Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes!

I made these incredible cupcakes for Reuby in celebration our 5 year anniversary! After we ran out of the yummy chocolate Banana cupcakes I made a few weeks ago he asked me one night where the cupcakes were, we'd had heaps of them (mini ones) in the pantry and he seemed quite distraught that they were all gone and I had no time to make any more! So I handed in my second assignment of the semester (not sure if i mentioned im studying a post grad diploma in Development studies - hope to work for Oxfam or the UN one day), last night it took a few weeks of late nights and long weekends in the library... I got super excited last night when I submitted the essay cause I could finally bake again without feeling guilty about having an assignment to do! I found some cheap end of season strawberries at the University market today so decided to try and make strawberry chocolate cupcakes and they turned out better that I could ever have imagined!

Dry Ingredients:

3 cups wholemeal flour

2 cups raw sugar

2/3cup cocoa

1 tsp salt

2tsp baking soda

Wet ingredients:

400ml coconut cream (1 tin)

2 mashed bananas

4 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tsp instant coffee disolved in 2 tsp hot water

3 tsp vanilla esssence

Frosting:

1/2 kremalta (non-hydrogenated coconut oil)

1 Tbsp vegan margarine (i use olivani)

Icing sugar

3 tsp vanilla essence

Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl then in a separate bowl mix all wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together. If it's a bit dry just add a little bit of water. Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes at 200 degrees.

For the frosting i mixed kremalta and olivani together, I did this by hand using a fork and potato masher but if you have a mixer use that you'll save heaps of time! Then mix in icing sugar until it's light and fluffy. Once the cupcakes are cooked and completely cold pipe frosting on top and then add freshly chopped strawberries. Otherwise if you have decent tops on them cut them off and smooth some frosting over the bottom half then pile strawberries on top and replace the lid, garnish with a little extra frosting a strawberry piece and I used melted dark chocolate too.

Enjoy!

Homemade Vegan Cheese

So we are having pizza for dinner tonight and we don't have any soy cheese in the fridge so I decided to try and make my own! I consulted a few different vegan cheese recipes on the web as well as my pantry and this is what I came up with...

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Tbsp almond butter

1/2 Tbsp cashew butter

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 dsp crushed garlic

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

pepper and salt

Mix the ingredients well and then spread on a lightly greased oven tray and bake for about 30mins (15mins each side) at 100 degrees. Alternatively you could use a dehydrator for raw vegan cheese. Or you could enjoy it as a cheesy spread uncooked and undehydrated.

Orange, Chocolate Cup Cakes..

Today I felt like making some pretty cupcakes with lovely looking frosting. I've never experimented with vegan butter cream either, but finally decided to take the plunge! I'm happy I did, so here you go, vegan orange chocolate cup cakes!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 2/3 cup water

1/3 cup oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup whittakers dark chocolate chips/chunks

orange zest from one orange

juice from two oranges

Ok so first you need to mix all the dry ingredients together, then in a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients and then combine slowly and add the chocolate chunks last. Put mixutre into cup cake papers or tins and bake for appoximately 15 mins.

Butter Cream Frosting:

1 Tbsp vegetable shortening

3 Tbsp vegan margarine

2 cps icing sugar

2 freshly squeezed oranges (the juice)

1/4 block melted dark chocolate

orange zest to decorate

Mix shortening and margarine until well combined, light and fluffy. If you don't have an electric mixer just use a whisk and or fork - that's what I did. Sure your arm get's sore but it works the same! Then mix in icing sugar a little at a time and lastly melted dark chocolate. I sprinkled vegan cocoa on top and used orange zest to decorate.

