brazilian carrot cake of deliciousness (with orange and chocolate)

After a week of watching the Great British Bake Off S4 (I love Sue), it was time to bake Danni's birthday cake. It didn't rise super well and there are things I would change, but a friend said "I never liked carrot cake before, but I loved this!",* and I think that's a job well done.

This cake is moist, fragrant when cut into, and retains a beautiful flavour. The carrot, chocolate and orange all work very well together. I would have baked this again immediately but for a sugar, carrot and flour emergency in my kitchen.

This recipe came to me via Cindy, but I changed it up a bit.

Brazilian Carrot Cake (called such because the recipe's original progenitor is Brazilian)

cake ingredients:

2 cups plain flour
1 cup sr flour
1.5 tbl baking powder
pinch salt
1.5 cups sugar (I used a combo brown, coconut and castor due to a dire sugar emergency in my kitchen)
400g carrots, coarsely grated
5 tbl soy milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
half an orange's juice + zest

chocolate deliciousness for the top:
2 tablespoons cocoa
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons nuttelex
2 tablespoons soy milk
10g dark chocolate couverture

for on top of the top:
some dark chocolate couverture
a handful of walnuts

to make it a cake:

set ovens to stun180C.
sift together flours, baking powder, salt and sugar. in a blender combine carrots, soy milk, vegetable oil, orange elements and vanilla extract. pulse together until a thick, rough, fluorescent orange goop appears. mix through the dry ingredients.

pour into a greased baking tin, and bake for about 40 minutes; at which point, bake at 170C for another ten minutes. allow to mostly cool.

over a low flame, mix together the elements of the chocolate deliciousness. when it's all melted and smooth, allow to boil for a minute and then take off the heat. put aside to cool for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

chop up the walnuts, shave the chocolate. before the chocolate deliciousness can set, pour gently over the cake. top with walnuts and extra chocolate.

serve at your bestie's birthday dinner, and be annoyed when there's none left to eat later because everyone gobbled it up despite being full of burgers.



* where do we think this comma goes? '!",' seems awkward.

rolling like a steamed bun: a day of eating in singapore

If you're around this blog for more than five seconds, you'll know how much I love sharing meals I ate at places you can't go because they're not in Melbourne, so here is a recent day of Singapore noms and fun times had by me and my darling friend Em of Sugarspoons, who you may remember from previous adventures on Vegmel when she lived in Melbourne.

We started our day at Jones the Grocer at the Mandarin Gallery. Jones the Grocer is an Australian chain that does groceries and has a few cafes across Australia and into Singapore. The centre was mostly closed but Jones the Grocer was bustling - so bustling it took forever for us to be seated and served! However the service was an aside, because the Very Important reason for our visit was that Jones the Grocer, as an Australian chain, can actually provide us with soy flat whites! (Unlike the Dome at the Singapore Art Museum, which, despite being Western Australian, cannot) We shared a perfectly serviceable tomatoes and avocado and jam on toast (and I had a second soy flattie), before we meandered off to buy presents for babies and also on secret Azn Girls Business. 

After ogling the totally expensive teas at TWC (you know it's expensive because their waitstaff are tall white anglo boys! and also their tea is like $100SGD for 100gm) and visiting the masking tape exhibition at the top of Ion (totally amazing, Em had to be physically restrained from touching and buying things), we were met by G and headed off to the Living Cafe, a rawish cafe that has lots of delicious vegan, raw and gluten-free treats.

At the Living Cafe we were overwhelmed by choices, and went for the time honoured tradition of sharing a whole lot of things. We ordered the raw zucchini lasagna and the veggie bowl with brown rice as our mains to share. The zucchini lasagna was lovely, however it had to deal with the unfortunate competition of yong's in my heart, and it couldn't compare. The lasagna was placed together as we watched (rather than pre-prepared and stored for delicious cashew cheese compression as at yong's), and while the tomato and red capsicum sauce (and the cashew mayonnaise) was extremely tasty, the slightly under-ripe-ness of the tomato was off putting. Fortunately the veggie bowl was a nice thing to alternate with it, and we were able to cap off our savouries by stealing some of G's sweet potato wedges.

Dessert caused us some consternation. There was a whole cabinet full of amazing looking delicious raw cheesecakes - most of them containing honey! We were devastated, but fortunately and to our delights we were informed by the chef (a vegan!) that the recipe on the chocolate cheesecake had recently changed, and so we were able to sample these two raw vegan cheesecake delights. They were amazing, a++ would eat again.

