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Category Archives: Cake

It’s Silly Season it’s Vegan Stollen with a Rosy Marzipan Heart! Updated recipe – 2015 style!

24 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by Aissa in Bread, Cake, Sweets, Traditional, Vegan

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Tags

Bread, Cake, recipe, Traditional, Vegan

Stollen Update 2015!

 I thought I would do a re-jig of last year’s Its Silly Season its Stollen Time post. The wonderful Mihl from Seitan is My Motor agreed to let me put her recipe in this post (Thank you again! 🙂 ). I have made my little adaptions- to the wonderful original but do check out the link to her page as she has more pictures, describes the process very well and explains the tradition of Stollen! You can also discover all her other delicious delights.

I am making two batches of Stollen this year- Six mini Stollen- I have three in the oven right now! Starting to smell nice in here!! 🙂

I have been making Stollen for Christmas for a few years. Clearly alcohol laden fruitcake is the Irish tradition, but I never liked it much. I was the person who ate the marzipan off the outside! I came across a wonderful recipe for vegan stollen here on “Seitan is my motor”.  For emphasis her instructions are very clear! Which is what won me over. I was previously a bit intimidated by enriched dough. Knowing if you have kneaded enough, throwing the yeast in on top of the salt and immediately killing it ( 😦 ) etc. Kneading is all about getting your back into it and not being tempted to add more flour 🙂 Once you make this you will realise it can be done, to delicious results.

I have adapted the recipe a little and I make my own marzipan for it (Marzipan recipe inc here!). My changes are few, you have to respect yeast no messing with the recipe too much or the magic chemistry will be off. I use coconut oil instead of margarine, I use a third of a cup. I rub it with coconut oil too. As you would expect because I am a vanilla fiend I use a generous dessertspoon of vanilla powder overall. Finally I do not like raisins- I can stand a sultana in a scone …but raisins eep! and shiver! so I use chopped organic un-sulphered apricots in my stollen.

It takes a little planning. You make the plain dough the night before and leave it to proof in the fridge. You bring all to together, shape, leave to rise and bake the next evening.

So with no further a due the recipe!

Silly Season Stollen Aissa’s adaption of Seitan is my Motor’s wonderful recipe

Stollen with a rosy marzipan heart!

The dough part un (1):

  • 500g/ 5 cups of unbleached plain white flour
  • 7g/ 1 tsp dry yeast or 40g fresh yeast- I’ve never used the fresh in this!
  • Third of a cup of rapadura/ sucucant sugar & one tablespoon of icing sugar
  • Generous half a cup of non-dairy milk and a bit more as needed- I use un-sweetened almond milk
  • A third of a cup of org raw coconut oil

The dough part deux (2):

  • A pinch of himalayan pink salt/ sea salt
  • One and a third cup of ground almonds
  • A tablespoon of non-dairy milk
  • Half a teaspoon of lemon extract or a few drops of food grade lemon oil
  • A quarter teaspoon of almond extract
  • A large teaspoon of vanilla powder/ extract

The dough part trois (3):

  • Half a cup of chopped un-sulphered organic apricots
  • A third of a cup of quite finely chopped whole almonds

For finishing:

  • A quarter cup of coconut oil
  • Third of a cup of icing / confectionary sugar

METHOD: don’t be scared!! 

Seriously- don’t be scared! It will be soooo gooooood!

So dough part un! I put my oven on to 100C/ 220F and put the third of a cup of coconut oil and the generous half cup of almond milk in a heat proof bowl and pop it in the oven to melt.

Next! Mix your flour and sugar- press out any lumps. I don’t bother to sieve anything.

Take the melted oil and milk out of the oven and leave it to cool. You do not want the mix or the bowl to be too hot or it will kill the yeast. It should be body temperature. You could put it in another bowl- I like to save on wash-up though!

Add the yeast, give a gentle stir to dissolve and add in your flour sugar mix. Combine  it too a rough ball- add an extra splash of almond milk if very crumbly. Don’t cover it. Leave to sit for about 15 mins.

Dough part deux: Put the dry ingredients (ground almonds mixed with the pinch of salt- if you are using vanilla powder put it in now) in on top of the dough and mix a bit- you need to use your hands. Mix the wet ingredients – I do it in a teacup- and pour this over your mix. And knead a bit to kinda combine.

Transfer to a very lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes. I do not partake in tons of kneading every day so I tend to take a minute or so to get the hang again, I knead for maybe 7 minutes. My technique is to push away from myself and then pull each side back towards me to form a ball again and then repeat. Try to keep doing it in the same direction Do not add more flour – the gluten will develop and it will stick to itself not the surface- you will even see it getting kinda stringy looking bits- which are the gluten strands!

Now cover it and put it in the fridge for the night so it can rest, and you can too!

The next day. The Dough part trois!

It is usually the afternoon by the time I get around to making the stollen. So take it out of the fridge and uncover it, I usually leave it out for a couple of hours, but if you have a particularly warm kitchen you may not have to wait as long. The yeast will wake up and when the dough warms up it is easier to work with.

Meanwhile chop your apricots and almonds .

Part trois!

Part trois!

