Picnic in the Park - Our Vegan summer picnic!

On Saturday my local park, Avenham Park, hosted a big Picnic in the Park event. Preston Vegan Society thought this would be a great opportunity to get to know each other and share lots of yummy vegan food.

I don't know many local vegans, and had never met most of this group before, so it was really good to meet lots of like minded people and have a day of chatting and eating delicious food in the sunshine by the river.

Everyone bought their own food to share out. I made my chocolate chip cookies and a mint, split peas and quinoa salad (recipe to come if I actually remember what the eff I put in it!). There were so many amazing foods on offer; chocolate strawberry cheesecake, lemon poppy seed muffins, chai cheesecake, bakewell tart and vegusto sandwiches to name a few! We all agreed it was very surreal to be able to eat whatever we wanted without asking the ingredients.

I had such a fantastic day meeting new people, trading recipes and scoffing. And I hope we have many more events in the future!

Baked Vegan Oreo Cheesecake: My first attempt

I've always been a big cheesecake lover, so when I became a vegan, I thought I'd never taste an amazing cheesecake again.

Luckily, while dining at a Hangawi (an amazing Vegan Korean restaurant) in New York, my faith was restored. They had the most delicious cheesecake I've ever tasted. The texture was perfect, the taste was out of this world. Even my carnivorous, real cheesecake eating boyfriend thought it tasted like REAL cheesecake. From then on I swore to myself I would learn to make vegan cheesecake.

This was a real trial for me - having never even baked a normal cheesecake, let alone a cheeseless cheesecake. This is the first of very many trials at vegan cheesecake. The main things I would change about this recipe were the size of the tin I used, I think I should have used a smaller tin for more cheese to biscuit ratio. Otherwise I'm pretty over the moon with this cake. I'm even going to test it out on my cheese eating friends tonight.

Base Ingredients:
20 oreos
4 tbsp vegan butter

Cheesecake Ingredients:
1 container Tofutti cream cheese
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup none dairy milk
1 tbsp firm tofu
1/4 tsp salt
3 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp egg replacer
1 tbsp agar flakes
2 cups white bland beans (I used Cannellini) cooked well and rinsed thoroughly

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 160C (320F)
  

• For the oreo crumb base follow this recipe (just the base, not the filling)

• In the food processor, blend all of the topping ingredients except the tofutti cheese until completely smooth.

•  Pour into a saucepan and heat gently for 5-10 mins (until the mixture thickens). Stir constantly not letting any of the mixture stick to the bottom

• Let the mixture cool in the fridge.

• Once the mixture has cooled. Mix it thoroughly with the tofutti cream cheese.

• Pour the mixture onto the crumb base and put in the oven.

• Bake until the cake is slightly brown on top (around 60 mins, but keep checking)

• Once baked, leave the oven door open and allow the cheesecake to cool inside for about 60 mins. 

• Dust with cocoa (optional)

 And here's a picture of my Princess Diana plate with a cheesecake hat. Princess Di was the original Gaga.