I was so happy with these desserts that I took back to my hotel raw cookies for the fam, and a piece of banana cake for myself for my plane ride back to Australia the next day.

I would sample the delights of the Living Cafe again, but I probably wouldn't try the same savoury dishes.

After some meandering (and purchasing of Crumpler products - by the Singaporeans, not by me, obviously) we headed over to JOY OF JOYS Haidilao, which you may remember from such adventures as that time Stephanie lived in Beijing and ate nothing but hotpot. Haidilao has recently opened up its first Singaporean branch and I loved it so much I took the fam back the next day! Totally worth it. My Chinese tutor (from Beijing) joined us, and it was lots of fun catching up with her, gossiping in Mandarin and stuffing my face with all my favourite things. We ordered the spicy/mushroom double pot, because it is always the perfect choice, and I got to use my old friend the Haidilao ipad and we got dancing noodles and lots of mushrooms and it was just the best.

And then I went back to my hotel, had a cup of tea with the fam and fell into bed, my belly stuffed until I was a steamed bun! Perfect.

Jones the Grocer is located in the maze that is the Mandarin Gallery. There's no steps but the tables are close together. It is cafe and cafe-goods only (though I love the supermarket located in Ion near the H+M). Get to either of these places on the MRT.

The Living Cafe is located at 779 Bukit Timah Rd. I can't remember if there's a step for entry. There is a little bit of free parking (though not much).

Haidilao of joys and delights is located at River Valley Road in Clarke Quay, near the Japanese Centre. Get there on the MRT.

No idea of prices as my noms were sponsored by Em, in exchange for my love and a giant bag of vegan goodies from Melbourne.

carlton noms: crafternoon + the beaufort

Ms Hayley recently gave herself blog amnesty and I've been feeling all blocked vis food blogging (not vis media and social justice blogging at no award though) so I'm gonna do a similar thing. 

Crafternoon: Emma and I went to Crafternoon a few Sundays back as a way of getting out of the house when we'd both been having lazy Sundays. We took the Sooty Monster and meandered down to Crafternoon in the hopes that it was still open, and it was! Crafternoon is open seven days a week, and it's a small, lovely cafe that offers crafts with your coffee and cake and brekkie and lunch. Vegan items are clearly marked on the menu, as are GF options, so I was delighted to order the lemon and almond tart with berry compote and coconut icecream. I am not usually a huge fan of tarts (on the grounds that I am not a huge fan of tart flavours) but this one was beautiful, and combined with the compote and the icecream made a lovely flavour sensation that I was sad to finish. I enjoyed the presentation of the tart, and I appreciated the paper and crayons already on the table so I could start designing the Mecha Penguin Jaegar that Danni and I are gonna be piloting when the apocalypse comes.

Crafternoon is located at 531 Nicholson Street, North Carlton. There is street seating, and a step up into the venue (plus what seemed like a narrow door). Ordering happens at the table. Reasonable prices ($4 for my tart). $0.5 soy surcharge.

The Beaufort: Hayley's blog amnesty includes a review of her first visit to the Beaufort. My visit two Fridays past was also my first, I went with my Beijing Ren for our usual monthly catchup (we're trying to move beyond Chinese restaurants). I had thought it would be more Gaso/EBC in its vegan opportunities, which I was sadly incorrect about: there were only two vegan options, the Philly Cheese Fake and the vegan Bahn Mi. I went the Philly Cheese Fake with vegan cheese, which was delicious containing a million mushrooms and wrapped by some lovely bread. The Fake comes with some fries which were sadly the saltiest fries I've ever tasted, but I was also delighted by my Granny Smith with alcohol (freshly juiced in front of me and served with Gin). Music was hilariously nineties.

