Vegan MoFo Day 24 - Christmas Birthday Cake

No your eyes do not deceive you, this was a birthday cake request. It somewhat resembles a South Park character but that wasn't intentional. This was a sponge cake minus the cherries, sliced in half and filled with strawberry jam and buttercream then covered in more buttercream and decorated with fondant icing.

The Christmas and Birthday hating friend was delighted with it.

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan MoFo Day 21 - Apricot Fruit Cake

This cake is wonderfully moist and flavourful. Goes perfectly with a cuppa tea.
Apricot Fruit Cake

Ingredients

75g dried apricots, roughly chopped

75g dried prunes, roughly chopped

75g sultanas

225 ml apple juice

200g plain wholemeal flour

25g soya flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon mixed spice

75g soft brown sugar

100ml sunflower oil

Juice of half a lemon

2 Tablespoons of jam (apricot, gooseberry...whatever)

Method

Soak the apricots, prunes and sultanas overnight in a bowl with the apple juice.

Pre heat oven to 170 degrees (325 fahrenheit). 

Sift together the flours, bicarb and mixed spiced.

Stir the sugar into the soaked fruit then add the oil, lemon juice and jam. Add this to the flour mixture and mix together really well.

Pour into a greased 8 inch cake tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 55-60 mins. 

Test to see if the cake is cooked by inserting a tooth pick into the middle of the cake. If the tooth pick comes out clean the cake is ready.

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan MoFo Day 16 - Iron Chef Challenge #2

This weeks ingredients are bananas and coffee.

Thus the ugliest cake in the world was born...people - I give you the Coffee Banoffee Cake.

This is a basic sponge with 4 teaspoons of strong coffee and muscavado sugar added.

I would have decorated this cake with a buttercream topping but I had no icing sugar and couldn't be bothered to nip to the shop I made an agreement to myself that I would participate in the Iron Chef Challenge ONLY if I had the ingredients in the house already. I would not participate if I had to buy something in. Whilst that is true, I would have bought icing sugar because it gets used A LOT round here but well.......I really couldn't be arsed to go to the shops.

The banana cream topping didn't go quite as planned, though it tastes fricking AWESOME it is not very pleasing to the eye. I think lemon juice was needed to prevent the bananas from going brown. The addition of a teaspoon of turmeric sent it a day glo green colour.

Who knew!

So it got covered in smashed up muesli to lessen the eyeball attack.

I will make this again for sure, but it needs a few tweaks so therefore I ain't posting the recipe.

here's a pretty picture to make up for the optical onslaught of the previous picture and to prove that there is nothing wrong with your monitor OR your eyesight.

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan MoFo Day 10 - Upside Down Peach Cake

Ingredients

2 ripe peaches, peeled and sliced into segments

1 Tablespoon muscavado sugar

8 scrapes nutmeg

3 cups of self raising flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 of a teaspoon of salt
1 and a half cups of coconut milk 

half a cup of soya milk

2/3 of a cup of sunflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Method

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a 9 inch cake tin (deep one).
Place the peach segments in a bowl, add the muscavado sugar and nutmeg and mix gently. Set aside.

Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. In another bowl stir together the coconut milk, soya milk, oil and vanilla and add to the flour, sugar and salt. Mix until you get a smooth batter. The consistency will be quite thick for a cake batter but this is good, don't be tempted to add more liquid.
Arrange the peach slices in the base of the cake tin and just before pouring the batter into the cake tin, stir in the cider vinegar.

Bake for about 1 hour 30 mins (check after 1 hr 15 mins) until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Don't be tempted to open the oven for at least an hour or it will sink!
Cool in the tin then invert onto a plate. You might need to slice the top of the cake to get it even, depending on how much it has risen.

This is good as it is or with lashings of warm custard.

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan Cherry Sponge Cake

S'uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!

Mostly I are making cakes. And eating cakes. Mostly I are happy.

This makes such a delicious, dense, moist, rich cake you will wonder where this recipe has been all your vegan life.