Baked Eggplant Stacks

Reuby and I have new flatmates and they cook interesting and different things to what we normally cook, so last night they were eating this amazing looking eggplant thing, and that inspired me too create my own amazing looking eggplant thing. So I consulted a few other blogs and then got some ideas and voila here's what I did:

Ingredients:

1 big fat eggplant
2 big red juicy looking capsicums
4 plump yummy smelling red tomatoes
a handful of spinnace
1 shiny red onion
a dessert spoon of garlic
1 cube of oxo vegetable stock
a little bit of water

Ok so first I cut two red capsicums into four quarters and placed on a greased oven tray, then Cut an eggplant in half length ways then cut each half in half again length ways. Then cut four tomatoes in halves and place all of the vegetables onto a greased oven tray and bake in the oven for about 45 mins or so - just check regularly to check their progress. In the mean time, finely chop a red onion, put in a small saucepan and gently fry with some garlic (I use alot so just whatever you're comfortable with), then add some herbs i used oregano and basil and a handful of spinnach. Boil water and crush up a cube of oxo stock and then add a tiny bit of water (maybe 2-3 Tbps) and mix it so it's quite thick and then mix into the onion mixture.

Once all the baked vegetables are cooked - peel the skin off the capsicums and tomatoes and then arrange all of the vegetables ontop of each other in a stack. I put some yummy onion sauce in the middle of each layer and put some capsicum and tomato in each layer.

Chocolate raisin fudge, with hot raspberry sauce and vanilla soy ice cream!

The other day I decided to invent some vegan fudge, I'd been thinking alot about this amazing chocolate biscuit fudge my Mum used to make when we were little. I remember smashing biscuits for what seemed like an eternity, and then we'd press the mixture into a tin and have to wait for hours for it to set in the fridge. Well it seemed like hours but it probably wasn't. So anyway, from memory I thought I'd try and replicate and veganise it.

Fudge ingredients:

1 packet of budget vanilla round biscuits

1 cup of coconut

1 cup of raisins

1/4 cup of cocoa

1 cup olivio margarine

1/3rd block whittakers 72% dark chocolate

First you need to crush the biscuits until they are fine and crumbly. Then melt the margarine and chocolate together in a double boiler on the stove. While this is melting, mix the coconut, raisins and cocoa into the biscuit mixture. Once the margarine and chocolate mixture has melted together pour into the biscuit mixture and stir until well combined. Then press into a fudge tin and refrigerate.

Raspberry sauce ingredients:

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 Tbsp of cornflour (but only if you want really thick sauce - I wasn't happy with how thick it was so would have preferred a runny sauce)

Mash the raspberries with a fork and then add the suagar and heat slowly on the stove until it melts and becomes a nice thin consistency. Now you can either add the cornflour for a thick sauce or leave it out for a runny sauce.

Then melt 1/4 block of whittakers dark chocolate in a double boiler. Crumble the fudge or slice it into whatever shape you please and place on top of or under a spoonful of "dairy, wheat and gluten free" vanilla ice cream. It's in a blue 1 ltr pottle in New World supermarkets, or any other soy alternative you like. Pour the raspberry sauce around the edge and the melted chocolate on top.

Voila, a decadent vegan dessert to please anyone!

Vegan Lemon Curd

Ok so about a month back I got a craving for vegan lemon curd cupcakes, I searched the internet far and wide and couldn't find any cupcake recipes. So what's a girl to do, I invented my own, however I was too excited at the time and forgot to write down my recipe! So if anyone out there has their own cupcake recipe please feel free to direct me there or post it here as a comment. In the mean time I do have the lemon curd recipe, it was super easy and sooooo tasty but a little scary to see how much sugar goes into it. So lemon curd is definitley those once in a blue moon treats, although I know there are much worse things out there!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of lemon juice
2 1/2 cups raw sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
4 Tbsp of coconut cream
6 Tbsps of cornflour dissolved in 6 Tbsps of cold water
4 Tbsps of margarine

Simmer the lemon juice, sugar, and salt stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved. Then add the corn starch mixture and the coconut cream and stir until it's combined with the lemon mixture.

Continue to stir constantly and the mixture will start to thicken, then add the margarine and cook for a little longer as it dissolves into the mixture. Once this has happened you need to let the mixture cool completly, then put it in the refrigerator.

Enjoy spread on vegan scones or lemon cupcakes or perhaps lemon poppy seed cake!

