I would like to admit something to you: I am addicted to chocolate. If presented with a list of desserts, I will find the most chocolaty one and order it with chocolate syrup on the side. I take my love, nay, my obsession, with chocolate so far that most people are repulsed by the amount of it I can consume in a single dessert cup.
But alas, summer is upon us! The hot and muggy weather usually deters most from indulging in rich chocolaty desserts. With summer barbecues and pool parties, you don't find chocolate cake; you find apple pie or strawberry cobbler, except at MY barbecues and pool parties, at which there IS chocolate cake.
Now, an obsession becomes an addiction when it negatively impacts your life in some way, and before, I could find very few, if any, reasons, why chocolate was an addiction rather than a simple obsession for me. But then it hit me (and I'm going to throw some business school jargon your way, so be ready): the way my chocolate obsession was negatively impacting my life was because of the opportunity cost of giving up any other dessert that was devoid of chocolate!
I was missing out on lemon custard! I was missing out on apple pie! I was missing out on cheesecake! I was missing out on poached pears! And I was definitely missing out on cobbler! I couldn't let this happen anymore! I realized that chocolate was limiting my palate, and that I had to take a stand. This cobbler, my friends, is one step towards a recovery, and a tasty step at that! So bring on summer with its fruit-based desserts. I'm ready!
This cobbler is really versatile, too. Almost any fruit can be added! Some suggestions: strawberry rhubarb, blackberry nectarine, raspberry blackberry, or apple cherry.Ingredients:
4 cups fruit (I used 2 cups blueberries and 2 cups loquats)
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp corn starch
1 1/2 cup flour
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 1/2 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup vegan butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
In a large sauce pan, heat the fruit over medium heat until it starts to release its juices (about 5 minutes). You can crush some of it with a wooden spoon while it's cooking, if you want. Meanwhile, combine sugar and corn starch in a bowl and then pour over fruit. Bring to a boil and let boil for about two minutes. Then remove from heat.
In a food processor, process oats until they form a coarse meal. Pour into a large bowl and set aside.
Again in the food processor, process flour, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and baking soda until mixed together. Then add vegan butter cut into small chunks, and process until the butter chunks are about pea-sized. Add this to the oat meal.
Add the brown sugar and vanilla extract and mix with a wooden spoon until all is well combined. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the mixture and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 9x13 pan, line with parchment paper, and grease the parchment paper.
Press the oat and flour mixture (minus the 1 1/2 cups) evenly into the pan to create a base layer. Then spoon fruit mixture evenly over the top. Sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups oat and flour mixture over the top of the fruit mixture.
Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until the top starts to brown and the fruit is bubbly around the edges.
I think a few of you may remember my failed vegan brownies earlier this year. They were a mess, more like chocolate banana soup than anything else. Well, I've come back from that miserable flop as a champion of vegan brownies, no longer sheepishly slinking into excuses about how difficult it is to make them fudgy and dense, but boastfully claiming to have made top-tier brownies that would make any anti-vegan confection connosieur swoon with delight upon tasting a single morsel. Oh yes, these are very good brownies, indeed. They are even better served over this incredibly smooth and creamy coconut milk ice cream.
Recipe below!
Coconut Milk Ice Cream
Ingredients:
2 15-oz cans coconut milk (not lite)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Mix together coconut milk, sugar and vanilla extract. Cover and refrigerate overnight, then make according to your ice cream machine's instructions.
Brownies
Ingredients:
1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup water
1 pound tofu
1 cup chocolate chips
1 stick vegan butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 cup chopped walnuts
coarse sea salt for sprinkling
Directions:
In a blender, blend 1/3 cup flour, water, and tofu until smooth. Pour into a large pan and set aside.
In a medium pan, melt together chocolate chips and vegan butter over medium low heat, stirring almost constantly to keep the chocolate from burning. Add the sugar and vanilla extract, and stir until everything has melted together.
Meanwhile, heat the tofu mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once it starts to bubble, turn the heat off and stir in the chocolate mixture.
