Steamed banana bread with chocolate pudding

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Suet far from a vegan ingredient - I can't even describe it for you because it grosses me out.  But I didn't let that stop me from finding a way to make a super delicious pudding cake!  Instead of baking in the oven, British pudding cake is steamed by placing a heat proof dish in a saucepan of water and covered with a lid.  It was my first time cooking a dessert this way, and it does take a lot of paying attention so that the water doesn't all boil away to nothing. But the result is soo worth it!

I definitely got my chocolate fix from this challenge, and little Preciosa got a nice suprise in her lunch when I gave her some leftovers the next day.

Steamed banana bread with chocolate pudding:

Vegan Cupcakes take over a 2 year old's b-day party!

People always make comments about how it works when my vegan daughter goes to a birthday party, and how she's gonna miss out on this and that when she's in school...I don't really think that saving the lives of animals can be looked at like missing out on anything.  I usually let the person know that gordita gets her own treats at birthday parties and she's perfectly happy with it.

I usually bake a vegan cupcake for her to take to the party, and a lunch too, depending on what's being served.  Asking the host/esswhat will be on the menu in advance is always the best way to plan ahead.  In fact, at one party I took gordita too, one of the other kids wanted to eat the lunch I had made gordita instead of the pizza that was ordered.

To celebrate my little one's 2nd birthday last week, I made the Golden Vanilla cupcakes and the Basic Chocolate cupcakes from VCTOTW and they were all gobbled up by children and adults. And why not?  They are so delicious.  I liked the chocolate ones better, but then again, I like anything chocolate - I'm a chocoholic.

I also had made a batch for gordita's daycare group and the children and staff there loved them too.  If you don't already have this cookbook, you should run out and buy it.  Or stay where you are and order it from Amazon.

Cheers to Vegan Cupcakes, they really do rule the world!!

Deeelish Dobos Torte

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus:  Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

The monthly Daring Baker's Challenges are always challenging, and making a vegan version of the recipes that are selected by the hosts makes it even more so.  Usually I stick to healthy cooking, making low fat and low sugar substitutes whenever I can - but that was all out the window for this confection!  

The Dobos Torte was supposed to be a five-layer sponge cake, and apparently some recipes end up with 12 layers!  That would be quite a tall slice of cake.  I think that the omission of eggs attributed to less batter in general for mine, and alas, I only had a three-layer cake.  

I love how the chopped hazelnuts matched the dark chocolate "buttercream"icing, and the caramel topping was amazing.  As I mentioned, this is an extremely sweet dessert, and just a small slice will satisfy any sweet craving. 

Almost Sugar-Free Blueberry Mint Ice Cream

We've had a hot spell of weather this week and it's the perfect opportunity to get the ice cream maker going.  There are so many endless combinations to try!  I had purchased a huge basket of blueberries and they were begging to be paired up with fresh mint sprigs to make this ultimately refreshing treat.  And who knew coconut milk and agave nectar could make light fluffy ice cream that is the bomb-diggedy? If you don't know, now you know!

 

Blueberry Mint Ice Cream
2 cups blueberries, rinsed
1 can (400ml) coconut milk
1/3 cup agave nectar
1-2 leaves, fresh mint

In a blender or food processor, combine ingredients and process until smooth.  Pour into ice cream maker and turn on for 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

The Bakewell Tart & my 101st Post!

Last time I posted I didn't realize it was number 100, so I'm celebrating post #101 with a successful Daring Bakers' Challenge. 

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

I honestly can say I've never heard of a Bakewell tart, so I hope I make all my English ancestors proud that their English heritage lives on through this vegan version of this delicious treat.

Bakewell tarts feature three elements: an eggy custard, frangipane and jam.  Instead of custard, I worked in some mashed very ripe bananas.  Chocolate chips made their way in as they seemed to be a better compliment to bananas than jam.  And who bought all the almonds in the supermarket?  Can't make frangipane without almonds...or can you?  I couldn't bring myself to go to another store with a cranky baby when I did my initial grocery shop, so I opted for cashews instead which worked well and I was very pleased with the way all of the ingredients complimented each other, right down to the cinnamon garnish.