Double Chocolate Raspberry Cup Cakes

So this weekend we've had three different groups of visitors come to stay and visit. First was my good friend Laura and her boyfriend Andy, then we had Amy and Brad who came down to escape the Christchurch earthquake, then two lovely couch surfers from Austria and Germany. Andrea had been through her first and hopefully last earthquake and was very happy to escape the constant rumbling and earth moving. So what better thing to do than bake some yummy comfort food for my visitors who'd been through so much over the past week! Chocolate of course is a girls best friend and raspberries complement it so well, so I came up with Double Chocolate and Raspberry Cup Cakes!

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups wholemeal flour
1/3 cup vegan cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 - 2 cups coconut cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup roughly chopped 72% Whittakers dark chocolate
a handful of fresh or frozen raspberries (for each cupcake)

In a large bowl whisk together all of the dry ingredients (excluding chocolate for now), and make a well in the centre. In a separate bowl mix the coconut cream until it's smooth and all lumps have disappeared. Then add the vanilla to the cream and pour into the dry mixture. Mix wet and dry until it's a smooth consistency then add the roughly chopped chocolate and mix again.

Grease cupcake/muffin tins (small or large) with margarine or spray with oil then spoon mixture in to just below the rim (they don't rise too much). Then place the raspberries on top and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes for small cup cakes or about 30minutes for large muffins. Let the muffins cool for a bit in the tins then put them on a cooling rack. The raspberries sunk in quite far so I put some more on top for some extra colour and taste!

Bon Appetit!!

Black bean and Lentil Pot Pies!

This tasty pie was invented due to a number of things that happened. One was that Reuben decided to make vege burgers using black beans in chilli sauce instead of regular beans as we'd run out. Now it may sound good and certainly did taste great however they looked horrible! Some people wouldn't think so, but when he put the pot in my face to show me I thought it was something that had gone very very bad in the fridge, not to put you off or anything! It did smell good!

So we made the patties and they tasted fantastic but we both found it hard actually seeing them on our fork going into our mouths (looked a lot like mince to me). So anyway, I met up with my good friend Emily for lunch on Friday and we went to Modaks which is a local Dunedin cafe that has several vegan options. I ordered a lentil pie and that gave me the idea to use Reubens horrible looking but great tasting burger mixture in a pie! Sorry for the long drawn out explanation but here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

puff pastry (New way vegetarian society approved)

1 onion chopped finely

1 tin black beans in chilli sauce

1 tin of four bean mix

1 finely chopped courgette (or grated - we don't have a grater at the moment hence why it was chopped)

3 mushrooms finely chopped

salt n pepper

squirt of tomato sauce

3 Tbsps cornflour

So you first need to drain the four bean mix then add the black beans in chili sauce (delmaine brand in NZ) - don't drain the black beans as you'll get rid of the sauce (I did this once silly me). Mash the beans together using a fork or potato masher, or even a food processor. Then mix in the finely chopped onion and remaining ingredients. Our mixture was also quite runny which isn't ideal for patties and which is why it worked perfectly in a pie. I used large muffin tins, greased them with olive oil and cut the pastry sheets into four small squares. Place each square into the tins (once they've thawed so they don't break). Then spoon the mixture into the pastry cases. You can leave them open or use an additional pastry sheet and cut small squares to fit on top. Bake in the oven until the pastry is golden brown!

Pina Colada inspired cake

Ok so I modified this recipe slightly from the "100 best vegan recipes" book my wonderful friend Sarah gave me. It's originally called a tropical coconut cake, however there is no coconut in the recipe. They also use canned mandarins which I just find soooo strange so substituted that for pineapple. I simply added a cup of coconut and also used wholemeal and raw ingredients instead of refined ones! The end result is a refreshing and moist cake, perfect if you're inclined towards tropical flavors.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour

1 cup dried coconut

2 tsps baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup raw sugar

1/3 cup oil

1 cup milk (i used rice milk)

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 tsp cider vinegar

1 medium sized can of crushed pineapple (can also use pieces)

Glaze:

2 Tbsp coconut cream

1/2 - 1 cup icing sugar

So all you need to do is heat the oven to 175 degrees and grease a baking tin. Then mix all dry ingredients (EXCEPT sugar) in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the sugar and oil together then add the remaining wet ingredients and mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients then add in the pineapple and mix. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for approximately 30 - 25 mins.