Now knead the apricots and almonds into the dough. You need to get your back into it! As the dough will be a bit stiff to start and you want to get them evenly distributed. It can take me maybe 10 minutes. Form it into a rough ball and divide into three. I draw an kind of an upside-down Y into the top of it to give me three even pieces.

stollen dough divided

stollen dough divided

Next bit is the marzipan making! Or if you can buy some and add a little rose flavouring and roll it into logs for your stollen. But lets go back to my 2014 post by the wonderful power of time travel……” do do do do…do do do do do…”

Since I make my own marzipan I put my rose flavour into that instead of the mix. You just cannot get good quality marzipan here. Since I buy my ground almonds in bulk … because I bake so much… it makes sense to make my own.

Marzipan is a wonderful human invention! So versatile! The almond-y heart of your stollen perhaps little marzipan balls that you can dip in melted dark chocolate and leave to set in the freezer. Tasty treats for over the holidays.

Marzipan

  • 200g/ two cups of ground almonds
  • 100g/ one cup org vegan icing sugar
  • A teaspoon of vanilla powder/ a pod/ paste
  • One tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
  • Two tablespoons of maple syrup
  • A quarter teaspoon of sea salt/ himalayan pink salt
  • Half a teaspoon of almond extract
  • Optional: Eight ground apricot kernels or increase the almond extract to one teaspoon
  • Seven drops of food grade rose oil* or a generous dessertspoon of rose water
  • One dessertspoon of cold water

*mine is in an almond oil base as pure rose oil is like twenty five euros a bottle!

Put your dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the wet, not the water though! Press it all together. If it still a little crumbly you can add your water and press it together again. It should form a ball like biscuit/ cookie dough. Cover in tinfoil/ baking paper and leave in the fridge for at least a half an hour.

If using in your stollen you will be rolling into three little logs. If you plan to make marzipan chocolate balls you will have billions of them!!! So maybe half the recipe, you could also leave out the rose and use orange zest and a little orange oil or orange flower water instead!?

I digressed in 2014! Back to Stollen!

Roll out one of your stollen. See Mihl’s site here: Stollen recipe and picture instructions!

it should be about 12cm wide and you place your little marzipan log in the middle with a couple of cms to spare on the top and bottom. Fold the right side in and press it on top of your marzipan. Roll it all to the other side so the marzipan so completely covered. Now press the meeting points of the dough together, at the ends fold it over and under and gently pinch so the dough so there are no holes underneath.

Cover with a damp towel, I leave mine for about 15- 20 minutes. My oven takes a while to pre-heat so I turn that on now to 200C / 400F.

Put in the oven and bake for 10 mins. Then cover them up with some tin foil, so they don’t go too brown. Turn the temperature down to 180C / 350F. Bake for another 30 mins … or if you are typing a blog forget about them and bake for longer thereby leaving one a little bit charred. I would go for the former not the latter myself…

Et Voila! That’s it.

Here is mine naked out of the oven !

Triple mini stollen

Triple mini stollen

Ready to wrapped and hibernated for a bit.

snowy stollen

snowy stollen

Hope you guys try it. It really lasts, unless you end up eating it really fast, which has been known to happen. If you are clever and hide one, you can toast slices of it too, sooo good!!!

Will try and post again soon, but just incase Happy Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah, New Years, or a bit of time off work! 🙂 Xs Aissa

Almond Cake with Lemon Icing- Vegan & Gluten free!!

01 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by Aissa in Cake, Cupcakes, Gluten Free, Uncategorized, Vegan

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Cake, Cupcakes, Gluten free, Vegan, Vegan icing/ frosting

Sorry for the gap in posts! Life has been very life-y. I changed jobs, visited family and one of my wisdom teeth has turned out to be the source of all evil- currently quite uneven faced. So…. though I am seriously sugar free at the moment in order to give my immune system some chance of winning the battle against invading forces, here is the as promised the almond cake! Gluten free of course. The base recipe is similar to my last few cake ones, I guess I am really liking the texture the coconut oil gives to the cake. Springy and moist with good structure.

Almond cake!

Almond cake- wish I had vegan vanilla ice-cream with it

Almond Cake- gluten free & vegan of course!

  • A full cup or 200g of apple blueberry puree (or apple puree and add a some mashed blueberries)
  • 4 scant dessertspoons of org cold pressed coconut oil
  • Just under half a cup of rapadura / sucucant/ turbinado sugar
  • Half a teaspoon of apple cyder vinegar
  • Half a teaspoon of almond extract – 1tsp if you like it intense
  • A third of a cup of buckwheat flour
  • Two thirds of a cup of ground almonds
  • Half a cup of fine maize meal
  • A pinch/ eighth of a teaspoon of Himalayan pink salt/ fine sea salt
  • A generous tsp of vanilla powder/ a pod/ extract
  • 1 teaspoon of cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon of aluminium free baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon of aluminium free bread / baking soda

Method:

Preheat your oven to 170C. Prepare a 20cm/ 7.5 inch cake tin

Put your fruit puree and coconut oil in a perspex / heat proof bowl and put it in the preheating oven for a few minutes to melt.

Meanwhile prepare all your dry ingredients. Sieve your baking powder and soda incase of lumps.

