!
I'm not usually one for following recipes, my attention span does not allow for it! I start off with great intentions of following it to a T, but then I get other ideas and before I know it I've left the recipe on a tangent.
I had never baked a cake on my own, let alone a vegan cake so on this occasion I tried my best to follow a recipe.
Ingredients:
♡1 tbsp flax meal (ground linseeds) mixed with ♡3 tbsp hot water and set aside
♡300g/11oz self-raising flour
♡200g/7oz brown sugar
♡60g/2oz walnuts, plus more for decoration
♡1 tsp cinnamon
♡1 tsp baking powder
♡4 tsp instant coffee dissolved in a little boiling water in a jug. Top up with soya or other plant milk to make a total of 300ml/11fl oz
♡170ml/6fl oz plain vegetable oil (ie refined rapeseed)
Icing:
♡2½ cups/300g icing sugar, sieved
♡½ cup/50g cocoa powder, sieved (not hot chocolate)
♡¼ cup/60g vegan margarine, eg Pure, Vitalite, Suma
♡¼ cup/60g Trex or similar white vegetable fat (not Flora) OR mild coconut oil, eg Biona (solid stuff in a jar)
♡3 tsp instant coffee (regular or decaf), dissolved in 2 tbsp hot water
♡½ tsp vanilla essence
♡2-3 tbsp soya, rice or other plant milk
I pre heated the oven at 180° and baked it for only 25 minutes. It was perfectly cooked. I left both sponges out to cool over night (I covered them with the tins they were baked in. And set the icing in the fridge. In the morning I re-mixed it, adding extra icing sugar, which heated up the coconut oil so I had to put it in the freezer for a bit before spreading it on the cake.
I did mess with the recipe a bit. Instead of instant coffee I wanted to use my press. This made my mix a lot more watery as I didn't measure how much water to coffee I was using. To combat this I added more of everything, especially flour. I also used coconut oil where it called for vegetable oil, I don't know if that classes as a vegetable oil?
I wanted to sandwich two sponges together so I needed a much thicker icing than the recipe created. I don't know how much vegan butter I used, I just kept adding until the consistency seemed right, and I must have added double the amount of icing sugar it called for. I was aiming for a butter icing consistency but without an electric whisk I had to settle for something much half way between that and a drizzle icing.
The final product was delicious and all of the non vegan guests were amazed. It had the exact texture and taste of a regular cake, no one felt like it was missing anything.
It felt very strange to make something unhealthy for a change, I get a kick out of telling everyone what I've made it 100% nutritious and good for you, but you only turn 30 once! My husband loved his surprise party, and even though he helped me make the cake so that wasn't a surprise, he loved the cake!
I think I even convinced my Mum that veganism isn't about depriving yourself of fun, delicious food!
After the party I whisked him off to the airport for a suprise mini holiday. Can anyone guess where we are?
Stay tuned to see how well our holiday destination catered to our vegan diet. It's day one and the food has been amazing!
Where are your top vegan food holiday destinations? 🌱