The Beaufort is located at 421 Rathdowne Street in Carlton. Its interior is way too dark, but they let your puppy inside and the service is prompt and friendly. It has also been reviewed by Cindy and Michael.

spiced sweet potato and pistachio cake

I wanted to bake something today, and there was half a sweet potato in the house, and I thought, why not? No regrets, it was delicious straight out of the oven and if you give me half a mo, I bet I'll declare it's delicious cold with a cup of tea, too.


sweet potato and pistachio cake

you will need:
one and a third cups of flour (I used half self-raising and half plain)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 very heaped teaspoon of ground ginger
a shake of salt
a shake of ground cloves
half a teaspoon of nutmeg
an amount of sweet potato that makes 1 - 1.5 cups after it's boiled and mashed
1 cup of sugar (i used castor, but i bet brown or coconut sugar would also work great)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
one third of a cup of oil (canola or something plain)
two chinese soupspoons of apple sauce
a handful of pistachios.

to make it:
peel, dice and boil sweet potato, then drain and mash. let it cool down a bit (i used this opportunity to read some more blogs). then combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt in a large bowl. in a separate bowl, whisk together the oil and the sugar until combined, then add the vanilla essence and the apple sauce. mix this with the sweet potato until it's a nice consistency, and pour into the dry ingredients. mix until it's just combined, then throw in the pistachios and give it a stir twice more just to get those through.

bake at 180C for about 30 minutes, or until baked through. i used baking paper in my loaf tin.

[wa] heavenly plate, applecross

Heavenly Plate is a new(ish) vegetarian restaurant in Applecross. I've heard a lot about it primarily from one friend, and nothing else from any other source, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I manufactured an opportunity to eat there on the weekend.

In fact, what happened was that I was so excited I started tweeting about the menu immediately (using the hashtag #heavenlyplate). Heavenly Plate is vegetarian, and mostly vegan (or vegan options); there is an entire hot chocolate menu featuring items such as 'orange and cinnamon' and 'strawberry' and entrees such as mango bruschetta and all sorts of really exciting and interesting things.

We decided to maximise our tasting opportunities by sharing three entrees (between four people), then ordering our own mains with lots of sampling.



Our entrees were the japanese wedges and wasabi mayo; the avocado rolls; and the murtabak. I wish the murtabak photo had turned out - aside from being incredibly delicious, it was beautifully and artistically laid out. The avocado rolls were encased in spring roll wrappers and fried, then served with a light mint (?) mayonnaise which was so delicious Danni scraped the remnants up with her knife in order to eat it all up. The murtabak was filled with a 'chicken tofu' and it was light and delicious with a lovely sauce and looked delightful, too. The wedges were herbed and sprinkled with nori, and the wasabi mayo had a spicy bite to it which became less potent (but no less delicious) as you continued.



Alas, my bad luck with my photos continued in to our mains, so you only get to see two. Above on the left: my Thai green curry spaghetti. This looked rich, and being Thai green curry, it certainly was; but I didn't find it overwhelming, and I loved the combination. The carrot could have done with being a little softer, but aside from that it was delicious and I thought it was great. Dr G ordered the noodles with cheese wontons (sadly the wontons are not pictured). The noodles were exactly what one expects from a chasiu wonton noodle dish (which I love); the wontons were served in a slightly salty soup. The soup was perhaps slightly too salty, and the cheese wontons were interesting. I'm not sure what was in them, but definitely a cheesy flavour, and definitely worth a try.

Gilly ordered the the Tripple C, where the mock chicken was battered in flour and Diet Coke, and deep fried, served with some lovely crisp chips and a perfectly serviceable salad. Gilly reports that she could taste a slight Coke-y flavour to the batter, but the rest of us were unsure. Danni went for the chilli chicken in red jam, a beautifully presented dish featuring rice and vegetables and mock chicken and cashews. The flavour of this dish was excellent, and not spicy (more flavoursome), with a slight sweetness which I assume was the red jam.



Intrigued by the desserts and chocolates menu, we decided to split two desserts and each order a hot chocolate. Due to the unavailability of the peach pie, we ordered the apple torte and the chocolate sundae. Chocolates ordered to the table were the strawberry hot chocolate and the orange + cinnamon hot chocolate.

The chocolate sundae was So Good icecream with a whole lot of chocolate syrup and sprinkles. This was very fun to eat, but nothing exciting (aside from the experience of the chocolate sundae). The apple torte had a lovely flavour but I found it a little dry; I took this opportunity to combine the two, and this was excellent.



The strawberry hot chocolate had been particularly recommended to me; alas, I found it way too sweet for me, and had to keep cleansing my palate with chocolate sundae. When one needs to palate cleanse with icecream, it is perhaps too sweet! I found the orange + cinnamon hot chocolate much more to my taste, with a light tang and a lovely sweetness. Alas then that I was not the person to order that chocolate!

Total bill for all that food came to just over $130. It was slightly too much food for all of us; each of my dining companions complained of being uncomfortably full, and I was leaning towards that myself. But certainly not disappointed. In fact, I am searching for excuses to dine there again before I depart Perth.



