Vegan MoFo VI, Day 31 - This is Hallowe'en!

And this is why I'll never be a professional baker.

I didn't post yesterday because I was working on my stuff for today.  And frankly, this is so epic, it should count as 2 posts.

You know how, when Facebook first started up, you filled out all your info about what stuff you like - favourite bands, movies, books, etc. - but they changed at some point and sorta automatically subscribed you to the pages for the things you like?  So I get posts from movies that I like, usually stills from the film.  But every once in a while, they post other stuff - related but not exactly stuff from the film.

A few months ago, The Nightmare Before Christmas posted some Oogie Boogie cupcakes.  They looked pretty awesome.  Well, about a week ago, they posted Jack Skellington cupcakes.  How I didn't have this idea on my own I'll never fully understand, but I saw them and immediately thought, I am going to make those.

Well, their idea was to use chocolate cupcakes and vanilla buttercream.  But he's the Pumpkin King, so of course pumpkin cupcakes would be more appropriate.  But since vanilla buttercream would be a bit much for pumpkin cupcakes, I made cream cheese frosting.

I used the recipe for Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World but left out the chocolate chips, used pumpkin pie spice instead of just cinnamon, and made them gluten free.  For the frosting, I used the cream cheese frosting recipe from the same book.

That's right - I am the Pumpkin King!

Back to those Oogie Boogie cupcakes.  One batch of pumpkin cupcakes wasn't enough to take to the office, but I didn't have enough pumpkin to make a double batch (why did I only buy one can?!).  So I decided to make chocolate cupcakes.  Once I'd frosted the pumpkin cupcakes, I thought, what the hell, and threw some green food colouring into the rest of the frosting.

Looks like it's Oogie's turn to boogie!

Both varieties of cupcake tasted great.  The only problems I had were that doing small decorations like that is kinda a pain in the ass, and cream cheese frosting doesn't really take to being built up.  I probably should've made two separate batches (a cream cheese and a buttercream).  That's what laziness gets you, children - melty looking Oogie Boogies.  Also, a number of cupcakes didn't make the journey to my office, so there was a bit of carnage.  But I've only been at work for 20 minutes and I think about half of them are already gone, so meh.

I can't believe MoFo is over already!  I've really enjoyed it, even though I did reach a burnout stage.  I'm already looking forward to next year!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 5 - British Food Friday

Yay, I stuck to my theme today!

For the first British Food Friday, I made the classic Bakewell tart.  According to Professor Wikipedia, the Bakewell tart hails from Derbyshire and consists of a shortcrust pastry, jam filling, and almond sponge layer.

I've only ever eaten Bakewell tart once - I think it was during the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale this year.  I actually got the train to Glasgow and built a day out around going to a bake sale.  That's what not having a working oven does to a person.  I really, really liked it, but it wasn't quite jammy enough for me.  I swore I would make one myself one day when I had a working oven, but I'd have a massive jam layer.  So, naturally, this was the first thing I thought of for this theme (in fact, I think I decided I wanted to make this and treacle tart and built the theme around that).

Last night, before I met Mike for dinner, I bought a block of frozen Jus Rol shortcrust pastry.  I figured it would be thawed by the time we got home.  Not so much, but I just defrosted it in the microwave.  But because I'm a genius, I decided that it would be awesome if I made 2 tarts after 10pm and take them in to work when only 13 people were in the office that day.  I mostly made this decision based on the fact that you're meant to use the crusts within 24 hours of defrosting and can't refreeze them.

I decided to make what I always thought was the standard - cherry Bakewell.  I thought cherry Bakewell meant that the jam layer was cherry, but apparently it's just cherry because it has almond icing and a glace cherry on top (what?).  But, whatever, whatever, I still used cherry jam.  That was my first one.  I decided to get a little experimental with my second one, so I made a PBJ Bakewell - raspberry/cherry jam layer (because I had extra cherry jam but not quite enough raspberry) with a Freenut butter cake topping.

