So, here's last year's post!
I thought I'd dedicate the last post of 2012 to cakes. Yes, you know it, those delicious treats made of flour, sugar and what ever ingredients you want to throw at em'.
No secret, I love to bake. But what I love the most is watching people eat and love the cakes I bake. Nothing beats it.
Of course, there have been times when my creations have not warranted eating them at all.
I clearly remember making a chocolate polenta cake a few years ago when I first gave veganism a try (albeit a dismal attempt). Both my partner and sister politely told me it was nice, but, the dry retching sound could not be mistaken. However, that did not quell my enthusiasm nor did it kill the little hungry beast in me that requires cake. And the yummiest of all, vegan cakes :)
So here are two recipes that you can NOT live without. I repeat, can NOT live without.
If you like making cakes, specially vegan cakes,then the following recipes are for you.
Fail proof, fool proof and best of all, don't contain all the artery clogging ingredients that conventional cakes do.
Of course, this doesn't mean that you would it cake everyday. Ok, well, every second day then......
First out of the oven is chocolate cake. Everyone loves chocolate cake. But it's gotta be chocolatey, it's gotta be moist and it's gotta be finger licking delicious!
I have never had anything but oohs, ahhs, and nom nom noms from this cake.
It also got the seal of approval from my children's school friends and my fussy other half, who LOVES chocolate cake.
I have also made this for my co-workers and none of them realised it was vegan. Seriously. It's that good.
I have posted this recipe before but I'll post it again for all y'all.
You won't need another recipe ever again. Promise.
Chocolate Cake
Serves 16
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup raw cacao powder (or cocoa)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 TBSP coffee granules
1 cup warm water
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a cake tin of your choice with baking paper and set aside. I use square for easier cutting into portions but round is good also.
Mix together flour, sugar, cacao, baking soda and sea salt. Make sure all the ingredients are incorporated before you add the wet ingredients.
Place coffee granules in cup of water and stir to dissolve, add this, along with the rest of the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well until you get a smooth batter.
I use my kitchenaid for this and it does a great job.
Place batter into prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes, or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Now this next step is important.
Let the cake cool in the tin for about 20 minutes, then let it cool completely before cutting or icing.
Yes, it will be hard, you can put it in the fridge if you want to speed things up.
You can cut it straight away but it may crumb and not cut cleanly.
uh huh, yep, delicious.
I love to eat this cake just as it is, but if you want to dress it up with a chocolate glaze, you can't go past this one.
Chocolate Glaze
Enough for one cake
Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
4 tbsp margarine (i used nuttelex)
2 tbsp soy milk
2 tbsp raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
Method
in a small saucepan, bring sugar, margarine, milk, and cacao to a boil. Stir frequently; then reduce heat to a simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir for another minute or so.
Add vanilla, stir, and immediately pour onto cake. Glaze dries really quickly, so spread it immediately and add any sprinkles now.
If you're going to add fruit, wait until it cools or else they will just slide off.
Again, I recommend you let the icing cool before you cut it otherwise it will be a sticky mess!
You could also make some chocolate avocado mousse and top it with that, or use that in the middle and then glaze on top for a super indulgent double chocolate hit!
All this chocolate is making me loopy, let's balance it out with some vanilla goodness.
Vanilla Cake
Serves 16
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup of water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sunflower oil
Method
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a cake tin of your choice with baking paper and set aside.
Mix together flour, sugar, baking soda and sea salt. Make sure all the ingredients are incorporated before you add the wet ingredients.
Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well until you get a smooth batter.
Place batter into prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes, or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Same rule of cooling applies
Now here is the best part. Now that you have these cake recipes, you can make WHATEVER flavour your belly desires.
I added some frozen berries to the top of my vanilla cake and got this:
I also mixed the chocolate and vanilla cake batters and made a marble cake.
And when I wanted to do something a little bit silly, I poured the vanilla batter on top of the chocolate batter and got a chocolate and vanilla pound cake.
And because not all of the vanilla batter fit into the cake pan and was at risk of overflowing, i made some mixed berry muffins with the left over batter. No wasting here!