Vegan Cherry Cake

Ingredients
3 cups of self raising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup glace cherries, halved
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups coconut milk (which conveniently is one whole tin)
2/3 cup of groundnut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Method

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a 9 inch cake tin (deep one).
Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. In another bowl stir together the coconut milk, oil and vanilla and add to the flour, sugar and salt. Add the halved cherries and mix until you get a smooth batter. The consistency will be quite thick for a cake batter but this is good.
Just before pouring into the cake tin, stir in the cider vinegar.

Bake for about 1 hour 30 mins (check after 1 hr 15 mins) until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Don't be tempted to open the oven for at least an hour or it will sink!
Cool in the tin.  
 

Mum Cake

Mummy treehugger has moved over to Spain. She arrived on her birthday so a Cake was definitely called for. This is the same recipe as the Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake (man I LOVE LOVE LOVE that recipe) but this was covered in butter cream.

I didn't even think to get an inside shot - can you blame me?

GO VEGAN!

Recipe Testing: Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake

For Carla's up and coming cook book Vegan Bake Sale I present you with Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake.

Maaaaaaa-aaaan this is one totally awesome cake and will get made lots and lots and lots of times. Poor Mr treehugger (type 1 diabetic) could only have the weeniest bite and when his eyes rolled into the back of his head I freaked out thinking I'd given him a hyper. Turns out he was rolling them eyes in pure ecstasy and I can understand why. This cake is the epiphany of food porn. GO VEGAN!

Vegan MoFo 2009 Day #29: Hallow-vegan Cake

Totally inspired by River's awesome little cakes was I. There are two layers of the Fauxstess Cupcake recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, layered between that is vegan buttercream. The same buttercream is spread round 3 sides of the cake and then I dragged a fork around the three sides to make the pages. The top and spine of the book is made using Ginger's Chocolate Ganache recipe. I had a little buttercream left over so I chucked this in too. This should keep the ghouls happy this Halloween!! GO VEGAN! GO MoFo!!

Well rested and Raring to go!

Oooh it was weird not typing vegan MoFo as the title.....it felt so natural to do so.

Well it's November chaps and chapesses and the days are getting as short as they are cold. Nature tends to kick in and take over our bodies through the Winter Months - making us crave stodgy foods that will help keep us warm with some extra insulation. I don't know about anyone else but I am amply insulated enough as it is and after MoFo all my body was craving was SALAD!! Yep - you heard me - nice crisp green Lettuce Leaves with a juicy red Tomato and LOADS of Cauliflower Salad to boot. Boy was it ever good and I'm going to have the same for lunch today as well. It's interesting to note that it is all raw too!

RAWR!

And as promised prior to Halloween, a photo of the Spider Cake I made.

He looks good but I wasn't impressed with the Cake mixture and would NOT make this again. I only own Veganomicon and Vegan with a Vengeance cook books so I rely heavily on the interwebs for recipes - if anyone has a tried and tested and LOVED Sponge Cake recipe you could share with me I would be truly grateful. Thankfully everyone was well inebriated when he got sliced up and failed to notice what I noticed - maybe my taste buds are more sensitive than omni's anyway? Who knows! I didn't like it and that is enough for me, or maybe EVERYONE didn't like it but were all too polite to say!! Maybe I have scarred them against Vegan Cake for life!! Oh the paranoia has set in!!

Vegan MoFO Day 25: I wasn't a happy bunny but I am now

I baked my Christmas Cake yesterday and it all went horribly wrong. You're probably thinking why the hell am I baking my Christmas Cake in October and I'm all horribly wrong. Right?

