Vegan MoFo 2014 - Sunday baking: Golden Syrup Cake

Today's Sunday baking is a recipe from the Ms Cupcake cookbook.  I actually got this book before it was available in stores - I got a signed copy at Brighton VegFest last year (? - whatever year it came out).  But I've been really crap about making stuff from it.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I've only made 4 recipes ... after today.

I kept looking at the Golden Syrup Cupcakes and thinking I really wanted to make them.  But given my penchant for laziness and the fact that I have fewer than 12 cupcake papers, I decided instead to make these into a cake.  I made it in an 8" square pan and sliced it in half to layer it with the vanilla buttercream from the book, then drizzled with syrup as suggested.

Behold!  As you can see, I like my cake to frosting ratio at approximately 1:1.  I usually frost the sides as well, but for some reason I decided I liked the look of it more like this.  And frankly, it didn't need any more frosting.

This was good, but not really much different from a regular vanilla cake.  I would've preferred a more syrupy flavour, maybe less sugar and more syrup.  But it's lovely and moist.  And Zebby liked it!

Also, I had half a recipe of frosting left over, so, oh darn, I'm gonna have to make something else.

And just because, here's a picture of Zebby looking at something.

Vegan MoFo 2014 – My Awesome Birthday Cake

As I mentioned in my introductory post, my 35th birthday was in August.  I’m sure most of you know what it’s like when it comes to birthdays and veganism – if you have a cake, you’ve probably made it yourself.  That’s what I’ve done almost every year I’ve been vegan (one year Mike helped).

But I decided 35 was a big enough year to warrant having someone else make my cake.  And since I was paying to have a cake made, I figured I might as well do it up big style instead of just getting a sheet cake.

As some of you know, I’m a huge nerd, and Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of my favourite shows of all time.  I’ve seen every episode and all the movies at least once and have the entire series on DVD (I had all the films but they were Region 1).  I’ve even read some of the books and follow several cast members on Twitter (which reminds me, I should be following LeVar Burton).  I have pajamas that look like a command uniform (specifically Captain – 4 pips) and a bat’leth letter opener.

I’ve been feeling especially geeky lately – maybe because of a renewed personal interest in general nerd things and specific Trek things, maybe because I discovered (new to me, not Columbused) or have been paying attention to more geek culture (e.g., The Mary Sue) – so I decided that I needed to have a geeky cake.

So I commissioned an Enterprise-D cake from Alicks Fraser of Licks Cake Design.  Check out how cool my cake was!

The saucer section and other parts were cake, but the warp nacelles were wood covered with sugar paste.  We had a lot of fun disassembling and eating the cake.  Any time someone would eat a bit of the black icing on the bottom, we’d say they were eating space!  Heh.

Everyone really liked it (even Zebby – he was all up in my biz every time I had a piece) and it looked really impressive.  If you’re in Edinburgh or nearby and need a vegan cake, you should speak to Alicks!

Vegan MoFo 2014 - Sunday Baking: Bakewell tart

I'm having an allergy attack today, so I don't have the energy to be clever, which means this will be a short post.

I'm sure I've mentioned this, but I love Bakewell tart.  It's just so good!  I don't know why I don't make it more often, other than because I'd eat too much.  I'm actually surprised at my restraint in not having had any yet.

I made pretty much the same recipe last year (Sainsbury's shortcrust pastry, seedless raspberry jam, and the cake part of the Bakewell cupcake recipe in the Ms Cupcake book), only this time I remembered the sugar before I put the cake mix on top of the jam/crust.  Below is the finished product.

badly lit slice

It was tasty, as expected.  I'm taking a bit to the office tomorrow, which marks the first time I'm taking baking to this office.  I hope they like it, and if they don't, they can suck it.