Spiced Pear Cake: Omit vanilla essence. Add 1 tsp of cinnamon powder, 1 tsp of allspice, 1/2 tsp of cloves, 1/4 tsp of nutmeg.
Instead of water, use apple juice (optional).
Pour batter into prepared cake tin and place some thin pear slices on top. Sprinkle with some cinnamon sugar. Bake and cool as normal.
Banana cake: Omit water, add 1 cup of mashed banana (about 2), use 2/3 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk. You could also add some 1/3 cup of nuts of your choice and further reduce sugar to 1/2 cup and add some raisins. I also used a combination of wholemeal and white flour and it still came out moist and delicious.
Bake and cool as normal.
And here's one of my favourite variations. So tropicool :)
Upside down pineapple cake
Serves 16
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup fine polenta (corn meal)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup of coconut milk
1/2 cup pineapple juice (from canned pineapple)
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1 can of pineapple pieces/thins/round (reserve juice)
2 TBS brown sugar
1 TBS non-dairy margarine (I use nuttelex)
Method
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a cake tin of your choice with baking paper and set aside. I use square for easier cutting into portions but round is good also.
Drain the pineapple pieces or whatever you are using and reserve the juice, you will need it for the wet ingredients and to caramelise pineapple.
Place margarine, brown sugar and 1/8 of a cup of reserved pineapple juice into a pan. Heat on medium heat until sugar is dissolved and syrup starts to get a little colour. Add your pineapple and continue to cook for about 4 minutes. Syrup will be a little thicker. Pour this on your prepared cake tin and arrange pineapple as you like.
In your mixer, or by hand, mix together flour, sugar,polenta, baking soda and sea salt. Make sure all the ingredients are incorporated before you add the wet ingredients.
Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well until you get a smooth batter.
Pour batter on top of pineapple and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Now this next step is important.
Let the cake cool completely in the tin before you inverted, it will crack otherwise.
Serve on it's own, or with a dollop of coconut ice cream (vegan of course).
Are you all caked out! So am I, so here's a recipe for something a little bit different but still on the sweet tip.
Chocolate and Raspberry Custard Tart
Serves 8
Ingredients
Crust
1 cup of mixed raw nuts of your choice (I used almonds and brazil nuts)
6 pitted medjool dates
2 TBS raw cacao powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBS shredded coconut
Custard
2 cups of unsweetened almond milk
1 cup of water
6 TBS sugar
4 TBS vanilla custard powder
2 TBS raw cacao powder (or more if you want it extra chocolatey)
1 punnet of fresh raspberries (you can use frozen if you can't get fresh ones, just let them defrost first)
Method
In a food processor, add all your crust ingredients except coconut. Process until it resembles crumbs, not too fine, and the mixture holds together when pressed into a ball.
Place mixture into a shallow pie tin and press down, making sure to cover the bottom and up the sides. It might be a bit wet and stick to your fingers, that's ok, just spread as best you can and then sprinkle coconut on top, this will make it easier to spread and stop it sticking. Place in fridge.
In a medium saucepan, add all your custard ingredients and use an electric whisk to mix it together well and there's no custard powder lumps left. Once mixed, place on medium heat and stir continuously until mixture comes to the boil. Turn heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes. Mixture will become thick and delicious!
Pour custard mixture into prepared base and cover with plastic film. Place in refrigerator until set. About 2-3 hours. Or you can cheat by putting it in the freezer for the first hour or so to speed things along. Make sure you don't forget or else it will crystallise and be more of a parfait than a custard.
Once set, arrange your raspberries on top and serve. Yummy yum yum.
There we have it, cakes and sweets for days!
I hope this satisfies your sweet tooh as my next few posts will be completely different. I'm keeping away from all things naughty and taking on a clean eating challenge for the month of January. Well and truly into it right now, so have some delicious and nutritious recipes for y'all.
2013 is all about healthy and clean eating. I'm so excited, hope you are too. BRING IT!
Peas, love and mung beans
xxb
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