For the sponge on the classic, I made a half recipe of the almond cake in Have Your Cake and Vegan Too (which I think I talked about in my first post).  For the jam layer, I used some reduced sugar cherry jam from Sainsbury's that, because it had whole cherries, I blended until smooth (I don't like bits).  I topped it with a simple water glaze (icing sugar mixed with water - I didn't even measure it).  For the PBJ, I made the PB cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and I used the last of my seedless raspberry jam mixed with a bit of leftover cherry jam.  I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave with a couple of splashes of soymilk to drizzle over the top of this one.

These weren't quite the hit that the almond mocha cake was, but I think that's partially down to the office being half empty (there were 3 people working away from the office, 5 PT people who don't work Fridays, and 4 who were on holiday).  The people who ate them loved them, though the classic was the clear favourite.  I think people here really just don't do PBJ.  I ended up coming home with a full pan (half of each).  But I think it was a success for the first attempt!

I think I'm gonna try to make something savoury for the next BFF because I think my co-workers are gonna be a bit caked out after too long (especially since I'm taking something in on Monday and another person said he'd bring something on Tuesday).  Also, I think I'm PMSing, because even though these weren't as good as the almond mocha cake, I wanted to cram both of them in my face all day, so I need to personally lay off the cakes too.

So, any ideas for what I can make next week?

Catching up to finish the year

I took pictures of things that I made and then didn't bother to blog about them.  That's because I'm lazy.  But here they are.  First up, I finally made Mo's kolaches!

As you can probably tell from the picture, I did mine a bit differently from hers.  I actually remembered having kolaches when I was younger, and this is pretty much what I always got - sausage in bread.  These were good but, because I didn't have enough filling, they were way too bread-y.  I'll almost certainly make these again, but I'll probably use different sausage (and more of it) and make them smaller.

Next up is Xmas dinner!

I made porkless pie with Granose sausage mix and the buttery double crust (vodka variation, no sugar) from Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.  It wasn't exactly traditional, but it was probably the best porkless pie I've ever eaten.  I served it with leftover rice (I think I was ill and couldn't be bothered) and roasted broccoli.  Nom!

Dessert was yule log!  It was better than the last one I made, but that's not saying much.  Well, both were tasty, but this one was better looking, if only because it didn't fall apart as completely as the last one.  I used the chocolate cupcake and chocolate buttercream recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for this.  I'll probably try my hand at the log again, but I'll make a few changes - a) different filling (shocking as this is, I thought it was too much chocolate) and 2) use a bit of black cocoa powder for the buttercream to give it a darker, more log-like appearance.

And finally, our last meal of 2011!

This is the new Redwood's haggis with noochy Smash and steamed broccoli.  REDWOOD'S HAGGIS?!  It's really, really good - meatier texture than any other veg haggis I've ever had (it uses vwg), spicy, moist.  I haven't had f'real haggis for ... 8 years, and I think this might be the best fake I've ever had.  It's not just a bunch of kidney beans!  It could maybe be a little oatier, but otherwise it's excellent (as far as I can remember to compare).

I just had a look on the Redwood's site, and they don't even have it on there.  I think this might be a super secret Scotland-only product!  First time ever!  It kinda makes me feel special.  I hope no one is able to burst my bubble and tell me they have it in London or Brighton or something.

Anyway, last post of 2011!  I don't have much to say about 2011 - it was a mixed bag of mediocrity for me (including buying the flat, considering the work we have ahead of us), and I've heard a lot of people didn't have a great year.  So, here's to hoping that 2012 far exceeds 2011 in awesomeness!

Vegan MoFo - Irn Bru Cupcakes

Another in my irregular series on Scottish-ish foods, I have made Irn Bru Cupcakes.  And what a bloody saga!  But more of that coming up.  I should say right at the top that, when I went to document said saga, I discovered that my camera was dead (I put in brand new batteries and it told me to change the batteries and then went black), so I apologise for the lack of pictures pretty much for the rest of MoFo (unless I manage to replace the camera).

Photo from the Barr site

For those who don't know, Irn Bru (pronounced like iron brew) is an orange soda that isn't orange flavoured (though Wikipedia claims it's vaguely citrus).  I think it kinda tastes like Big Red, the cream soda that doesn't taste like cream soda, except a little milder - maybe because it's orange instead of red.  It's native to Scotland, and in fact is the best-selling soda in Scotland, ahead even of Coke.  Though it's difficult to verify and there are a lot of differing views, Googling every listed ingredient has made me 99% sure it's vegan.