Well...let me tell you - I like my Christmas Cakes like I like a cheap date - moist, fruity and pissed in no time! I ply my Christmas Cake with so much alcohol between now and the big day that you really don't want a naked flame to go anywhere near it come Yuletide!! This is my first vegan Christmas and as I will be taking this Cake all the way to England with me to show off to all the rellies, I want this Cake to ROCK!! I want it to be even more special than my old faithful Christmas Cake recipe that was passed down to me by my mother who was, in turn, given it by her mother who was given it by her mother etc etc. You get my point. This Cake has to be the freaking business! I trawled the interwebs looking for a suitable recipe when this one caught my eye. I liked it because, apart from the Fruit, it doesn't contain any sugar, it uses no Marg or Oil and it's by The Vegan Society!! So it's got to be good right??!! I also like the fact it uses Marzipan as an optional addition. Seeing as there was no sugar in the actual Cake mixture - I really really liked the thought of the Marzipan, won't it be a really nice treat when tucking into a slice - a Marzipan surprise!! So - this was my Cake of choice. Went out, bought all the ingredients (boy aren't dried Fruits and Marzipan expensive!!) and set to. I thought, when I had mixed all the ingredients together, that it seemed a little dry - but I had measured out everything and followed the recipe to a T (about the ONLY time I actually do follow a recipe) so I figured it would all be alright. Have faith in the recipe Jeni! Ha blinking Ha! I took the Cake out of the oven, went to flip it over on a plate and half of it came out whilst the other half was welded to the bottom of the tin through the medium of melted Marzipan. Man that stuff is like superglue!! So, after my initial panic and bout of swearing (I really do swear like a docker), I quickly flipped it all back into the pan and cooked it for another ten mins thinking to myself it's better to leave the Cake to go cold before trying to take it out of the tin - give the Marzipan time to harden up and solidify, ya know. So when I took it out the second time I gently scraped a knife around the edges and left the Cake to cool. I went to look at it today and guess what?

TA DAA!!!

It looks alright, it smells HEAVENLY so fingers crossed it's gonna taste just as good. It seems the Sprites were Spritely elsewhere 'cos Zoey had mischief afoot in her household too!

The Planets must have been all out of sync - though I did check my Chrondala to see if the time boded well. The Chrondala is an ancient, secret manuscript of ancient lore passed down through generations to those who are worthy of it's gift, and is highly sought after by Sages and Parsley's the world over (and can be found here for free). FREE!! I paid 2 quid for mine years ago and this little beauty has made me so happy ever since - 2 quid well spent. I swear every time I look at it I discover something I've never seen before.

If you're stuck for a gift for someone - print out the Chrondala - I can't think of anyone who wouldn't like this. I bought a cheap glass frame to keep it safe and snug and I LOVE mine.

Today's song is If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out by the FANTASTIC Cat Stevens - don't ask me what he calls himself now 'cos I will embarrass myself - he will always be Cat to me. This song is from the totally FAB film Harold and Maude - if you've never seen this film then you HAVE to!! It is in my top 5 favourite movies of all time, I love it even more than The Wizard of Oz!!

:)

Vegan MoFo: Captains Log Day 3 - Having your cake and eating it!

I never really understood that saying "have your cake and eat it". I mean what's the point of having cake if you're NOT going to eat it!!?? Makes no sense. Anyhoooo...all deep thoughts and musings a side, let's talk CAKE! YAY! After the incredible success of my Farmhouse Cake recipe I felt gee'd up and spurred on to don the oven mitts once more and spend an afternoon baking! One of my favourite things about Autumn (besides Halloween, Soup and Bonfires) is the ability to bake again. Baking makes me feel all witchy and magical as I chuck things into my big bowl and whisk furiously (have you ever seen the chef from The Muppet Show?) - it's like alchemy only instead of turning base metals into gold I am turning base ingredients into yummy goodness which is far better than gold in my humble opinion. I decided to veganize an old favourite of mine and that is Dorsetshire Spiced Apple Cake. The Result? Absoforkinglootly SCRUMMAH!

Dorsetshire Spiced Apple Cake serves 1 person for a whole day (or 6 slices if you insist) Ingredients 1 cup Wholemeal Flour 1 cup Plain Flour 1/2 cup Dried Prunes, chopped up 1 Cooking Apple, peeled, cored and a third of it sliced into neat slithers the other half chopped 2 tsp Mixed Spice 1 tsp Cinnamon 1 tsp Vanilla Extract 2 Tblsp Maple Syrup 200ml Melted Vegan Marg 1 Cup Soya Milk 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda 1/2 tsp salt Golden Granulated Sugar to sprinkle on top