Take the oil and fruit puree out of the oven and mix in the sugar, stir until it dissolves. Next add in the apple cyder vinegar and almond extract.

wet and dry

wet and dry

Put your dry ingredients into the wet. Mix gently, just until there are no lumps.

Pour into you tin, make sure it is evenly spread. Place in the centre of the oven- or slightly to the right for me as the left is hotter.

Bake for 25mins (fan) or 30 min. Done when it is coming away from the sides and if you put a skewer in it and it comes out dry.

If you want to make cupcakes take 5mins off the baking time! O and put a dab of oil in your cupcake liners to stop them sticking to the paper.

Lemon Icing

  • 2 big teaspoons of org cold pressed coconut oil
  • The zest of an organic unwaxed lemon
  • Half a cup of vegan icing sugar
  • Five teaspoons of fresh lemon juice

Method:

Mash the coconut oil until soft. Add the lemon zest.

Press out any lumps in the icing sugar and add to the coconut oil. Mash press and mush them together. The sugar and oil take a bit of work, gradually begin adding the lemon juice and it will turn into icing.

Lemon icing

Lemon icing

I put it on the cake when it was still a little tepid- so it melted a bit. Normally I would advise leaving it cool completely- but actually the fact it melted a little into the cake was nice!!

I will also be putting up a fermented cauliflower recipe next- which I will be partaking in -lots – for the good bacteria, enzymes and yeasts! I will defeat you yet tooth!

Xs Aissa

 

Vanilla Berry Summer Sponge Cake, Strawberry Mint Sorbet- Vegan & Gluten Free

01 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by Aissa in Cake, Cupcakes, Gluten Free, No bake/ Raw, Superfoods, Vegan

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Cake, Gluten free, No bake, Superfoods, Vegan

I made Seasonal Rhubarb & Orange Crumble Cake a little while ago. I was quiet happy with it, especially the texture. So I thought I could adapt it for further use! I have to apologise though- there are pics of the sorbet but the cake pictures are not up to par. I thought I took a picture of my berries- nope. I thought I took a picture of the cut cake- showing the crumb and melted berries in it- nope…I just ate it. So I will put a pic of the Rhubarb cake in so you get an idea of the cakes texture at least! 😦

It has a creamy caramel colour due to the coconut blossom sugar.* It has a lovely fruity flavour, as one would expect, what with it having berries in it. It is the fruit puree that gives it an overall … fruity almost summery taste. I used some defrosted organic mixed berries I had, but fresh ones would of course be great too. Lots are in season here now, we had such a lovely spring there seems to be a bounty crop this year! This cake would make lovely faery cakes (cupcakes). Just reduce your cooking time by five or six minutes.

Dark Vanilla Berry Summer Sponge Cake

  • I cup of apple and strawberry puree (200g)
  • Three and a half dessertspoons of melted coconut oil
  • A quarter cup of xylitol
  • A quarter cup of coconut blossom sugar
  • A third of a cup of hot water- for right near the end
  • A third of a cup of buckwheat flour
  • Half a cup of ground almonds
  • Two thirds of a cup of fine maize meal
  • An eighth of a teaspoon of himalayan pink salt or sea salt
  • One teaspoon of vanilla powder- two pods/ teaspoons of extract
  • One teaspoon of gf & aluminium free baking powder
  • Half a teaspoon of gf & aluminium free baking / bread soda
  • One teaspoon of gf cornstarch
  • Two/ three dessertspoons of defrosted or fresh berries
  • I used a mix and chopped the strawberries so everything was the same size

* If you would prefer it the more traditional pale colour you can use all xylitol or replace the coconut sugar with agave and increase the dry ingredients by a few dessertspoons.

Method:

You will need a 7.5inch/ 20cm cake tin, if using a metal one be sure to line the base.

Preheat your oven to 170C/340F/ or 180C/350F if not a fan oven.

There are lovely sugar free mixed organic fruit purees you can get here by Clearspring. If you cannot get your hands on something similar then just sugar free apple puree will do.

Grab a perspex bowl and pop in your fruit puree and coconut oil. Put them into your preheating oven, this is so your coconut oil melts and your puree warms. Add in the xylitol and coconut blossom, stir stir stir and you will find the sweet stuff melts into the mixture.

In another bowl and throw in your flours, salt and vanilla powder. Sieve in the baking powder, soda and cornstarch. Mix and make sure there are no lumps.

Now for the fast bit. Ensure your cake tin is at hand. Add your hot water to the wet ingredients, mix through and pour into the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir until there are no dry lumpy bits and toss in your berries and give a quick stir. Pour into your cake tin and put straight in the oven. The hot water starts to react with the soda so it can’t be left sitting about the place.

The batter

The batter

It takes about 25 minutes. It is done when coming away from the sides of the tin, the top has little cracks and if you stick a skewer or knife in it  comes out dry.

Under exposed cooked cake!

Under exposed cooked cake!

Rhubarb Crumble Cake on the windowsill!

Rhubarb Crumble Cake on the windowsill!

Enjoy with vegan vanilla ice-cream (suggestion not an order). OR with….

Strawberry Mint Sorbet... melting

Strawberry Mint Sorbet… melting on my windowsill.

