Raspberry Christmas (or any other time) Cake

Over this festive season of complete and utter indulgence, I have made this cake a few times.

Sylvia has had lots of fun decorating it!

It is wonderfully easy, light and moist, and pretty with the red raspberries. You need just one bowl to mix it all up - I love that!

Merry Christmas!

Vegan Raspberry Cake (slightly adapted from the Vanilla Cake from How It All Vegan)

1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tbsp apple sauce or 1 tsp Orgran No Egg mixed with 2 tbsp water
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup raspberries (I use frozen)

Preheat oven to 350C.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Add sugar, milk, vanilla, oil, lemon zest and apple sauce/Orgran No Egg and mix together until just mixed. Fold through the raspberries. Pour into a round oiled cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. Check with a knife/skewer to see if done. 

Icing
Any vegan buttercream type icing is great for this cake. I just mix up a couple of tablespoons of Nuttelex (vegan margarine), a cup or so of icing sugar, splash of vanilla and milk. 

Walnut Oat Bliss Balls (date-free)

I'm a big fan of all those raw/nearly raw ball recipes. They are such an easy and quick sweet when you're pressed for time. And healthy!

I made these the other day, and they did not last very long at all. Yum.

These don't have dates in them. I love dates in raw sweets, but it is kind of nice to have a change from the particular flavour and texture they impart. Also, medjool dates are pretty pricey! 

These balls develop a firm cake-like texture once refrigerated for a while, which I love. 

Walnut Oat Bliss Balls (makes about 10 balls) Adapted from Bliss Balls from I Quit Sugar

1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp cocoa
pinch of salt
2-3 tbsp rice malt syrup, to taste 
1/3 cup almond butter
1-2 tbsp almond milk (if needed)
desiccated coconut, for rolling

Blend walnuts and oats together to make a coarse powder. Add this mixture to a bowl and add the cinnamon, cocoa, salt, rice malt syrup and almond butter. Mix together with your hands. If the mix is a bit too dry to be rolled into balls, add a bit of milk.

Form the mixture into balls, then roll in the coconut.

Easy Car Birthday Cake + A Vegan Birthday Lunch

My little boy is now 1 year old!

Lexie loves cars, so Sylvia and I decided to make him a car cake.

Decorated with vegan sandwich cookies (Oreos) for the wheels, barley sugar for the headlights and licorice to line the windows. Pretty cool, no?

It was within my limited cake decoration abilities, looked so cute and tasted even better.

I used this vegan birthday cake recipe (really really good - have since made cupcakes with this recipe too) and divided it between three loaf tins, following the instructions from here.

I'm sure it will be years until Lexie will appreciate the cake via photos, but he definitely loved the taste of it on the day - he ate a whole big piece!

I always find myself paralysed with indecision when deciding what food to make for such occasions. It's the weight on my shoulders of proving vegan food is delicious, etc. I really should get over this! 

Anyway, in the end I made dishes that I could mostly prepare in advance, really my only choice with two littlies!

For snacks, I made a guacamole with corn, tomato and fresh coriander from Wild Morsels by Angela Stafford. I also made a very tasty French onion dip. 

My mum made her usual fantastic vine leaves, always a hit. 

My sister made lovely vegan curry puffs, but I forgot to take a photo.  

I made two pies (with the barley poppy seed crust without the poppy seeds and with spelt flour from Vegan Lunch Box), one with a mushroom, asparagus and bean filling and the other with a lentil vegetable filling (a double lot of the veggie pot pie filling from La Dolce Vegan).

I also made a pasta salad (this was just OK) and a wild rice salad (also from Wild Morsels).

I was somehow organised enough to make cupcakes for the kids to decorate too, which was lots of fun. My partner's sister did some gorgeous fruit skewers for the kids, with fruit cut out in shapes. Wish I'd taken a photo of them!

It was so lovely celebrating the day with family and yummy vegan food! 

Quick summer meal ideas

To me, summer is all about light and quick meals.

How lovely is it to have dinner prepared in less than half an hour, instead of sweltering in the kitchen? (having pre-cooked grains/beans helps!)

I love salads that are substantial rather than very leafy - containing rice, chick peas, lentils, beans, quinoa or cous cous. 

My ideal quick and easy meal may consist of some grain/pulse, whatever appropriate veggies are in the fridge and sultanas, dressed with a bit of red wine vinegar, oil and salt. 

I also love kale, chick peas and avocado dressed with savoury/nutritional yeast, olive oil, lemon juice and salt.