Almost Sugar-Free Sugar Free Mango Strudel

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

 How awesome is it that the recipe was already vegan?  Well, except that it called for butter which was easily substituted with Earth Balance.  It was too easy to make! The dough is supposed to be stretched and made very thin but even if it tears a bit, any minor imperfections are hidden when the dough and filling is rolled up into a log.  Love that part!

Linda and Courtney made apple filling for theirs, but as part of the challenge, they gave free reign to us to come up with whatever filling we wished, be it sweet or savoury.

I diced a mango and tossed it in a couple of tbsp's of rum before rolling it up and baking it in the oven. 

I used a baking stone, as I do with pretty much everything that I bake, be it cookies or pizza or whatever.  Here's the finished product before I sliced it up:

 

I chose not to use sugar and cinnamon, but decided instead to keep it as sugar free as possible.  Mango is so sweet already, so all I did was drizzle on a bit of agave nectar before indulging in this treat - and I had only a teeny bit of guilt about eating it at 10pm right before going to bed.

 

 

Lemon Cheesecake with Mango-Dragonfruit Sauce

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I once made a vegan key lime cheesecake using silken tofu and it turned out pretty good so I gave it a shot again this time, except I used a different recipe.  This one is from Bryanna Clark Grogan via  Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.  It's a lemon cheesecake with a graham cracker crust, and I made a mango-dragonfruit sauce to go with it.  I was a bit impatient when cooking the the sauce so it wasn't as thick as it could have been, but it tasted so exotic and summer-y who cares what it looks like.  I love tropical fruits, they are so sweet on their own, so in this case I didn't need to add any sugar to the sauce, just steamed the fruit, pureed it and then cooked it some more to thicken it up - but as I mentioned, I didn't quite let it get thick enough.  Ah well, there's always next time!  I can't wait until next month's Daring Bakers challenge :)

 

Avocado Ice Cream & Chocolate Valentino Cake

 

Whew, this month flew right by.  It's already time to post February's Daring Baker's Challenge.  Rules being what they are, we're required to paste word-for-word the following sentence:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

 ***

The flourless cake that was chosen involved 5 eggs, so there were a lot of choices out there to make it vegan.  I chose to use silken tofu instead, which turned out all right, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what the other vegan daring bakers did.  For the ice cream, I decided to make vanilla ice cream with a twist ~ soy-free, almost sugar-free vanilla ice cream featuring...avocado!  It may sound a bit strange, but it tastes great and it has a gorgeous green colour.  I used my favorite agave nectar instead of sugar, so that's why I say "almost" sugar-free.

When All Else Fails, Read the Directions!!!

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

"Traditionally, tuiles are thin, crisp almond cookies that are gently molded over a rolling pin or arched form while they are still warm. Once set, their shape resembles the curved French roofing tiles for which they're named."

I was fascinated by the suggestion that you make a stencil template and then use a spatula to spread the dough over the template.  Kind of like a reverse cookie cutter.  I had nedver done it before...and I have to say, I don't really look forward to doing it again in the near future because I totally suck at it.  For my first attempt, I cut out a palm tree template using a piece of cardboard.  This was no easy feat, there are a lot of tricky angles.

As I peered into the oven to watch them bake, my heart sank....I was horrified to see they had melted into blobs of liquid.  I had never seen cookies do that before.  And then it hit me.  I forgot to add the flour.  I was completely stunned.  I had already tossed my cardboard template in the garbage I had to re-think what shape I was going to do. 

So I thought, okay, my daughter is turning 1 this month, I'll make them shaped like the number 1!!  However, this time around, my batter was so thick it stuck to the template and the dough barely touched the cookie sheet.  By this time I was getting really frustrated at the fact that I must be the only person who can't make these cookies and how could I screw it up not once, but twice.

