My vegan week

It's been an interesting baking week for me trying out new ingredients and approaches. That's because everything I've baked has been vegan friendly!
When you think of vegan cakes, you tend to think of brown flour, seeds and quite a dense bake. How wrong was I?! Talking to Ross at Bora Coffee in Shirley, Birmingham, we coined the phrase 'The Indulgent Vegan' meaning cakes that are just as gooey, chocolaty and sugary as any other bake after all, if you go out for coffee and cake, its as a treat and an indulgence.
My first sponge cakes used egg replacements such as those you can get in health food shop; these worked well but I found that they rose well in the oven but dropped quite quickly when coming out of the oven giving a slightly disappointing end to them.
My revelation was in reading Ms Cupcakes Naughtiest Cakes in Town. The methods used in this book omitted egg replacements entirely and just used raising agents to give a far more stable rise. Quick mixes as you would do when making muffins and regular 'tapping' of the mixture in the bowl and tin rather than creaming methods ensured that the agents didn't start working before they went in the oven. It actually made the mixing process very straightforward, but you have to be quick!
The book also gives ideas for toppings and fillings, some of which seemed a little odd to start with but actually worked brilliantly.
I am definitely a fan of vegan baking, especially if the indulgent nature of cakes can be maintained. I'll be using the principles I have learnt to adapt my current favourites and coming up with new combinations, some of which will be sold in Bora Coffee!
All of the bakes below are totally vegan and totally indulgent!

Pecan caramel slice and apple, date and ginger oat squares

Raspberry, blueberry and almond crumble muffins
Red velvet and coffee and walnut cupcakes

Scones!

Lemon and blueberry loaf

If you live near Shirley in the West Midlands, pop into Bora Coffee where some of these bakes will soon be on sale!

Peanut butter squares

After having had lots of orders of the past couple of weeks, it was quite nice to have an experimental bake this week. I'm really enjoying making different slices at the moment and am always obsessed with bakes with peanut butter in. After my baking buddy Amanda did a version of a caramel slice with hazelnut caramel on a brownie base (which were beyond divine and resulted in several long gym sessions after eating just one!) I started to wonder about other types of base and caramel.

I spent a long time looking at recipes on the interweb. The peanut butter topping was quite common, but most slices had either a brownie or shortbread base and I wanted to try something different. In the end I combined various recipes, mostly from Australia with some of my own.

The resulting slice had a chocolate and peanut biscuit base for which I used unsalted roasted peanuts. This was baked before being topped with a layer of peanut butter mixed with sugar and condensed milk and then baked, with thick crazy milk chocolate on top. As the peanut butter layer also needs to be baked to set it, I found it was easy to over bake the biscuit making its slightly dry and crumbly, so if you try this recipe, be aware of that. Not that it didn't taste nice! With all these lovely ingredients, how could it fail to tantalise the taste buds!

I was pleased with the outcome and will definitely make again, but I may need to go to the gym a few times before eating another slice!

Ingredients

For the biscuit base

200g baking spread

100g caster sugar

200g self-raising flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

80g unsalted roasted peanuts roughly chopped

For the peanut butter layer

397g can Sweetened Condensed Milk

280g crunchy peanut butter 

55g soft brown sugar

50g butter

1 egg, lightly whisked 

For the topping

200g milk chocolate

15g butter

Method

To make the biscuit base

1.     Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4. Grease and line a 20cm square deep baking tin

2.     Cream together margarine and sugar until light and fluffy; stir in flour and cocoa powder

3.     Mix in the chopped peanuts so that they are well dispersed

4.     Bake in the pre-heated oven until firm around the edges for about 15 minutes

5.     Allow to cool in the tin for around 10 minutes

To make the peanut butter layer

1.     Reduce the oven to 160 C/ Gas 3

2.     In a saucepan, combine the condensed milk, peanut butter, brown sugar and butter

3.     Stir over medium–low heat until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.

4.     Whisk in egg and mix well. Pour over base.

5.     Bake for 15-20 minutes or until just set and golden. Allow to cool completely.

Add the topping

1.     Roughly break up the chocolate and add the butter

2.     Melt in the microwave in short bursts or in bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water

3.     Pour over the base layer and spread evenly. Give the tin a little shake to get a nice smooth finish

4.     Allow the chocolate to set in the fridge – this should take a few hours

Remove from the fridge and cut into the amount of pieces you would like. You can get 16 normal sized pieces or fewer of the size you’d actually like to eat!

Phew! It's been a busy few weeks baking...

I may not have tried any new recipes for a few weeks, but that doesn't mean its been a quiet time in my kitchen!

Celebration

I was delighted to be asked to provide cakes for a special celebration by a friend. She gave me a broad outline of what she wanted and then gave me the go-ahead to be creative, a chance I relished! She asked for one main cake, for a boy, either vanilla or chocolate. Never one to be limited by one flavour or making life simple, I decided to produce a two-tier fondant icing covered cake. In the recent heat, this was quite a feat to stop things either melting or drying out!

