Vegan Simple Vanilla Sandwich Cakes

I was just trying out my new mini-sandwich pan the other day (which I coveted for quite a while, because I kinda got tired of the usual cupcake shape) so this is a basic vanilla cake.
It's decorated with coconut icing and topped with pomegranate seeds and white chocolate shavings.
To say the truth, my white chocolate was not vegan, but I'm not really a vegan, I'm macrobiotic, so if I want it, (or don't have a choice :) I'll eat it, really...

Simple vanilla cake
Ingredients:
Makes 12 mini-cakes (6 sandwiches), or one layer in the 8-inch tin

1 cup soy milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1/2 cup agave syrup
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup spelt flour (wholegrain +white)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of sea salt

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 170°C and oil the cake tin.
2. Put soy milk and vinegar in a big bowl and mix with the whisk, leave for a couple of minutes, then add the oil, agave syrup and vanilla, gently beat till nice and smooth.
3. Place a fine sieve on top of the bowl and sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix just a bit till no lumps remain, but try not to overmix.
4. Pour the mixture in the tin and if it's cupcakes, bake for about 25 minutes. If it's a cake, it'll take more time, depending on the size and depth of the tin and the type of the oven. Usually 35-45 minutes should work. Check if ready putting a wooden toothpick in the middle of the cake, which should come out dry.  I'd like to note that all ovens vary, so the aforementioned time and temperature are guidelines only.


Coconut kinda perfect icing

Ingredients:
150 ml organic creamed coconut (the yield from Biona's 200g vacuum pack)
2 Tbsp agave nectar
100 ml hot water
2 Tbsp coconut flour

Method:

1. Take the brick of the creamed coconut out of the package and chop it finely so it melts much quicker. Melt it in a bain-marie until it reaches an even consistency, and transfer it to the bowl of your mixer. Put the mixer on and slowly add agave first, then hot water and then coconut flour, one by one, preferably sifted. It won't take long to get to a nice stiff peaks texture. 
I'd like to note, that these proportions are good for piping, rather than spreading. If you want to spread your icing with the palette knife, you will need to find another kind of icing, because this one just doesn't work for that. It's not spreadable, I've tried to do it thinner but it just becomes grainy and not nice.
I think this icing may not be liked only if you don't like coconut flavour. Otherwise I think it's a great alternative to the traditional icing. And even if you aren't number 1 coconut fan, at least you should feel much better taking a bite off something healthy and packed with lauric acid and other wonderful things, rather than a lump of animal fat and white sugar.

Finally, the white chocolate shavings were made with a French potato peeler :)

Rosewater and Pistachio Cupcakes with Vegan Icing

This is probably the fourth post on rosewater cupcakes here, but it so happens that I like making rose-flavoured cakes. I like roses in their every form, including their smell and flavour.
However, this time it's worth talking about the icing.
Because it seems that I've just figured out the perfect vegan icing: it's stiff and never-melting like regular dairy and sugar-loaded icing, but at the same time it's sugar- and animal products-free.
I'm actually very proud.
But a few months ago I was very sad when all available British suppliers discontinued selling Soyatoo whippable soy cream, which I had been always using instead of icing; it was perfectly white and quite nice, but it melted quickly and was not stiff enough to hold the shapes long enough after piping. It was in the state of a "soft peak" at its best, unless I kept it in the fridge for ages and then immediately piped on and immediately served.
So when it disappeared, I had to seek for a replacement but to no avail, so I tried some recipes for vegan whipped cream from the Internet, but they were more to use in place of a cream, not icing, so not exactly what I needed. Actually I found one which promised to be good being piped, but it wasn't, and very fiddly to do - lots of ingredients and lots of preparation - cooking, melting, whipping, freezing, blending, freezing again...
My recipe requires only melting and whipping in a good mixer. Normally  vegan icings are based either on coconut milk, or vegan shortening (?), but they still have to have lots of caster sugar to reach the right stiffness. Mine doesn't! I really am happy)

So anyway, the recipe for Rosewater Cupcakes is here. To make it with pistachios, you'll need to add 1tsp freshly ground cardamom seed and half a cup chopped pistachios.