You can make a glaze with coconut cream and icing sugar, make sure it's quite thick so it doesn't seep into the cake. It also looks nice if you sprinkle some coconut on top and even arrange some fresh pineapple on top as well!

Wendels Vege Burgers

I learnt this recipe from my friend Wendel and it's been modified many times, but is an excellent recipe for Summer BBQ's. This is another one of those flexible recipes where you can add almost any vegetables but this is how we regularly cook it:

Ingredients:
1-2 tins kidney beans ( or four bean mix/chickpeas mashed well)
1 onion very finely chopped
garlic cloves
1 small tin tomato paste
1 courgette grated
1 carrot grated
Italian herbs
salt and pepper
paprika
2-3 Tbsp cornflour
lemon juice

First you need to drain wash and then mash all of the beans. You really can use kidney beans, chick peas, four bean mix etc. We often use a mixture of all to change it slightly. Once the beans are mashed up well then add the finely chopped onion, garlic cloves, salt n pepper, herbs and spices. Mix everything together then add the courgette and carrot and mix again.

The mixture will be dry and crumbly, add the tomato paste and or sweet chili sauce or any tomato sauce, or pasta sauce or a combination. Mix it together again and the mixture should be wetter and sticky, add cornflour which binds it all together. I often grill these in the oven, Reuben likes to fry them in oil, and they also work well on the BBQ. When grilling in the oven it's important to lightly grease an oven tray, then spread mixture into patties and cook for approximately 10 - 15mins on each side.

Serve with salad or in bread with salad, they're lovely with chutney and hummus. Also, you can use any vegetables in this recipe, as long as they're finely chopped or grated so feel free to experiment. I've used grated raw beetroot in the past, as well as pumpkin and kumara etc.

Eggplant Lasagna

This is good when eggplants are in season and cheap!

Ingredients:
1-2 eggplants
1 jar of dolmios red wine sauce
1 tin lite coconut cream
1-2 red onions
1-2 courgettes
1 red capsicum
1 green capsicum
lasagne sheets
vegan cheese (optional)
olive oil

Saute red onion then add eggplant, diced into small cubes or larger chunks. Add the dolmios sauce and coconut cream and cook until eggplant is soft but firm. Add all remaining ingredients (except lasagna sheets and vegan cheese) and cook for a five to ten minutes.

Remove from the heat and place half of the mixture in the bottom of an oven dish. Cover in one layer of lasagna sheets and then place the remaining eggplant sauce mixture on top. Grate vegan cheese on top or leave it as it is and bake in the oven for 20 mins or so until the pasta sheets are cooked through.

Mexican Bean Soup

This is Reuben's specialty, he always cooks this so well!

Ingredients:
1 onion finely chopped
4-6 cups vegetable stock
1 can chopped tomatoes
1-2 cans of kidney beans or four bean mix or 1 of each
salt n pepper
italian herbs
1 tsp chilli (crushed or finely chopped)
1 courgette cubed
1 carrot cubed
1 red/green capsicum
1/2 cup of pasta
3-4 mushrooms
vegan pesto (optional)


Finely chop the onion and saute in olive oil, then add the all of the vegetable stock and canned tomatoes. Add the vegetables and heat to boil (stirring frequently) then reduce the temperature to medium. Stir regularly, add the beans, pasta next and cook for 10 mins, then add mushrooms and remaining ingredients and cook for another 5 mins or until pasta is al dente.

Summer Rissotto

Believe it or not but I only learnt to make rissotto last spring, and it's a good thing I did because it's fast becoming my new fave food! You can pretty much put anything in it and i intend to try various vegetables throughout the year - rissotto for every season. Plus some good vegetable stock and white wine makes for a very tasty meal! Sorry this post doesn't have a picture so you'll have to leave it to the imagination, but I can assure you it looked/tasted amazing! Oh and I used proper rissotto rice (arborio) but it can also be made with brown rice it just tastes longer - but its a healthier option and also a slightly different flavour.