As you can see I put some chocolate drizzle (cocoa powder, icing sugar, water) on top.  I made a bit too much, and Mike came in to the kitchen while I was trying to decide what to do with it.  He decided that he'd use it to make chocolate milk.

before stirring

after stirring

It looks like regular chocolate milk, doesn't it?  It was not.  I had a couple of sips, and it was good/gross.  It almost tasted like a milkshake ... that had sugar added to it.  It was so sweet.  Maybe that's why I didn't have any tart after I made it.

Yella cake

Today is Mike's birthday, but we're celebrating tomorrow.  But it's no birthday without cake (except my birthday because I didn't make my own), so I made his birthday cake tonight.

Of course, I made the Yella Cake with Fudgy Frosting from Cookin' Crunk because it's well suited to birthday cake.  It looks like the kind of cake you'd make with a box and a tub!

I almost had a disaster when I went to make the frosting - I didn't have enough icing sugar or margarine!  I supplemented somewhat by adding a bit of Speculoos, but it would've been fine without it.  As with most frosting recipes, I still had more than enough even when I didn't have enough ingredients.

I really liked the flavour of this, but it was a bit denser than I was hoping for.  I wonder if maybe that's because it doesn't have any baking soda.  I was tempted to add a bit, but I wanted (for once) to follow the recipe.  It was still tasty, just not as fluffy as I expected.

I'll be doing loads of recipes from this book tomorrow.  Or at least, I hope I will - I might end up getting lazy and/or running out of time.

Cheater Affogato

We had leftovers for dinner, and I didn't have anything to blog about!  I had some leftover cake from an experiment earlier in the week, so I made Birthday Cake Ice Cream from A La Mode.  It was suuuper sweet - cake plus sweetened soy milk plus sugar - so I wanted to mitigate the sweetness with something.  I had some cold-brewed coffee in the fridge, so I heated it up and poured it over the ice cream.  Cheater affogato!

I know this picture is terrible, but I had to post it so I could talk about the pointlessness of buying Soyatoo whipped cream in a squirty can.  That tiny white blob is all I could get out of the can after having left it out for the specified amount of time.  This happens every time I buy the stuff, so I don't know why I keep buying it.  I don't think I've ever gotten through an entire can because it just stops working once it's been in the fridge.

Anyway, my ice cream was really good!  So at least there's that.

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 29 - Sunday Baking (on Monday)

Obviously today is Monday, but Mike hurt his hand and didn't feel like cooking tonight, so we just had leftover tofu scramble for dinner.  And I did bake yesterday, but I didn't write about it.  So I'll do that now!

Last night I made the Snickerdoodle cake from Have Your Cake and Vegan Too!  It was pretty easy to make and put together.  The only not-easy (but still not particularly difficult) part was putting the topping on.  My frosting had already set a bit and wasn't as sticky as it maybe should've been, so the sugar crystals kept bouncing off (all over the worktop and floor that I'd just cleaned).

We didn't have any last night, but I took it into work.  One person said it was lush; another said she was glad she didn't live with me because she'd be really fat.  And I believe 2 people had cake for lunch.  So, I'd say it was pretty successful.  I did get a piece in the end, and it was pretty good, though (I can't believe I'm saying this) it maybe had a bit too much cinnamon.  But it really did taste like a snickerdoodle, which is one of my favourite cookies, so overall I'm happy with the outcome.

The whole point of my Sunday baking theme was to make a few different cakes from Have Your Cake and Vegan Too! to determine if I want to buy the book.  Of the things I've made, I'd say the majority have been good to outstanding.  I could definitely see myself baking my way through the rest of this book (or at least the rest of the recipes that I liked the look of).  So, if anyone in my family is reading this - I want this book for Xmas!

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 14 - Sunday Baking - Cake Balls!

It's Sunday, so I'm baking from Have Your Cake and Vegan Too!

As I mentioned yesterday, my best good friend Eva was visiting from Newcastle, and since we love Tex-Mex, I decided to make the Gluten-Free Mexican Chocolate Torte.  But it turned out she didn't plan for cake, so she didn't have any.  It kinda worked out, because it took almost twice as long to bake as the directions said, and then only about half of it came out of the pan.  Oops.