I was inspired to make Irn Bru cupcakes by Panda With Cookie's delicious Cheerwine cookies (unfortunately currently unavailable since she's recently moved and hasn't set up her baking again yet).  I thought about sending her some Irn Bru cookies that were similar to her Cheerwine cookies, but I decided to experiment with cupcakes first because they're easier (I'm really not much of a cookie baker).

I started out trying to combine concepts from the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and this non-vegan recipe for Irn Bru cupcakes from London Baking.  I basically tried to veganize the second recipe based on the first.  I replaced the margarine with oil and the buttermilk with soy milk curdled with apple cider vinegar.  It didn't work.  At. All.  The batter was WAY too runny, but I baked it anyway, and my cupcakes came out concave and gooey.  I gave it another try, decreasing the liquid and increasing the dry ingredients, and the cakes worked fine.

Then I moved on to the frosting.  My idea was to reduce the remaining soda to syrup and make a buttercream a la the raspberry buttercream in VCTOTW.  I cooked it down for a good hour or more, and it didn't seem to get any thicker, so I bunged in some sugar.  It still didn't look thick enough, so I bunged in some more sugar.  Then it started to really thicken.  I took it off the heat to let it cool, and within 5 minutes, I had Irn Bru candy.  It was not gonna become frosting.

In the end, I poured some soda in a bowl and left it out overnight to flatten and just replaced the milk in the Vegan Fluffy Buttercream recipe.  But that recipe doesn't really require a lot of milk, so the flavour was really subtle.  Overall, the cupcakes didn't have a very strong Irn Bru flavour, but they were good, and you could tell they weren't plain vanilla.

Irn Bru Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 c milk
• 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2/3 c sugar
• 1/2 c oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/4 c plain flour
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 c Irn Bru

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C and line a muffin tin with liners.

In a large bowl, combine the milk and acv and let sit for about 5 minutes to curdle.  Add in the sugar, oil, and vanilla and mix well.  Combine all dry ingredients and sift into the wet ingredients, then mix to combine.  Add in the Irn Bru (it'll get really fizzy!) and mix to combine.

Pour the batter evenly into the muffin cups and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

When the muffins are completely cool, frost with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream with the milk replaced by Irn Bru.

If I try this (or the cookies) again and manage to get the frosting right, I'll write it up in another post.

MoFo Survey II

As I mentioned yesterday, the survey that Mo did was slightly different than the one I filled out yesterday. And since I like to talk about myself, I'll crap out on my last MoFo 2010 post and fill out the one Mo has on her blog. I've removed a few questions that are repeats from yesterday.

EPIC VEGAN MOFO 2010 SURVEY II

What is one food you thought you’d miss when you went vegan, but don’t?
I'm gonna be a stereotype and say cheese, since I thought I'd miss brie a lot. I do a bit, but I'mma try this macadamia brie and see if it hits the spot.

What is a food or dish you wouldn’t touch as a child, but enjoy now?
Vegetables of most stripes - like I said yesterday, I almost never ate veg as a child (except, bizarrely, spinach for a while).

What beverage do you consume the most of on any given day?
I'd have to say tea on most days, especially now that it's cold. We consume a lot of tea in my office. I've been bad and have started drinking tea with milk and sugar again. I need to not buy anymore soymilk for the office so I only drink my unsweetened tea.

What dish are you “famous” for making or bringing to gatherings?
It used to be chocolate chip scones (veganized Food Network recipe) or chocolate chip cookie bars (from, I think, How It All Vegan). Now it's just cup/cakes in general, I think.

Do you have any self-imposed food rules (like no food touching on the plate or no nuts in sweets)?
I'm a freak about my food. I usually eat a bit of everything in every bite, unless I really want to savour a specific dish. I also start chewing on the left and always finish on the right - it's all about the symmetry (and, even before I studied it, the archaic cosmology of the inherent badness of the left and goodness of the right, which is why the "better" bites go to the right side). I also typically don't like sweet things in savoury dishes (like fruit in curry) or whole / dried fruit in desserts. I'm sure there are more - I could probably write an essay about my food habits. Ooh, that's a topic ripe for ethnological investigation!