Heavenly Plate
899 Canning Highway
Applecross (WA)

open every day

didn't ask about gluten free options

little ramp up, easily navigable with wide apart tables inside. large, unisex toilets available. get there via the train (about a 5-10 minute walk from canning bridge station on the mandurah line) or a canning highway bus. some parking available.

(not actually a) mississipi mudcake

Following a discussion around the existence of vegan mudcake, I was provoked in to committing acts of the same, guided by this Mississippi mudcake recipe on vegweb, and goaded on by Certain Vegans.



This cake was good. It had a lovely flavour, lovely consistency and texture and was easy to bake and held up well over a few days, but it was not mudcake. It was too light and fluffy and not filled with any molten chocolate at all! However it is a recipe I would repeat, and I have ideas for transforming it in to mudcake.

I made no mods! Which is terribly unlike me.

you can't have these cupcakes (yet)

I went to a wedding at Scienceworks last week! Scienceworks is a pretty cool venue for a party, I had lots of fun taking photos and hanging out with the gauges and stuff.

Although the wedding was not vegan, and it was just a cocktails kind of party, I found that I was amply catered for. There was a vegan version of most of the little courses, and the person with the vego/vegan platter would always try to find me first so I got something, and that was all very lovely. And then, there were the cupcakes.



Ant's sister Cate, who is not actually a baker (though aspires to running a cupcakery + confectionary), made this amazing cupcake tower for the party. Here is what makes this cupcake tower so amazing, though. The level that I could eat was not, in fact, the bottom, plain chocolate (mudcake) cupcake layer. Oh no.

It was the blackforrest cupcake layer.



Basically, this was so amazing that I can't wait until she has an actual cupcake shop so I can eat this all the time. And try making it. And so other vegans I know can employ her to bake for their parties. This was SO GOOD.

Also, I love it so much when my non-vegan friends make sure that I am just as over-the-top catered for as everyone else.

baking from babycakes

I've been a little bit intrigued by Babycakes ever since I first heard of it; however I have little chance of visiting the shop any time in the near future, so it was with delight that I borrowed the Babycakes cookbook from Emilly.


I've tried baking two things so far. The first was the gingerbread cake, which I first tried at Emilly's birthday. I was taken by how moist and delicious this cake was. The added pumpkin makes it really moist. I cheated and made a very sugary cream cheese topping instead of making the frosting in the book, but the cream cheese complemented it quite well.

The cake itself was tasty, but it dried out very quickly, which is a shame as it makes quite a lot, so there was a lot to get through.


look at all that spare apple!
I followed this up with the apple and cinnamon muffins. I get really grumpy at recipes like this, where they tell you to do something (roast eight apples) and then you only use a portion of the end product (one cup of roasted apples). It is a good thing I was feeling lazy and only ended up roasting five apples.

There were other modifications I made as I went on, most of them already written in pencil in the cookbook; significantly reduced the amount of agave and the amount of vanilla essence (two tablespoons!), and some other modifications I cannot recall as the book is not in front of me.

Overall I've found the book a tasty experience so far, though of course I will require more testing in order to truely guage how I feel about the book.

brownie things

I don't know how universal an experience this is, but when I was a kid I used to love going to Pizza Hut where they had all you can eat, and when it came time for dessert I would always get a square of chocolate cake, and I'd cover it in soft serve ice cream and marshmallows.

This brownie tastes like that cake, and I'm okay with that.



brownies like at pizza hut (australia, circa 1992)

ingredients
two cups of plain flour
almost one cup of cocoa (I ran out)
one cup of castor sugar
shake of salt
one tablespoon baking powder
two or three tablespoons of canola oil
two and a bit cups of rice milk
one teaspoon lemon juice
quarter cup walnut pieces
quarter cup choc chips

some extra milk and choc chips to make the ganache/icing

method
Combine flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and baking powder. When it's all nicely mixed and the cocoa isn't clumping, gradually add in the milk, oil and lemon juice. Mix it all until it's smooth, then add in the walnuts and choc chips.

Pour in to a lined baking tin (I used 20cm x 20cm and it was perfect), and bake at 180C for about 25 or 30 minutes.