Is it strange that I prefer such meals?! (Mind you, something sweet to follow the meal is essential...)

Not everyone (read: anyone) in the household shares my love for these very basic salads, so I will often make something else as well. Rice paper rolls, sushi, tangy bean wraps and quinoa salad are all popular with everyone. 

Here are a few comparably fancy but really easy and light salads I've made recently. 

Black Bean Salsa

1 cup dried black beans, cooked
handful of coriander, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 avocado, chopped

Dressing
1-2 tbsp grapeseed oil
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp agave nectar/maple syrup 

Mix the beans, coriander, cucumber, tomato and avocado in a bowl. Combine dressing ingredients and mix it all up. Serve with corn chips.

Pumpkin cous cous salad with macadamias

1 cup wholemeal cous cous cooked as per instructions (I cook it in vegetable stock)
1 quarter pumpkin, chopped
half a red onion, chopped
few glugs of olive oil
2 cups english spinach, roughly chopped
1/2 cup macadamia nut halves

Dressing
1 tsp tahini
juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
2 tsp agave nectar 
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

Toss pumpkin and onion in oil on a tray and bake in the oven at 200C until done, about 20-30 minutes. Add the macadamias to the oven about 10 minutes before pumpkin is done. 

Make the cous cous as per instructions on the packet.

Mix the cous cous, pumpkin, onion, macadamias and spinach in a bowl. 

Separately, mix the dressing ingredients together and then mix it all up. 

Raspberries and Cream Overnight Oats

It's so nice waking up to this!

When I can get my act together in the evening, I try to prepare something for breakfast the next morning. 

It's a lot easier than trying to cook stuff with a three (going on thirty) year old and a little man who has just starting walking - or more accurately, stumble trip stumble trip. 

Overnight oats, generally consisting of rolled oats mixed with chia seeds, milk, sweetener and some kind of fruit, is a nice change from porridge and nice and cool for summer. 

There are endless flavour possibilities. Well, not endless. One time, I tried to make orange coconut overnight oats using oranges and coconut milk - um, no. Not good. That'll teach me for being creative!  

We loved blueberry overnight oats for a while, but I made them a little too often and we got blueberry fatigue. 

These raspberry overnight oats are our favourite at the moment. The coconut yogurt makes them really creamy. I used Alpine Coconut Yogurt, which I found recently in Woolworths.

served with coconut yogurt

Raspberries and Cream Overnight Oats (serves about 4)

1.5 cups rolled oats
2 generous tbsp coconut yogurt 
3 tbsp chia seeds 
3-4 tbsp maple syrup/agave syrup or to taste
3 cups non-dairy milk (I usually use combo of rice, soy and oat milk)
1 cup raspberries (I use frozen)

Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate overnight. 

Almond Chocolate Chip Coconut Bars using leftover almond pulp

Lots of people seem to be searching for ways to use their almond pulp left over from making almond milk. My post about almond jam muffins using leftover almond pulp still gets the most hits on this blog!

I love those muffins, but there are only so many times I can make them and expect people to eat them! So I've been looking for new ways to use my leftover pulp. I recently bought a nut milk bag (very useful purchase) and I have been making lots of nut milk using this fabulous guide on Health Yeah. 

A lot of the recipes I've made with the pulp have tasted... well, kind of pulpy and bland. 

But these bars have a lot of flavour and are a great way to use leftover almond (or any other nut) pulp. I've found the key is to use a smaller amount of the pulp so it doesn't dominate. 

I used this recipe for almond pulp bars. I halved the recipe and only used half a cup of almond pulp. I used one of the new Mayver nut/seed spreads, which worked really well. 

These take a little while to firm up in the freezer. If you can't wait, you could probably just roll the mixture into balls.

If anyone has any recommendations for other ways to use up leftover pulp, I'd love to hear them!

Betty Goes Vegan

I was given Betty Goes Vegan for my birthday and I was sold on the book as soon as I read the introduction. The sentence "Julia Powell lost me when she killed the lobster" says it all (reference to Julie and Julia movie for those who don't know - although I am guessing most bloggers have seen it!). 

I also found it endearing that the first recipe I flicked to (in the dessert chapter of course) was a cookie recipe containing one and a half cups of powdered sugar and a cup of vegan margarine. So unapologetic and indulgent!

I think the premise of this epic cookbook - that you can make anything vegan - is admirable, even if it is a little heavy on the faux meat and cheese. I only wish that more of the cool vegan products like Daiya cheese were available in Australia. 

I love the tone in which the book is written - approachable, cheeky and fun. 

