The Language of Cake is Universal

Lucky for my taste buds (but unfortunate for my hips) baking is something I do regularly.

There are a couple of recipes below (brownies and cupcakes!) as well as a video giving a wealth of egg alternatives for baking. I will also bitch about egg replacer, because in my not so humble opinion, it is shit.

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Vegan or not, the language of cake is universal and I'll pretty much find any excuse to bake. It's someone's birthday! Someone's had a baby! I'm awake! By baking delicious vegan cakes for friends, family and colleagues you can open up discussion about how easy it is to be vegan and give everyone's taste buds a party all at the same time.

My current excuse for doing excessive amounts of baking is that I have a promotion and I'm leaving 2 part time roles in the university to take on one full time role. This means I have double the amount of mouths to feed but double the opportunist to impress people with how delicious veganism is.

Yesterday I baked 3 trays of vegan brownies.


Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 170g/6oz self-raising flour
• salt
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 170g/6oz caster sugar
• 5 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
• 230ml/8fl oz sweetened soya milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp baking powder (optional - if you want them a little fluffy rather than stodgy)

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 350F/Gas 4
• Grease and flour a 20cm/8in square cake tin with some of the sunflower oil
• In a bowl sift together the flour, salt, cocoa powder and sugar (and baking powder if using)
• Add the oil, soya milk and vanilla extract, and mix carefully together until completely mixed
• Pour into the tin, and bake for about 25 minutes, until the brownies spring back when gently pressed
• Leave to cool for five minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack

This is the first vegan brownie recipe I've tried and they didn't come out exactly like brownies containing dairy but given how quick they were to make I can't complain. Original recipe can be found here.

Also, a little while ago I made vegan cupcakes for a friends retirement party which I will make again for my leaving do.


Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 ½ cups plain soymilk
• 2 1/8 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 1/8 cups sugar
• ½ cup oil
• 1 ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. coconut extract (optional)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/350º. Spray 22 muffin cups with nonstick spray or line with paper cupcake liners (I like to spray the inside of the muffin papers with nonstick spray to help the cupcakes release). Set aside.

• Place the apple cider vinegar in the bottom of a liquid measuring cup and fill the cup with soymilk to equal 1 ½ cups. Stir well and set aside (the mixture will curdle).

• In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another mixing bowl whisk together the soymilk mixture, oil, vanilla, and (optional) coconut extract. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth using a hand-held mixer.

• Fill each muffin cup with at least ¼ cup of batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

• Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

Thanks to Shmooed Food for the recipe.

I had tried using egg replacer and a normal sponge recipe prior to this but it was a real failure. They barely rose, came out with strange contours all over the top, were hollow on the underside (where they had failed to rise properly) and looked awful in comparison to the second batch I made using the above recipe:


This wasn't the first time I had used egg replacer and despite trying a couple of different techniques it always failed. I won't use it again and I wouldn't recommend it.

This video gives some good egg alternatives for baking (but it does include egg replacer):



See what works for you and share your successes with me so I have another excuse for CAKE!