Let the brownies cool for a few minutes in the tray, then on a cooling rack. When it's getting pretty cool, heat a quarter cup of milk in the microwave in five or ten second bursts until it's warm, then pour in about a quarter cup of choc chips. If it's not chocolatey enough for you, add some more, and keep mixing until they're all melted. Set aside to cool for ten minutes, then pour/spread over brownie slab. Cut and eat.

oreo cheezecake

Two weeks ago when I was in Perth I went out for lunch to The Royal, and Chris and Nick ordered the Oreo chocolate cake (...for dessert, not for their mains), and it was a solid chocolate cake with some sort of cream filling and a chocolate ganache, with an Oreo perched on top. Neither of them managed to finish these monstrosities, and I started pondering vegan takes on this. And then earlier this week Lisa tweeted a picture of a vegan Oreo cheesecake, and I started thinking about that. So I've had Oreos on the mind recently (I started dropping hints at Cupcake Central, and there's talk that they'll make a vegan cookies and cream).



So I decided to give something a go, and here's what happened. All the recipes, vegan and non-vegan, suggested using one pack of Oreos for the base. This was a giant lie, and also had me fretting around the internet about what I should do with the filling (most common solution: eat it; surprisingly not the solution with which I went). I managed to crack my favourite mixing bowl (never mind that it's at least five years old, plastic, and cost five bucks from Crazy Clarks). I spilt sugar all over the kitchen. I finally wrestled the cake in to the oven, and then when I pulled it out I was convinced I had burnt it. But after all that effort, I decided to glaze the thing, and if it failed then it failed.

Here's the surprising thing: it was delicious. I've been eating it all week. It's very rich, and I would make some modifications to it, but it worked, and mostly I'm happy with it.



oreo cheezecake

ingredients
2 packets of oreos (or 1 packet of plain chocolate biscuits + 1 pack oreos)
quarter cup of melted margarine/Nuttelex
quarter cup sugar

2 x 250ish packs of vegan cream cheese
half a heaped cup of castor sugar
half a heaped cup of coconut sugar (you can use another half cup of castor if you don't have coconut sugar)
1 tablespoon plain flour
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 egg replacers (I used applesauce)
dash vanilla essence

quarter cup soy milk
heaped half cup of chocolate chips
some golden syrup (just over a tablespoon)

the method
to make the base, grind up one and a half packs of biscuits. I used chocolate oreos, and added the filling to the mixture (but when I used plain Oreos, I harvested the filling and only used the biscuits). Melt the margarine and pour in to the mashed up biscuits, along with the quarter cup of sugar. Mix until combined, then press in to a lined spring form or cheesecake pan.

Preheat the oven! Somewhere up about 280C.

To make the filling, beat together cream cheese, sugar, flour, lemon juice, egg replacer and vanilla essence. Also add any left over Oreo filling you might have harvested from the Oreo bases. You may also want to crush up some more Oreos and add them to the filling if it takes your fancy. When it's smooth, pour it in to the base. Drop it a little if you have too many lumps. Just a note - if you do add the Oreo fillings to this, it will be lumpy. Don't worry, it will seep into the mixture with no problems.

Shove it in the oven for 9 minutes, then reduce the temperature to about 90C and leave to bake for another 30 - 35 minutes. It'll be a bit brown on top, but don't let it burn.

For the ganache: pull it out and set it aside to cool. Some fridge time is preferable. When it's nicely set (at least an hour in the fridge), bring the soy milk to the boil, then remove from the heat and add the choc chips and the golden syrup. Stir this until the chocolate melts. Let it cool for ten minutes, then spread it around the cake.

Let it all cool, then it is ready to go. It's pretty rich, so maybe don't be too generous with the first cut.

cupcake central, hawthorn

(please note: this post contains blurry photos)

On Thursday, I found out that this new cupcake place, recently opened near my office, sells a vegan cupcake! I wasn't at work again last week, so I then spent the whole weekend watching as what seemed like everyone in the world adventured over to try this vegan cupcake! My jealousy grew.

So today, even though we were full from our spud lunch, Emilly and I ventured through the rain for cupcakes.

There is only one vegan cupcake currently available at Cupcake Central: the red velvet cupcake.


i know it's blurry icing - it's focused on the cake!

I have never had a red velvet cupcake before, though I know that many people love them, so I can't really compare it to that. It was nice. I had been warned that it was a bit dry, but the icing helped with that, as I sort of mushed it in to the cake.

Speaking of mushy, whilst I try to open my mouth wide in order to fit the whole cake, icing and all, into my mouth, here is what Fi does:



SHE SQUISHES IT.