Here are a few things I've made so far:

Chocolate Orange Cashew Cheesecake

Butterscotch Brownies

Curry Spinach and Lentil Pilaf

Vegan Chicken Lettuce Rolls

Zucchini Apple Bread

We enjoyed all of these, but the Zucchini Apple Bread and the Vegan Chicken Lettuce Rolls really stood out - so delicious!

Theresa at the Tropical Vegan has also blogged about this book here and here. 

I'm looking forward to making some of the indulgent dishes from the "Holiday Favourites" section of this book this Christmas!

Red Lentil Kofta

Who knew uncooked red lentils could be used in this way? Total revelation to me - a fantastic and quick appetiser or filling for a wrap.

You just soak the red lentils for a couple of hours, throw them in the food processor with some onion, garlic, tomato paste, salt and herbs, then form the mix into patties and fry them in olive oil!

I needed to pulse the mixture quite a few times in my food processor before it looked like this:

See the recipe here.

The koftas are crisp on the outside and have a kind of meaty taste and texture (in a good way - it's probably the herbs as well as the texture of the lentils). 

They were popular with Lexie (now 10 months). Most of his food ends up crumbled over the floor at the moment, but I try not to take it personally...

Vegan Shortbread Hearts

Sylvia requested heart shaped "fairy" biscuits with pink icing, so we made them for a recent picnic:

Aren't they lovely?

And they tasted just perfect too, much nicer than I expected. 

We did some stars as well - apparently fairies eat them too...

They are so festive!

I used this recipe from Get Sconed! for the vegan shortbread. The dough was so easy to work with. I'll definitely be making them again, maybe at Christmas time.

The icing is the confectioner's icing from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (icing/powdered sugar, with a bit of soy milk and vanilla) with a teensy bit of red colouring added. 

Vegan Chocolate Cornflake Crackles

I had some cornflakes to use up, so this recipe was born!

I kept sneaking back into the kitchen to "test" the results, so I think they turned out pretty well...

These are a great healthier alternative to traditional kid's chocolate crackles, but also a lovely treat for the grown-ups. 

On another note, I have made a list of my links to online recipes if anyone is interested!

Vegan Chocolate Cornflake Crackles (makes about 11 large crackles)

4 cups cornflakes (I used sugar free cornflakes)
1/2 cup dairy free margarine (I used Nuttelex)
100g vegan chocolate, broken into pieces
1/3-1/2 cup rice malt syrup
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
2 tbsp ground cashews
2 tbsp ground pecans

Melt margarine in a small saucepan. Add chocolate and rice malt syrup and stir until smooth.

Put the cornflakes, flaxseed, cashews and pecans in a large bowl. Add the chocolate mixture and stir. 

Place mixture in cases and put in the freezer (fridge will probably work too) for at least 1/2 an hour before eating. 

These are best eaten cold, or they'll fall apart!

Vegan scrambled eggs

... or the next instalment in my love affair with besan (chickpea) flour.

When I saw this post by Mel at Veganise This! on curried "egg" sandwiches made with besan flour, I knew I had to try it immediately. I don't particularly miss eggs, but I do love any excuse to experiment with besan flour. 

I loved the texture of this. I found that as I left the mixture to cool, it became more rubbery (in a good way) like scrambled eggs. 

It went so well on toast for breakfast with a dash of tomato sauce.  

The recipe calls for black salt to give it an "eggy" flavour. I didn't have this, so I just used normal salt. It still had a great flavour and similarity to scrambled eggs. 

My partner liked it but said he prefers this vegan omelette I use with fried rice. My three year old wouldn't try it because it's not chips or a Vegemite sandwich. Sigh. 

But I didn't mind because I could eat it all myself! I loved this and I'll definitely be making it again and again. 

Sweet treats

Making sweet foods makes me feel good. Sharing and eating them is quite nice too!

Here are a few sweet things that have been produced in our kitchen lately.

Fluffy White Cupcakes 

Cupcakes put a smile on everyone's face, don't they? I'm usually a Vegan Cupcake Takes Over the World girl, but I also love these vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Lunch Box. The coconut extract really adds something special to these.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake

I had a few lemons to use up so I decided to make this cake from Chef Chloe. I wanted to take a photo of this cake sliced up, perhaps with a bit of icing sugar sprinkled on. But the cake disappeared too fast. That's how good it was. I haven't baked with olive oil much before, but it was just divine in this cake. 

