Indulgent Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

Chocolate fudge cake has always been a big favorite of mine. So of course, as soon as I turned vegan my main priority was to find out how to make it the vegan way! This recipe is a mix up of a few chocolate fudge cake recipes I've tried (yes, I have tried that many, maybe I have a problem). This cake is always a winner among my none vegan friends and family too.

The sponge is pretty much the same as my Chocolate Raspberry Coconut Cake.

Sponge Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup unbleached cane caster sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 cup thick coconut cream
1/2 cup coconut milk

Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup vegan butter/marge
3/4 cup cocoa powder
4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp soy/almond milk

raspberries to decorate  (optional)

Sponge Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Grease two 8 inch cake tins.

2. Sift all of the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Mix in all of the wet ingredients until it is all completely mixed.

3. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 25-35 mins (25 for fan ovens). To tell if the cake is done put a sharp object into the middle of the cake, if it comes out dry the cake is done.

4. Allow to cool before frosting.

For the frosting & decorating:

1. Mix the butter and vanilla extract.

2. Gradually add the icing sugar and cocoa powder while mixing. Add a little milk if the consistency is too dry.

3. Sandwich some icing between the two sponges and ice all around the outside. Add extra raspberries to decorate.

Vegan Apricot and Carrot Cupcakes

Every year me and Ash make each other birthday cakes, this year he asked for carrot cake - his favorite. I've already done a few vegan carrot cakes before and was bored of the old recipe I was using, so I decided to play around with ingredients and this is the result. The dried apricots add a great flavor to the cakes. I like to soak and simmer them in orange juice so when you bite into them you get a tangy, juicy taste of orange.

This recipe is based on this wonderful recipe from The Ethical Chef.

Ingredients:

• 225g Grated carrots
• 170g Dried apricots, cut into little pieces
• 280g Self raising flour
• 150g Cane sugar
• 80g Desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp Ground ginger
• 1 tsp Ground nutmeg
• 1tsp Cinnamon
• 200g Vegan margarine
• 200ml Orange juice
• Pinch of salt
• A few walnuts to decorate (optional)

Frosting:
I used this recipe for the frosting.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (325F).
2. Simmer the orange juice and chopped dried apricots in a pan for 5-10 mins (until the apricots begin to soften). Allow to cool.
3. Mix the margarine and sugar together in a bowl. Add the grated carrots.
4. Add the cooled juice/apricot mixture, sift the flour, salt and spices in and mix.
5. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cakes and bake for 12-18 mins.
6. Allow to cool before frosting & decorating.

Introducing Miskabelle Vintage

I want to introduce you all to one of my newest sponsors, Miskabelle Vintage. I've followed their blog for some time, their posts are always entertaining, thoughtful and full of great ideas and beautiful photographs.

Miskabelle Vintage is run by the beautiful and trendy Amanda and Jayne. Between them, they share some wonderful outfit posts, yummy recipes and handy tips and DIY ideas.

[Twitter] [Blog] [Facebook] [Etsy]

Here are some of my fav posts from Miskabelle:

1/2/3/4/5

Blueberry Curd (Vegan Recipe)

Remember my Lemon Curd recipe last week? Well, I had some left over blueberries so I thought I'd do a bit of a curd experiment. I love how this turned out, it's sweet, tangy and rich. It's glorious, deep red colour puts me in the mood for Christmas. I made some beautiful blueberry tarts using it during the week too. I just need to perfect my pastry and I'll share my tart recipe with you guys too!

Ingredients:

2 cups blueberries
1 & 1/2 cup lemon juice
The zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp Cornflour
2 tbsp Coconut cream
2 tbsp dairy free butter/margarine
1/4 tsp salt



Method:

1. In a saucepan, heat the lemon juice, sugar, zest, salt and blueberries.
2. Gradually sift in the cornflour while constantly stirring.
3. When the blueberries turn to mush and the mixture is thickened and bubbling, add the coconut cream and butter/margarine. Turn down the heat to a simmer.
4. Continue to heat until the mixture coats the back of the spoon. Turn off the heat
5. Pour part of the mixture into a fine metal sieve and press through into a heat proof bowl. Continue to do with with the whole mixture.
6. Add the sieved mixture to a heat proof container to cool. Refrigerate once cooled.

Happy World Vegan day!

Hey guys! It's a pretty exciting day for me world Vegan day (almost as good as Christmas!!).