Strawberry Mint Sorbet

  • About two and half cups or 250g of frozen strawberries
  • Two dessertspoons of organic dark raw agave
  • Four big mint leaves

Soo I took the leaves off my Irish strawberries, washed them and popped them in the freezer over night. I advice chopping the berries before freezing, as even in the crazy strong jug blender the whole ones were like little rocks bopping about the place. They took ages to blend.

Frozen strawberry rocks

Frozen strawberry rocks

This is so easy. Put the CHOPPED frozen berries, agave and mint in your blender/ food processor and blend them to a liquid. Put in a freezer safe container and put in the freezer for at least three hours. Or use an ice-cream sorbet maker!

Blended nearly sorbet- what a colour!

Blended nearly sorbet- what a colour!

If you are good at quenelle-ing you can do that..or pop it in a ramekin like I did!

Hope you enjoyed the berry fest! Xs Aissa

 

Seasonal Rhubarb & Orange Crumble Cake, Gluten Free & Vegan (of course!)

17 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Aissa in Cake, Gluten Free, Traditional, Vegan

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Cake, Gluten free, rhubarb patch, Traditional, Vegan

Finally it is Rhubarb Season! The first of the Irish stuff is out and about at Organic Farmer’s Markets now, get it while it is ruby pink and fabulous! My nana grew rhubarb in her garden, her rhubarb patch with it’s big deep green leaves seemed like the perfect hiding place for faeries. My sister now has a rhubarb patch, turns out it is a perfect hiding place for kittens too! I haven’t quite figured out how to grow rhubarb in my flat so I depend on organic farmers for mine 🙂

I like crumble-ness, rhubarb and orange-ness and who doesn’t like cake? Seems like a great combo. The mix of textures and sweet and tart flavours worked out great- if I don’t say so myself. So I decided to share!

Seasonal Rhubarb & Orange Crumble Cake

Rhubarb & Orange

  • Six stalks of rhubarb, topped and tailed and cut to 1cm/ half inch pieces
  • A third of VERY thinly sliced of a ripe pear
  • Zest of half a large organic unwaxed orange
  • Juice of half a large orange
  • Optional:Zest of half a lime
  • Two scant dessertspoons of xylitol
  • Half a teaspoon of organic vanilla powder/ 1 pod / one tsp of extract

Put it all in a bowl and mix it all together. Leave to macerate while you prepare the rest of the yumminess!

Looks like lots 'cos it is double the recipe here!

Looks like lots ‘cos it is double the recipe here! I made regular crumble at the same time

Crumble layer

  • One generous spoon of raw organic coconut oil- melted
  • A third of a cup of rapadura / sucucant / cocount blossom sugar
  • A third of a cup of ground almonds
  • Three dessertspoons of chopped walnuts
  • One teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • Less than an eighth of a teaspoon of himalayan pink salt / sea salt

Add your sugar of choice to your melted coconut oil and mix. I use real sugar in the crumble because it caramelises. I mix my salt and cinnamon into the ground almonds and then add these. Finally mix in the walnuts. Leave the bowl to one side while you prepare the cake.

Crumble!

Crumble!

Cake! Hmmm Cake!

  • Three and a half dessertspoons of coconut oil melted
  • A quarter cup of xylitol
  • A cup of room temperature unsweetened apple puree
  • A quarter cup of hot water- this to be added just before combining the wet and dry ingredients
  • A third of a cup of buckwheat flour
  • Two thirds of a cup of fine maize meal
  • A half a cup of ground almonds
  • Half a teaspoon of vanilla powder/ one pod/ one tsp of extract
  • An eighth of a tsp of himalayan pink salt or sea salt
  • One teaspoon of aluminium free baking powder
  • Half a teaspoon of aluminium free baking soda
  • One teaspoon of cornflour

Method:

Pre heat your oven to 170C / 330F fan or 180C / 350F normal. And prepare a 20cm/ 7.5inc cake tin, a springform one might be nice! You will need some foil or baking paper to cover the cake half way through baking.

This is a many bowled affair, you will need four! I used heat proof ones for the crumbly bit and the wet ingredients for the cake as I popped them in the pre-heating oven to melt the coconut oil first.

For the wet ingredients mix your xyitol into the coconut oil. Add in the room temperature apple puree. This is important, as if the apple puree is cold the coconut oil will re-solidfy. I forgot to take mine out of the fridge so I melted the coconut oil and apple puree together. Boil the kettle so you have the quarter cup of hot water ready for later!

Next sieve the buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and cornflour into a bowl. Add in the salt, maize meal, ground almonds and vanilla. Stir everything together, pressing out any lumps of ground almonds.

Dry stuff!

Dry stuff!

The fast bit!

Grab your wet ingredients and add in the quarter cup of hot water. Give it a quick stir and with haste pour the mixture into the dry stuff. Fold the ingredients together to make your cake batter. Once combined- just so there is no streaks of dry. Over mixing is not good for the texture of the cake.

The cake bit!

The cake bit!

With a high pitched “Now” grab your well rested rhubarb and quite speedily spoon the mixture over the top- try not to include too much of the liquid, don’t worry about it being on the spoon but leave what is left over in the bowl.

With a sharply said “Next!” pick up your crumble and spoon this on top of your rhubarb evenly. Make sure the rhubarb is hidden so it doesn’t burn.

