Vanilla cupcakes!

These are simply perfect and based on this recipe, only Nads turned the icing into raspberry icing as outlined below

http://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/2014/06/08/the-best-vegan-vanilla-cupcakes/ 

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:

• 1¼ Cups All-Purpose Flour
• ½ Cup plus ⅓ Cup White Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoon Salt

Wet Ingredients:

• ⅔ Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk (or other Non-Dairy Milk)
• ⅓ Cup Canola Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Apple Cider or White Vinegar
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Frosting:

• ¼ Cup Non-Hydrogenated Shortening (I used Earth Balance Shortening)
• ¼ Cup Vegan Margarine (I used Earth Balance)
• 1½ Cups Powdered Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 2 Tablespoons Unsweetened Almond Milk (or other Non-Dairy Milk)
• Sprinkles for decoration (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven for 350 F (180C). Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper liners, or lightly grease the pan.
2. In a big bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.
3. In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients together.
4. Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk that up. Whisk until the batter just comes together, don’t over mix it or your cupcakes will be sad cakes.
5. Evenly divide batter among the liners.
6. Bake 18-20 minutes until the tops are slightly golden.
7. To make the frosting, mix all the ingredients together with a hand mixer. Wait until the cupcakes are cooled completely before frosting.
8. Use a piping bag, a butter knife or just a plastic bag with a small hole cut in the corner to frost your cakes.

Vegan Apple Tea Cake mmmmm

Check out this amazing vegan apple tea cake that I made at work today!! It's super easy and super delicious!! We used the recipe from here: http://www.domesblissity.com/2013/04/easy-apple-tea-cake-dairy-egg-free.html

Ingredients

• 1 and half cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 apples, peeled, cored and diced (any kind – I used Royal Gala)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 6 tablespoons oil (I use canola)
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• half teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon extra
• 2 tbs sugar extra
• icing sugar to serve

Method

1. Turn oven to 180 C (375 F). 
2. Grease and/or line a round cake tin. 
3. Put the flour, cinnamon, sugar, and water in a bowl. 
4. Add vanilla, vinegar, oil, baking soda and salt. Mix with beaters until smooth. (Mixture is runny.) 
5. Pour into the tin. 
6. Top with diced apple and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the top of the apple.
7. Bake 40 minutes or until cooked through. 
8. Cool for 10 minutes then take out of tin. 
9. Dust with icing sugar to serve. 
10. Serve warm, with vegan ice cream or custard or a good cup of tea or coffee!

Ultimate Vegan Chocolate Biscuits!!

Want the ultimate decadent chocolate biscuit that's vegan and super quick to make?! Here you go :) 

Ingredients

1/2cup / 100g cacao butter

3/4cup / 150g brown sugar

6 Tbsp aquafaba 

3/4 cup/ 75g cocoa powder

3/4cup / 50g shredded coconut

3/4 cup SR Flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup dark choc chips (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius. Soften cacao butter until almost melted. Whisk in sugar, aquafaba and vanilla until creamed. Sift in and stir rest of ingredients. Use wet teaspoon to place teaspoons of mixture onto grease proof paper. Top with shaved Almonds if desired.

Bake for 8-10 mins. They will be soft when removed from oven so leave to cool. Makes 16. 

This recipe was adapted from one posted on the 'Vegan is the New Black' fb page in August  2015. 

Ratatouille!! STAPLE

This vegan ratatouille bake is such an easy but amazing, not to mention cheap and versatile dish that will feed plenty (serves 6/8). 

I'm usually happy with just this and some bread, maybe some fresh avocado on top, or just some steamed corn and/or green beans (we love Jamie Oliver's Lemony Green Beans recipe!! http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/lemony-green-beans/#gviU8W0YilIm15t2.97 ) on the side. Though we did make this along with a Xmas nut loaf (recipe to come!) and salad as our Xmas lunch spread last year and it was a treat!

We basically cook variations of this A Clean Bake recipe 

http://acleanbake.com/ratatouille/

It's all about the veggies you use so be sure to get good quality ones.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup crushed tomatoes
2. 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3. 1/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
4. 1 teaspoon minced garlic
5. 1 Tablespoon fresh basil, sliced (about 3-4 large leaves), plus more for garnish
6. 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence spice mix (or 1/4 teaspoon each of dried or fresh rosemary, oregano and thyme)
7. 1/4 teaspoon salt
8. 1/4 teaspoon pepper
9. 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
10. 1 medium sweet or red onion, sliced
11. 1 large zucchini, sliced (about 1 1/2 cups slices)
12. 1 large japanese eggplant, sliced (about 3 cups slices)
13. 3 large roma tomatoes, sliced (about 3 cups slices)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Lightly grease a 6"x9" baking dish and set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the crushed tomatoes, oil and vinegar. Stir in the garlic, basil, herbs de Provence, salt, pepper, and chili powder.
3. Pour the tomato mixture into the prepared baking dish and smooth it into an even layer on the bottom of the pan.
4. Stack the veggie slices in alternating patters (e.g.: onion, zucchini, eggplant, tomato; repeat) and place them on their side in the pan, leaning against the edge of the pan. Repeat until you've formed a couple of rows of veggies, filled the pan, and used up all of the veggie slices.
5. Optionally, spray or brush the exposed tops of the veggies with oil to encourage browning in the oven. This is more for appearance, so feel free to skip this step if you want.
6. Bake for about an hour, until the tomato sauce at the bottom is bubbling and the veggies are tender.
7. Garnish with additional chopped fresh basil before serving (optional). Serve hot or cold.

We actually mix the sauce and herbs (step 2) in the Baking dish to reduce dishes and you could add mushroom as part of the veggies quantities too/instead.