Mike and I both had a piece, and it was really, really tasty.  But I had planned on taking the leftovers to work as a treat to the two gluten-intolerant people in my office (especially as one of them occasionally gives me a lift home).  Considering that it fell apart just by slicing it, I didn't think it would go over well at the office.  But what better excuse to make cake balls than a cake that could only be held together by copious amounts of frosting?

I made a quick cinnamon frosting by creaming together 2 tbsp each of margarine (Vitalite) and shortening (Trex), then adding a couple of drops of vanilla and almond extracts and about 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and alternating icing sugar and soy milk (I didn't measure either of these - just dumped them in until I had the right consistency).

I kinda chopped up the rest of the cake, then mixed it into the frosting.  It quickly disintegrated, so it was clearly a good plan.  I also melted a good cup or so of chocolate chips in the double boiler.  I balled up the cake/frosting mixture and put it on a plate covered with parchment paper, then let the balls set in the fridge while the chocolate cooled (because hot chocolate + frosting = cake soup).  Once the chocolate was cool enough, I rolled the balls in it and put them back on the plate, then back in the fridge to set the chocolate.

The result?  Well, it's a ball of cake and frosting covered in chocolate - how could it possibly be bad?

I haven't actually put this week's MoFo plan together yet, but I already have most of it planned out in my head.  I just need to decide what to make from the cookbook challenge book, which I'll talk about probably on Tuesday!

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 10 - Talkin' Pumpkin

I finally got around to doing one of the things I was thinking about - using my bookmarks!  Tonight I made Manifest Vegan's Pumpkin Alfredo for dinner.

Lemme back up a second so I can talk about pumpkin.  I may have talked about pumpkin before, but that's because it's awesome!  I have my bookmarks sorted into a few different categories, and I actually have a category for pumpkin (and it has more stuff in it than most of the other categories).  I love pumpkin sweet or savoury (though I usually end up eating it sweet).  I could eat pumpkin any time of year.  I do feel more inclined to eat it during the colder months, but I'll make The Best Pumpkin Muffins at the height of summer.

Anyway, back to the recipe.  I really liked this.  But how could you not like a recipe that calls for 1/2 cup of nooch?  I had to add some of the pasta cooking water to make it blend (I find that my food processor doesn't really get things smooth, so I usually use a blender), but I otherwise didn't change a thing.  I just wish I'd remembered my chocolate pasta - I have a feeling it would've been perfect with this, and I've been meaning to use it.  But I have leftovers, so I'll just make the pasta another night!

I also made The Great Pumpkin Bundt Cake from Have Your Cake and Vegan Too! on Monday.  I was iffy on this initially because it took at least twice as long to bake as the recipe said, and it came out a little underdone.  I actually had a few pieces and thought, it's not a complete failure, but I don't know if I'd make it again.  But when I had some tonight, I microwaved it and ate it warm, with the glaze melting in to it.  It was delicious.  I wish I could have more.  The only thing I might change about it is to add chocolate chips, but that's because I feel chocolate and pumpkin is one of the best combinations ever devised.

My best good friend Eva has a pumpkin bread recipe that is good enough to sell, and she sent me the recipe to veganise.  It turns out it would be super easy to do, so I might make that soon (I even bought another can of pumpkin - I might need to stock up again soon since I actually ran out).

I still need to figure out what I'm doing for British Food Friday!  I'll come up with something...

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 - Cookbook Challenge: The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet (pt 1)

Holy crap am I tired.  It's 11.30pm and I've only recently finished cooking for the evening.  I made soup, bagels, burgers, and cake, and I'm exhausted.

Today starts week...something (I can't be bothered to check) of the Cookbook Challenge.  This week's book is The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni-Marie Newman.  I've chosen a lot from this book, but I'm already pretty sure I won't be able to get through it.  We'll see - I've also started testing for Terry's new book, so I might not have time for everything.  I actually made a tester recipe today, but it's one of those "tastes better the next day" deals so I'll reserve judgment until tomorrow.