Ingredients:
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup white wine
7 cups vegetable stock
1 red onion
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup fresh chopped green beans
1 lemon (grate the lemon zest then squeeze the juice)
salt n pepper
olive oil

First finely chop the red onion and sautee for a few mins in the olive oil, then add the rice and stir fry for a few mins till the edges turn white. Add 1/2 a cup of wine and stir constantly until it's absorbed then add the remaining wine and continue stirring until it's absorbed.

Continue to add 1/2 cup of stock at a time stirring until it's absorbed for about 20 minutes. Then add the vegetables and more stock and continue until the rice is soft and cooked. Add the lemon zest and juice and salt n pepper and stir well then serve!

Vegan Christmas Dinner!

So this Christmas is actually my first as a vegan, so it will be interesting (i hope so anyway). As Reuben is going home to Auckland for Christmas this year and I'm heading back to Waimate, we decided to have our own Christmas dinner together.

The menu was simple but delicious, nutty vegetable rissoles, with homemade guacamole and salad with macadamias, olives and cherry tomatoes. The rissoles recipe was actually on the stuff website and I used it but adapted it. The salad was an experiment, but I firmly believe it's hard to go wrong with salads.

Rissoles:

275g marinated tofu (we used the NZ stuff that's grown and made in Motueka)

1/2 cup pics peanut butter

70g ground almonds

35g sesame seeds

1 red capsicum (grated)

1 carrot (grated)

2 small slices of pumpkin (grated)

1/2 red onion finely chopped

1 1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

1 Tbsp soy sauce

salt

cracked black pepper

First you need to mash the tofu in a large bowl, it should resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add all remaining ingredients and then lightly oil your hands and shape into patties and palce on an oven tray.

Bake in the oven for approx 15 mins on each side at 180 degrees, or cook them on the BBQ or fry in a shallow frying pan. We served them with fresh guacamole (recipe in Nachos post below), vegan organic basil pesto and fruit chutney with salad.

Salad:

Lettuce or mesclun leaves

1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes cut in half

olives cut in half

macadamia nuts (handful)

red and green capsicum chopped

1/2 orange diced

12 orange squeezed over salad

Serve with bread or just salad either way they're great. Christmas dinner was accompanied by fresh strawberries dipped in dark chocolate! However, on actual Christmas day I'll be bringing my Chocolate Raspberry cake to dinner!

Courgette fritters and salad!

Reuben and I love eating "burger" pattes/fritters and we decided to try out this recipe which was fantastic, we fried some in a pan and baked some in the oven (the healthier option obviously). Reuben ate his in bread with salad and I had mine chopped up n top of salad. Either way they're great!

Fritters:

1 cup flour

¼ cup cornflour1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp salt

Cracked black pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano (or other italian herbs)

1 ½ tsp of egg replacer
2 Tbsp of warm water, to dissolve egg replacer
1 cup of rice or soy milk

2 1/2 cups of grated courgettes
Oil for shallow frying or greasing oven tray

Mix all above ingredients in a large bowl and then drop spoonfuls into a frying pan and press flat once immersed in oil. Or drop onto oven tray and shape using a spoon. Bake or fry ensuring to flip sides. if frying in pan you'll need lots of paper towels to absorb oil.

Serve with fresh salad and or in a sandwich or burger. This recipe is really nice with fruit chutney on the fritters, we used "watties bit on the side" fruit chutney, hummus is also a great addition with the salad.

Nachos Vegan Style!

Since becoming vegan, the only dairy product I've missed has been Cheese. Which means that nachos have never quite been the same... Well until I decided to use guacamole as a cheese substitute. It worked superbly. I really didn't miss the cheese with the guacamole! So here's what I did:

Guacamole:

2 ripe avocados mashed

2 vine tomatoes chopped finely

1 small red onion chopped finely

1 green chilli chopped finely

cracked black pepper

1/2 lemon squeezed

Nachos:

1 red onion chopped

1 red and green capsicums chopped

1-2 courgettes chopped

2 tins kidney/ chili beans

1 jar of pasta sauce or tin of tomatoes and or freshly chopped tomatoes

chili powder or sauce (if not using chili beans)

tomato paste

For the Guacamole all you need to do is mash the avocados, add the remaining ingredients, mix well and refrigerate for an hour or so before serving.

