Quadruple Layer Chocolate Cake

So, here we are with another sweet baked good....but, I did have a good excuse this time as it was my husband's birthday on friday :) I was planning on making something quite different (which I won't mention now in case I ever get around to it!) but couldn't do as tofutti cream cheese is getting hard to find - there's a little hint for you! Anyway, decided to just make the chocolate wacky cake again as it's so good, but, decided to go a little more decadent and make it four layers with a very yum chocolate 'butter'cream. It turned out very good, these aren't the best pics but the cake is so moist and light against the rich, fluffy buttercream. I was also thinking of drizzling a ganache all over the top of this but then calmed down and regained my senses! They aren't in the photos but I served this with fresh strawberries which went so well with it.

Chocolate Cake: Best to make these the day before.
375g plain flour
300g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
60g cocoa powder, I used bourneville - sifted
3 tsp vanilla extract
160ml vegetable oil
2 Tbsp white distilled vinegar
480ml cold water

Grease and line two 7 or 8 inch round cake pans - set aside. Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Combine all dry ingredients and whisk well. Combine all wet ingredients and whisk well. Pour the wet into the dry and gently whisk until just combined. Pour evenly into the two pans and place in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes. Check with a toothpick, it should come out clean or with just a few crumbs clinging to it - mine needed 35 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool but leave them in the pans, they will split while cooling if you remove them. When cool remove from the pans, wrap firmly in cling film (again to prevent splitting) and place in the fridge overnight, this will help prevent splitting and will make slicing the layers easier.

Chocolate 'Butter'cream:
500g icing sugar
125g vegan margarine
90g dark chocolate, at least 70%, melted and slightly cooled
2 Tbsp oat or soy cream, slightly warmed

Cream the margarine and sugar in a stand mixer, when it starts getting dry add the chocolate and quickly mix until incorporated. Add cream in stages until you get a nice, thick but spreadable frosting.

Assembly:
Remove the cakes from the fridge and place on a cutting board. Using a long, thin serrated knife slowly and carefully cut the cakes in half. It really isn't as hard as it sounds as long as you go slow and keep turning the cakes, don't worry about cutting the centre until you've worked around the edges. Place the top layer, top side down on to your serving plate and spread with some of the frosting. Place the other cut layer bottom side up on top and frost this. Repeat with the other cut layers and then frost the top with the remaining frosting. Serve with fresh strawberries.

Trillionaire's Shortbread

No, not millionaire's shortbread this is trillionaire's, as it's that much richer you see ;) I've been wanting to experiment with this since making Veganomicon's Smlove Pie . While I thought the pie was very yummy I was most impressed with the peanut butter caramel and maple candied pecan topping. I wasn't sure if it really went with the chocolate tofu base as they kind of overpowered it and kept thinking they would make a great bar cookie with a shortbread base, like millionaire's shortbread.

I just used my shortbread recipe from the cinnamon toast cookies then followed the recipe for the caramel and pecans. They are very good but I'm still not 100% happy with my cookie recipe, it's nice and light and crumbly but the taste isn't as good as could be. I think it just needs some more sugar, next time I would add 75g and some vanilla extract, I think that would solve it.

Only other change I would make is the pecan topping, I was trying to be too fancy laying them out in rows where really you want a bite of pecan everywhere so next time would chop them up and sprinkle all over, or even chop them and stir them into the caramel.... either way they are yum and fantastic with a cup of coffee!



You'll need to make the pecans first:

Maple Candied Pecans: (this makes more than you need but they are fab to snack on!)
110g pecans (1 cup)
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbsp maple syrup

Cover a large baking sheet with baking paper. Add pecans to a saucepan over medium heat and stir frequently for 3 minutes. Cook, stirring for 2 minutes more - be very careful not to burn them, I didn't go the full extra 2 minutes there. Add the oil and salt and cook for 1 minute, stir constantly. Add the maple syrup and stir until the mixture is mostly dry. Transfer to the baking paper and let cool. As they are cooling break separate them with your hands. They should cool crisp and glossy and not be tacky.

