Any vegan biscuit or cake recipes?

23rdspiral

thanks!! i've a vegan friend so i've tried a few vegan cakes, a lot have a LOT of oil in them, which i dont like too much sometimes.

i found a recipie in a hippy cookbook without eggs and not much oil, though it did have vinegar (!). i've made it a few times without complaint. i'll see if i can dig it up if anyone's interested...

Silaqui

Purpleivy, I'm not sure if it will freeze as as I've never frozen ordinary sponge before either. If it helps, I can tell you that the consistency (when cooked) is very light and 'fluffy' - slightly more so than ordinary sponge.

I was surprised by the amount of oil but it didn't taste greasy like I thought it might. I think you could probably get away with using a bit less, it might be worth experimenting with.

You can't taste the orange juice very much either, I did think it would be interesting to use ALL orange instead of half and half with water, then maybe do it as fairy cakes with a lemon icing...

x

oystercatcher

isualive wrote: »

You have to click on the word this. It is blue & takes you straight the recipe!

Sorry weird laptop screen didn't show the blue up!

I feel stupid now

purpleivy

Silaqui wrote: »

Purpleivy, I'm not sure if it will freeze as as I've never frozen ordinary sponge before either. If it helps, I can tell you that the consistency (when cooked) is very light and 'fluffy' - slightly more so than ordinary sponge.

I was surprised by the amount of oil but it didn't taste greasy like I thought it might. I think you could probably get away with using a bit less, it might be worth experimenting with.

You can't taste the orange juice very much either, I did think it would be interesting to use ALL orange instead of half and half with water, then maybe do it as fairy cakes with a lemon icing...

x

Normal sponge freezes fine, but I tend to do icing afterwards, as you can get condensation on it which sometimes spoils the look. I've done cakes with oil instead of butter before, but I don't think it leaves the egg out.

Justamum

purpleivy wrote: »

There's someone in the kids morris side who always asks what has egg in it. I'll be able to do this for her. do you suppose the 'sponge' bit will freeze without the filling? that would be really handy.

It should freeze fine. It's pretty identical to the vegan cakes I usually make, and they freeze perfectly. The only difference I can see is that I only use 1/2 a cup of oil rather than a whole cup, and 1/2 cup orange juice and 1/2 cup soya milk or water. I usually make them as either small buns, or a tray bake which I cut into portions before freezing. You can replace some of the flour with cocoa powder for a chocolate cake.

The reason for the orange juice is because it reacts with the bicarb (or baking powder I would use) which creates carbon dioxide and makes it rise. Vinegar has the same effect.

Silaqui

Justamum, with those measurements for the liquid do you still use the same amounts of flour/sugar? Thanks for the info though - I was wondering about the significance of the orange juice!

Can you tell I was really impressed with it lol, I'm not even vegan!
x

Penelope_Penguin

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the existing vegan cakes thread to keep recipes together

Penny. x

Justamum

Silaqui wrote: »

Justamum, with those measurements for the liquid do you still use the same amounts of flour/sugar? Thanks for the info though - I was wondering about the significance of the orange juice!

Can you tell I was really impressed with it lol, I'm not even vegan!
x

I use a total of 1 1/2 cups of liquid. To be honest I'm very flexible with it - sometimes I use a bit less oil and add extra milk/water. Most of the time I don't have orange juice in, so will use a couple of tablespoons of vinegar (even brown malt vinegar or balsamic will do) and make up the rest of the liquid with milk or water. It also often depends on the flour - sometimes I will add more liquid if it's not 'battery' enough. I know that cake baking is supposed to be almost a science where you can't mess with the measurements, but I do and don't have any problems.

I usually make up the cake recipe as chocolate buns, and throw in a bag of choc chips. I've even added a couple of mashed bananas to the basic sponge mix to make a banana cake!

paulwf

Although I don't normally bother with cookbooks these days Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World is well worth buying, and every vegan I know that has also got the book swears by it.

Large vegan cakes sometimes don't rise as well as dairy based cakes, with smaller cakes this isn't an issue. Vegan cakes can also sometimes dry out very quickly, this generally isn't a problem with cupcakes as the icing keeps them tasting moist.

The basic cupcake recipe in the book is very easy to make and although I haven't used dairy for a few years I don't think the vegan versions are in any way lacking anything. Actually they seem to come out better and friends that make dairy based cakes are envious!

Once you've got the basic recipe mastered it is very easy to vary so you can make endless batches and not get bored...add some chocolate powder or mint extract or try a different frosting or just different sprinkles and decorations.

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar is due out by the same author in time for Christmas. It should work in a similar way...small biscuits will work better than creating a large slab of something and once you've mastered a couple of recipes it should be easy to vary the flavour or decorations. I guess I'll find out once santa has visited