I started off with the Bacon and Egg Burgers and the Bagel Buns.

The buns are what you'd expect - taste and texture of a bagel, but without the hole.  They were a bit time-consuming, but no more than any other yeast bread.  Actually, they were pretty easy.  I used a bit of wholemeal flour to make them a little healthier.

The burgers were kinda meh.  They were a little flavourless, which is odd considering how much stuff goes into them - garlic powder, onion powder, bacon bits.  I'm hoping that the flavours will develop overnight and they'll taste better tomorrow.

I also made the Espresso Chocolate Chip Cake.  I didn't take a picture because it kinda fell apart and didn't look great.  But it tasted amazing!  It's very chocolaty - I barely detected the coffee, despite it having as much espresso powder as cocoa powder and 1/4 c of coffee liqueur.  I honestly wasn't sure about it when I tasted the batter, but it really works.  It's fluffy and moist and slightly gooey from the chocolate chips.  It's kinda everything I want in an unadorned chocolate cake.  OK, I'd be happy if it did the same thing with half the fat, but what can you do?  Oh, word to the wise - eat this with a glass of your non-dairy milk of choice at hand, because you'll need it.  In fact, maybe keep the carton out.

I'm feeling better about this book than the last, especially with a success right out of the gate.  Hopefully today's burgers were a fluke and everything else will be comparable to the cake and buns.


Are you participating in the cookbook challenge?  What are you planning from this one?

Vegan MoFo - Cookbook Challenge: 500 Vegan Recipes (pt 2)

Seems like yesterday's ailment was just run-of-the-mill allergies.  Back on form today, but I still ate convenience food, but here's why:

We found out that the flat we want is being offered to us at 75% of the original list price.  That is freaking amazing.

Anyway, I came home from work and shopping to this news, then waited for Mike to get home to share with him.  By the time we finished talking about it with each other, talking to his dad about it, and looking at furniture on the IKEA website, it was nearly 8pm.  And I just so happened to buy a bunch of new frozen convenience foods, so I decided to cook that instead of fresh food.

Mmm...beige.

We have here another plate of nothing but convenience foods.  The small things are in Sainsbury's newly revamped frozen free-from line called Love Soya - mini sausage rolls (btw, the whole range is on sale, but check the ingredients - not everything is vegan).  The large one just behind those is a Linda McCartney sausage roll (I had 2 left and wanted to get rid of them).  The pile of beige to the right is noochy Smash, and the veg is frozen broccoli and cauliflower.

I'll be honest - I prefer the Linda McCartney sausage rolls.  But maybe if I'd cooked the Sainsbury's ones a little less, I'd like them more.  As always, noochy Smash is a winner, but the veg was kinda meh.  I think I'll stick with the steam bags (which I love).

But I still managed to do something for the Cookbook Challenge.  I made the Chocolate Breakfast Cake from 500 Vegan Recipes.

Oh dear lord, you must eat this with something on it.  To give you an idea of how not sweet this is, it has more cocoa than sugar.  Right out of the pan, it's dry and kinda icky (though I have to admit, the banana flavour isn't very strong at all).  However, spread with a bit of raspberry jam, it's actually pretty good.  Since I had to make a point of buying a banana, I don't think I'd make this again, but it was nice to try something different.


In other fabulous news, it looks like another American import shop is opening up in the 'burgh.  It's in the same shopping centre as my preferred Sainsbury's, which is slightly more convenient than Lupe Pinto's.  Unfortunately, it looks like it's mostly candy and junk food (most of which I'm sure I can't eat).  However, I saw 12-packs of Mug root beer and Wild Cherry Pepsi.  Hell. Yes.  Hopefully since it looks like they're more exclusively American, they'll be importing more of everything and therefore have it available for less than LP's (which would be awesome - £1.10 for a can of A&W is a bit ridiculous).