What’s one food or dish you tend to eat too much of when you have it in your home?
Oreos. We can have loads of other sweets in the house for ages, but we really have to struggle to make a packet of Oreos (or similar) last more than a day. I have to ration them or they'd be gone in within 30 minutes. I'm sure if we had ready access to them, we wouldn't think twice about inhaling the package.

What ingredient or food do you prefer to make yourself despite it being widely available prepackaged?
Probably seitan. It's not as widely available here as it is in the US, but there's enough that I could just buy it most times that I need it. But it's so expensive, so why bother? On the flip side - something that's super easy to make at home but I always buy - hummus. We just don't like homemade hummus as much as store bought.

What ingredient or food is worth spending the extra money to get “the good stuff”?
Nooch - the stuff with B12 is 40-50p more expensive than the stuff without, but I'll pay it. Also, Plamil chocolate spread - it's £2.25 for, I think, 200g, whereas Whole Earth (I think that's the brand) is nearly a pound cheaper. But even though Plamil isn't consistent, it's still pretty much always better than any other brand.

Are you much of a snacker? What are your favorite snacks?
Not exactly. I have to really think about snacking, and I try to only eat when I'm hungry. I usually snack on noochy toast or bread with chocolate spread, or if I'm being really good, organic Pink Lady apples with smooth white almond butter. I'm usually not good.

What are your favorite vegan pizza toppings?
Chick'n or fauxsage and cheeze. More importantly, my favourite pizza dough is the Chicago-style deep dish in American Vegan Kitchen by Tamasin Noyes - if you liked Pizza Hut pan pizza pregan, this will be your pizza dough. It's the closest you'll ever get to that.

What is your favorite vegetable? Fruit?
Favourite veg is probably chard. Fruit - definitely organic Pink Lady apples.

What is the best salad dressing?
Goddess dressing - Annie's from a bottle, or Susan V's low-fat recipe if I have to make it myself.

What is your favorite thing to put on toasted bread?
Fluffy bread - margarine and nooch; dense bread - chocolate spread and raspberry jam.

What kind of soup do you most often turn to on a chilly day or when you aren’t feeling your best?
French lentil soup with tarragon and thyme from V'con - it's so easy for something so full of flavour

What is your favorite cupcake flavor? Frosting flavor?
I love me some cupcakes. I might have to go with the mint chocolate cupcakes from VCTOTW.

What is your favorite kind of cookie?
Snickerdoodle (no particular recipe) or the veganised version of Top Secret Recipes Keebler Soft Batch chocolate chip cookies

What is your most-loved “weeknight meal”?
Tofu scramble or pasta with tamari, oil, lemon, and nooch.

What is one dish or food you enjoy, but can’t get anyone else in your household to eat?
Shrooms. Mike's a hater. I had to eat an entire 250g package of them by myself tonight because I knew he wouldn't eat them, and if I tried to save them for another night, they would've sat in the fridge until I forgot about them and went off.

How long, in total, do you spend in the kitchen on an average day?
Minimum (including breakfast- and dinner-making time) is probably an hour, but up to 3 hours, maybe, depending on what I make. I think it averages out to about an hour and a half.

I was gonna do a post about tonight's dinner, but it's after midnight and I'm exhausted, so I'll try to not suck at blogging and actually continue to post now that MoFo is over (*sadface*).

Vegan MoFo - Mix v. Scratch: Battle Lemon Drizzle

I know I said I was gonna blog about tamales, and I will. But here's the thing - I was too full of tamales and busy trying to catch up on "Glee" while my best friend was here and didn't have time to blog yesterday, and today I've been up since 4.45 AM for a work thing (for which I didn't get home until 7 PM). I'm super exhausted and can't be bothered sorting through my pictures (I took about 100 for the work thing), so I'll talk about tamales tomorrow and instead talk about the final Mix v. Scratch Battle.