The cupcake was good, though it could be more flavoursome, but at $3.80 a cupcake, probably only an irregular treat. Which is good, as it's right beside the train station and I'd have to walk by it EVERY DAY.

I'm thinking of baking my own red velvet cupcakes so I have something with which to compare it.

Cupcake Central
Shop 7, 672
Glenferrie Road
Hawthorn

tofwd + crumbs organic bakehouse

Crumbs Organic Bakehouse is located in Ascot Vale, if you need to google it. I've never been there, and I don't know if they sell direct to the public, but I do know that they stock the cake displays at both Friends of the Earth and TOFWD.



During Worldcon I brought some friends across to DeGraves Lane in order to introduce them to the wonders of cakes as provided by Crumbs. I love this chocolate and sour cherry cake most of all: it is usually moist and rich and super delicious. They also do a citrus cake, and a tropical cake, and all three of these cakes are gluten-free and vegan. They are expensive pieces of cake, but they are totally worth it!

If you are looking for a nice piece of cake, I definitely recommend the cakes provided by Crumbs. They are good. Very Good.

baked treaties

Sometimes it is not I baking treats for people; sometimes people bake treats and give them to me! This always excites me, because, as I have mentioned before, I like eating things. A lot.

I especially like baked things, because good vegan baked treats can be so hard to find. So it is a delight when people turn up and give me a container of baked treaties!

This post contains things baked by Jo in recent weeks, that I have eaten.



Jo baked a lemon and lavendar slice for the Aussie cookie swap (which, incidentally, has a number of vegan participants, so you should join!). This was very lemony, and the lavendar was really subtle. It was delicious, but very sweet! I could only have a tiny bit at a time.



Also delicious was this apple cinnamon cake. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it was kind of smushy and pudding-y in the middle, and a little bit dense and gooey, which made it really fun and tasty to eat. I would like to make this cake!

I would upload or link the recipes, but I appear to have lost them! SAD FOR ME.

OH WAIT UPDATE: Jo has dropped links + details of mods in the comments! They look like this:

Lemon slice
I used McVities digestives instead of Granitas, and instead of .5 cup sweetened condensed milk I used .25 cup soy milk and .25 cup sugar. Plus, I added dried lavender - I put maybe two tablespoons into the base, then some sprinkled on top of the icing. In the icing, instead of butter I used equal parts Nuttelex and Copha, so it would set more solid than just with margarine.

Apple cake
But instead of canned "apple pie filling" I just cubed some apples, sprinkled a little sugar over them, then microwaved them until a little soft, before using. I also used a lot less of the sugar+cinnamon on top of the cake.

Thanks Jo!

triple threat chocolate cheeze cake from my sweet vegan

This chocolate cheezecake (from My Sweet Vegan, pg126) was so incredibly rich, if you look at the photo you can see where the vegetable fats started to separate. I think our oven was too hot (it often is), or the cake didn't need quite so long, because it was a little over cooked.

Although it has three layers, it was not overly complicated or time consuming, though I did have to do a lot of mixing. Hooray for the Bamix! I didn't make many mods - I used Nice biscuits, like I usually do with cheezecake, and I'm not positive that I used granulated sugar (often I use caster sugar instead).

It was so rich, I refused to eat it later in the week.

Next time I make this, I will a) allow myself more time (it was still warm when we went to eat it a few hours later), and b) use the leda chocolate tim tam things, in order to make it gluten free.

I really like My Sweet Vegan, I've made some delicious things from it. Highly recommended!

gf lemon polenta cake

Our friends (occasionally referred to on this blog as melbourne squids) recently moved into a house that is a mere eight minute walk from the house of penguin. On the morning of their moving in, we walked down to help them at the unloading stage, and then invited everyone around for tea and polenta cake.

This was my first attempt at polenta cake, I elected to go for a lemon polenta cake because that is Amanda's favourite type. It was an interesting texture, and drizzled with a lemon syrup that quickly became like toffee on top of the cake. It was very tasty!



lemon polenta cake
This recipe was modified from this recipe

This is a three-bowl recipe (ugh)

ingredients
150g polenta
150g plain gluten-free flour
1 and a half teaspoon baking powder
4 egg white replacements
4 chinese soup spoons of apple sauce
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 lemon rind, grated
1 lemon, juice
quarter of a cup of soy milk

syrup
220g caster sugar
rind of one lemon, grated
1 lemon, juice

method
In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and polenta. In a separate bowl, combine apple sauce and half a cup of sugar, and beat well together (I used a fork), then combine the vanilla essence and the lemon rind.