To make the icing, you'll need the product called creamed coconut by Biona, because it's so much thicker than even the fattiest part of the fattiest coconut milk you can find out there, so it whips like a dream. Actually this particular icing is not entirely perfect, because its not all-purpose - I used rosewater in it, so next time I'll still need to do some adjustments to the recipe if I want to omit the rosewater. I hope to figure out the formula for the basic icing soon.
  
Vegan coconut and rosewater icing
Makes for 10-12 cupcakes

Ingredients: 

150 ml organic creamed coconut (the yield from Biona's 200g vacuum pack)
2 Tbsp agave nectar
2 Tbsp organic rosewater
100 ml hot water
3 Tbsp coconut flour

To decorate
pinch of matcha green tea
1-2 Tbsp freeze-dried raspberry powder

Method:

Carefully melt the contents of the creamed coconut pack in a saucepan until it loses its bricky shape, but not heat it too much. Transfer to the mixer bowl. Add agave syrup first. Then add the rosewater, and whip a bit. Then add coconut flour, one spoonful at a time, looking at the consistency. If you're happy with it, you may not need all 3 tablespoons of coconut flour and hot water - I did it only because I needed more volume to cover all the cupcakes. If you think it's still too thin, add more flour; if you think its too thick - add some hot water.
To make the icing green, add a pinch of matcha green tea to the mixture in the end. After piping the icing on the cupcakes, sprinkle it with chopped pistachios or raspberry powder through fine sieve.

Vegan Rosewater Cupcakes with Whipped Rice &Coconut cream

This is just a decoration suggestion of my Vegan Rosewater Cupcakes, decorated with the whipped Rice Cream from this post 
and the roses from my garden
The cream sprinkled lightly with freeze-dried raspberry powder.

Quick and easy but pretty for some tea party :)

Vegan Brownies with fresh raspberry

Just a raspberry version of my macro sugarless brownies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of silken tofu
1/4 cup soy milk
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 cup whole spelt flour
1/2 cup white spelt flour (or wheat)
1 Tbsp arrowroot
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of sea salt
100g of fresh raspberry (2/3 of 150g raspberry punnet)

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C. Line a small oven tray with parchment paper, covering the sides of the tray too.
Cream the tofu, milk and oil in a blender. Put the mixture in a bowl, mix in the maple syrup and the extracts.
Sift in the flours, arrowroot, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. The batter will be quite thick so mix it with a plastic spatula. When smooth, transfer it to the tray and even it out, smoothing the top. It may take only a part of your tray, depending on its size, but that's ok, you shouldn't spread it too thinly.
Bake for 30 minutes. Take the tray out of the oven and let it cool down a little before cutting the brownies' squares.

Vegan Almond butter Blondies

Almond is one of my favourite flavours. I love all the things almondy.
I came up with the idea of this almond butter blondie cake couple of days ago and had a comment that it tastes  like marzipan.
Almond butter is quite pricey but you won't need much.

 Ingredients:
1/2 cup silken tofu
1/4 cup rice milk
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1/3 cup almond butter
2/3 cup agave syrup
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup white spelt flour
1/2 cup whole spelt flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
generous pinch of sea salt

Decoration:
a handful of almond flakes

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C. Line a small oven tray with parchment paper, covering the sides of the tray.
Put the tofu, milk, oil, agave syrup and almond butter in a blender and blend until smooth. Put the mixture in a bowl, mix in the extracts.
Sift in the flours, baking powder and salt, mix with a wooden spoon and then with a plastic spatula. When smooth, transfer it to the tray and even it out, smoothing the top with the spatula. Scatter the almond flakes on the surface of the cake.
Bake for 30 minutes. Take the tray out of the oven and let it cool down a little before cutting the squares.

Vegan Sugar-free Cherry Cake

A very simple cake with basic ingredients.