Base:
110g vegan margarine
50g caster sugar (I will use 75g next time)
2 Tbsp cornflour
135g plain flour
pinch salt
*1/2 tsp vanilla* - not in original recipe but would be nice

Beat the marg and sugar together until creamy, beat in vanilla if using. Stir in the cornflour, then stir in the flour and salt. Press into a 8" square non-stick pan and place in the fridge for 1 hour. Preheat oven to a low 140C, prick all over with a fork and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly golden and edges start to pull away. Set aside to cool.

Peanut Butter Caramel:
1/3 cup smooth natural peanut butter
3 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp brown rice syrup

Place all in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring until all smooth and thickened, it should fall like ribbons from a fork. Pour over the base and spread out with a spatula. Gently press the pecans into the caramel, either whole or chopped and leave out till the caramel sets.


Chocolate Drizzle:
50g dark chocolate

Melt in microwave and drizzle over! I used a sandwich bag with the corner snipped off.

Nacho Quesadilla

Yes, I do love my cheezly....I didn't really want to do too many posts requiring specific ingredients that a lot of people probably can't buy, like this nacho flavour cheezly. However, any vegan cheese could be used here, I usually just use the super melting edam or mozza anyway. This one isn't super melting but doesn't matter - it melts beautifully. When I first got it I made nachos with it prepared to put up with un-melted cheeze on top but it did indeed melt and made very good nachos.....which got me thinking about making a nacho flavoured quesadilla. I love quesadilla's and would have them quite often in my dairy eating days, so glad cheezly works in these! No hard and fast recipe here and of course you can put whatever you like in a quesadilla but the nacho flavours work really well.

1 large wrap (I find using 2 wraps makes just too much, although I know that's more traditional!)
1/2 avocado, mashed
40g nacho flavour cheezly, grated
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1/4 red pepper, finely chopped
10g black olives
vegan sour cream to serve - also serve with salsa, I added extra chillies in mine to make it spicier so I wouldn't need salsa as I've recently discovered just how much salt is in those jars - shocking!

Place the wrap on a non-stick frying pan and spread half with the avocado, top with everything else then heat up the pan. When the wrap is warm and softer fold over and cook until both sides are golden, crisp and the cheeze is melted. Cut into triangles and serve with sour cream and salsa.

Bryant Terry's Banana-Maple Pecan Cornbread Muffins

Well, you knew I couldn't stay away for long! Like I mentioned below I have been very eager to try things from my new cookbook, Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen. Naturally I was drawn to one of the sweet, bakery items in the book - these fantastic Banana-Maple Pecan Cornbread Muffins. Everything in this cookbook is very healthy, no white sugar or bad fats and a direction I could certainly start going down!

They turned out beautifully and while I am certainly used to my muffins being much sweeter than these I didn't miss it at all. They get their sweetness from just 2 Tbsp raw cane sugar and maple syrup plus the ripe banana - then you get a nice hit from the maple glazed pecans. Lovely. I'll post the recipe I used here, not exactly the cookbook version as I had to make a few changes. First I can't buy whole wheat pastry flour here, which it called for 1/4 cup, and second his pecans were 'double maple glazed' - first with maple syrup and then with maple sugar, a LOT of maple sugar. Now, the only place I can get maple sugar is in Brighton, it's a small bag and costs like 6 quid, meaning I treat that stuff like the granulated gold that it is. So... I used the maple glazed pecans recipe from Veganomicon's Smlove Pie that I posted earlier. Turned out just fine.


Muffins: (recipe was for 24 mini muffins but I don't have that size tin, these are 12 regular)
165g cornmeal
3 Tbsp unrefined corn oil
3/4 cup plain flour
2 Tbsp demerara sugar (raw cane)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
190g banana (about)
240ml rice milk (unflavoured)
2 Tbsp maple syrup

For the Maple Glazed Pecans:
110g raw pecans
2 tsp canola oil
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1/8 tsp salt

First make the maple glazed pecans. Set aside a sheet of baking paper. In a saucepan over medium heat lightly toast the pecans for a couple minutes. Stir constantly for a couple minutes more until lightly toasty -careful not to burn. Turn heat down and add the oil and salt, stir for about a minute more. Add the maple syrup and stir constantly - it will bubble up then get dry. Tip onto some baking paper and spread out with a spatula. Leave to cool, as it's cooling, break the pecans up with your hands. Set aside.

