Bacon Cake with Satay Ice Cream

I recently made a batch of Peanut Butter Chai Ice Cream from Let them eat vegan! I thought the mix was really tasty before it went in to the ice cream maker. Andy said it tasted a little bit like satay sauce, but we both liked it in frozen form.

It's creamy and rich and you just need a scoop to feel satisfied.

Then the other day I made a coconut cake. I got home at 7.30 at night, and had to have a cake made before I left for a research trip at 6 the next morning - you see, cake is an important data collection tool. So I was in a bit of a rush, and out of cocoa powder. I threw together the Coconut Heaven Cupcake recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, in whole cake form - something I have done many times before. This time, though, I saw the coconut oil and thought it would be great. I let Andy lick the bowl as I put the cake in the oven, and he thought it tasted a bit.... bacon-y. I didn't want to admit it, but he was kind of right. The coconut oil gave the cake a strange aftertaste that really does taste a bit like bacon.

It wasn't overpowering or terribly unpleasant, so I brought the cake anyways, but had leftovers to bring home. To mask the bacon flavour a bit, we had a piece with ice cream.

Bacon cake with satay ice cream. Surprisingly delicious.

Cuppers

I sort of missed the cupcake trend when it exploded a few years ago. I don't know why, but they didn't really interest me all that much. I was more into cookies. Also inexplicably, I have quite recently begun to love the idea of cupcakes. Andy's friends recently had a birthday BBQ, and something made me really want to make birthday cupcakes for them. But I didn't want to make just any cupcake.  This is what I came up with.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing and Salted Caramel

Cake
1 1/2 c. plain flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. bicarb soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vinegar
1 c. water

Heat the oven to 180 and line 12 muffin cups with cupcake liners. Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarb soda and salt in a large bowl. In a jug or a small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar and water. Pour these into the flour mixture and mix gently until combined. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing
1/4 c. smooth peanut butter
1 1/2 c. icing sugar
3-5 T. soy milk

In an electric mixer, or with a good fork and lots of energy, whisk up the peanut butter until it's a little bit fluffy. Add the icing sugar a bit at a time until the mixture is crumbly. Add soy milk, a tiny bit at a time, until the consistency of the icing is good. This depends on how you want to put it on - for spreading, thicker is better, but for piping you need it to be a bit looser. Mine was too thick, and the cheap piping bag I bought just couldn't contain it - it exploded at the seams, requiring me to lick lots of icing off my hands which was delicious but also made me feel a bit sick. Make sure the cupcakes are fully cool before putting the icing on top.

Salted Caramel
2 T. vegan butter or coconut oil
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. golden syrup
1 1/2 T. coconut cream (or soy milk)
1/2 tsp. salt, to taste

In the smallest saucepan or skillet you have, mix the butter, sugar, syrup and cream. Put onto medium-high heat and cook, stirring constantly, until everything is melted. Stir occasionally as it comes up to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring pretty often, for 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in 1/4 tsp. of salt, then taste (being careful not to burn your mouth) and see if you want it saltier. Remove the pan from the heat and let the caramel cool to not-quite-molten temperature, stirring every so often. Then drizzle spoonfuls over the icing. The cuppers look best on the day you do the drizzling - the caramel soaked into the icing on the ones that sat overnight.

Sweet, yes, but also fancy and sophisticated and quite delicious. The best part about these cupcakes was that the gift box only fitted 6, so we got to keep the spares :-)

Polystyrene Slice

Last week I went in to the city, which is only 5 or 6kms from our house but which we very rarely visit. I was there to record an interview with my friend James on ABC Local Radio about veganism, food, and blogging. While I was there, I dropped in to Plant Essentials to replenish my stocks of makeup and lotion. And when I saw a pack of puffed quinoa on a reduced to clear table, I grabbed that as well - good for granola, I thought.

But then, before I could even think about granola, Hannah posted a recipe for peanut butter bubble slice (or, peanut butter rice krispy treats). It looked really good, and I thought, I could make this with things I have on hand - that is, subbing golden syrup for the brown rice syrup, and using these quinoa puffs instead of rice bubbles.

So I tried it out. First, I measured my puffed quinoa into a bowl. Nacho was interested, so to avoid her putting her paw in the bowl, I put a few puffs onto the counter for her. That was my first indication that puffed quinoa has a lot in common with polystyrene balls (you know, the kind you fill a bean bag with). They flew across the counter on the power of the fan breeze, ending up all over the kitchen.

I forged ahead, using crunchy peanut butter, of course, because why not? I also threw a bit of LSA into the mix, so I could pretend this slice is healthy. And, since we don't have a microwave, I did it all on the stove.

These are not as good as I expect an actual rice bubble slice is - too much puff, not enough krispy. But, it's really not bad. It's salty-sweet-nutty, and the crunchy peanut butter helps the polystyrene-ish quinoa slice to have a bit of texture. It is a good mid-morning uni snack, with enough protein and carbs to get me through till lunch. So while it's not a total, utter win, it's certainly not a fail, either.