Makes one layer for 8" cake tin

Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1/2 cup agave syrup
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract
2 cups spelt flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
generous pinch of sea salt
2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 cup dried cherries, soaked in warm water

 Decoration:
approx 150g fresh cherries (one punnet)
barley malt powder

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C and oil your cake tin.
In a large mixing bowl, mix soy milk with the vinegar and leave for couple of minutes. Add oil, agave and extracts and mix everything together with a whisk. Sift in flour, leavening agents and salt and mix untik smooth. Drain the cherries and fold in the mixture alongside with the lemon zest. Pour in the cake tin, place it in the oven immediately and bake for 35-40 minutes, depending on the oven  - check with a wooden toothpick, placed in the middle of the cake - it should come out dry. I'd like to note that all ovens vary, so the aforementioned time and temperature are guidelines only.


When cooled down, smooth some barley malt or rice syrup on the top of the cake and arrange halved fresh cherries. Dust the cherries with some barley malt powder, sifted through a small fine sieve just before serving (otherwise it will melt and disappear).

Vegan Simple Rosewater cupcakes

These vegan cupcakes are easy to make. All you need is natural rose water. I also use Uncle Roy's rose water extract, which contains rose oil and sunflower oil. It gives more pronounced rose flavour, than just rose water. I normally use freshly ground spelt flour, but all-purpose flour is ok to use too.

Makes about 12 regular size cupcakes

Ingredients:
1/2 cup soy yogurt
2/3 cup rice milk
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp natural rose water
1 tsp rose water extract
1 cup whole spelt flour
1 cup white spelt flour

1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of sea salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C and line your cupcake tray with paper cases.

In a large bowl, mix all the liquid ingredients. Put a fine sieve ot top of the bowl and sieve in the flours, soda, baking powder and salt.
Pour the mixture in the liners, and bake for 26-30 minutes (depending on the oven and the size of the cupcakes). Check with a wooden toothpick, placed in the middle of a cupcake, which should come out dry.  I'd like to note that all ovens vary, so the aforementioned time and temperature are guidelines only.


These cupcakes were topped with the Soyatoo whippable soy cream, coloured with a pinch of beetrot powder and with a dash of rosewater added to it. I decorated them with some petals of the roses which grow in our garden.I didn't do anything to them, just rinsed with water. They're not supposed to be eaten.

Vegan Chocolate Brownies

I think, the key to the perfect vegan brownies is silken tofu. There're many recipes for the egg- and dairy free brownies on the Web, but these are the simplest to make of all of them. I took the original recipe from Isa and Terry's book and made some adjustments as I wanted to use agave syrup instead of sugar.

The batter must be thick and very gooey. You'll need a silicon (or plastic) spatula to deal with it.

The brownies on the photo are made with walnuts and raisins - you can add 1/2 cup each of chopped walnuts and raisins to the batter in the very end. 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of silken tofu
1/4 cup soy milk
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 cup whole spelt flour
1/2 cup white spelt flour (or wheat)
1 Tbsp arrowroot
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of sea salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C. Line a small oven tray with parchment paper, covering the sides of the tray too.
Cream the tofu, milk and oil in a blender. Put the mixture in a bowl, mix in the maple syrup and the extracts.
Sift in the flours, arrowroot, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. The batter will be very thick so mix it with a plastic spatula. When smooth, transfer it to the tray and even it out, smoothing the top. It may take only a part of your tray, depending on its size, but that's ok, you shouldn't spread it too thinly.
Bake for 30 minutes. Take the tray out of the oven and let it cool down a little before cutting the brownies' squares.

Gluten-free Pistachio Rosewater cupcakes

This recipe is a gluten free and sugar free version of pistachio rosewater cupcakes from Isa and Terry's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I also skipped flax seed and used arrowroot  instead of tapioca flour - works perfectly.

 Makes about 20 small cupcakes (Dr Oetker papercases)
(didn't try to use regular muffin cases but must be around 10 maybe)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup soy yogurt
2/3 cup soy milk
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
2 Tbsp pure rose water
2 Tbsp arrowroot
1/3 cup maize flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp freshly ground cardamom seed
pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup chopped pistachios

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C and line your cupcake tray with paper cases.
First chop pistachio nuts and crush cardamom seeds with a mortar with a pestle.
In a large bowl, mix all the liquid ingredients and add arrowroot. Mix with the electric handmixer for 1 minute. Put a fine sieve ot top of the bowl and sieve in the flours, soda, baking powder, ground cardamom and salt. Mix with the handmixer for 2 minutes. Then fold in the pistachios.
Pour the mixture in the liners, and bake for 26-30 minutes (depending on the oven and the size of the cupcakes). Check with a wooden toothpick, placed in the middle of a cupcake, which should come out dry or with just a couple of tiny crumbs on it.

