Thursday 20 October 2011

Cranberry Almond Tea Cake



Cranberry studded almond infused cake with a simple almond glaze.


This was always one of my favourite tea cakes and is on my old vegetarian blog, why it has taken me so long to veganize it I don't know! I kept the veganizing pretty simple here, threw in some cornstarch to help bind and increased the baking powder to help rise, then of course swapped the milk with dairy free and the butter with vegan butter. Simple. It turned out fantastic too, great flavour and lovely texture, light yet moist and no gumminess at all. 

My original version had chopped almonds on top and the glaze just drizzled on top. I was unable to put nuts on top due to this batter being runnier than the last so opted for a whole covering glaze instead. It was a good call as I like this even better :-)

Cranberry Almond Tea Cake:

260g flour
120g caster sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
175ml dairy free milk
4 Tbsp cornstarch
110g vegan butter, melted
2 tsp natural almond extract
100g sweetened dried cranberries

Glaze:
1/2 cup or 75g icing sugar
1 Tbsp dairy free milk
1/2 tsp natural almond extract

Grease an 8.5" x 4.5" x 2" loaf pan and set aside. Preheat the oven to 190C.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cranberries in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl whisk together the cornstarch and milk until dissolved and no lumps remain. Whisk in the almond extract then slowly whisk in the melted butter until well blended. Pour the liquid over the dry and mix with a rubber spatula in a folding motion until just combined - do not overmix.

Pour into the prepared tin then bake for about 45 minutes or until risen, golden on top and a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with dry crumbs on it. Cool in the tin on a wire rack for 15 minutes then remove to cool completely on the wire rack.

For the glaze simply whisk everything together and spoon over the top of the loaf pushing it out gently over the sides. Make sure the cake is no longer warm when you do this. Allow the glaze to set then slice and serve! Beautiful with tea :-)

*Sigh* Blogging with a Doctor Who mad child running around. THIS is why you never see the "larger picture" with my photos! 





5 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, that looks so perfect.

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  2. I love tea cakes, they always seem so simple and yet fancy to me. Yours looks lovely...robot head and all.

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  3. That's a lovely cake with a perfect texture. The cornstarch in the recipe, is it custard powder or plain corn starch because it has a beautiful yellow colour.

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  4. Thanks! It is just cornstarch, I do often use custard powder in place of cornstarch in sweet recipes but not this time. The nice colour probably comes from the large amount of vegan butter in it. The brand I use, Vitalite, is quite yellow. You could easily swap the cornstarch for custard powder though for an even more vivid colour :-)

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