Put it into the middle of your oven- or with mine slightly to the right because the left side is hotter. Sigh.

I get to bowl washing at this stage 🙂 After twenty five minutes cover your Rhubarb & Orange Crumble cake with foil or baking paper. This will stop the top from burning.

I was a little nervous about cooking the rhubarb on the cake! I therefor peeked a lot and actually left it in the oven a little long. I baked mine for 1hr 10mins- in a fan oven! Eek I am lucky it wasn’t charcoal – so I am saying 55mins – 60mins, it is a wet batter and the water from the rhubarb cooking makes it wetter so it does take that long. But it makes for a lovely moist cake, I also find using coconut oil gives it a lovely bouncy texture!

Cake on the windowsill!

Summery Cake on the windowsill!

Leave to cake to cool for at least twenty minutes before removing from the tin. This gives the cake a chance to settle down and firm up! Hope you try it out ! Xs Aissa

Minty Chocolate Brownies Vegan & Gluten free plus Yin Yoga

16 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by Aissa in Cake, Chocolate, Gluten Free, Natural Health, Traditional, Vegan, yoga

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Cake, Chocolate, Chocolate Brownies, Gluten free, Natural Health, Vegan, Yoga

So I made these chocolate brownies during the week. Super fast and supremely easy! Mint, vanilla and chocolate such a delectable combination…that said if you are not a paid up member of the “Mint Lovers Club” you can always add orange zest and a splash of juice for chocolate brownies with a fruity twist!

You will need a 9inch (22cm) squared cake pan, you can use smaller for a higher rise. I like them bite size- what make it more complicated to eat?!!

Minty Chocolate Brownies Vegan & Gluten free

  • Two generous dessertspoons of organic coconut oil
  • Two teaspoons of cashew nut butter
  • Half a teaspoon of peppermint extract or four drops of culinary peppermint oil
  • Half a cup of unsweetened almond milk
  • A third of a cup of a good quality raw agave
  • Two teaspoons of vanilla powder or extract or two pods
  • A scant third of a cup of rapadura /sucucant sugar
  • A third of a cup of pure cocoa powder
  • A rounded teaspoon of arrowroot powder
  • One and a half teaspoons of baking powder
  • Half a cup of ground almonds
  • Half a cup plus three dessertspoons of fine maize meal
  • A quarter teaspoon of Himalayan pink salt or good sea salt
  • 35g(1.25oz) of chopped up 70% dark chocolate
  • A quarter cup of warm water (boiled and left to cool a bit)

Method

Preheat your oven to 170C (fan) or 340F. Line your tin with paper and lightly grease with some coconut oil.

Grab a medium sized bowl and put in your vanilla powder/ pod (if using extract add it to the wet instead), sugar, ground almonds, maize meal and salt. Press out any lumps. Get a sieve and sieve in your cocoa powder, arrowroot and baking powder. Mix them all together evenly. Set to one side.

Chop your chocolate, it does not have to be super finely chopped as coming across the odd chunk is an extra treat! I used an organic one that has some wild harvest beans in it too..swanky. This is to be sprinkled on top of the brownie batter. Measure out your warm water.

Yummy chopped chocolate-

Yummy chopped chocolate-

You will need to melt the wet ingredients, so get a perspex bowl and put over a saucepan of lightly simmering water, it should fit safely and the water should not be touching the base of the bowl. Pop in your coconut oil and cashew nut butter first and once they have melted add in your peppermint extract, agave and almond milk. Once it is all melted together and your kitchen smells minty fresh take it off the heat.

golden melted gooey goodness

golden melted gooey goodness

Use an oven glove or towel to pick the bowl up and pour the lot into the middle of your dry ingredients. Fold the gooey mixture together –  gently does it. You don’t want to knock air out, we are making brownies not bread! 🙂 When combined (no big lumpy flourier bits and a uniform colour) Pour the (quite runny) batter into the cake tin. Quickly now- no dilly dallying- sprinkle your chopped chocolate ontop and press in ever so slightly. Pour your water over the top and put into the middle of your preheated oven.

Upside down chocolate brownie slab...is it just me or is that a face?

Upside down chocolate brownie slab…is it just me or is that an upside down face?

It takes twenty five minutes, fast…but you have to wait a good ten minute before removing it from your tin. I was impatient and as you can see by the picture it stuck a little. Gluten free equals handle with care. Once cooled a bit you cut it into bite sized chunks! Ta-Da! Brownies.

hmmmMmm brownie

HmmmMmm rich minty chocolate brownie

O and here is the Yin Yoga I did this evening. Lovely gentle Yoga practice for the start of the week. Not crazy push yourself advanced- but is in the holding of even the most simple pose that you find the beauty of a yin practice.

Xs Aissa

It’s the Silly Season It’s Vegan Stollen Time! & Marzipan recipe

16 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by Aissa in Bread, Cake, Sweets, Traditional, Vegan

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bread, Cake, marzipan, recipe, Stollen, Traditional, Vegan

I have just updated this post 2015 style! if you want to check that out it has more details! Other wise read on! 🙂

I have been making Stollen for Christmas for a few years. Clearly alcohol laden fruitcake is the Irish tradition, but I never liked it much. I was the person who ate the marizpan off the outside! I came across a wonderful recipe for vegan stollen here on “Seitan is my motor”.  The instructions are very clear! Which is what won me over. I was previously a bit intimidated by enriched dough. Knowing if you have kneaded enough, throwing the yeast in on top of the salt and immediately killing it ( 😦 ) etc. Kneading is all about getting your back into it and not being tempted to add more flour 🙂 Once you make this you will realise it can be done, to delicious results.