These cupcakes were topped with the Soyatoo whippable soy cream, coloured with a very small amount of dry beetroot powder and sprinkled with some crushed pistachios. I added a dash of rosewater in the cream while whipping too.

Of course, these cupcakes can be made with normal flour too: just omit arrowroot in the recipe and swap the gluten-free flour mix for 1 1/3 cup of whole wheat or spelt flour.

Vegan Hazelnut Chocolate cupcake

Another cupcake recipe with the nut butter. It's very simple in decoration as well - just a drop of rice syrup or barley malt in the middle and some crushed roasted hazelnuts on top of it.

 
Makes 9 big hazelnut cupcakes (in regular muffin paper cases) or 16 small ones

Ingredients:
3/4cup soy milk
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 cup hazelnut butter, stirred
1/3 cup sunflower or grapeseed oil
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup barley malt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup wholemeal wheat or spelt flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of sea salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C, line a cupcake tray with paper liners.
In a small bowl, mix soy milk with the vinegar with the whisk and leave for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, in a larger bowl cream the hazelnut butter, oil, barley malt and extracts until smooth. Add the soy mixture and mix. Put a fine sieve on top of the bowl and sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mix together, trying not to overmix.
Pour the mixture in the liners with the small ladle and place in the oven immediately.
Bake for about 28 min, checking with the toothpick put in the middle of one of the cupcakes, which should come out dry.

Vegan Peanut Butter cupcakes

I've just decided to search the web for polenta and poppy seed cake recipe and found lots of them. Lemon's present in most recipes too. How sad - I actually thought I've invented something lol. I just love poppy seed and try to put it anywhere it seems to fit. Well, I suppose, in terms of cooking nowadays there is nothing which hasn't been invented yet. Here is another classic cupcake.

Peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate ganache and roasted peanuts
Makes 9 big cupcakes (in regular muffin paper cases) or 16 small ones

Ingredients:
3/4cup soy milk
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup sunflower or grapeseed oil
1/2 cup agave syrup
1/4 cup barley malt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup wholemeal wheat or spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of sea salt


Method:
Preheat oven to 170C, line a cupcake tray with paper liners.
In a small bowl, mix soy milk with the vinegar with the whisk and leave for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, in a larger bowl cream the peanut butter, oil, sweeteners and vanilla until smooth. Add the soy mixture and mix. Put a fine sieve on top of the bowl and sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mix together, trying not to overmix.
Pour the mixture in the liners with the small ladle and place in the oven immediately.
Bake for about 28 min, checking with the toothpick put in the middle of one of the cupcakes, which should come out dry.

Decorate your cakes with vegan chocolate ganache from this post, piping it on top and letting it set afterwards. Top with some roasted unsalted peanuts.

Gluten-free polenta and poppy seed cupcake

The health education centre where I used to work is often visited by gluten-free people, so I did quite a lot of gluten-free stuff. Although I prefer making normal cakes, there's nothing difficult in gluten-free baking, if you have the right mixture. The ones on sale sometimes are too stiff and sandy, probably due to a high content of rice flour, I don't know. I started using 'Gluten Frida" mixture from Isa and Terry's book, which is 1/3 cup maize flour+1 cup rice flour+1 cup quinoa flour, but then I discovered coconut flour, which I think is better than rice flour, because it is very smooth and kinda starchy, resembling maize flour in texture - and maize flour is the best gluten-free flour in terms of acting like a glutenous flours. You can bake a full cake only with maize flour and it will bond fine, only it will have a pronounced corny taste.
Polenta is a relative of maize flour - it's coarsely ground cornmeal, so you can also use it instead of maize flour. Plus, using polenta can be a justification of using more maize flour in the mixture (because you actually want it to taste corny), which makes using starches in gluten-free mixtures unnecessary. Well, I think so.