For the muffins, grease 12 muffin tin holes with some of the corn oil and set aside. Heat the oven to 220C. In a large bowl add all the dry ingredients and whisk well. In a blender add the banana, maple syrup, rice milk and remaining corn oil and blend until smooth. Place the tin in the oven for 5 minutes to get the oil really hot. When there is 1 minute remaining stir the wet into the dry gently - do not over mix, then fold in the nuts. Spoon batter into the tins 3/4 full and bake for 13 minutes or until golden on top and well risen.

He then states to serve immediately and they certainly are good fresh from the oven!

Still here!!

Just wanted to let you all know I'm still around. I ended up in hospital for 2 weeks - I have lupus which is largely under control but now and again it flares up. So if I'm ever not blogging for long periods of time it's probably because I'm in hospital again enjoying the 'vegan' food. This time they gave me egg salad, cream of mushroom soup, a tuna fish sandwich and even offered me oxtail soup! The worst was when I asked for soy milk on my cereal, I could see it on the trolley and they gave me cows milk. For some reason (I blame the medication) I couldn't tell it was milk until I was near the end, then ended up so sick they had to inject anti nausea medication into my butt - nice.

Anyway, I did have some very good meals too, it wasn't all bad and I am on the mend but still very weak so it may be awhile before I'm blogging again. When I do be sure to expect lots of entries from the new vegan cookbook I got - Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African American Cuisine by Bryant Terry . It was featured on Heidi Swanson's blog and I had to get it right away. Can't wait to start trying things, it looks amazing and I think it will become a favorite. Love it when new vegan cookbooks come out!!

Coconut Rice Pudding with Caramelized Pineapple

(please excuse the bad lighting here, taking pics at night never works for me!)

And this was dessert for Easter dinner... usually I blog entire menus together like with my Valentines, Anniversary, Christmas and Burn's night posts. However, I wouldn't really recommend this for dessert after lasagna and garlic bread. It would all be a bit starchy and heavy, even we had a 4 hour break between dinner and dessert!

That being said, this was delicious!! I will definitely be making it again. The recipe comes from Waitrose and is one of the few naturally vegan recipes there. It uses coconut milk to replace regular milk, gently infused with cardamom and topped with sweet caramelized pineapple. Initially I was going to replace the cardamom with lime zest, simply as I love lime and of course it would go so nice with coconut and pineapple. However I am so glad I didn't as the cardamom added a really nice flavour to this, and it's not a spice I use that often.

As much as I loved this I keep thinking the flavour possibilities are endless here, like using lime zest I was also thinking of making a 'Pina Colada Rice Pudding' by adding some rum to this as well. Loads of options here but even this basic recipe is gorgeous!

Serves 2:
3 green cardamom pods
200ml light coconut milk (1/2 a can)
40g caster sugar
75g pudding rice (or arborio risotto rice)
125g fresh pineapple, cut into small chunks
13g light muscovado sugar (light brown sugar)
13 g chopped pistachios (I didn't have any so used sliced almonds, toasted - nice!)

Split the cardamom pods and remove the seeds discarding the pods. Crush the seeds into a coarse powder - I didn't have a mortal and pestle like called for but it worked fine with a blunt rounded object and bowl. Place the coconut milk and 200ml cold water in a pan with the cardamom powder and caster sugar. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves then bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer.

Add the rice to another pan on medium heat. Add a ladle full of milk stirring constantly until absorbed, then add more making sure each addition is absorbed. Check rice after all the milk is added as mine was nowhere near done at this point. I heated up some more water and just kept adding more water until the rice was cooked. It took maybe half an hour instead of the 20 min they say. Don't worry about watering it down, it evaporates and tasted just fine.