Attempt number three is far less glorious than my original intention, but it worked.  Simple rectangles left to cool on wooden rolling pin.  At least I had to pair it with something interesting...how about guava-strawberry mousse?

Yule Love This French Log

It's time to introduce this month's Daring Bakers Challenge!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.

They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. 

This multi-layered frozen dessert features six elements:  Dacquoise Biscuit (Almond Cake), Mousse, Ganache, Praline (Crisp), Creme Brulee, and Icing.  We were given a lot of leeway in terms of flavours this time, and I have to say that my favorite part ended up being the mousse.

I chose to make a maple mousse, which was actually quite simple.  I used one box of mori-nu silken tofu and 1/2 cup maple syrup.  Blend in food processor for 2 minutes.  That's it!  It's so light and full of flavour, I wanted to eat it all on its own without adding it to the yule log but instead I resorted to licking the spatula ;)  It was well worth the wait though, because it is absolutely delightful once it's frozen.  I think this summer I might toss this in the ice cream maker and see how it fares as "ice cream".

 Also, since I've pretty much had enough chocolate over the holidays to last until next year, I went with a vanilla ganache.  My vegan creme brulee was more like a blanc mange (vanilla pudding) but at least I kept with the french theme?!  With all of the vanilla and maple layers it's hard to distinguish one layer from the next other than the almond cake and chocolate praline, but they each have their own flavour that blend harmoniously with the other layers.  It takes a bit of time to put this together but it really is a nice dessert to serve if you have guests over.  

You can find the original (non-vegan) recipe posted at Florilege Gourmand.

(Vegan) Caramel Cake With Caramelized "Butter" Frosting

No, that's not a giant donut.  It's this month's Daring Baker's challenge from author Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater and her signature caramel cake.  The challenge was hosted by Dolores, along with Alex,  Jenny, and alternative baker Natalie.  If you have the need to satisfy a sweet craving, this recipe may well cure you of that forever.  It is S-W-E-E-T!  Too sweet for me, actually.  I mean, I'm always trying to cut sugar out of my recipes, and here I am eating it by the pound for this challenge.  I stopped counting the sugar after the first 4 cups of it!  Here's to hoping it doesn't go straight to my hips or butt ;)

I had to make a few substitutions like Earth Balance instead of margerine, ground flax instead of eggs, and almond milk instead of dairy milk.  I've never made caramel syrup before, it wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be.  But I have to admit, I was wearing heavy oven mitts after reading the disclaimer about having a bowl of ice water ready to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin. 

Once it was all said and done, I gathered up some girlfriends and we dug in.  Everyone thought it was fantastic, though we all felt naughty eating it because it has about, oh, a zillion calories.  I'm gonna work those calories off tomorrow at the mall doing some speed shopping...or trying to, anyways. 

Change is good...

...that's what I keep telling myself after I accidentally saved some random blog template instead of backing up my template.  Big difference.  Duh!.  Oh well, like I said, change is good.  Anyways, on to more interesting stuff like food!  I had lots of vanilla cream left over from the eclaires that I had to use up, so I made trifles with strawberries and blueberries.  (I ended up liking this even more than the eclaires!) 

We have a new Thrifty's supermarket in or neighborhood that just opened a couple of weeks ago.  I usually just recycle flyers without giving them a second look, but I accidentally caught a glimpse of some recipes that they printed and I was very pleased to see that one of them was vegetarian!  And not only that but it sounded like it would be really tasty:  Tex-Mex Bean Burgers.  I whipped up a batch of them today and shared them with a friend, and we both agreed that this recipe is a keeper.  The patties might not hold up well on a barbeque as they are quite soft, but they were great in a frying pan on the stove.  We skipped the bun and ate it on a bed of lettuce, topped with some guaca-salsa.