I have adapted the recipe a little and I make my own marzipan for it. My  changes are few, you have to respect yeast no messing with the recipe too much or the magic chemistry will be off. I use coconut oil instead of margarine, I use a third of a cup. I rub it with coconut oil too. As you would expect because I am a vanilla fiend I use a generous dessertspoon of vanilla powder. Finally I do not like raisins- I can stand a sultana in a scone …but raisins eep! and shiver! so I use two thirds of a cup of chopped organic un-sulphered apricots in my stollen.

It takes a little planning. You make the plain dough the night before and leave it to proof in the fridge. You bring all to together, shape, leave to rise and bake the next evening.

Here is mine naked out of the oven !

Triple mini stollen

Triple mini stollen

Ready to wrapped and hibernated for a bit.

snowy stollen

snowy stollen

Since I make my own marzipan I put my rose flavour into that instead of the mix. You just cannot get good quality marzipan here. Since I buy my ground almonds in bulk … because I  bake so much… it makes sense to make my own.

Marzipan is a wonderful human invention! So versatile! The almond-y heart of your stollen perhaps little marzipan balls that you can dip in melted dark chocolate and leave to set in the freezer. Tasty treats for over the holidays.

Marzipan

  • 200g/ two cups of ground almonds
  • 100g/ one cup org vegan icing sugar
  • A teaspoon of vanilla powder/ a pod/ paste
  • One tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
  • Two tablespoons of maple syrup
  • A quarter teaspoon of sea salt/ himalayan pink salt
  • Half a teaspoon of almond extract
  • Optional: Eight ground apricot kernels or increase the almond extract to one teaspoon
  • Seven drops of food grade rose oil* or a generous dessertspoon of rose water
  • One dessertspoon of cold water

*mine is in an almond oil base as pure rose oil is like twenty five euros a bottle!

Put your dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the wet, not the water though! Press it all together. If it still a little crumbly you can add your water and press it together again. It should form a ball like biscuit/ cookie dough. Cover in tinfoil/ baking paper and leave in the fridge for at least a half an hour.

If using in your stollen you will be rolling into three little logs. If you plan to make marzipan chocolate balls you will have billions of them!!! So maybe half the recipe, you could also leave out the rose and use orange zest and a little orange oil or orange flower water instead!?

Hope you guys try it. It really lasts, unless you end up eating it really fast, which has been known to happen. If you are clever and hide one, you can toast slices of it too, sooo good!!!

Wil try and post again soon, but just incase Happy Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah, New Years, or a bit of time off work! 🙂 Xs Aissa

 

Orange & Cinnamon Cupcakes- Vegan & Gluten Free

19 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by Aissa in Cake, Cupcakes, Gluten Free, Vegan

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Cake, Cupcakes, Gluten free, Vegan

Quick! Cupcakes needed!!!! Easy to make, easy to eat. Sweet and citrus-y with a hint of cinnamon its….

Orange & Cinnamon Cupcakes!

  • Half a cup of apple puree
  • Three dessertspoons of a sunflower oil that is suitable for frying or melted coconut oil
  • A scant teaspoon of apple cyder vinegar
  • The zest of a unwaxed org orange
  • Five drops of food grade orange oil or a teaspoon of extract
  • A third of a cup of fresh squeezed orange juice
  • A quarter cup of non diary milk
  • Half a cup of raw dark agave
  • Scant two thirds of ground almonds
  • Two third cups of fine maize meal
  • A third of a cup of buckwheat flour
  • A teaspoon of baking powder
  • Half a teaspoon of bread soda
  • A teaspoon of cornstarch
  • A teaspoon of vanilla powder/ good extract / two pods
  • A quarter teaspoon of cinnamon

Glaze

  • Two dessertspoons org coconut oil
  • One and a half dessertspoons cashew nut butter
  • Three dessertspoons date syrup
  • Three dessertspoons orange juice

To make the glaze just mash the coconut oil and cashew nut butter together. Next mash the date syrup and orange juice into the coconut oil and cashew nut butter. Ta-da! Glaze!

Cupcake Method

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F and line a cupcake tray. The recipe makes twelve! Grab two bowls. In your first mix all the wet ingredients including the orange zest. Give a bit of a whisk.

Orange-y apple-y sweetness

Orange-y apple-y sweetness

Now mix all your dry ingredients. It is worth sieving your soda, baking powder and cornstarch as lumps of these in your cupcakes is unpleasant.

Dry stuff! Hmm vanilla powder :-)

Dry stuff! Hmm vanilla powder 🙂

Pour your dry ingredients into your wet. Gently fold it all together. The bread soda/ bicarbonate will react with the cyder vinegar and start to create bubbles. If you are too rough you will  knock the air right out.

