gravy. [But] my favorite recipe from the book, and one I would hope people would remember me for, is the Country Fried Tempeh Steak with Soymilk Gravy. It's my favorite thing in the whole book. It's a fried recipe, and I think people are kind of scared to fry things. And maybe people are also concerned about health stuff. But I like to fry things.

Chocolate Fudgey Puddin’ Cake

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