Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner Cake

♫ Listening to: Where Have You Been? by Hey Violet ♫

I’ve been vegan for 19 years now, and I’ve probably been making my own tofurkey for at least 10 of those years. This year, I wanted to do something different, and I’m SO EXCITED that I did.

This can easily be made gluten-free by making a gluten-free stuffing and using a starch to thicken the gravy instead of flour.

There are basically 6 parts to making this: the tofu, the marinade, the stuffing, the brussel sprouts, the mashed potatoes, and the gravy. Even though it seems like a lot, I still made this entire thing in under 5 hours, which is way less time than it would take me to make a thanksgiving dinner. I recommend serving it with bunny biscuits.

If you want to make this the day before you plan to serve it, here’s my suggestion. Before making the mashed potatoes, leave it in the springform pan in your fridge overnight. Go ahead and make the gravy the day before, and store it in a covered container in the fridge too. Then the next day, heat the thanksgiving cake in the oven at 350º for about 30 minutes while you make the mashed potatoes for the top. Reheat the gravy on the stove with a whisk.

This cake serves 8.

Tofurkey Ingredients

• 2 pounds extra-firm organic tofu*
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon smoked sea salt (or sub another ½ teaspoon salt and 3 shakes of liquid smoke)

Tofurkey Directions

Rinse the tofu and wrap each block in a kitchen towel. Leave wrapped as long as possible, preferably overnight in the fridge. After they sit, while wrapped in towels, squeeze to get extra moisture out of tofu. Crumble tofu into a bowl.

Add garlic, onion, salt, and smoked sea salt to the tofu. Mix.

Preheat oven to 400º.

Line a springform pan with cheesecloth (or if you don’t have cheesecloth, use parchment paper or just make sure to grease the pan really really well).

Press the tofu into the pan to cover the bottom and sides with tofu approximately ½ – 1” thick, depending on the size of your mold. Press with your fist and/or palm to make sure it’s packed tightly.

Marinade Ingredients

• ¼ cup olive oil
• ½ cup braggs liquid aminos

Marinade Directions

Combine ¼ cup olive oil and ½ cup braggs liquid aminos to make marinade.

Brush the entire surface area of the tofu with the marinade using a silicone basting brush .

Bake at 400º for 20 minutes.

Stuffing Directions

Make the stuffing using this stuffing recipe.

Remove the tofu from the oven, baste with marinade, and fill with stuffing.

Bake at 400º for 30 minutes.

Brussel Sprouts Directions

Toss your destemmed brussel sprouts with oil, balsamic vinegar, and spices, and bake them in the oven while the tofurkey and stuffing are baking, but on the shelf just below. If your family doesn’t like brussel sprouts, you can use destemmed and chopped green beans instead.

Remove both items from the oven, and transfer the brussel sprouts to the top of the cake.

Slide a silicone spatula down the sides of the pan between the cake and the springform pan to make sure it isn’t sticking before you release the sides.

Remove the sides of the pan (and peel off your parchment paper or cheesecloth if you used it).

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Directions

Follow these directions to make the mashed potatoes and gravy, except when you make the mashed potatoes, I would peel the potatoes. For this recipe, I only used peeled potatoes (and no other added veggies) because I wanted them to pipe really well.

Spread the mashed potatoes smoothly across the top of the cake, filling in any gaps between the brussel sprouts.

Transfer the remaining mashed potatoes to a piping bag fitted with your large tip of choice. I used my favorite Wilton star tip 1M .

Pipe little dollops of potatoes around the top of your thanksgiving dinner cake.

Drizzle gravy over the top of the cake until it runs down the sides.

If you happen to have any leftovers, I suggest reading this blog post to inspire you to make leftover sandwiches.

I recommend serving this with my crustless pumpkin pie.

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* I use mostly organic ingredients when I cook, but I realize that not everyone has the disposable income to purchase all organic ingredients. Therefore, I only specify organic on the ingredients that really matter - when buying the organic version is the only way to ensure that the item is vegan.