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 :)

Vegan Oat and Raisin Biscuits with Barley Malt

This recipe had to be created because my toddler son loves biscuits. He would eat one every minute, so I had to figure out the least harmful composition of ingredients, paying a special attention to the sweetening ingredient. Barley malt syrup is one of the main sweeteners used in macrobiotic cooking, and it's good because it comes from grain.
So there's my version of classic oat & raisin biscuits.

Makes about 35 biscuits

Ingredients:
1 cup oat flakes
1 1/2 cup whole grain spelt flour
3/4 cup barley malt syrup
1/3 cup oil
2 Tbsp rice milk (or any dairy-free milk/water)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins soaked and drained
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180C and prepare a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
In a large bowl, mix togetrher oil, barley malt syrup and vanilla extract, add oats, flour, salt and baking powder. Look at the consistency and if you think it might do with some more moisture, add rice milk to it. Mix thoroughly until smooth. Incorporate raisins in the dough.
Then, and this is quite important - refrigerate your dough for 15 minutes, if you don't want your biscuits to spread too much. Cooling the baking tray will help too. Alternatively, you can form biscuits on the tray (taking a bit of the dough with a teaspoon and dropping on the baking sheetwith 1-2 inches between them), place the tray in the fridge, and after 15 minutes take it out and put straight into the oven.

If you like your biscuits big and flat, you can use unrefrigerated dough, but keep 3 inches between them. I have a small oven and use small trays, so I have to pack them a bit tighter together, so I prefer using refrigerated dough.

Bake for 12 minutes. They will be a bit soft but they will harden soon. Keep in the airtight container.

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 Cherry Clafoutis

 This is veganised version of a traditional French cherry pie. Michel Roux's Pastry book was an inspiration.

Ingredients for the crust:
1/3 cup of sunflower oil
1/2 cup of maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 Tbsp water
2 cups of whole spelt flour (or any wheat flour)

1 cup of almond meal (ground almonds)
pinch of sea salt

Ingredients for the filling:
100 g silken tofu
1/4 cup soy (oat) milk
1/3 cup baking oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almont extract
1/2 cup white spelt flour
1 cup whole spelt flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of sea salt
200 g fresh cherries, pitted
2 tsp of barley malt powder to decorate


Method:
Preheat oven to 170C, brush a baking tin or flan ring with oil.
In a bowl mix oil, vanilla and  maple syrup. In a separate bowl, mix the flours and the salt, then add the liquid mixture little by little, maybe adding water if needed. Sometimes you'll need to add a bit of flour if it's too wet, but try not to do it too dry before it starts to hold together - it'll be almost impossible to fix. When the dough is stiff enough, mix it with your hands, trying not to press too much. When the dough is ready, roll it with a rolling pin and line your tin. It probably won't roll very well, so do your best, and the rest you can just add with your fingers and smooth together. Press the dough only lighlty. Once the tin is lined, put a piece of parchment paper on top and fill with baking beans and bake blind for 10 minutes. Take the tin out of the oven, remove the beans and bake for 5 minutes more.

To make the filling, put the tofu, milk, oil, agave and extracts in the blender and mix till smooth. Put the mixture in a bowl and sift in the flours, salt and leavening agents. Mix with a spatula until smooth.  Put the pitted cherries inside the baked flan, and pour the mixture on top. Put the tart in the oven and bake for 45 min. It strangely takes more time than things like that usually do, but it surely needs it, probably because cherries add some moisture. Anyway it should be checked with a toothpick after 35 minutes onwards.
Dust your clafoutis with some barley malt powder just before serving.

Queen's Diamond Jubilee cake

Nothing special, simple chocolate sponge with whipped rice cream (the latter was the result of some haphazard attempt)

Ingredients (for two layers):
2 cups of soy milk
2 tsp cider vinegar
2/3 cup baking oil
1 cup agave syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups whole spelt flour
1 cup white spelt flour
2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 bicarbonate of soda
pinch of sea salt

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and oil the cake tin.
2. Put 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, beat 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 whisk till no lumps remain, but try not to overmix.
4. This recipe is for two layers of the cake, so if you don't have two tins, divide all the ingredients in two and bake one after another. Bake the cake about 35 minutes, but it may depend on the oven. 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.


Whipped rice cream was a bit of a random try, but as far as I can remember it was
1 carton of Rice Cuisine (200 ml)
4 Tbsp coconut flour
1 Tbsp corn starch
2 Tbsp agave syrup

Everything was just put in a beater one by one and mixed till stiff (about 2 mins). I wonder if it actually could do without corn starch, because this cream came out even stiffer than the regular dairy whipped cream. But it's not so bad, because it perfectly holds the rosettes for ever and ever. And it never melts or gets absorbed, like Soyatoo whippable cream does. Hooray.

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.

Macro gingerbread men

These are less spicy and more wholesome than traditional gingerbread biscuits. Decorated just with currants 'cause it's one of the natural alternatives to the conventional piped decorations, made of sugar and colourings.

These gingerbread men are better than just vegan. With agave syrup (you can use maple syrup if you want) and barley malt they're totally guilt-free. I make them for my little boy.

The ingredients list is very simple, and I don't use any leavening agents because I don't think there is a need for them.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup baking oil (sunflower, grapeseed)

1/4 cup agave syrup

1/2 cup barley malt

2 1/3 cup whole spelt flour

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground ginger

pinch of sea salt

Method:

1.In a mixing bowl, mix together oil, agave and barley syrup. Sift in the flour and spices, add salt.  Mix with a wooden spoon, then your hands until the dough start to stiffen. Make a ball and wrap it in a cling film and put it in the fridge for half an hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 180C and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. Roll a piece of the dough on a slightly floured surface, until smooth and not too thick. The thickness you'll need depends on the size of your biscuit cutter. Mine are huge (about 12 cm H) so I have to do them about 0,7 cm thick, otherwise it won't be possible to lift them off the surface. Cut the shapes out, lift them carefully with a spatula or wide knife and place them on the parchment paper 2 cm apart. Decorate with the currants or raisins. Bake for 8-10 mins (depending on the size again).

here's my little boy :)

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.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Biscuits

They're classic biscuits and easy to make. Enough said :) I used Dairy free chocolate chips  and freshly ground spelt flour.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sunflower or grapeseed oil
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup soy or rice milk
2 Tbsp arrowroot
2 1/4 cups spelt flour or whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

 pinch of salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 190C and prepare a baking tray or sheet lined with greaseproof paper.
In a large bowl, mix togetrher oil, agave and milk, mix and add arrowroot. Mix thoroughly until smooth.
Add the flour (you can do it in a few batches to make your mixing better), salt and the baking soda, mix well. Finally fold in chocolate chips.
Take a bit of the dough with a middle-sized spoon and drop on the baking sheet, making sure that there's at least 6 cm/2 inches between your biscuits.
Bake for 12 minutes, and leave them on the sheet for a little while before transferring them onto a plate.

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.