Vegan MoFo - Alcoholic Ginger Beer (Bread)

Someone from Cake Liberation Front posted in the giveaway thread about a giveaway they're doing, so I checked out the blog.  They had a recipe for Alcoholic Ginger Beer Bread - a cake-like quick bread with ginger, ginger beer, and chocolate - so I decided that I needed to give it a try.

The first step here was finding Hollows Alcoholic Ginger Beer as Crabbie's is, apparently, not vegan.  I'd never seen it before, so I contacted customer service, who sent me a list of retailers the next day.  The contact person also said they'd send me some free samples if I found it in a shop that wasn't on their list.  Well, after I bought it from Earthy Foods & Goods (on my first visit; I also bought my favourite rooibos chai and my favourite dark chocolate - The Chocolate Tree's sea salt and caramel dark chocolate), I happened to spy a bottle in Real Foods (which is kinda funny because I didn't even think of looking there, even though it's exactly the kind of thing they'd sell and I'm there a couple times a week).  And, true to her word, the contact person asked me for my address to send me some samples!  I eagerly await them - it'll brighten my work day, since that's where they'll be delivered.

Anyway, I digress.  So, I made the bread, and I had some ginger beer left over.  I don't think I've ever had straight alcoholic ginger beer, but I've had the non-alcoholic stuff.  I like it enough, but only sparingly, as I find it has a bit of an ohgoditburns! quality to it.  This, however, did not taste like burning.  It has a mild, pleasant flavour, definitely ginger but not so strong that it hurts, but it also doesn't taste like alcohol.  I would definitely order this in a pub - it's more refreshing than cider and less vile than beer.  Unfortunately, I only had about 1/4 of a bottle left, and Mike drank most of it, so I couldn't judge the level of buzz one might get from it.

On to the bread:

I like it a lot, though I wish it had come out a little more cake-like.  As you can see, it's loaded with chocolate chips (which I used in place of chunks because I'm lazy and had about a kilo of chips vs no bars/chunks), and the chocolate flavour almost overwhelms the ginger.  Despite having 2 tsp of ginger and 12 oz of ginger beer, the ginger flavour is actually pretty subtle.  I'm hoping that will change with a bit of a sit.

BTW, the company that makes the alcoholic ginger beer is owned by Fentimans, who bring us Curiosity Cola and Victorian Lemonade.  They make good stuff.

I'm super excited about tomorrow - I'm going to Glasgow for eating, meeting up for cake and beverages, and going to museums.  Two things - new menu at Heavenly, and AC/DC exhibition at the Kelvingrove!  More about that when I get home tomorrow evening!

Vegan MoFo - PPKlassics: Pandacookie's Butterscotch rum cake

I think this might be my saddest post ever, because it's a post about failure.

I'll be honest, I'm not used to baking failures that are my own fault.  I mean, I can handle something like the Irn Bru cupcakes that didn't come out the first time because it was an experiment and I couldn't have known what would happen.  But when I fail at something that has been tested and approved by others, I feel kinda crappy.

There's a thread in the Kitchen about PPKlassics - recipes that made the rounds on the old boards or early days on the new boards.  One of the recipes mentioned was Pandacookie's Butterscotch Rum Bundt Cake - a yellow cake made with rum and butterscotch chips.  I know, it sounds amazing.  I didn't actually have anything to write about today because Mike came home tired and didn't want anything elaborate for dinner, so we just had sammiches.  Then I remembered I had been gazing longingly at that recipe, checked that I had the ingredients, and went for it.

Well, in the interim, I got upset about something (I won't talk about it here), and I didn't tend to the cake as I should have.  I tested it, but I must have tested the wrong bit, because, after cooling, I discovered that it was still gooey on the inside.  I ate a bit, hoping it would be at least acceptable for home consumption, but it was really bad.  I actually think I may have gotten buzzed off the rum that didn't bake out.