Battle Lemon Drizzle

Let me first say that I've never strictly had a lemon drizzle cake before Monday. I'd never heard of the lemon drizzle cake as such until I moved to Edinburgh, by which time I was already vegan. For some reason it seems to be more than just a lemon cake with icing, though I'm not sure why. But, meh. I should also mention that I didn't bother to make sure I had margarine before I started, and it turned out I needed it. So I ended up not making the filling and only making icing, but it worked out fine.



How I made it vegan: The mix I used was just the Sainsbury's own-brand stuff. I had some soy yogurt left over from my baking spree the week before, so I subbed 1/2 c soy yogurt for the 2 eggs called for in the recipe. The only other thing it would've needed was margarine subbing for the butter for the filling (which I didn't make).

Time: This was another one of those "beat for some ridiculous amount of time" mixes. I was terrified that I was gonna overstimulate the gluten (or whatever happens when you mix too much), but it worked out. Aside from that, it didn't take that long.

Initial results: I thought the cakes were awfully thin, but at least they cooked quickly. I thought it tasted alright, but it was a little more moist than I would've liked.

For the scratch, I made the lemony version of the golden cupcake recipe (oil rather than margarine) in VCTOTW.

Time: I've made this recipe a billion times, so it was pretty damn easy (even with doing a different version). This is the first recipe in the book, super basic but wicked versatile, and incredibly easy to make. It really didn't take much longer than the mix.

Initial results: This was a denser, less moist cake, and it tasted less like chemicals. I thought my icing was better than the packaged icing. I preferred this one.



Verdict: Unfortunately, I seemed to be the only one who preferred the scratch cake. Everyone else basically said it should've been a combination of the two - the moistness of the mix with the fluffiness and icing of the scratch.

Busy day of veganness

This will once again be short because I'm exhausted again, and I also forgot to take pictures (forgot my camera, then when Mike brought it to me, I forgot I had it!).

I had such a crazy busy day! I started out at the coffee morning. I was supposed to be on the tea/coffee stall, but since I was setting up the bake stall, I ended up staying there (which was fine by me). We sold quite a lot, and the people who bought my stuff in the 1.5 hours I was there seemed to really like it.

Then I met Mike at the Edinburgh Voice for Animals' Compassionate Living Fayre. It was quite a small venue, so it didn't take long to get around. But we managed to buy some mint chocolate truffles, several cupcakes and pieces of cake, and a Twilight bar. We had a few free things as well. And it was packed! I was so happy. We actually spoke to other vegans. It was really nice. And for anyone in the Dundee area, there's a couple who do vegan baking and are looking for a place to sell it. I'll update with the name when I can be bothered to get the card out of my wallet. One of the stalls had gingerbread cupcakes which I suspect were from VCTOTW, since they tasted like the ones described in there. They were gorgeous! Now I want to make that recipe (except put more frosting on mine). We also had some delicious mocha cupcakes and mint chocolate cupcakes (mine, i.e. the ones from VCTOTW, are better). The cake slice was a lush chocolate sponge with coffee buttercream filling - I definitely need to make something like that!

After that I went to a roller derby bout to shill more cakes. It was madness! There were so many people there that they were lined up out the door and around the corner (in the rain). And because everyone waited so long to get in, they bought up tons of baking, so we sold more than half of what we had before the bout even started. Before the end of halftime, we'd sold out, so we got to count up and watch the rest of the bout! The best part was that, at this one, there were loads of people who specifically asked for vegan stuff!

Apart from one weak thing that happened at the coffee morning, it was a good day for vegan food!

Bakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

Yes, I used that title yesterday just so I could use this title today.

I'm exhausted. After a full day at work, I came home to bake. As I mentioned yesterday, I have 2 bake sales tomorrow, so I started yesterday and finished today. I still have to frost a cake, but I'm done baking. I think I finally turned off the oven some time just before 10 PM (and turned it on around 5.45).

Tonight I made two batches of GF pumpkin muffins from VwaV, one with and one without chocolate chips, chocolate raspberry cake (which was a double batch of Basic Chocolate Cupcakes from VCTOTW which will eventually be covered with Raspberry Buttercream from the same), and a double batch of the French Toast Muffins from 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes (which ended up giving me nearly 3 dozen).

