The Chocolate Cake That Made a Times Reporter Go Vegan

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There are good reasons, even noble ones, why people stop eating dairy and meat.

Animal ethics. Health concerns. Lessening one’s impact on an overheated planet, because plant-based is the most environmentally-friendly diet around.

I, meanwhile, went vegan because of a chocolate cake.

I wrote about the cake in a recent dispatch for our 50 States, 50 Fixes series, which highlights an environmental solution in every state. The cake was created in 2018 by Nora Taylor, a vegan food blogger and mother of three who lives outside Portland, Ore., a hot spot for plant-based food. The recipe has since become a sensation, with more than 1,900 five-star reviews.

I first encountered the cake at a backyard wedding in 2018, where it sat under a tent with other desserts. I’d been chocolate obsessed since childhood, spent in Ireland, where Cadbury was balm against the cold and rain. I was drawn to Taylor’s cake like a sailor to a siren. It was sumptuous, and when I learned that it contained no dairy or eggs, I was stunned.

At the time, I was wrestling with climate anxiety, as well as society’s profound disconnect from the destruction of the natural world. My dismay was amplified by the ways we condemn billions of farmed animals to hidden, cramped dungeons and violent deaths. Animal agriculture also pollutes waterways and drives greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation.

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