In a large bowl, sift together cocoa powder, flour, salt and baking soda. Add the tofu and chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and mix together. Stir in walnuts.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spread mixture onto a well greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a fork inserted into the middle of the pan comes out cleanly.
Serve with coconut ice cream!
I've been meaning to make vegan cinnamon rolls for a long time, and I finally got around to it when I was invited to a brunch potluck. Now, this being a potluck and me having never made cinnamon rolls of any kind before, I used someone else's recipe just to get a feel for what I was doing. They turned out really amazingly (partly because there's almost a full pound of vegan butter in these!!!) but I don't think I would need to use any other recipe for cinnamon rolls. These were decadent and just the right texture. As a matter of fact, I'm all cinnamon rolled out from these because I ended up eating almost all of them! When I showed up at the potluck, I was the only one there because I had gotten the date wrong. I left a few with the future host, then hurried away, embarrassed at my faux pas, only to be left with almost an entire pan full of cinnamon rolls to split between me and my boyfriend!
We did our best to eat them before they went stale, but one tragically ended up in the trash. I don't think I'll be wanting cinnamon rolls again for a long time!
The picture above is what they look like after letting them sit in the fridge overnight for their second rise. The recipe I used can be found at Vegan Yum Yum, which is a fantastic recipe blog!
I made these on a whim the other day because I had some strawberries in the fridge that were threatening to go bad at any moment, and I know that strawberries are all too serious when they start with that kind of talk. I just so happened to have some empanada discs in the freezer and some cream cheese laying around. Not exactly the traditional guava and cheese empanada, but close enough and just as delicious!If you've never made empanadas before, I'll teach you the process. It's not too hard, and although it's a little time consuming, the end product is worth it!
First you roll out your dough and cut out 4 to 5 inch circles out of it.
Then you place your filling onto the lower hemisphere of the circle.
Then dip your finger in a cup of water and get the edges of the dough wet on the bottom hemisphere. Not soaking wet, but just enough to feel damp. This will help the dough glue itself together. Then fold the top hemisphere over the bottom half, like above.
Using a fork, press the edges down so you form a seal.
And there you have it! Doughy pockets filled with fruit, all waiting in a row to be baked or fried.
I fried mine because I like to live on the edge. Baking them is a healthier alternative. Recipe below!
Ingredients:
For the dough:
1 1/2 cup flour
pinch of salt
3/4 stick veggie shortening, cold, cut into tiny pieces
ice water
For the filling:
1 pint strawberries, cut into small pieces
4 oz. vegan cream cheese
Directions:
In a food processor, add flour and salt. Pulse a few times to mix well. Add the shortening and pulse until the clumps of shortening are pea-sized (about 3 to 4 pulses should do it). Add water by the Tablespoon-full until dough JUST comes together.
Form dough into a ball, flatten with heel of hand, then wrap in wax paper and chill for about 30 minutes.
While it's chilling, prepare the filling. Mix vegan cream cheese with strawberries in a bowl using a wooden spoon. Refrigerate until needed.
Then roll the dough out in a 1/4 inch thick layer, and cut out 4 to 5-inch diameter circles from the dough. Then fill and seal the dough discs.
If frying, heat oil over medium heat, then gently lower the empanada in with a metal spatula. Be careful not to splash the oil onto you! Turn over once to let the other side cook. Remove when it turns golden brown. Let rest on a towel to absorb the extra oil.
If baking, spray baking sheet with spray oil, and coat tops of empanadas with some melted vegan butter, and bake at 350 until golden brown.
Enjoy immediately!
I think the best part about filling orders that require an odd amount of end product means you have leftover batter with which to make stuff for yourself! This was the case with these cupcakes. I needed to make 18 mini cupcakes, and ended up with enough batter left over to make six normal sized cupcakes! I could have just cut the recipe in half, but I was anxious to try this flavor out for myself. I could not have made a better choice. These are so delicious! The cake has a spicy, almost gingerbread taste and the icing has a light citrus flavor.
Recipe below!