The pumpkin muffins came out great as per usual, and I haven't had any problems with the cake yet. But the French Toast muffins were a massive fail. I don't know if it was my fault or the recipe's fault, but this was just terrible. I mean, they tasted OK, but not nearly as maple-y as I had hoped. The big problem was with the texture - they were underdone and gummy. Like I said, it could've been (and probably was) my fault, and I might try these again. But it was super disappointing when I spent so much damn time making them.

I haven't taken any pictures of the stuff I made tonight because I was just trying to clear it away and get other stuff done. But I'll take my camera with me tomorrow and get a few snaps. And they might not suck because it'll be in the daytime!

One other thing - I made the Garlic Green Beans from Quick & Easy Vegan Celebrations. They were fantastic, and best of all, they were in my mouth within 10 minutes of starting. I had the idea to make them, pulled out the recipe, prepped and cooked everything in less time than it took to bake a batch of fail muffins. And they were lovely. Next time you need a quick side and have green beans on hand, make these!

Bakin'

First of all, I can't believe I forgot to blog yesterday. I didn't even think about it until I was in bed and the computer was off. I wasn't about to get back up and switch my computer back on just to talk about having oatmeal for dinner (and not even give you a picture of it), so I just went to sleep. That means I've broken my awesome MoFo streak of blogging every day. Oh well.

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier this month, I have things to bake for. They both happen to be this Saturday. I don't know how I managed to do this, but I've baked for two bake sales in one day before (during the Worldwide Vegan Bakesale for Haiti, I held 3 sales in one week, two on the same day in different places) so it shouldn't be a problem.

I have a bake sale for a work event (coffee morning) and one at the roller derby bout. Since there are people at work who are baking but not going to the coffee morning and therefore bringing stuff in to the office tomorrow, I worked out to bring stuff in as well so I could get a head start. Tonight, I managed to make the Coffee Chip Muffins from Vegan Brunch:



and these low-fat Snickerdoodle Blondies, combining my favourite bar with my favourite cookie:



I love making the Coffee Chip Muffins because they're just so super easy. It probably takes less time to mix them than for the oven to pre-heat. I find the coffee flavour a bit lacking, so I always use instant espresso instead of regular instant coffee. I have some coffee extract, so maybe next time I make them I'll throw that in as well.

The Snickerdoodle Blondies were amazing. The only thing I might change is to make them like regular blondies (with chocolate chips - it's really the only way) in addition to the cinnamon-sugar topping. In fact, I might make another batch tomorrow and do just that.

The plan for tomorrow night (since that's all the time I have left) is to make some gluten-free The Best Pumpkin Muffins Ever from VwaV (double batch so I can cover both events), French Toast Muffins from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes (since I was sent maple extract in my PPKare package last month), and possibly the Green Tea Cupcakes from VCTOTW. Oh yeah, I also have to make the chocolate raspberry cake - I almost forgot about that. I'll upset at least two people if I don't make it since it was specifically requested.

So I'll be busy tomorrow night. I probably should've made at least one more thing tonight, but I'm dangerously low on cinnamon and don't have all the ingredients for the other stuff I'm making. But I'll get it done.

Vegan MoFo - Mix v. Scratch: Battle Chocolate Sponge

I've got the next Mix v. Scratch battle tonight! It was all about the cake this time - I used the exact same frosting (same batch of Raspberry Buttercream from VCTOTW) for both cakes. So, here we go. (I'll add pictures tomorrow because it's late and I'm exhausted.)

Battle Chocolate Sponge

The Mix version is the Asda Chocolate Sponge Mix.

How I made it vegan: This one was pretty easy. It only required one egg and water. I replaced the egg with Ener-G egg replacer.

Time: This was super quick - one egg replacer and about 1/3 c water, then throw it in the pan. I don't even think the oven was pre-heated before I finished making it. The mix only just made one 8" round cake (and it was pretty thin), so it only took about 18 minutes to bake.

Initial results: Well, there was no milk or oil in the cake, so draw your own conclusions. To be honest, the mix didn't even taste that great, so I knew the cake itself wouldn't be wonderful.

My taste test: This was pretty dry and flavourless, even with the frosting. I was unimpressed.

