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.

This recipe did worry me a little bit as gluten and I aren't the best of friends but it was surprisingly straight forward and had the most impressive results. In fact, I found the whole process extremely therapeutic, using my whole fore arm to stretch it out. I filled my strudel with blackcurrant and raspberries and served it up with some blueberry ice cream. Will do this one again!

(OOOh, just look at all that sticky juice bursting under the pressure of a plait!)

See the layers, can you seen 'um?!

Sunday Apple Galette

I have an affinity with all things French and indeed all forms of baking. So suitably I prepared this apple galette for breakfast. I put a light coating of oil around the pan before pouring in some orange juice. To this I added one apple, diced, covered with mixed spices and half a teaspoon of honey. On a medium heat, I browned these apple in the pan.

I then made a batter from gluten/wheat free flour, sweetened soy milk, pinch of salt, sprinkle of fruit sugar, baking powder to form a thin pancake like consistency. This was poured over the apples until the bubbles became stiff on the visible side. I popped it under the grill to finish the batter off with a nice golden colour.

This was the result (once flipped out):

It's my Granda's birthday tomorrow and I'm in the habit of making cake presents for people. One of his favourite sweets is a Nestle Walnut Whip so I veganised the ingredients and hey presto!

Its vanilla cake with a cavern of vegan whipped cream and walnuts in the centre. Topped with Vegan Chocolate Ganache and of course, more walnuts.

Daring Bakers April Challenge: "Cheese" cake!

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

I decided to go all out on this challenge and make everything from scratch. I ended up with an Orange and Dragonfruit Vegan Cheesecake with Strawberry Lime Sorbet.

I started with the graham crackers and baked these with wheatgerm, gram flour, free from white flour and soy marg. These then got crumbled with some fruit sugar and pineapple huice to make the crust.

My "cheese" part was made from silken tofu, avocado, soy marg, lemon and orange juice, lemon and orange zest, fruit sugar and arrowroot. I whizzed this mixture and set the microwave to low and cooked until thickened. It took me a while to get to this recipe and I tried many other variations before hand including: gram flour cheese cake, tofu and nutritional yeast etc. But found the simplest to be the most effective.

My topping was made from dragon fruit and pure fruit orange spread. I simmered this with some fruit sugar and left the lot to set overnight. My sorbet was a combination of fizzy water, fruit sugar, strawberries, lime and bicarb of soda. Today I ate some. Oh how I smiled.

This is my first official piece of business for my cake making enterprise. I was asked to make a straight forward square cake for an eightieth birthday. The cake is made from vegan sponge and filled with raspberry and pomegranate spread. As far as I know, it was well received!!

Sin Free Ginger Cake

I had a strange hankering for ginger cake today so decided not to fight the urge. After all I was doing a baking shop anyway.

Made with:

1 cup sultanas
2 tbs molasses
1 1/2 tbs grated ginger
2 tsp mixed spice
2 tbs pineapple juice

All heat in a pot and then blitzed into sticky jam.

Add to a bowl of:

1 1/2 cups flour
pinch salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix with:

1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup pineapple juice

Shouldn't be runny, shouldn't be dry.

Bake in a pre-heated over at gas mark 4/180 C for 40 mins or until tooth pick comes out clean.

March Daring Bakers: Spinach Lasagne

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

I made the pasta from this recipe: http://www.vegsource.com/articles/bryanna_pasta_maker.htm



I left my dough to dry for a bit before filling it with some lovely ragu and topping it with homemade bechamel sauce. The spinach made this pasta so green and sooo tasty. It was pretty straightforward too. I also substituted the ordinary flour with a wheat-free, gluten-free version. For the bechamel I used soy milk, yeast extract, gram flour and simmered it all in a pan until it thickened up. I could have eaten this on it's own!