In a third bowl, beat the egg white replacer with the remaining sugar until stiff. Lightly combine with the apple sauce mixture, then fold into the first bowl. Mix until just combined.

Grease and line a round pan, and pour the batter in. Bake for 30 minutes at about 160C.

To make the syrup, over medium heat, constantly stir caster sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice, for about ten minutes, until it starts to thicken.

Poke holes in the top of the (still warm) cake, and pour the syrup over the cake. Eat before it solidifies.

lemon cake with cream cheeze icing

We had some lemons floating about in the fruit bowl, and some cream cheeze sitting in the fridge, and Saturday night was cold and I was feeling grumpy, so I decided that some baking was in order.



I wasn't sure how this cake was going to turn out, because I sort of smushed together a few recipes and hoped for the best, but this was good! Kind of dense but not too heavy, and the flavour was just right. I just had a piece for morning tea, and it was a delight!

lemon cake with cream cheeze icing

ingredients
two and a half cups self raising flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
quarter tablespoon salt
quarter cup canola oil
quarter cup apple sauce
1 cup soymilk
one and a half cups of white sugar
zest of one small lemon
half a cup of lemon juice

for the icing
zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
half a tub tofutti cream cheese (approx 125gm)
2 cups icing sugar

method
In a small bowl, combine the soymilk with the lemon zest and juice, then leave to sit for a couple of minutes. In a bigger mixing bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Then, add the sugar, oil and apple sauce to the milk+lemon mixture, and whisk together until well combined and the sugar has dissolved. Pour it into the dry ingredients, and mix together until the batter is smooth, but don't go all out with the mixing.

Pour the mix into a large tin that you have prepared by greasing or oiling. Then bake at about 175C for about 45 minutes, or until cooked through. The top will probably go a bit golden, this is okay.

Let the cake cool for ten or fifteen minutes before you put it on the baking tray; let it cool completely before icing.

For the icing: Combine zest, juice, cream cheeze and icing sugar and mix well. Allow to rest, then pour it all over that cake.

Eat it as soon as you can. It's delicious, and it's still delicious the next day.

new york cheezecake, and a barbecue

Whilst the weather is still sometimes okay, and not always freezing cold, Em thought it would be fun to have a barbecue. So Saturday afternoon, before heading out to Reservoir for Roller Derby, we ventured around to Em's place for a barbecue.

Because I love barbecues and picnics, as always I dedicated myself to awesomeness. I'm super excited about my cheezecake, it looks like this:



IT LOOKS DELICIOUS. OH YEAH

I got the recipe from Carla, who adapted the recipe from Smitten Kitten.

I made a handful of tweaks, though the recipe remains largely unchanged, so for my reference (and yours!) you can find it at the end of this post.

I also made some sushi (gluten-free), and yet another batch of the greatest vegan sausage rolls ever.



I didn't take too many other photos. Toby and Mario spent a lot of time hanging around the barbecue (I OFFERED, and was DENIED), barbecuing things. These things included a large variety of vegetables, some eggplant, and three types of awesomely marinated tofu.



Em marinated some tofu pieces in tamari, and some other tofu pieces in soy sauce. Because these were so small, they became quite fried and stiff on the outside, and sort of gooey and soft on the inside. They were delicious! Equally delicious was Toby's tofu, marinated in some sort of barbecue sauce, the recipe for which I hope he will share shortly! *hint hint*



Not pictured: the salad that Brunswick Jo brought (it was sort of gado gado inspired, with lots of veggies and dried rice noodles), and the sangria that Jo (YOU SEE WHY THERE IS A DISTINCTION?) made.

We sadly didn't have time for sweets, as we had to dash for roller derby, so after quickly stuffing our faces with cheezecake we headed off, and at roller derby we had a little sweet food picnic! Kristy had made peanut butter truffles, and Em made chocolate truffles (using leda tim tam things) and lime and coconut cupcakes (all of these desserts were gluten free).

I love barbecues. And picnics.

