WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 22: Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) asks questions during Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on February 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. Garland previously served at the Chief Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Vegan New Jersey senator and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Cory Booker celebrated his 50th birthday earlier this week. And his birthday cake won over at least one member of the Senate.
“Turns out vegan birthday cake is darn tasty! Great to join with my colleagues to celebrate my buddy @CoryBooker’s big 5-0 this evening. Happiest of birthdays, friend,” Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) wrote on Twitter.
A photo of Booker’s vegan birthday cake didn’t accompany the post, but he’s been known to enjoy a good sweet every now and again. An Instagram post from last June’s VegFest in Asbury Park, NJ, shows off vegan vanilla cupcakes and cannoli.
Milk, eggs, butter, and cream are all traditional baking ingredients, but cake can be made without it. Ingredients like ground flax and chia seeds and products like Ener-G are vegan substitutions for eggs. The vegan versions of milk and butter can stand in for the usual ingredients.
While there are some pre-conceived ideas that cakes need traditional ingredients to taste good, the treats made in the first vegan episode of “The Great British Baking Show” received rave reviews from the judges.
A vegan since 2014, Booker has used his platform to promote plant-forward events throughout NJ. Last June, he hosted a screening of the 2017 documentary “Eating Animals.”
That same month at the aforementioned VegFest, Booker spoke to the growing plant-based movement in the U.S. “The vegan consciousness is growing in our country and all those people, regardless of your diet, you are conscious of the environment, conscious of justice for animals, against cruelty to animals, conscious of your health,” he said.
Booker announced earlier this year that he would run for president in 2020, making him the first vegan politician to run for the position.
“We are better when we help each other,” he said in the video announcement. “I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind; where parents can put food on the table; where there are good paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood; where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins; where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame.”
This post was last modified on September 29, 2021 4:29 am