Mexican Wedding Cookies

These are delicate, melt in your mouth cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking. They make perfect gifts. The recipe is also here online. I used a combination of pecans and walnuts. 

Crepes with lemon and sugar

Growing up, we were not a pancake household. We were a crepe household. We ate them with lemon and sugar or cocoa and sugar. This time I tried the crepe recipe from Veganomicon. They contain that magical chickpea flour. These are definitely the best vegan crepes I've made - thin and delicious!

Strawberry Mousse

This recipe from Vegie Head is simple and very creamy. It is made with fresh strawberries, dates, avocado, chia seeds and coconut cream. Lexie, now 9 months old, enjoyed it too!

Chocolate Date Balls

These chocolate date balls from Veggieful are a yummy and healthy quick treat to satisfy your sweet tooth. 

Lemon Macadamia Bars 

These bars are based on this recipe from Cupcake Kitteh. They are so delicious and easy to make - no need to buy expensive raw bars! 

What are your favourite sweet treats at the moment?

Creamy Lentils

Golden syrup dumplings were the first sweet dish I could cook. These lentils were the first savoury dish I could make. It has saved me on many an occasion!

I remember making this for my friends when I first moved out of home. I felt very domestic, given that the rest our meals were pasta, crackers and takeaway. 

My friends were reluctant to try it because it contained lentils, but everyone loved it in the end. Really, why do lentils have such a bad name with omnivores? No, they are not very attractive [see photo] but they can be so delicious!

My mum used to make these lentils with sour cream and butter, and so did I until I became vegan, but it is pretty easily veganised. You could try using other vegetables or adding some type of vegan sour cream at the end. It can be a stew or soup, depending on how much liquid you use. 

For me, this is the ultimate comfort food.  

Creamy Lentils

1 1/2 - 2 cups dry green or brown lentils, rinsed
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 cup peas
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp vegan margarine (I use Nuttelex)
4 tbsp flour
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt or to taste

Put the lentils, carrots, onion and peas into a large saucepan and cover generously with water (or stock). Bring to the boil and simmer until lentils are cooked but there is still a bit of liquid. You may need to add water as necessary. 

Put the oil and margarine in a small saucepan on low/medium heat. When the margarine has melted, add the flour and stir for a few minutes, being careful not to burn it.

Add this mixture to the lentils and stir, adding the lemon juice and salt to taste. 

Serve on its own, with rice or bread!

Enjoy!

Vegan shopping heaven

I love cooking and making our food from scratch. Obviously. But I get such a thrill out of being able to buy food that I actually want to eat, rather than standing depressed in the middle of a food court with little to no options or settling for an unimaginative vegetarian pasta or salad.

On a wonderful friend's recommendation, I recently went to About Life Natural Marketplace in Rozelle, Sydney. It is a whole foods/health food supermarket with a cafe attached. They have quite a lot of vegan products that I see (drool over) on American blogs such as Amy's Kitchen products.

The thing that really impressed me was the amazing array of ready made raw desserts, such as tiramisu, cheesecake, energy balls and chia puddings. They also have a fantastic selection of drinks such as green smoothies (with all of those vegan super foods added!), vegan sweet slices, snacks, salads and other meals.

This raw tiramisu was the highlight. 

I must try to replicate this. 

I'm looking forward to going back there for a meal and more raw desserts.

Here are a few of the other random goodies we bought:

Afterwards, we popped into The Cruelty Free Shop. Total treat!

Details: About Life Natural Marketplace, 605 Darling Street, Rozelle NSW

Healthier vegan baking

There are definitely times when only white flour and sugar in baked treats will do. 

However, lately I have been dabbling in healthier vegan baking. 

Sylvia loves sweet foods as much as I do and is reluctant to try new foods at the moment. I have got into the habit of making a healthy sweet treat each day or second day, trying to load it with nutritious stuff. 

I feel better about her eating these kinds of sweets, even if she has had little for dinner (or a Vegemite sandwich!). And of course, it's good for the rest of us too!

I have found some great recipes on other blogs.

These healthier homemade pop tarts were lovely. The dough was a bit fiddly to work with, but worth it in the end. Anything with sprinkles is a winner with Sylvia!

 

Some other favourites are chocolate coated pretzels, spelt blueberry muffins and whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. 

I am quite obsessed with spelt flour at the moment. These chocolate pumpkin spelt muffins are lovely and light, veganised from a recipe I found online (recipe below).

 

I recently bought Whole Grain Vegan Baking. It's a gorgeous book. I only wish I had more time to make everything in it! I'm really enjoying trying the different flours in these recipes, such as barley flour. 

