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Sunday, 7 January 2018

Veganuary

What’s the difference between these two lemon drizzle loaves? They are both light and lemony and have a crunchy top to them. The one on the left is the traditional, never-fail Mary Berry recipe I have used for years and the one on the right is a vegan version…and you really can’t tell the difference!


For the past four months I have been the sole provider of cakes for Bora Coffee Co, an independent coffee shop in Shirley near Shirley in the West Midlands. I make a range of different cakes and slices – pear and ginger, banana, tiffin, cranberry and chocolate flapjack, sticky ginger bake with a lemon cream cheese topping, carrot cake, scones, fruit bread – the regular range of goodies you’d come to expect from a coffee shop. At the bottom of each of the labels is VGN; all of the cakes are suitable for vegans. Vegans don’t believe that they are suitable and when they do, they like the range of bakes on offer. Those who are not vegan can’t tell the difference. We don’t market the bakes and ‘vegan cakes’ but cakes that sure suitable for vegans and this is where the difference comes. The traditional image of vegan cakes is that they are very healthy and use alternatives to sugar, nothing refined and often a random vegetable or piece of fruit. These clearly have an important market, but working with Bora, we wanted to go for the ‘indulgent vegan’ market, after all, if you go out for coffee and cake, you want to indulge yourself, don’t you?


Until I started baking for Bora, I had never made a vegan cake and was quite anxious about how they would work. In reality I have found that there are so many alternative ingredients and methods, that I now really enjoy baking in a vegan way. I am forever looking at how I can make cakes that are suitable for vegans – the last was a Christmas cake traybake. It was so popular, I had order from customers for entire cakes to take home!

I have had to ‘unlearn’ some of the methods I have used for years, and my beloved KitchenAid mixer rarely gets used. The art to vegan baking is light mixing and combining rather than creaming and folding. This makes many of the cakes quick and easy to make.

Rising comes from a combination of flour and raising agents. Instead of using eggs, ground flax seeds combined with lukewarm water have never failed in a darker coloured bake such as my pear and ginger loaf. Egg replacement powder is used for some of the lighter bakes or in cookies that are the chewiest I have ever made. Sometimes no binding agent is needed at all – I’m still not entirely sure why, but I know that the bakes still work really well. Buttercreams and cream cheese toppings can still be made and enjoyed, with non-vegans unable to tell the difference. Even many kinds of chocolate are dairy free and they don't need to cost the earth - look at Vegan Womble's blog, you'll be amazed!

So in this Veganuary, try something different when you’re baking, give vegan a go! Here’s my recipe for a lemon drizzle loaf that is suitable for vegans, not a vegan lemon drizzle loaf!

Ingredients

250g self-raising flour
150g caster sugar
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
220ml soya milk
120ml vegetable oil
zest of a lemon

For the topping
100g granulated sugar
juice of a lemon

Method

1.    Pre-heat the oven to 180/ 160/ Gas Mark 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin with either parchment paper or a loaf tin liner.
2.    Put all the dry ingredients and the lemon zest in a bowl and mix lightly.
3.    In a separate bowl, mix together the oil and soya milk
4.    Add the wet ingredients to the dry and gently stir in until just combined. Try not to overmix as it can make the finished cake heavy.
5.    Bake in the centre of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
6.    Meanwhile, mix together the granulated sugar and lemon juice.
7.    Use a cocktail stick to make holes across the top of the loaf while it is still hot and pour over the lemon and sugar.
8.    Leave in the tin until cool

A great inspiration and go-to book is Ms Cupcakes Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town. If you are ever in Shirley, pop along to Bora and try for yourself! I'm there on a Thursday morning too.