When that is nearly done toss the brown sugar with the pineapple and tip into a hot dry frying pan for 2-3 minutes so that the sugar begins to caramelize. Spoon the rice pudding into bowls and top with the pineapple. I toasted some sliced almonds and sprinkled these on top too. Serve warm.

Lasagne and Garlic Bread

Lasagne layered with mushroom sauce, spinach, basil tofu 'ricotta' and topped with pine nut cream - most courtesy of Veganomicon.

My usual garlic bread....

Decided to go for lasagne and garlic bread for Easter dinner. We haven't yet set on a 'traditional' meal for Easter so I tend to change it around every year. I have made several vegan lasagne's so far, I haven't blogged one yet as I've been waiting to find the perfect one. This one just may be it. Other's I have tried have used soya mince for a meat replacement and faux cheese sauce but loved this one the most - even the very picky boy loved it, so that's saying something!

My old favorite vegetarian lasagne was a spinach and mushroom one, it had a mushroom tomato sauce layered with noodles, spinach and a cheese sauce. I decided to use that mushroom sauce but replaced the cheese sauce with Veganomicon (and VWAV's) basil tofu ricotta, kept the spinach and then topped with their pine nut cream, as used in the potato eggplant moussaka . It's altogether a variation featured in the cookbook, and sorry as most recipes come from the book I can't post here, although I'm sure an internet search will find these for you!

As it has a lot of layers, each that need preparing, it can take awhile. However you can make almost all the layers in advance, even a day in advance, making the whole thing a lot easier. This fits one 8x11 inch pan.

Mushroom Sauce:
50g vegan margarine
2 onions, diced
450g mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, pureed
8 Tbsp tomato puree
800g can chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar

Melt margarine in a large saucepan and fry the onion until transparent. Add the garlic and fry a minute more. Add mushrooms and some pepper and fry until cooked and any liquid reabsorbs. Stir in puree, chopped tomatoes, soy sauce and sugar. Bring to the boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside.

1 x recipe Basil Tofu Ricotta
1 x recipe Almesan
1 x recipe Pine Nut Cream
Baby Spinach
Lasagna noodles - enough for 3 layers in your pan, I precook as I don't trust the ones that say you don't need to.

Lightly butter your pan then add some of the mushroom sauce. Layer with noodles, half the ricotta, lots of baby spinach, mushroom sauce. Finish with a layer of noodles and top with more mushroom sauce. Cover with foil and bake in 190C oven for half an hour. Remove from oven, take off foil and top with the pine nut cream. Put back in oven for another 20 minutes or until topping cracks and looks dry. Remove from oven and sprinkle generously with the almesan. Let sit for 10 minutes then cut and serve. With the size of pan we used we got 6 servings out of this.

Garlic bread:
Recipe is the same as my old post here but I used a par bake baguette slicing it as you see in the pic.

Easter Cookies

♥ aka - keeping the boy busy during half term! ♥

So as I have the boy home for 2 weeks decided to make some Easter cookies. Nothing new here, it's the same recipe as my Christmas Cookies but cut out using Easter/Spring shapes and colours. We spent the day before making paper easter eggs (as we never have real eggs in the house!) which he really enjoyed and loved this even more, possibly as he got to eat treats whilst decorating :) I loved his idea of using sliced strawberry lances for buttons - clever boy he is!

♥

Vegan Hawaiian Pizza

Yes, I know, this is hardly original.... I wasn't going to blog it at all but then remembered why I started this blog - to have an on-line record of things I like to eat, and while this isn't groundbreaking in any way, it was yummy! Think I'll need a new category - 'I can't believe I'm blogging this'!

I would say my favorite vegan pizza's are still just a nice base loaded with veg, preferably oven roasted veg and no faux cheese at all, especially spread with homemade vegan pesto, like my first pizza post . However I wanted to try to recreate what was always my favorite pizza as a child, the bog common ham and pineapple, and see how it fared being veganized. I have recently discovered redwood foods ham style slices, which I think are fab, and of course I've been accustomed to their super melting cheeze for awhile now.