Fill your cupcake holders to the top, vegan gluten free goodies tend to not rise as much. Now there are tricks around this. *

They take twenty minutes in my fan oven at 180C/ 350F. They should be golden and darker at the edges. If unsure stick a skewer in one- it should come out dry.

cooling cupcakes

cooling cupcakes

Leave to cool completely before putting the glaze on.

Glazed!

Glazed!

Any ways hope you try them out! Xs Aissa

*My little liners are for traditional faery cakes- much smaller than a cupcake or muffin, but cupcake tins seem to only come in big sizes now. This means the cupcakes spread out a little – not up. The trick is shown in my ramekin cake- this was filled two thirds of the way up- but look at the rise! Because it could only go up!

ramekin cupcake

ramekin cupcake

A note on sweetness

I like to switch about what I sweeten my baked goods with. I stay away from refined sugars and corn syrup !! Eek- not healthy. I am all for moderation and variety. Rapadura/ sucucant sugar are pure dried cane juice. This means the molasses is not removed, and some minerals and vitamins remain in the sugar. In this recipe I used apple puree, agave and dates these have fructose as opposed to glucose. Too much fructose is not good for you either! That said they contain some nutrition e.g the dates have a good number of minerals- more than can be said for white sugar!

Its Classic Chocolate Cake – gluten free & vegan & yummy!

22 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by Aissa in Cake, Chocolate, Cupcakes, Gluten Free, Traditional, Vegan

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Cake, Chocolate, Cupcakes, Gluten free, Traditional, Vegan, Vegan icing/ frosting

Classic Chocolate Cake, it also a classic vegan cake. Lots of vegan cakes use non dairy yoghurt instead of eggs or and apple puree, which I do in this. I have discovered the ingredients are somewhat flexible. If you find you have no yogurt you can use banana. Not enough apple puree, add more yoghurt and banana! The gluten free flour is easy to change about, though I recommend not going over a third of a cup of buckwheat as it can become sour.

I have been making various versions with various flavours for a while. The element which helped this chocolate cake to another level of yummy was the discovery of a method on theppk.com for Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf . In the past I would to add hot water at the end, not the middle. It also inspired me to add some cinnamon! 🙂

Classic Chocolate Cake

Classic Chocolate Cake- gluten free and gooey

  • A quarter cup of soya yoghurt ( I used cherry flavour)
  • A quarter cup of cold pressed light sunflower oil
  • A third of a cup of cocoa
  • A big dessertspoon cacao powder
  • A cup of apple puree (unsweetened)
  • A scant two thirds of a cup of rapadura / sucucant / coconut sugar*
  • * and take out 3 dessertspoons as it will be a tad to sweet otherwise!
  • A third of a cup of boiling water plus a a dessertspoon.
  • One cup gluten free flour. I used the brand “Doves” (which is a blend tapioca,rice,maize & buckwheat)
  • Half a cup of ground almonds
  • One teaspoon of vanilla powder/ two pods/ a dessertspoon of extract
  • A third of a teaspoon of cinnamon (you barely notice it so you can add more!)
  • A quarter teaspoon of himalayan pink salt/ sea salt
  • One teaspoon of g/f aluminium free baking powder
  • Half a teaspoon of g/f aluminium free bread soda/ baking soda
  • One teaspoon of cornstarch
  • Half a cup/ 50g of chopped 72% vegan chocolate- I used one sweetened with xylitol
  • Seven crumbled/ chopped walnuts or a few spoons of chopped cashews

Chocolate Icing/ Frosting

  • Two dessertspoons of organic raw coconut oil
  • Half a teaspoon of vanilla powder/ extract/ one pod
  • Half a cup of vegan icing sugar
  • One big or two scant dessertspoons cocoa powder
  • A dessertspoon and a half of warm water

The Cake Method

Pre-heat your oven to 180C/ 355F. Grease a 20cm/ 7.5inch cake tin.

You will need two bowls. In the first bowl put in your apple puree, yoghurt, oil and sieve in the cocoa and cacao powders. Give a good stir. If you are using vanilla extract not powder add it to the wet not the dry.

with the glorious cocoa & cacao

with the glorious cocoa & cacao

In your second bowl add the flour, ground almonds, cinnamon, vanilla, baking powder,soda, cornflour and salt.

Now the clever bit. Add your third of a cup of hot water to your apple-y cocoa bowl. Stir it through. Add in your sugar and mix it again, making sure there are no lumpy bits.

Gently fold in half your dry ingredients. Add a dessertspoon of hot water and carefully give a stir. Add the rest of your dry stuff. Really be nice folding it in, fold in your chopped chocolate and walnuts. Do not over mix. You do not want to knock the air out.

Pour into your prepared cake tin. Put it in the middle of your oven. I put mine slightly to the right as the left is a bit hotter!

It usually takes 25mins. I peeped a couple of times and it took 30mins this time. It should be coming away from the sides of the pan, a little domed and cracking a bit. If you poke it with a skewer it should come out clean.

cake surface!

cake surface!

Leave it to cool for ten minutes before turning it out to cool on a rack. I left mine to cool on the windowsill – one of the first signs of winter!

When completely cooled you can ice it.

The Icing Method

Mash your coconut oil to soften. Sieve your icing sugar and cocoa in add your vanilla. Mash and press the mixture until a crumbly texture. Add one spoon of warm water first and mix again. Use warm water as cold water would make the coconut oil go solid again. You may or may not need the other half spoon of water. You want it to be soft and spreadable but not runny.