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp clove
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 cup vegan butter
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp star anise extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup almond milk
1/2 cup vegan butter
1 pound confectioners sugar
Zest from one orange
1 Tbsp almond milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, sift dry ingredients together.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add apple cider vinegar and extracts and mix until combined. Add flour mixture and almond milk and stir until a smooth batter is formed.
Pour into well greased muffin tins. Bake approximately 22 minutes, or until fork inserted in middle of each cupcake comes out cleanly.
Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Then transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely.
Meanwhile, beat butter, powdered sugar and almond milk until smooth frosting forms. Stir in orange zest. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.
Enjoy!
I was recently invited to a gluten-free potluck to celebrate a friend's birthday. Now, I've expressed my trepidation when it comes to gluten-free baking before, and since I'm known amongst my friends as a fantastic baker, the pressure was really on (probably just inside my own head)! And while I do like challenges, I also had been wanting to try a gluten-free recipe from Cafe Fernando for such a long time, so I took the easy way out and made this cake.
Mine did not turn out nearly as well as his did, though! I was in a rush to get this done in time for the potluck, so instead of letting it cool all the way, I just popped it in the freezer for about 10 minutes and then tried to get it out of the pan. Well, it wasn't cool enough and just came apart on the cooling rack, a ruin of crumbs and a prime indicator of my procrastination.
I was furious with myself! How could I have waited until the very last minute to start making this cake, especially when I didn't have much experience making gluten-free things, and trying a recipe for the first time! But my ingenuity almost completely offsets my procrastination, and I quickly threw the crumbs into a souffle dish, pressed them down so they would stick together, and poured the chocolate lacquer over the top of this, then let it firm up in the freezer for about 20 minutes. This way no one could tell it looked miserable, but still tasted just as delicious!
And I also did not get a picture of my final cake, because I apparently am just the worst food blogger alive! Haha! Recipe can be found at the link above.
I must admit, this cake doesn't even exist anymore. It was made and eaten last weekend, but I'm just now getting to the post! Laziness, I know.
This sloppily frosted, slightly off kilter cake has a very bright surprise inside of it. You see, I made this for my boyfriend's birthday, and he requested a rainbow cake. And while there's rainbow sprinkles on top, the real rainbow feature is hidden until you cut the first slice. Take a look:
Yeah! Legit six-layer rainbow cake! Unfortunately, the weight of the layers ended up squishing down the bottom layers, and each day it sat on the cake stand, the purple, blue, and green layers would get a little flatter. Still delicious though! I flavored some of the layers with fruit zest to match their colors (such as lemon zest for the yellow, lime zest for the green, etc.) but some of the layers just had a vanilla flavor. And while I'm usually against using food dyes, I made an exception this time.
Just look at how happy he is!
And this cake is not just for a grown man's birthday cake! It would also be great for a kids' party or an LGBTQ event! Recipe below.
Ingredients:
For each layer of cake:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegan butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp plus 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or any other extract)
1/2 cup almond milk
various zests and/or flavorings
various dyes
For the frosting:
3 sticks vegan butter
2 pounds confectioner's sugar
2 Tbsp almond milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Sift dry ingredients together in a small bowl.
In a medium sized bowl, mix sugar and butter until smooth. Add apple cider vinegar and vanilla. Stir until smooth.
Add flour mixture and almond milk, and stir until combined. Add any zests/flavorings/dyes. Pour into a well greased 8-inch cake pan and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Let cool in the cake pan for about 15 minutes. Then flip over and let the cake fall out of the pan onto a cooling rack. If this doesn't happen easily, smack the bottom of the pan while it's upside down with the heel of your hand a few times. If the cake still doesn't come out, return it to its upright position and let it cool a little longer. Chances are it just needs to solidify a little more before it will come out.
Repeat all of these steps until you get the right number of layers for your desired cake.
To make the frosting, beat together butter, almond milk and powdered sugar until it takes on a frosting-like consistency.
Once all the layers of cake have cooled, place the first one onto a cake stand or serving platter. Frost the top of this layer, then stack another cake layer on top. Continue frosting and stacking until all your layers are assembled. Then frost the sides of the cake, adorn with sprinkles, and then enjoy!