So, yeah, my cake was a failure, so my previous upset was compounded by failcake (that I can't even make in to cakeballs).  Not only did I waste the time, I also wasted almost all of the rest of my stash of imported butterscotch chips and most of a bottle of Morgan's Spiced Rum.  But since it's my own failure and not that of the recipe, I'll post it here.

Pandacookie’s Rum Butterscotch Bundt Cake

2 1/2 c all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c rum
1/2 c canola oil (I used 1/4 c oil and 1/4 c applesauce)
1/2 c soy milk
equivalent of 2 eggs (I used ener-g)
2 tsp vanilla
1 c vegan sour cream (I used soy yogurt)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 c butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease and flour a bundt pan.
Sift flour, baking soda, salt and sugar into a large bowl.  In another bowl combine rum, oil, milk, egg replacer, and vanilla.  Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and mix.  Fold in the butterscotch chips, then fold in the sour cream.  Add the vinegar and stir briefly (the vinegar will, react making pale swirls in the batter).  Quickly pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 35-45 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes before turning out of the pan.

If you try this, let me know if it works out for you.  Maybe it was the subs, or maybe it was taking it out too early, or maybe it was the pan being too small.  All I know is, I am sad that I have no cake, because that one is going in the bin.

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.

An ode to Ms Cupcake

This post is pretty much a wall of text, so here's a picture of my gorgeous husband, reading a book instead of talking to me when we're waiting for our food at Infinity in Brighton:


(BTW, he's wearing the shirt he was wearing when we met. Aww.)

I'm sitting here hungry, waiting for my dinner to cook, with an open package of Oreos within easy reach. So what better activity to occupy my time than writing about cupcakes?

As mentioned in my post about the last two days of our holiday, we went to Ms Cupcake when we were in London. Holy hell. Let me put it this way - if Ms Cupcake were in Edinburgh, I would be fat and poor. If I'm ever in London again, I'll be hitting up Ms Cupcake on the daily, no matter what part of the city I'm staying in. I will get a day pass for the tube and take 3 trains if I have to. Lemme tell you why.

First of all, we got off the Victoria line at Brixton. I stupidly didn't print out directions because I looked at the map before I left Edinburgh and thought, that's right around the corner, I'll be able to find that. Well, we had no idea where to go. But I had their number, and I called them up, and they told me the way. Good customer service - that's what it's all about.

Then we got there. I wouldn't say the cases were overflowing, but there were so. many. cupcakes. And cookies. All vegan, all the time. And other things as well - Plamil chocolate spread, candy bars, cake baking and decorating ingredients and equipment, and multiple copies of every cookbook written by Isa and Terry (together and solo). I think there was even some variety of vegan jerky.

We decided to get a half-dozen cupcakes (3 each), a cookie sandwich with chocolate frosting (they were out of vanilla), and some Plamil milk chocolate spread (which I talked about in my chocolate post). Mike got a triple chocolate, a chocolate raspberry, and a banoffee cupcake, and I got triple chocolate, red velvet, and gingersnap. Later that day, while at Vx, I also got another cookie sammich (vanilla this time) and sausage rolls (since we'd be on the train for 5 hours and would need something savoury to eat).

We ate the sammich cookie - two large chocolate chip cookies with a thick layer of chocolate frosting in between - while we were still at the shop. I normally prefer vanilla frosting, but I hadn't had a proper sammich cookie in a dog's age, so I took what I could get. I'm so glad I did. It was exactly what a sammich cookie should be - slightly crunchy around the edges, but nice and soft in the middle. The frosting didn't overwhelm despite being chocolate. It was like the ones I used to get at the mall, except nearly twice as big and 10 times better. When I saw the vanilla one at Vx, I thought, surely this will be the perfect sammich cookie. AND IT WAS! I hesitated a bit with the first one because we were getting all those cupcakes, but when I saw the vanilla cookies, I almost bought 2. I kinda wish I had. It might actually have been the best thing we ate on the entire trip (well, the best sweet thing for sure), and it was a day old!