I plop all mine in the middle of the cake and sweep it to the edges with the back of a spoon or knife. This is enough icing for me, as you can see by the picture it is not smothered in it. You can always increase it by a third if you want a thicker layer.

iced!

iced!

Hope you try it out.

Xs Aissa

Last big slice! I then poured vegan cream over the top!

Last big slice! All it needs now is vegan ice-cream!

Brmufka- bread muffin cake Recipe

17 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by Aissa in Bread, Cake, Cupcakes, Vegan

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bread, Cake, Cupcakes, Vegan, Vegan icing/ frosting

The world is chaos and the lack of order has impeded my ability to blog. That there is the excuse to preempt my apologies.

My Brmufka- bread muffin cake, is the tale of a cake that went wrong and still tasted good. It tastes like a sweet bread- which I compensated for by covering it in a coconut yoghurt icing/frosting. I normally bake gluten free or at least wheat free, but not this time. There was a bag of whole wheat self-raising flour at work, it had had a hole poked in it. So rather than throw it out I thought I’d make cake!

brmufka with pink coconut yogurt icing

Brmufka with pink coconut yogurt icing

To make your own Brmufka- bread muffin cake you will need the following-

A 20cm/7.5inch cake tin. Greased with a little square of parchment paper on the base to prevent sticking! Measures and bowls…and an oven. More specifically one preheated to 170C/340F

  • 2 generous cups of whole wheat self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • Half a teaspoon of bread soda/baking soda
  • Half a teaspoon of ground cardamom
  • Quarter teaspoon of sea salt/himalayan pink salt
  • Half a teaspoon of vanilla powder/ or 1tsp of extract in the wet stuff!
  • Three quarters a cup of rapadura/turbinado/sucucant sugar
  • Note I used half a cup- hence Brmufka so it’s up to you what you want to do!!
  • Two dessertspoons of coconut oil worked to soft or melted
  • Three dessertspoons sunflower/rapeseed/canola oil (ones suitable for frying)
  • Seven drops of food grade orange oil or the zest of one orange
  • Half a cup of apple puree
  • Half a cup of non-diary milk
  • Half a teaspoon of apple cyder vinegar
  • A quarter cup of water or orange juice

Get your bowl and put in flour,baking powder, soda, cardamom, salt and vanilla. You can just add your sugar, but I sieve mine first as it gets out the lumps and makes for a lighter cake.

Put you apple puree, milk, quarter cup of water or juice and the vinegar.

Get another bowl and work your oils together, add the orange oil and or orange zest. Pour the apple puree milk etc mix on top and mix them together.

Make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and pour in the wet. Gently fold together. Just so there are no lumps. You want a light touch so you do not knock the air out or end up kneading it !!

Here is where the BR part of the Brmufka happened. Having been out of the habit of wheat, I over mixed- this developed the gluten- hence making it more bready. But there is more, I was going to make a low flat cake- like fingers and spread it on a baking sheet. I started doing this, realised I didn’t have enough batter changed my mind and then put in the cake tin. Over worked even further !!!

Pop it into the middle of your pre-heated oven. My oven is hotter on the left so I place things slightly to the right.

The Muf part is due in partially to the whole wheat-ness, also to the fact when I tried to gently transfer it to my cake pan it had thickened and the surface was uneven. When it baked it came out with a domed spiky top like muffins!

It took 24mins in my fan oven. It may take up to 30mins in a non-fan. You could make it into real muffins / cupcakes and they would take 18-20mins.

It will be done when it is coming away from the sides, is golden brown and has a little cracking on the surface. If it looks good take it out and stick a skewer in it. If that comes out dry you have a Brmufka or a cake if added more sugar and didn’t overwork it 😉

Brmufka pacman- pre icing

Brmufka pac-man- pre icing

 

Pink Coconut Icing

This is so easy. In a medium sized bowl

  • One dessertspoon of coconut oil- mashed to soft
  • Four giant dessertspoons of berry coconut yogurt*
  • A mug/ generous cup of organic icing sugar
  • Half a teaspoon of vanilla powder/ insides of a pod
  • If needed a teaspoon of warm water

*if you use plain just squash a strawberry into it or add a teaspoon of beetroot powder to make it pink. If you use the beetroot powder you need a few drops of water for the colour to release.

Mash your oil and yogurt (if needed the berry) together. Sieve the icing sugar into the bowl (and beetroot powder if using). Add the vanilla and mix it all together. Really get your back into it so that you get a nice smooth consistency. if too stiff or powdery add a bit of water. If too runny add a bit more icing sugar.

If you have made cake as opposed to Brmufka you may not need as much icing 🙂

Xs Aissa

Brmufka- bread muffin cake!

07 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by Aissa in Cake, Vegan

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cake, Vegan

Recipe coming soon for my vegan whole wheat “Bread muffin cake”. The cake where everything went wrong but it still tastes good, and they look like Pacmen!!

brmufka pacman- pre icing

brmufka pacman- pre icing

brmufka with pink coconut yogurt icing

brmufka with pink coconut yogurt icing

Post soon! Xs Aissa

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