I have to say for someone who hasn't had a ham and pineapple pizza in about, god, 15 years??? It tasted just like I remember and I really, really enjoyed it.

Makes 1 good sized pizza:
112g strong white flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp active dry yeast (not easy blend)
75ml warm water
1/2 tsp olive oil

Toppings:
pizza sauce
ham style slices
pineapple
super melting mozza cheezly

Dissolve the sugar in the water and sprinkle on the yeast. Allow to get nice and foamy - about 10 minutes. Mix in the olive oil and stir well with a fork then stir into the flour and salt. Knead on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes. Place in a warm bowl greased with olive oil, cover with cling film and place in a warm place to rise, about an hour.

Punch down, knead a few times, cover and let rest 15 minutes. Now, roll out, stretching as you go to whatever size you want, thin and bigger or small and thicker - up to you! Top with pizza sauce (I just used some store bought sauce), ham style slices, pineapple and super melting mozza style cheeze (I used about 70g on this pizza).

Bake in a hot 220C oven for about 15 - 20 minutes, until cheeze is golden and melted and the dough is risen and golden at edges.

Sticky Lime and Chilli Tofu - two ways

Oven grilled with broccoli rice.

Pan griddled with steamed broccoli and pad thai noodles.

Hurrah! After five posts of excessive sweets I finally post a savoury dish!! I really don't live off cake and cookies, I swear.... Saw this recipe on BBC Good Food ages ago, it was featured with chicken but I thought the flavours would suit tofu really well for a simple replacement. It's also dead easy, using bottled thai sweet chilli sauce, and easy is what I need right now as I am still, yes still, trying to get over this cold!

Initially I made it with the noodles and despite the recipe stating to oven grill, I pan griddled. As you can see it didn't get as 'sticky' as the oven grilled version and I really don't recommend it this way. It did go nice with the noodles but afterwards I realized it was all way too similar to a dish I've already posted .

So today I thought I would make it with rice and to oven grill the tofu. Again, oven grilling is the way to go (although you'll need to have a chair ready under your fire alarm!) As you can see it got better cooked and nice and sticky like it should be. For the rice, I intended to have nice bright green florets of broccoli stir fried in like with the noodles but decided to boil the broccoli with the rice and clearly over did it! At first I was disappointed as it wouldn't look as good but it was actually really yummy that way and I would do it again this way.

I'm not too sure what quantities to give here, when I made it with noodles I made a lot (too much for me although I did shamefully manage to eat it all). With the rice I cut everything in half and found that to be a much nicer amount. I'll give the smaller amount here, just double as your appetite desires! Serves 1:

Rice version: (my preferred)
63g firm fresh tofu (that's 1/4 pack of cauldron tofu for those in uk)
50g thai rice (raw weight)
50g broccoli florets
1/4 tsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp thai sweet chilli sauce
1/2 lime, zest and juice (you want about 10ml juice)
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp peanut oil

After pressing your tofu and cutting into 4 thin triangles, mix together the 1/4 tsp soy sauce, lime zest, thai sweet chilli sauce and half the lime juice. Pour over the tofu and marinade, turning over now and again. I didn't time this, 15 - 30 minutes I guess. Put some salted water on for the rice and cook according to package directions. When there is 5 minutes left add the broccoli, add this later if you want them whole, but I did like it cooked down like in the picture. Meanwhile, lightly grease a baking sheet with some extra peanut oil and place the tofu on. Grill under a hot grill until golden and charred around the edges, flip over, brush with more marinade and grill again.

When rice is done, drain and add back to the pot with the other half of lime juice, 1/2 tsp soy sauce and the peanut oil. Stir gently over low heat till well mixed. Tip this onto a plate then top with the grilled tofu, brushing a bit more marinade over top.

Noodle version:

I would follow the steps for the tofu above as it was much better grilled, then just replace the rice with 100g straight to wok noodles of your choice, still tossing them with the lime, soy and peanut oil mixture.

** Just a note, if you do have a big appetite and double this, 1 serving gives you 428.6mg of calcium, 31g of protein and 6.4g of fibre!**

Based on the recipe here .