I used this recipe for the scratch cake. I was thinking along two lines - 1) I want to make something new, and 2) I want to make a "sponge" cake, assuming that the label "sponge" makes it different than regular chocolate cake (I don't know if this is true). I don't think I've ever made a recipe by weight rather than volume, so it was different.

Time: Like I said, it was a new-to-me method, so that took time to get used to. Other than that, it didn't take long - less time than last week's swirl cake. It made a much larger cake than the mix - I used my 9" round silicon pan, which is almost twice as deep as the 8" metal rounds.

Initial results: I wasn't keen on the amount of cocoa in this. I like my cakes chocolaty, not CHOCOLATE. It still came out a lot better than the mix - much moister, and a better flavour overall.

My taste test: Like I said, this had a much better flavour than the mix. I definitely liked it more.



The Verdict: Fewer people tried these, but they preferred the scratch cake by far! I'm vindicated! I just wish the winning cake had tasted better. Oh well.

Vegan MoFo - Mix v. Scratch: Battle Swirl Cake

This is the first in my "Mix v. Scratch" project, wherein I make both a boxed mix and a homemade-from-scratch version. Challengers will be graded on the time taken to make them, the initial results, and side-by-side taste testing by me, my husband, and my co-workers and/or friends. Today's challenge:

Battle Swirl Cake

The box version is a Betty Crocker Chocolate Swirl Cake with Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Frosting:


How I made it vegan: The box calls for 3 eggs, water and oil. To make up for the binding power of 3 eggs, I used three egg replacer eggs and used milk/acv instead of water.

Time: The box says it takes 10 minutes. If you take into account prepping the pans, preheating the oven, mixing it, and doing the swirl, it's a lot closer to 30 minutes.

Initial results: The cakes baked in the amount of time suggested. I cooled them until they were below room temperature. When I went to frost them, they started falling apart. I barely managed to get the second layer on top of the first before it completely crumbled in my hands. I was mostly able to patch it together with frosting, but it didn't look great.

My taste test: The cake was incredibly moist. It was also incredibly sweet. I could tell from the batter that it would be sweeter than the cakes I've been making. The frosting was also sweeter than what I'm used to. I think the combination of sugar in the two actually gave me a headache, and I still feel a little sick an hour after eating it.

The scratch version is the Marble Cupcakes with Thick Fudgey Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.



Time: Admittedly, this took about twice as long as the mix. There are a lot more steps, and you have to actually get all the ingredients together yourself. Another thing that added time was that I did a recipe and a half to have enough batter for two 8" layers, which meant doing the mental math for the half while I measured!

Initial results: I think I overmixed the batter and/or overcooked the cakes! They seemed to bake a lot faster than I'd expected, so after 30 minutes (the cupcakes take 24-26 - it seemed a reasonable amount of time) the layers were already overdone. I could tell just by looking, and from taking the cakes out of the pans, that they would be dry.

My taste test: As suspected, the cakes were pretty dry. I also didn't think the frosting was particularly fudgey. It was much less sweet than the other cake, which was good, but the texture and dryness actually made me like the mix cake more (I'm ashamed to say). But I put this all down to my failure to properly mix or pay attention to my scratch cake.

The Verdict: A few of my co-workers had a bit of each cake. While one person preferred the scratch cake because the mix cake was too sweet, the others preferred the mix because the scratch was too dry. One of those preferred my scratch frosting to the tub stuff. Overall, I think the mix was preferred.

THE WINNER (yes, this was the best shot I got):

Cookbook challenge - Yellow Rose Recipes

As promised, I'm gonna catch up with the Yellow Rose Recipes cookbook challenge that happened a couple of weeks ago.

First off, a bonus Vegan Brunch recipe - Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes


These were so amazingly good. Just a bit spicy, not too dry, and the remoulade really brought the flavours together. Mike wasn't as pleased, so I ate the rest the next day!

Another bonus - Feesh Fingers from the blog The Great Vegan Conspiracy


Really tasty! I baked instead of fried, and I probably baked them a little too long because they were a bit too crunchy. I also didn't have any dill, I think, and I didn't bother with the nori, which was a mistake. Next time, I'll add the nori, maybe marinate the tofu for a bit longer, and try to remember the herbs. We ate them with make-shift tartar sauce, which was basically Isa's remoulade minus the chipotle sauce.