Here are a couple of things I've made from it so far.

Hearty barley fruit bread

Savory barley and potato scones 

I'd love to hear some other healthy baking ideas!

Chocolate Spelt Pumpkin Muffins (adapted from this recipe)

3/4 cup wholemeal spelt flour
3/4 cup white spelt flour
3 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp ground flaxseeds
6 tbsp water
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1 cup pumpkin purée

Preheat over to 180C. Line/oil muffin pan.

Whisk together flaxseeds and water and set aside.

Mix together flour, cocoa, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 

Make a well in the flour mixture and add flaxseed mixture, maple syrup and oil. Mix until combined.

Fold in the pumpkin puree until just mixed in.

Pour mixture into muffin pan and bake until muffin tops are firm, around 20 minutes. 

Vegan Wedding Cupcakes

Recently, I made some cupcakes for a family wedding. 

It felt like quite an honour to make these for such lovely people on their special day. I took a lot of care making them with this in mind, and I am pretty proud of how they turned out!

I spent the day before the wedding making all the cupcakes and icing, and iced and decorated them on the morning of the wedding. An ambitious task, especially with a baby and a three year old, but I really enjoyed it!

All the cupcake recipes are from the brilliant book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I made pistachio rosewater, lemon macadamia, chocolate orange and coconut lime.

 Congratulations Claire, Ben and Aaron!

101 uses for besan (chickpea or gram) flour

Well maybe not that many, but a couple of uses ...

I have used besan flour before to make French toast and omelette, but lately I have been experimenting with it in a few new recipes. It has a beautiful nutty flavour and is rich in protein. 

These dosas from Vegan Magic are really delicious. 

I was overjoyed when Sylvia liked these! They can be eaten as an accompaniment to a meal or even used as a wrap. 

I leave out the carrot because Sylvia prefers them plain. I also substituted plain flour for the rice flour once, and they turned out fine. 

These fritters from The Kind Cook were also a huge success with Sylvia. 

They are great with the corn, mint and zucchini in the original recipe, but work with most vegetables. Here I used grated carrot, corn, spinach and parsley. 

I am always excited to find such simple, tasty and healthy recipes on blogs. I don't think I'd be able to find and try as many new recipes such as these without my trusty iphone, which I can even manage to use with a baby balancing on my lap and a three year old giving me orders!

I'd love to hear how you use besan flour so I can add it to my list!

Chocolate Banana Quinoa Flake Bake

There are a lot of granolas and overnight oats happening at our place for breakfast these days. So this was a lovely change:

There is something about a baked breakfast that feels so wholesome. Especially when it contains quinoa flakes. Very virtuous, even with the addition of choc chips!

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this, given that I am not a huge fan of the taste of quinoa flakes on their own. This is definitely my favourite use of quinoa flakes so far. 

I used this recipe, using the applesauce option. It's very easy - just mix the quinoa flakes, mashed banana, applesauce, nuts of choice, cinnamon and/or nutmeg, choc chips and put in the oven for around 20 minutes. Or in the microwave for a few minutes. Go and do some other stuff, then you have a beautiful warm breakfast awaiting you! 

I'll definitely be trying vegan versions of some of these other bakes over the winter.

Creamy Millet Apple Pudding

Now that it is starting to get a bit colder, I thought it time to roll out an old favourite tonight - this creamy millet apple pudding.  

I used to make this for Sylvia when she was younger. For a period, she lived on this pudding and her favourite chocolate pudding. 

She is growing up so fast and is quickly becoming more independent, so for me this pudding is a nice warming reminder of her baby days. 

These days when I ask Sylvia if she would like to help me cook, she says: "Sorry mummy, I'm too busy". When I ask her what she did at playgroup, she sighs and says: "Oh mummy, I'll tell you later".

Pass me the pudding!

This pudding also makes a nice change from porridge for breakfast and is a healthy, comforting dessert.
 
Creamy Millet Apple Pudding

1/4 cup dry, hulled millet, ground to powder in a coffee grinder
2 cups non-dairy milk (I use a combination of rice, soy and oat milk)
1/4 cup sultanas
1 apple, peeled and grated
2-3 tbsp sugar
dash of cinnamon

Put the ground millet, milk, sultanas and grated apple into a saucepan, stir and heat over low to medium heat until the pudding thickens a bit, about 20 minutes. Stir every now and then to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan or get lumpy. Add in sugar and cinnamon and heat for a few more minutes. The pudding will thicken as it cools. Eat it hot or cold!