Method Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Thoroughly grease a cake pan 6 inches in diameter and 2 and a half inches deep (yeah it's a small cake - there's only two of us!!) and arrange the neatly slithered Apple Slices on the base following the curve of the cake tin. Set to one side. In a large bowl, toss together the Flour, Bicarb, Prunes, Apple Chunks, Cinnamon, Mixed Spice and Salt. In another large bowl whisk together Soya Milk, Vanilla, Maple Syrup and melted Margarine. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dried and mix until combined. Pour the cake mixture into the greased cake pan and bake for 60 minutes in the middle of the oven. My oven's PANTS so I had to put a layer of tin foil over the top after 20 mins otherwise it would have burnt to a crisp! Just keep an eye on yours to make sure this doesn't happen. To check the cake is cooked insert a butter knife in the centre from the top and if it comes out clean (ie no cake bits sticking to it) it's ready. Take the cake out the tin by placing a flat plate over the top of the tin and inverting the whole thing over - then transfer the cake to a wire cooling rack. Sprinkle some Golden Granulated Sugar all over the top

Pea and Ham Soup and Caaaake

More Soup Shenanigans in the treehugger household today. I always loved Pea and Ham soup in my pregan days and I've been dreaming about re-creating this recipe and, naturally, veganising it. It didn't disappoint. Pea and Ham Soup serves 4 Ingredients Half a Pint (550ml) of Dried Marrowfat Peas 3 Pints of Water 2 Medium Potatoes, peeled and sliced 1 Leek, trimmed and washed 2 Rashers of your favourite Vegan Bacon, diced 2 Bay Leaves Salt Freshly Ground Black Pepper Method Soak the peas in the water in a big pan for 12 hours. Strain the peas reserving the water and then rinse the peas thoroughly with cold water. Place back in the pan with the strained water, add the 2 Bay Leaves and bring to a boil with the lid on. Boil for one and a half hours - stir regularly. Add the sliced Potato, Leek and half the Bacon. Simmer for another 30 mins with the lid off, stir regularly. Check that the Peas are cooked - they should be soft and squishy but still retain their shape. remove the Bay Leaves and leave to cool. When cool - place the contents in your food blender and blend until smooth. Transfer back to the saucepan.Add the remaining Bacon and season to taste. I found it needs quite a lot of salt but add it gradually as it is easier to add more than it is to take away. This soup will be very thick - it's one of it's characteristics. However, if you want it to be thinner just add some Vegetable Stock until you get the consistency you're after. Heat through and serve. Yum!

Before my vegan days I used to love baking, well...I still love baking it's just that I haven't done enough vegan baking to be confident at the results I will get. There's been a few hits and misses. Tonight I felt brave enough to have a go at veganising a Farmhouse Cake recipe that I used to make frequently in my pre-vegan days. And Oh my Lordy Lord! The success of this has given me a kick up the pants to try and veganise some more of my pregan favourites. This cake is delicious! It is light and fruity and caramelly and just....ahh ...wonderful. Farmhouse Cake Ingredients 1 cup Wholemeal Flour 1 cup Plain Flour 1/2 cup Sultanas 1/2 cup Dried Prunes, chopped up 1 tsp Mixed Spice 1 tsp Cinnamon 1/4 cup Sugar 1/4 cup Gooseberry Jam 1 cup Soya Milk 2 tsp Vanilla Extract 1 Tblsp Maple Syrup (plus more for drizzling) 200ml Canola Oil 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda 1/2 tsp salt Golden Granulated Sugar to sprinkle on top Method Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. In a large bowl, toss together the Flour, Bicarb, Fruit, Sugar, Cinnamon, Mixed Spice and Salt. In another large bowl whisk together Soya Milk, Vanilla, Maple Syrup, Jam and Oil. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dried and mix until combined. Thoroughly grease a cake pan 9 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep (if it's any smaller or deeper you will have to adjust cooking times) and pour in the cake mixture. Bake for 60 minutes in the middle of the oven. My oven's rubbish so I had to put a layer of tin foil over the top after 20 mins otherwise it would have burnt to a crisp! Just keep an eye on yours to make sure this doesn't happen. Take the cake out the tin by placing a flat plate over the top of the tin and inverting the whole thing over - then transfer the cake to a wire cooling rack. I drizzled over some Maple Syrup whilst it was still hot and was then going to sprinkle on some Golden Granulated Sugar - but I'd ran out. DOH! Anyway.....Mmmmmm...caaaaaaaake..........