My first YRR recipe for the cookbook challenge was Tofu Scramble


Mike and I could both eat tofu scramble every day, but I have my preferences. I have to say, I wasn't terribly impressed with this. It was slightly healthier than my usual scramble (because of the additional veg), but it wasn't all that flavourful. I did, however, like the method. My normal scramble is the Vegan with a Vengeance recipe, usually with about half the tofu but not reducing anything else (and no shrooms because Mike is a hater). But that one takes forever, it seems, so I've since been combining the method and some of the ingredients for the YRR recipe with the flavourings from the VwaV recipe. It's worked so far.

Next up was the Sloppy Joannas


OMG these were amazingly delicious. Mike and I both had seconds. The recipe makes a lot, but we didn't have any leftovers. I really want to make these again soon. The only downside is that, every time I see the name of the recipe, it makes me think of the Michael Jackson song 'Dirty Diana'.

My next YRR recipe was the Chicken-Style Seitan/Mustard Crusted Seitan


Another winner. The seitan itself takes ages to make, mostly because you have to form it into individual cutlets, so it's not nearly as easy as the V'con recipe. However, the results are totally worth it. Mike has since requested these for his lunch sammiches. They're awesome to fry up with some breading, as with the Mustard Crusted Seitan pictured. I loved it, but Mike thought they were too mustardy. I made them again the other night, omitting the mustard for his and using slightly different breading, and we both thought they were wonderful. I would love to do the Beer-Battered Seitan, but I don't usually have beer around, and I'm not too keen on the amount of fat in them. Maybe for a get-together.

I also made the Spiced Applesauce, which by itself isn't great. I think I prefer my applesauce without the 5-spice. It just kinda has a wang to it. However, I later made the Spice Cake


and it was soooo good! The 5-spice isn't noticeable at all. The cream cheese frosting made this cake almost literally irresistible. I made a double recipe in a 9x13" pan (well, it might have been 11x14") on Tuesday, took it to an Ethnology Society meeting on Wednesday afternoon, had some friends over before going out Wednesday evening, and ate the rest of it when I got home that night. We just couldn't stop eating it. I wish I had some right now.

Like I said, I had friends over, so I made the Tamale Pie for dinner that night.


I used the taco salad 'meat' and nacho sauce (minus jalapenos because they're kinda expensive here) topped with the sour cream recipe in the book. Also, I forgot to buy tomato sauce, so I just bunged in two things of chopped tomatoes in their juices. Everyone loved it. LOVED. Except Mike, who doesn't like cooked 'cheese' or sweetcorn in things. But everyone else had seconds. I thought it was delicious and actually didn't mind that Mike didn't like it that much because that meant all the leftovers were for me! Anyway, I want to make this again, but if there are only 2 of us eating it and one person doesn't like it, it seems like a waste of time and effort. Maybe for another dinner party or something.
Breaking it down - Taco salad TVP was a little weird and grainy. If I make it again, I'll either use larger granules or just buy a bag of frozen mince. The sour cream was really good, but a little limey. I might do slightly less lime and slightly more acv next time. Nacho sauce was amazingly delicious. I want some nachos. I kinda wish I'd made the whole recipe (though Mike would've liked it even less, but I suspect it was the polenta part rather than the nacho sauce that he didn't like).

Oh yeah, Mike's birthday happened in there, so here are pictures of his cake, made from the Mint Chocolate Cupcakes recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World


Yeah, I busted out the heart-shaped cake pan again.



What I did here was halve the cake and do a layer of mint frosting, then a layer of ganache, then put the other half of the cake on top, another layer of mint frosting, and another layer of ganache. I've done this before, and it never disappoints. It didn't last long. This is actually one of the easier and less time-consuming 'fancy' cupcakes in the book, which is even easier made as a cake. I love this cake.

There were actually a couple other things in there, but this post is already really long, so I might save those for another time. I'll probably do my cupboard clean-out tomorrow, with before and after shots, and then figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do with all the stuff I have in there. It would be nice to know what's there.