You can use a lot of different varieties of vegetables in nachos depending on what's available at the time. First you fry the onion then add remaining fresh vegetables and stir fry for 5-10mins. Once vegetables have softened a little add the kidney/chili beans and sauce and cook for

15-20 more minutes until vegetables are tender.

Add tomato paste at the end to thicken the mixture and stir for 5 mins more then serve. Note the best type of chips are "mexicano natural" flavored, they're vegan and they don't take away from the taste of the nachos. Add guacamole on top of the nacho mix and enjoy!!!

Vegan Gluten Free Choc Coconut Fudge!

This fudge was very popular at the Festival, I didn't make it though it was made by Catherine who also gave a talk on a book she is writing about the history of vegetarianism in NZ. So here's the recipe, I tried this fudge and it was sooo good.

Here is the recipe - quantities are a bit approximate as i tend to guess
rather than measure ...

Ingredients:
one and 1/2 cup Simple brand gluten free flour (you can use wheat flour if
not gluten free)
1/2 cup to 1 cup dried coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa
2 large tablespoons raspberry jam
125 g vegan margarine
1/2 cup raw sugar

Melt margarine, cocoa, sugar and jam in a saucepan, until sugar dissolved.
Allow to cool slightly, then mix in dry ingredients - should be slightly wet
without being totally runny. Spread about1 cm thick on a greased tray (baking paper is good too, and you can usually reuse it). Bake at 180 C for
15-20 mins or till cooked. Ice with chocolate icing (olivani, cocoa, lemon
juice, sugar) while still warm. Enjoy!

Thanks to Catherine for sharing this wonderful recipe!!

Vegan Veggie Rolls

These are super yummy and super easy! I was so excited to discover new way vegetarian pastry. I found this recipe online and adapted it to kiwi ingredients.

Ingredients:
2 courgettes grated
2 carrots grated
red onion very finely chopped
2+ cloves of garlic crushed (depending on how much you like)
1 large orange kumara diced finely and boiled till soft
small tin of tomato paste
1 cup of crushed rolled oats (i use wholegrain- instant is fine too)
mixed herbs
sweet chilli/bbq sauce or any other sauces you like
1 packet of new way vegetarian society approved pastry

All you need to do is finely chop the onion and crush the garlic and fry in the pan on a low heat till it becomes transparent. Then add grated courgettes and carrots and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Drain away any excess liquid and set aside.

Once kumara has been boiled, drain away all liquid and mash it up. Mix in the courgette/carrot mixture with the rolled oats. Once the mixture is all mixed up together it should be a lovely orange with green speckles from the courgettes, add the sauces, herbs, paste and salt and pepper. I also like a little bit of spice so add some paprila and chiili.

Take the pastry sheets out and spooon the mixture across the bottom 1/4 of the pastry sheet, then roll up and puncture with fork holes! Bake in the oven for about 20 mins until hte pastry has browned slightly. Serve hot or cold, they're delicious either way!

P.S. You can make them as big or small as you like, for a dinner with salad or for a work morning tea snack!

Vegan Banoffee Pie Cupcakes!

Ingredients base:
1 packet budget malt biscuits
1 cup melted dark choc chips
1 cup melted vegan margarine (possibly more just add a little as you go)

So first you need to crush the malt biscuits really well so they resemble a fine powder at the end, you can do this using a rolling pin and a large bowl or pot. If you have a good food processor use that. Once the biscuits are fully and finely crushed melt the dark choc chips and marg together, then pour into the biscuit mixture. Mix it all up and if it’s still too crumbly add a little more margarine/choc mix until the biscuits are sticking together and they can be pressed into cup cake tins. Once you’ve got the mixture sticking then press into cupcake papers inside tins, or if you just want to make a pie then press into a large pie dish.