As the bottom level needed to support a smaller cake on top, I decided to use a madeira sponge rather than my go-to Victoria. The crumb is slightly more compact, yet loses none of the lightness of a traditional sponge. The bottom layer was a vanilla cake, sliced into two with the aid of cocktail stick guides to make sure it stayed level, and then filled and covered with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream. A white fondant then covered the cake with a light blue car motif going round the outside. The top layer was a chocolate madeira filled and covered with chocolate buttercream then covered with blue fondant and white stars. Letter cutters were a life saver in doing the wording for the top of the cake.

To go with the main cake, I made a selection of smaller cakes - raspberry, lemon and almond mini-bites, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, oat and cranberry flapjacks drizzled in either dark or white chocolate and then some good old chocolate rice crispy cakes. All were consumed with gusto from the reports!

Charity Bake Sale

Following on from the success of the Pop Chorus Bake Sale in aid of Help Harry Help Others back in March, for our last rehearsal before the annual show, my baking buddy Amanda and I offered to do 'A slice of something nice' to add to the funds. 

We decided to keep things simple and went for individual slices rather than large cakes. We knew there would be over 150 people at the rehearsal so between us we made around 280 slices. 

My bakes were

Dark chocolate and salted caramel Milionaire's shortbread

Butterscotch and pecan slice and more of the oat and cranberry flapjacks

The cakes flew out of the baskets - some literally as we only had 15 minutes to serve everyone! Everything was sold and we raised £400-  not bad for 15 minutes selling!

Experimenting and trying new things

I've been trying out some new recipes or adapting ones that I already use so that people with special dietary requirements can still eat cake!

My friend Nic and I recently had a chocolate and avocado vegan, gluten free and refined sugar free cake in a coffee shop. It was a revelation! Rich, dense and chocolatey...and virtuous! I had to have a go at home. It's not quite there yet, but its getting there!

I have definitely had more success with a vegan version of my blueberry and lime loaf. I took one to a summer barbecue and was immediately asked to make another for one of the revellers! The standard recipe was used, but a dairy free spread was substituted for the butter and egg replacement powder used for eggs. The cake rose wonderfully and had a lovely moist texture - the only downside was that the rise dropped slightly when the syrup was poured over. The taste made up for it though!

and lemon slices

just as an indulgence...!

Phew!
Never quiet is it?! I'm now thinking about a peanut butter slice...chocolate and peanut biscuit base, creamy peanut butter layer and then topped with a thick layer of chocolate...! What do you think?!

Marmite glazed cheese tear and share loaf

I was at a wedding reception recently, not knowing anyone sitting at the same table as me. This could have been awkward, but my company for the evening was absolutely delightful and conversation soon turned to the subject of food. It turned out that the couple next to me were big foodies too and loved cooking! We exchanged email addresses and said that we could be recipe buddies! This was the first recipe sent to me and will definitely be one I bake many times. The bread was light and soft thanks to the Wrights packet ciabatta mix and had that great creamy texture from the cheese and salty tang from Marmite. Served with a piping bowl of soup, it made a divine supper!

Ingredients

500g pack ciabatta bread mix (I used Wright’s)

1tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing

150g Mature cheddar cheese

2tbsp milk

15g unsalted butter, softened

1tbsp Marmite

You will need

·     a 25cm round cake tin, greased and the base lined with baking parchment

Method

1.    Mix the ciabatta dough according to the pack instructions, adding the olive oil, then bring the dough together with your hands and form into a ball. Knead for 10 minutes on a floured surface, until smooth and elastic.

2.    Transfer to a large, clean, oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour. When the dough has doubled in size, remove from the bowl, then knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes, to knock the air out of it.

3.    Cut 100g of the cheese into cubes and grate the remaining 50g; set aside until needed.

4.    Heat the oven to 180C fan, gas 6.

5.    Divide the dough into 20 even pieces and shape into a flat circle. Put a cube of cheese into the centre of one and shape into a dough ball, so that the cheese is a nice melted surprise when you bite into your share.

6.    Repeat with all the bread and fill the cake tin. Cover loosely with cling film and leave in a warm place to prove for 20 minutes, until the dough has puffed up slightly again. Any left over balls can be baked as bonus separate mini loaves!

7.    Brush the dough with milk and scatter with the remaining grated cheese, and bake for 20-25 minutes, until risen and golden.

8.    Melt the butter with the Marmite. As soon as the loaf comes out of the oven, using a pastry brush to paint a generous coating of the salty, buttery marmite glaze.

Best served warm, but let’s face it, cheese and Marmite together will work together whether hot or cold!

Adapted from a Woman and Home recipe