New York Cheezecake
modified from Carla



It should be thicker than this! Mine is only so thin because my springform pan broke, and I had to use my cheesecake tray. Oh the hardship! So this is the method for if you only have a thin cheesecake tray.

ingredients
three quarters of a pack on Nice Arnotts biscuits
5 tablespoons of melted Nuttelex
half a cup of sugar
dash or two of salt

2 packages of vegan cream cheese (this is about 500 grams)
1 heaped cup of castor sugar
1 tablespoon plain flour
zest of half a lemon (i would actually up this to three quarters of a lemon or something)
3 eggs worth of egg replacer (Orgran)
dash of vanilla essence

1 can mixed berries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
quarter of a cup of sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
approx. one third of a cup of water

method
To make the crust: mash up the biscuits (I used mortar and pestle), mix together with nuttelex, sugar and salt. Pat into the greased pan, all the way along base and all up the sides, and set aside.

To make the filling: Preheat oven to somewhere around 280C. My oven only goes to 250C but can then do fan forced, so that's what I turned it up to. Beat together cream cheese, sugar, flour, lemon zest, egg replacer and vanilla essence. Pour in to pan, and shake around to make smooth if necessary. Drop pan carefully onto counter from a height of five cm or so if you have bubbles (this helps to get rid of them).

Put that cheezecake in the oven. You may want to have a drip tray in your oven, everyone else who made this recipe reported drips but I had none. Bake for between eight and twelve minutes, until the top starts to brown a little, and also puffs up just a little. Reduce the heat to about 95C, and bake for another 45 minutes at this reduced temperature. By this time the cake will be pretty firm. Set aside and cool. Refrigerate and let cool completely.

To make the berry topping: bring all remaining ingredients (berries, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, water) to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and stir until it reduces. Leave this to cool completely, then pour it over the cheezecake.

You can leave it to sit for ages, it will still look and taste awesome! Or you can eat it straight away. Your delicious choice!

vegan muffins at haddon's cafe bar, hawthorn

Something that may result in me spending lots of money has happened.



I've discovered that a cafe quite near to my office sells AT LEAST THREE different types of vegan muffin, every week day.

Pictured here is the carrot and sultana, which was light and fluffy and delicious, and due its size, not bad money-wise.

There was also a fruit cake sort of thing (that my colleagues keep refering to as a lumberjake cake), and an orange looking thing.

I have run out of fruit and lunch is still two hours away. Can I resist the lure? Well, I guess we'll find out.

(I'm pretty hungry)

I understand the coffee is not bad, too, if you're in to that sort of thing.

Haddons Cafe Bar
Serppels Lane
inside the Swinburne University campus, near the Engineering Building
Burwood Road
Hawthorn

cinnamon tea cake

OH YEAH DELICIOUSNESS.

This tea cake was really light and fluffy, and it had (has) a perfect cinnamon flavour, I baked it yesterday because D wasn't feeling very great and it was perfect. I am going to make this all the time. Maybe I'll have a tea party.



cinnamon tea cake

I'd never made tea cake before yesterday, so I modified a recipe from taste.com.au. I love that website.

ingredients
100g nuttelex
three quarters of a cup of caster sugar
half a tablespoon of vanilla essence
one and a half cups of SR flour
one quarter cup of plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 heaped (chinese soup)spoons of apple sauce
1 tbl ground cinnamon
half a cup of milk

topping:
1 tbl caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbl melted nuttelex


method
Cream together nuttelex, caster sugar, and vanilla essence. Slowly add apple sauce, and beat well. Sift flours, cinnamon, and baking powder together. Mix in to the nuttelex mixture, alternating with the milk.

In a round tin (greased), bake covered for 45 minutes, at 170C, then uncovered for 15 minutes. Leave to sit in the oven for five minutes, then remove from oven and let cool in tin for fifteen minutes. Remove from tin, and pour topping over the top.

Cool completely and serve.

lemon cheesecake

We had some Tofutti better than cream cheese (or lie-cheese) that we needed to get rid of, and a whole lot of tofu for the laksa, so I made a lemon cheesecake for dessert on Tuesday night when Sheboodle and Dr A came to visit.

I was concerned I had over-lemoned the cake, but it was just the right combination of tart and sweet. I did overdo it on the base, which ended up quite thick, alas.

I can't give this as a recipe yet, because the measurements are completely guesswork, due to all of our measuring cups having already been packed. I also had to borrow a silicon tart tray from the awesomepants CGB, as all of my baking dishes have also already been packed. So I'm not sure what measurements will fit into my usual cheesecake pan.

I will just have to make it again!