I thought I'd do a quick post sharing some of my favorite vegan recipes from other blogs with you. Most of these recipes were major inspirations for my baking and experimenting in the kitchen. And they're staple recipes that I seem to cook on a regular basis, and that my none vegan friends enjoy too. Yes most of them are desserts, I'm a bit of a sugar fiend.

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies from Oh She Glows
2. Slow Rise Pancakes from Vegan Yum Yum
3. Cinnamon Rolls from Vegan Yum Yum
4. Lemon Bars from Veganomicon
5. Avocado Spinach Pasta from the Wholesome Kitchen
6. Vegan Matzo Ball Soup from Veg Kitchen

Happy World Vegan Day everyone! I hope you get a chance to try out these amazing recipes

Strawberry Milkshake Bubble Tea

I've been playing around with Bubble tea recipes yet again! I can't seem to stop drinking the stuff. This milky strawberry bubble tea is perfect for satisfying those sweet craving.! It didn't turn out as pink as I'd hoped (I guess I'm just used to artificially dyed milkshakes!). But it tastes delicious.

Ingredients (serves 2 people):
1/2 cup quick cook tapioca pearls

400ml Rice milk (you can use almond, soy, normal milk too)
100ml coconut cream
100ml coconut milk (for a lighter recipe omit the cream and use 200ml coconut milk)
2 bags of black tea
5 tbsp agave nectar (you can use honey instead)
1 cup frozen strawberries

Method:

1. Boil 5 cups of water in a saucepan. Once boiled add the tapioca pearls & stir gently. When the tapioca pearls fatten up cover the saucepan and leave to simmer for 5 mins. For none quick cook tapioca pearls follow instructions on packet.

2. Once the tapioca pearls are cooked, drain them & mix with 2 tablespoons agave and 2 tablespoons hot water. Leave to cool

3. Heat the rice milk, coconut milk & cream in a saucepan until simmering.

4. Add the black tea bags, 3 tbsps agave & strawberries and let simmer for another 5 mins.

5. Once the milky mixture has been simmered for 5 mins, take out the tea bags and leave to simmer for another 10 mins.

6. After 10 mins leave the strawberry milk mixture to cool. Once cooled drain out the strawberries.

7. Divide the cooled tapioca pearls into two glasses. Add a few ice cubes and pour the strawberry milk mixture on top. Serve with a large bubble tea straw.

Click here for more of my bubble tea recipes.

Vegan Berry Cupcakes

This recipe is a spin on Bob's red mill's strawberry cupcakes recipe. I've changed a few things around and added some yummy, tangy raspberry frosting instead! In this picture I made mini cupcakes but the recipe should make 9 large cupcakes or more normal sized ones.

Ingredients (cake mix):

• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup wholemeal flour
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup natural cane sugar
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup soya/vegetable margarine
• 1 cup soy/rice milk
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 3/4 cup mashed strawberries
• 1tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350° (175C). Measure the flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl. 
2. In a seperate large bowl, cream together the margarine, agave and sugar until thoroughly mixed. 
3. Gradually add the soymilk, vinegar and vanilla extract while mixing.
4. Mix in the flour mixture and the mashed strawberries.
5. Pour into cupcake cases and bake for 12-15 mins. Cupcakes are ready when you can stick a fork in them and the fork comes out clean.
6. Leave to cool before frosting them.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup soya margarine
• 1 3/4 cups icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup raspberry jam (seedless)
• Red food colouring (optional), if you can't find vegan food colouring try using beetroot paste.

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly and add red food colouring to get the desired colour. If the mixture is too thin add more icing sugar. Put in the fridge for 10-30 before icing the cakes.

Vegan Chocolate Orange Shortbread Cookies

 

I made these cookies on friday for my mum and her friends, and I have to say, I'm kind of impressed with how they turned out.

Ingredients:

• 200g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 120g soya spread or dairy free alternative
• 65g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs orange juice (add more if mixture is too dry)
• 200g smashed up plain chocolate
• the zest of an unwaxed orange

1. Preheat the oven to 180c

2. In a large mixing bowl mix the flour, salt and baking powder.

3. Cream the sugar, orange juice, orange zest and melted soya spread in and add to the flour mixture. Mix it all together.

4. Form a ball of dough, roll it out onto a floured surface using a floured rolling pin. Until the dough is 1/4-1/2 an inch thick. Cut out whatever shapes you want.

5. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

6. Bake for 8-12 mins until the edges are slighly brown/

7. Leave at least 10 minutes to cool, then NOM THEM ALL!

White Chocolate and Raspberry Honey Cake

I haven't baked for a couple of weeks, so yesterday I decided to try and make a white chocolate and raspberry cake for my drunken girly DVD night.

I was really pleased with how this came out. It's really sweet so i'd recommend using a fairly sour raspberry jam to even out the sweetness. I think it would even work really well with cream cheese frosting as a filling instead of the buttercream. If you want to make this with all sugar instead of honey use 325g sugar.

This is for a large cake. Half the ingredients for a smaller one.

Ingredients for the main cake:

• 6 eggs
• 325g self raising flour
• 325g unsalted butter
• 200g cane sugar
• 100g honey
• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 75g white chocolate, finely grated
• Raspberries to decorate

Ingredients for the frosting and fillings:

• Raspberry jam (preferably a sourish jam)
• 200g white chocolate
• 225g unsalted butter
• 300g icing sugar
• 100ml double cream

Method:

1. Set the oven to 180C. Grease 3 round 8 inch cake tins.
2. Sift the baking powder and self raising flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, sugar, white chocolate and honey and mix thoroughly. Heat the butter until it's soft enough to mix in with the other ingredients and mix it in.
3. Pour the mixture into 3 greased, 8inch round cake tins.
4. Bake for 20-25 mins.
5. Once cooled, trim off the top of each cake slice to make sure it's flat.
6. Sandwich a thick layer of buttercream and a generous layer of raspberry jam in between each slice and cover all over in white chocolate frosting. Decorate the top with raspberries.

For the white chocolate frosting (for the outside of the cake): Melt 200g of white chocolate with 85g butter, sift in 120g icing sugar and add 90ml double cream. Mix until even.

For the Buttercream: Thoroughly mix 140g softened butter with 10ml double cream and 280g sifted icing sugar.

Sticky Toffee Teddy Cupcakes!!!

I've wanted to make some teddy bear themed cupcakes for a while. So when I had a day off work I got baking! Here's my recipe for sticky toffee teddy cupcakes (adapted from this recipe.) These cupcakes are light, moist and mouth watering. Seriously, they are probably my favourite cakes I've ever eaten, and I've eaten A LOT!:

Ingredients (makes 12 large cupcakes or 16 smaller ones):
For the cakes:

• 3 medium carrots (peeled and finely grated, for a more airy cupcake use 4)
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 120g unsalted butter (I like to use pure soya spread instead for a lighter cupcake)
• 150g light muscovado sugar
• 180g self raising flour
• 2 medium eggs (beaten)

For the Buttercream and decorations:

• 180g sea salted butter (just normal salted will do if you can't find this)
• 200g icing sugar
• 4 tablespoons dulche-de-leche or canned caramel
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Large chocolate buttons
• Pink dotted balls/large sprinkles
• Turquoise balls for the eyes
• White chocolate
• Paint Brush

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 170 for fan ovens
• Cream together softened butter and sugar in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed.
• Sift the flour and the bicarbonate of soda in a separate bowl.
• Add the beaten eggs to the sugar/butter mixture, add a tbsp flour while mixing. Add the rest of the flour/bicarbonate mixture and the grated carrots. Mix it all thoroughly.
• Spoon into cupcake cases, bake for 15-20 mins, the cakes should spring back up when pressed with a finger when they are done.

For the butter cream:

•  Soften the salted butter, mix with dulche de leche and the salt. Gradually sift in the icing sugar while stirring. 

To decorate:

• Melt some white chocolate. Lay out the large buttons on a tray with greaseproof paper on. You will need 2 buttons for each teddy cake, 1 for the ear and 1 for the nose.
• For the noses, paint the melted white chocolate on the back of your pink sprinkle and place in the top half/centre of your button.
• For the ears, paint the melted white chocolate as a circle in the centre of the ear. Once the chocolate has set, cut the ears in half with a sharp knife.
• Frost your cupcakes, add the ears, nose and eyes (unless of course you want your teddies to be blind) then SCOFF THEM. om nom nom

My dog decided I was paying FAR too much attention to baking and not enough time paying attention to her. So she spent most of my baking session posed like this expecting tummy rubs:

Poor Effy didn't even get to sample any cupcakes! :(

Droooool

I have just discovered the most amazzzing edible cake decorations from Andies Speciality Sweets. I want them ALL! I especially love their toadstools, nuts that aren't nuts and their candy buttons. I definitely need to invest in some of these before baking my next batch of cupcakes.