Ingredients vegan caramel:
1 ½ cups soft brown sugar
1 Tbsp water (or enough to dissolve the brown sugar
1 cup coconut cream
1 Tbsp arrowroot powder
1 Tbsp cornflour

First you need to pour the sugar into a pot and add 1 Tbsp of water, it will start to dissolve immediately put it onto a very low heat (the lowest) and let the sugar dissolve fully, adding 1 tsp of water at a time if you need to. Once the sugar and water mixture is full dissolved add the coconut cream and heat till it it dissolves into the sugar mixture turning a lovely light brown colour. The mixture will be quite runny, so this is where you add arrowroot and cornflour – turn the heat up to boil the mixture and it should start to thicken, you need to stir it constantly using a whisk to get rid of any lumps and once it starts to thicken turn the heat down. After 5 mins or so if the caramel isn’t thickening add more arrowroot and cornflour a tsp at a time and make sure the heat is high. Once you are happy with the thickness of the caramel (you can use this mixture for a caramel sauce on any desert so you may want it thinner or thicker – you can achieve this with more or less arrowroot/cornflour) then remove it from the heat and let it cool completely, perhaps overnight in the fridge.

Ingredients Choc Ganache:
1/3 block whittakers 72% dark chocolate
2 tsp margarine
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water

To make the ganach all you need to do is melt the marg and whittakers dark choc in a double boiler on a low heat, add the water, stir in the icing sugar slowly while mixing until it reaches a smooth, buttery consistency. You can either use a plastic bag and cut a hole, or an old school icing decorating tube with the rosette nozzle on the end and decorate!
Assembling:

So your biscuit base should be in the cup cake papers, so now you need to use a spoon to spoon the caramel mixture into the biscuit cases – don’t overfill as you will also need to spoon mashed banana on top of the caramel. Once you’ve filled all the biscuit bases with caramel take 3 bananas, mash them up or you can slice them if you want too and then add this to each of the bases on top of the caramel. Then use a piping bag or spoon depending how fancy you want the ganache topping to look and decorate with chocolate! I used an icing decorating tube as I’m a bit unco and it’s easier for me than the bag. So decorate with chocolate topping and allow it to set then serve or refrigerate and serve later!

FYI I did make this recipe up myself, so sorry if it seems a little vague in some parts, it’s better to be cautious and add a little of one ingredient first than too much because as they saying goes, you can always add more but it’s harder to take it away! Also if you have any questions please feel free to ask and I hope you can all replicate this!

Vegan Gluten Free Lemon Poppy Teacake

This was a hit, and the poppy seeds make it look soooo pretty, so when you make this cake - don't bother with the icing on top, we actually made a double mixture and did two layers with the icing in the middle and I grated some lemon rind on top to add some extra colour and it looked amazing!

Ingredients:
2/3 cup rice milk
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup potato flour
3/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1 1/2 Tbsp gluten free baking powder
1 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup stewed apples
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp pure lemon extract/juice
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest

Heat the oven to 165 degrees, lightly grease the cake tin with oil. Now onto the mixture you need to pour the rice milk, vinegar and poppy seeds into a small bowl, but do not stir; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, xanthum gum and salt. Add the oil, agave nectar, stewed apples, vanilla, lemon extract/juice and zest and stir until the batter is smooth. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the poppy seed mixture into the batter and combine until just blended. The batter will expand slightly.

Pour in the prepared tin and bake for about 35 mins, until golden brown and springy and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in tin for 20 mins then gently run a knife around th edge and invert onto a board or plate, then use another board or plate to re-invert right side up. Either cut and serve warm or wait until completely cool before storing.

Thanks to my wonderful helper Michelle for doing this cake - she was amazing on Friday I couldn't have done nearly as much, without her. However due to her help we had over 15 different vegan items and about 6 different vegan gluten free items on the stall!!!

We also made a plain icing using about a tsp of vegan margarine and a 2 tsp lemon juice and icing sugar, then we added a little bit of water to thicken it and spread it on the bottom cake and put the top cake on top!