Then came the cupcakes. I think Mike finished all three of his before we even got on the train, while I managed to save two of mine until the day after we got back (probably because I ate most of both of the sammich cookies). We both started out with the triple chocolate - chocolate cake, a layer of chocolate ganache, and thick*, fudgy chocolate frosting, topped with a chunk of dark chocolate and two white chocolate buttons. I usually don't go for something so chocolaty - I like chocolate, but not in such heavy doses. But when I saw it, I just thought, I'll have that. And it wasn't nearly as overwhelmingly chocolaty as I expected. It was quite good, though I kinda expected more white chocolate than just the buttons. I guess we're programmed to see "triple chocolate" and think "three varieties of chocolate" rather than "chocolate three times". Meh.

I can't say much about Mike's other cupcakes. I barely had a glance at the banoffee because I'm not a fan and didn't really care. He said it was good, not great, but you'd probably love it if you like banoffee (he didn't know if he actually did). I did have a bite of the chocolate raspberry - chocolate cake topped with (I think) a thin layer of raspberry jam and then a thick* layer of raspberry buttercream. One bite isn't much to judge by (especially since I prefer the middle and I had to have an outside bite), but it had a good flavour - you could definitely taste the raspberry. I think I might have liked a more pronounced raspberry flavour, but that might just be because of the one-bite thing.

I loved my other two cupcakes less than the cookies, but they were still great. I think the red velvet was the only one that didn't have a layer of something between the cake and the frosting. It was just red velvet cake with thick* cream cheese frosting. What can I say - it tasted the way red velvet cake is supposed to taste. The gingersnap was golden cake (I'm pretty sure the cake itself didn't have any flavouring) with a layer of ginger preserves (I assume) and thick* gingery buttercream. I liked it a lot, but I would've preferred it to be a little more gingery. Or maybe to actually have bits of gingersnap in the cake and/or frosting (a la cookies and cream cupcakes) - that would've been awesome!

We did eventually eat the sausage rolls. Sausage rolls are something I prefer hot, but I usually end up eating them at room temperature because I'm usually eating them on the go. I'm used to dry, slightly stale-tasting, not very full sausage rolls from Holland and Barrett. But these were actually really good. They had a decent amount of sausage wrapped in gorgeous flaky pastry. They were lovely.

So, in case you couldn't tell, I'm now a huge fan of Ms Cupcake. If you're in London, even if you're not vegan, hit them up. You won't be disappointed.

I think I'm gonna experiment with those gingersnap cupcakes this weekend! That sounds like a good use of my time. I'll probably blog about that on Sunday.

*I keep talking about the frosting being thick. Here's why - the frosting on every cupcake was nearly as thick as the cakes themselves. It was at least an inch and a half to two inches thick. I had to bite from the top so I could sink my teeth into the frosting before getting the cake in order to not have a nose full of frosting. It was some thick damn frosting.

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!

Associations

Quick one tonight since I'm just back from a party and it's almost 1 AM here. I might come back and add a picture later, but we'll see.

As I said, I've just been to a party. The person who was head of the department when I was at uni has retired. It was a good time - basically a traditional ceilidh, with songs and tunes and poems, and a bit of dancing at the end (Canadian Barn Dance, since the honoree is Canadian). Food was served; I ate unadorned bread.

But the thing that struck me about it was interacting with others. The first person I spoke to, a friend and the department librarian, told me she'd had red velvet cake and thought of me because it was rubbish (I'd made her red velvet cake for an event and everyone loved it). The next person I talked to didn't remember my name, but she remembered the amazing cake I made for a picnic 2 1/2 years ago. And another person told me that her nephews still talk about the chocolate chip cookies I made when I met them.

The point is this - I am obviously associated, at least in that circle, with making delicious vegan baked goods. I suppose there are worse things for people to think of when they think of you.

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):