For polenta and poppy seed cupcake (or cake) I use this formula:

1 cup soy milk
1/3 sunflower oil
2/3 cup agave syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract (or more vanilla)
2/3 cup maize flour
1/2 cup polenta
1/2 cup quinoa or rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of sea salt
3 Tbsp of poppy seed

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 170C or 350F and line the cupcake tray with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl combine milk, oil, syrup and extracts, add the first 1/3 of maize flour and mix with an electric mixer for one minute, it's gonna turn quite smooth.
3. Place a sieve on top of the bowl and sift in the second 1/3 cup of maize flour, add polenta and quinoa flours, baking powder, baking soda +salt. Mix with the electric mixer for 2 min. There's no gluten so there's no danger of overmixing. The mixture must be smooth. Stir in 2 tablespoons of poppy seed, (leave 1 Tbsp for just now)
4. Immediately pour the mixture in the liners, and sprinkle the remaining 1 Tbsp of the poppy seed on top of every cupcake. Bake for 28-30 minutes, checking with the toothpick, which should come out dry or with just a couple of tiny crumbs on it.

These cupcakes can be left without any additional decoration.

Vegan Chocolate Mint cupcakes (dairy, eggs and sugar free)

I I honestly have no idea where to start but I have to do it somehow, so I'll just say that I'm Sasha and I've been making some vegan and macrobiotic desserts for about two years now, and finally I've decided to write about it just for the sake of keeping all the recipes in one place.

I started with the brilliant book "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, which was a great start for me, although those guys use sugar in their recipes (and lots of it in their icings), which I don't do - I use natural grain and vegetable sweeteners like maple syrup, barley malt, rice syrup and agave.
So I had to come out with my adjustments to the ingredients, because the sweeteners I use are in liquid form.
Plus, I don't do any of the icings, because they require shedloads of sugar again and  - in a vegan version - quite a lot of margarine, so my cupcakes look a bit simpler than they could do without all this pretty but unhealthy stuff on top.
Everytime it's quite a challenge to decorate them using only sugar-free and natural stuff for them to look as nice as the traditional cupcakes. I use fresh, freeze-dried and stewed fruit, nuts, dark chocolate, vegan marzipan and toppings free from dairy, fat and sugar.

These are chocolate and mint cupcakes topped with dairy-free chocolate ganache (made with soy cream)

Makes about 15 small cupcakes or 8 big ones (in regular muffin liners):
Ingredients:
1 cup soy or oat milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
2/3 cup agave syrup
1/3 cup sunflower or grapeseed oil
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1 tsp natural mint extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/3 cup wholemeal flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
generous pinch of  sea salt


1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line cupcake or muffin tray with paper liners
2. Pour soy milk and vinegar in a big bowl and mix with the whisk. Add the oil, agave syrup and the extracts to the milk misture. Try to measure oil first, and then measure agave or any syrup you use in the same cup - it will glide out much easier. Beat the mixture till nice and smooth.
3. Place a fine sieve on top of the bowl and sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix with the wisk till no lumps remain, but try not to overmix.
4. Pour the mixture in the liners with a small ladle or ice scoop, filling 3/4 of the liners. I prefer cupcakes being slightly above the rim, so I never fill only halfway as many recipes suggest, because in this case quite often there will be a stripe of the liner above the cake.

Bake the cakes about 28-30 minutes, but may depend on the oven. Check with the wooden toothpick put in the middle of a few cupcakes - it should come out dry or with just a couple of tiny dry crumbs.

Try not to open the oven before you think they're about to be ready, otherwise perfectly risen cupcakes may sink.

The chocolate ganache is from the aforementioned Isa and Terry's book:
Quick melty ganache
Ingredients:

3 Tbsp of soy cream (milk works too)
1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips (I usually use broken bar of Green&Black dark chocolate)


Method:
Heat soy cream in a small saucepan over medium heat till just about to simmer. Remove from heat, add the chips and stir them in, until completely incorporated. Set aside for 10 minutes.

When cooled and stiffened, you put it in the pastry bag and pipe on the cooled cupcakes, or smear the ganache on top of the cupcakes with the spatula or wide knife, like I did. Decorate the top with small leaves of fresh mint.