Cake or death?

By Monica on March 12th, 2008

Every time I bake a cake, I get the Eddie Izzard “Cake or Death” skit stuck in my head.  Given that the recipe for this cake came from of all places, a Marlboro cigarette cookbook, I thought “Cake or Death” seemed an appropriate question to ponder.

Shockingly, this One Pan Cake is accidentally vegan and was still included in a Marlboro cookbook.  Someone might want to alert Phillip Morris so that this doesn’t happen again!   They wouldn’t want word getting out that the Marlboro Man likes vegan food or anything…

Marlboro’s One Pan Cake is a version of the Wacky Cake, relying on vinegar and baking soda for its magic.  However, it uses coffee as the primary liquid, so the end result is a very moist coffee flavored chocolate cake, topped with crunchy turbinado sugar and cinnamon.  As an added bonus, you just throw it all in one 13×9″ pan and mix.  Super easy, really good.  Errr, thanks Marlboro!

One Pan Cake
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2t baking soda
1/2t salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2T cider vinegar
1T vanilla
2 cups cold coffee
1/3 cup turbinado sugar
1/2t cinnamon

Stir together flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, in an ungreased 13×9″ baking pan.
Make 3 wells in the dry mixture; pour the oil in one, the vinegar in another, and the vanilla in another.
Pour in coffee and stir all with a fork until well mixed.  Spread into an even layer.
Combine 1/3 cup turbinado sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle half of this over batter.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.  Sprinkle remaining cinnamon sugar over cake.

Eat it, it’s good fuyu!

By Monica on March 6th, 2008

Be still my beating heart, I have stumbled across a new Asian market. It’s not exactly next door at over an hour away, but it is in the same neighborhood as the Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s I visit when I trek into civilization for fancy-pants vegan items. Aisles and aisles of beautiful, fresh, cheap produce - I spent hours in there!

One of the new food items I came home with was a bag of “Fuyu Persimmions”. At 4 fuyus for a buck, I figured I’d take them home, Google what to do with them, and give it a whirl.

Google said I should make this Fuyu Bundt Cake, recipe courtesy of the California Fuyu Grower’s Association. Rarely is Google wrong. Who knew fuyu could be so delicious? (Ok, lots of people probably.) It was like some sort of gingerbread fruit cake, but better! If you ever find yourself with extra fuyus, definitely try this out.

I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my bitter melon, fuzzy squash, and other exotics. In the meantime, favorites like Sourdough Calzones balance out the new, strange goodies I’ve brought home. (Why I bought a can of “vegetarian mock duck” I can’t tell you…) Anyway, I like this dough recipe because it needs only 5 minutes to rise. For those of us with no little patience, that’s a lot better than the usual hour we have to wait for dinner. It’s an incredibly easy dough to roll, is crispy, and durable enough to make a calzone you can pick up and eat with your hands.

And lastly, I’ve been discovering the wonders of minute tapioca lately. Bryanna turned me onto using it in one of her recipes and this week I branched out into Tapioca Apples. This was a super quick way to use up my aging apples and though it’s excellent all on its own, next time I will serve it over vanilla ice cream.

Fuyu Bundt Cake
(I subbed apple sauce for the eggs, canola oil for the butter, and cashews instead of walnuts. I also had to bake mine for a lot longer than the recipe calls for, so make sure to check yours before pulling it out of the oven.)

Grease and flour a bundt cake pan. Preheat oven to 350.
Blend 2 tsp. baking soda into 3 cups of chopped firm Fuyus. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup soft butter with 1 2/3 cups sugar. Add 2 eggs, 2 tsp. lemon juice, and 2 tsp. vanilla and beat until fluffy. Stir in Fuyu mix.
Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. ground cloves, 1 tsp. cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp. nutmeg. Stir flour into Fuyu mixture just until blended. Add 1 cup chopped walnuts and 3/4 cup raisins.
Pour into prepared bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 55 - 60 minutes or until toothpick tests clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Turn onto rack.

Sourdough Calzone Dough
1 package dry active yeast
1/4 warm water
2T vegetable oil
1t sugar
1t salt
6 ounces soy yogurt
2 1/2 cups flour, whole wheat or all purpose

In large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in sugar, oil, salt, yogurt, and 1 cup of flour. Mix until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make sough easy to handle.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Cover with your bowl and let rest for 5 minutes.
Divide dough into 4 portions, roll out into circles. After filling and sealing your calzone, bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Tapioca Apples
1/3 cup minute Tapioca
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2t cinnamon
1/2t salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 cups sliced apples

Bring water to boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat to low, and add tapioca and sugar, stirring constantly until mixture is clear and thick. Stir in cinnamon, salt, and lemon juice.
Put apples in a shallow baking dish or pie pan. Pour tapioca mixture over the apples and bake in a 350 degree oven 30 minutes.

Gobble-Ups

By Monica on February 19th, 2008

Last week I took out a vegan cookbook that shall remain unnamed and made a batch of cookies from it.  As I scooped the dough onto the baking sheet, I came to the realization that this recipe would yield 6-8 average sized cookies.  This was simply no good - Ray had a terrible mix of panic and disappointment on his face, and my bohemian nature does not allow me to light the oven for a mere six cookies, that sucker has to be packed!

So I opened up the envelope that contains my grandmother’s cookie recipes, knowing that she would never dream of bothering with a recipe yielding 6-8 cookies.  On the contrary, she made enough cookies to feed the entire neighborhood.  I share this sentiment, if I’m going to dirty a lot of dishes and drag out the stand mixer - I’m going to make a lot of whatever it is, especially if I can freeze the leftovers for another day.

