Ultra-Chocolate Birthday Cake

Cake Recipe: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-BEST-chococlate-cake-ever...that-happens-to-be/

Filling Recipe: http://www.easy-cake-ideas.com/chocolate-ganache.html (scroll down to ingredients for the start of the recipe)


It was my birthday the other day and i wanted to make cake so i did :D. This recipe is a little irritating in that it's in american measurements which i'm not used to. But it works and it saves having to find and dust the scales.
Once i'd made my cakes and they were sat in the oven.. (i decided to make it a sandwich cake rather than have it have no filling and risk it not being moist), I looked up vegan cake fillings without much luck and decided to adapt a non-vegan one by using Alpro Soya cream and unsweetened cocoa powder instead of milk chocolate and double dairy cream.
The Ganache needed putting in the freezer and checking every 10 minutes until it got a bit thicker and would be less likely to run off the cakes, but i didn't leave it in the cold long enough and it did so anyway. luckily i'd made enough for the liquid to be at the right level while the entire cake cooled in the fridge overnight.
I forgot to use baking paper so i had some trouble moving the sandwiches on top of one another, until i decided to forgoe perfection (sob) and cut the one layer in half and move it that way.
Tasting it, I felt the cake needed more sugar than the recipe asked for because it left an oddly sour taste in my mouth. But it was perfectly moist and buoyant.


V xx

'Death by Apple Pie'

Recipe: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=19319.0

Made this last Saturday.

I think in future i will use less sugar as it totally ruined the taste of the apples. I also plan on mashing the apples in puree so that the texture is nicer and perhaps using Jus Rol for the top pastry and i didn't really like the sugary topping. My plan is to try making mini-pies the next time i try this. Then i can have them as snacks rather than just as pudding.

V.

(mildly) Spicy Lentil Casserole

Got the original recipe from here but edited it a little as i didn't have certain ingrediants and wasn't feeding so many people.

Edits to the recipe ('cause my pot wasn't that big):

• Used about half the stock it asked for.
• Used about half the veggies it wanted.
• The lentils i used were from a tin (from Asda) and were green.
• I used a large teaspoonful of Korma paste instead of curry powder.
• Didn't crush the garlic, just chopped it.
• Saucepan wasn't particularly big.

Also, when i make it again i will probably use more potatoes as they seem to take better to being fried in the first stage than the carrots and parsnip do. I'm also considering adapting this into a chunky soup for winter.

EDIT: Made this again yesterday (14-8-10), using potatoes, sweet potato and carrots and about half the stock. Worked a lot better and was far less watery.

The bread is just an ordinary seeded baguette from Asda (ew. i'm gonna try making my own when i can). It has Pure Sunflower Butter (which can be found in most supermarkets/healthy food shops) on it and Cheddareese (from Sainsbury's).

Violette xx

Vegan Sweet Potato Pie

Taken from 3/8/10 post on my creative blog, the Rouse.

"Made some Vegan Sweet Potato Pie today. My first proper Vegan dish instead of using frozen nut cutlets or bean burgers. It's really yummy :D. But i left out the corn flour so it didn't set as well as it might've."

Edits to original recipe:

• Didn't add cornflour (wanted to see what it did - it apparently makes it glue together better)
  
• Didn't use Vanilla extract ('cause i didn't have any)
• The 'Vegan pie dish' i used was in fact some Shortcrust Jus Rol Pastry (from Asda - it'll be in the frozen section of most supermarkets and it's a well known product in the UK so it shouldn't be too hard to find/ask for) which is Vegan.
• Used some Alpro Soya cream to finish it. But i'm trying to find a way of avoiding soya altogether (perhaps making my own oat milk cream?) because Soya is a major cause of deforestation.
  

Violette xxx