With that, I decided on “Gobble-Ups”.  This was one of two platters of cookies the recipe made, success!

The recipe was spattered with food, which we all know is the mark of a real gem, and I had all the ingredients handy.  Veganizing it was as simple as egg replacer, applesauce and canola oil instead of all that butter, and I used steel cut oatmeal.  The end result is a pretty unique cookie, a little crunchy while still being chewy.

I wouldn’t want you to think we ate nothing but cookies all week though, so here are some other goodies:

General Tso’s Tofu from VegWeb.  I am amazed at how I managed to survive 28 years on this planet before trying tofu.  You could not pry it out of my cold dead hands now.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus from Yellow Rose Recipes.  I never get sick of hummus, and this is a really simple, tasty version.

And lastly, I found a brand new ice cream maker at the thrift store for $3. It was still sealed in the original box!  I could not believe my luck, given that my ice cream maker has not been seen for years since loaning it to a my brother, and since Wheeler’s Black Label is apparently not coming to rural Illinois anytime soon.  My first batch was Pineapple Coconut, using the Veganomicon base recipe.  There will be many more batches, oh yes!

Another veggieversary!

By Monica on February 12th, 2008

It seems I’m in good company this month, there are lots of veggieversaries going on! February marks the two year milepost for Ray & I. One of the questions my omni friends always ask is if I miss eating meat - and the answer is always a resounding “NO!” On the contrary, adopting a vegan lifestyle is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made and every day I enjoy it more and more. I can hardly believe two years have flown by!

To celebrate this year, I told Ray I’d whip up any meal he’d like. Without a second of hesitation it was “a German chocolate cake.” And then I huffed and pouted, because I don’t like chocolate, and I don’t like cake. The nerve of him! But I agreed and set out to find the most elaborate, fancy German chocolate cake recipe I could find. It came from a cookbook called The Artful Vegan, but the recipe is posted online so I included it below in case you feel a sudden hankering for chocolate cake now. I present to you, Vegan German Chocolate Cake with Macadamia-Hazelnut Filling and Date Caramel:

After eating far too much cake, we sat down to another feast - Seitan Pot Roast from Vegan Vittles. (Yes, I said ‘after’ we ate the cake, it’s our veggieversary, we can eat cake before dinner if we want!) Have I mentioned how much I love this cookbook? This meal now ranks in my Top 5 favorite vegan meals ever.

And lastly, my present to myself arrived: 25 pounds of Bob’s Red Mill vital wheat gluten! That’s right, I ordered a giant sack of it, plus a big ole’ box of nutritional yeast, some pumpernickel meal and other assorted goodies that I cannot get in the sticks. The only store in my area that carries vital wheat gluten charges $1.79 for 6 ounces and I don’t care for that brand. Ordered direct from Bob, it’s only $1.34 per pound! So I spent all weekend putting it into glass jars for storage, and of course, making seitan!

Vegan German Chocolate Cake with Macadamia-Hazelnut Filling and Date Caramel
Chocolate Cake
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon egg replacer
1 1/2 teaspoons ground espresso beans
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brewed coffee
4 oz. silken tofu
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons coffee extract or coffee liqueur

Macadamia Hazelnut Filling
3/4 cup macadamia nuts, plus more for garnish
3/4 cup blanched hazelnuts
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup rice milk
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, plus more for garnish
3/4 Sucanat (I used turbinado sugar)
pinch of agar powder
1 tablespoon arrowroot
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Date Caramel
4 Deglet Noor dates, or 2 Medjool dates, pitted
1 cup Florida Crystals* (again, I used turbinado sugar)
1 cup water
1/4 cup agave nectar

To make the Chocolate Cake:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Oil a 9 by 13 inch pan, and line it with parchment paper.
Sift the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, egg replacer, and espresso in a bowl.
In a blender, combine coffee, tofu, maple syrup, canola oil, vanilla, vinegar and coffee extract. Blend until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the cocoa mixture and whisk until smooth (some small lumps are OK). Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and a small knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan.

To make the Filling:
Decrease the oven temperature to 325° F. Spread the macadamia nuts and hazelnuts on a baking sheet, and toast in the oven for 8-10 minutes, until light brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Pulse the nuts in a food processor fitted with the metal blade 4 or 5 times, until coarsely ground. Place the nuts, soy milk, rice milk, coconut, Sucanat, agar, arrowroot and vanilla in a saucepan, and whisk until smooth. Heat the mixture over medium heat, whisking continuously, for 7-10 minutes, until very hot but not boiling. Pour into a shallow pan to cool.

To Make the Caramel:
Soak the dates in hot tap water for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place the Florida Crystals and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Decrease heat to low and simmer for 12-15 minutes, until the bubbles in the syrup are thick. Remove the dates from the water and transfer to a blender. Add the agave and Florida Crystal syrup. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend for 1 minute, or until smooth. Let cool to room temperature. (Store at room temperature for up to 1 month. If the caramel crystallizes, cook over low heat until the crystals dissolve.

To Assemble and Serve:
(I used two round 8″ cake pans instead of the original author’s assembly plans, made a 2 tiered cake, cut it in half, and had an impressive 4 layer half-a-cake!)
Using a 2 1/2 inch round biscuit cutter or glass tumbler, cut 12 rounds out of the chocolate cake. Place 1 round on a dessert plate. Using a small ice cream scoop, top with 2 tablespoons of the filling. Repeat, creating 2 more layers of cake and filling. Set a few whole macadamia nuts on top and sprinkle with shredded coconut. Dot the plate with caramel sauce.