Vegan Vanilla Slice- Vegan Mofo Day 27

Vanilla Slice is a bit of an Australian classic, although according to Wikipedia it's a version of french dessert called Mille-feuille. It's one of those desserts that you would think would be difficult to veganise but as Cindy has shown it's possible. Toby insisted that he make it again for his colleagues and of course he set aside a small amount for us too. Yes you read correctly, Toby made dessert, not me!  It was just as delicious as Cindy's and his omni colleagues loved it too. He didn't have the same issue with the custard initially, because he sifted the cornflour and custard powder prior to heating it. I'm so glad that I have gotten to eat this 3 times while eating gluten. I wonder if a gluten free version is possible with g/f puff pastry and g/f custard powder.


Vegan Vanilla Slice -original recipe from IVU, a Melbourne woman actually posted it.

• 2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 3/4 cup fine cornflour
• 1/2 cup custard powder
• 1 litre fortified soymilk
• 60g milk-free margarine
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Bake pastry sheets at 200C for about six minutes or till lightly browned.
When cool, flatten sheets with hands and set aside. 2. Combine sugar, cornflour, custard powder in saucepan and gradually stir in milk, stir until smooth. 
3. Add margarine, stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens.(It will be very very thick, almost like paste)

4. Remove from heat and stir in essence.
5. Place one sheet of pastry in 23cm slab tin (we used a 20cm square tin which was the perfect size).

6. Pour custard over pastry sheet in slab tin.

Even out and place other pastry sheet on top.
Press down firmly.
Refrigerate until cool.



Icing

• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1 tsp milk-free margarine
• pulp from one passion fruit (We copied Cindy and used 3)
• 1 tsp water

Mix ingredients to a workable paste.

Spread onto slices with a knife dipped in hot water.
 

 

Return to fridge to set before cutting. Done!

Vanilla Slice is a bit of an Australian classic, although according to Wikipedia it's a version of french dessert called Mille-feuille. It's one of those desserts that you would think would be difficult to veganise but as Cindy has shown it's possible. Toby insisted that he make it again for his colleagues and of course he set aside a small amount for us too. Yes you read correctly, Toby made dessert, not me!  It was just as delicious as Cindy's and his omni colleagues loved it too. He didn't have the same issue with the custard initially, because he sifted the cornflour and custard powder prior to heating it. I'm so glad that I have gotten to eat this 3 times while eating gluten. I wonder if a gluten free version is possible with g/f puff pastry and g/f custard powder.


Vegan Vanilla Slice -original recipe from IVU, a Melbourne woman actually posted it.

• 2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 3/4 cup fine cornflour
• 1/2 cup custard powder
• 1 litre fortified soymilk
• 60g milk-free margarine
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Bake pastry sheets at 200C for about six minutes or till lightly browned.
When cool, flatten sheets with hands and set aside. 2. Combine sugar, cornflour, custard powder in saucepan and gradually stir in milk, stir until smooth. 
3. Add margarine, stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens.(It will be very very thick, almost like paste)

4. Remove from heat and stir in essence.
5. Place one sheet of pastry in 23cm slab tin (we used a 20cm square tin which was the perfect size).

6. Pour custard over pastry sheet in slab tin.

Even out and place other pastry sheet on top.
Press down firmly.
Refrigerate until cool.



Icing

• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1 tsp milk-free margarine
• pulp from one passion fruit (We copied Cindy and used 3)
• 1 tsp water

Mix ingredients to a workable paste.

Spread onto slices with a knife dipped in hot water.
 

 

Return to fridge to set before cutting. Done!

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Cupcakes for Cat/Dog Lovers

Hey! This is Toby, previously known as Mr T. I didn't really blog because I thought you can read about my life via Kristy's blog anyway.

Last Saturday we had two birthday drinks to attend: Liz's and Lisa's.

We made Cat cupcakes for Liz, who has a cat called Bella, using fluffy butter cream icing for the face, chopped Oreo as ears, quartered jellybeans as eyes, chocolate chips as noses and cut up licorice as whiskers. We also made some of them for our friends Craig and Bec, who have just moved in together, with two cats.

Using the same Vegan Oreo Cupcakes as the base, we also made Dog cupcakes for Dog lover Lisa.

The dog version are made with a Chocolate icing face, Oreo ears, Skittles eyes, jellybean noses and Licorice mouth. :-)

Lisa had her birthday drink at Bar Etiquette. The small but cozy bar has a carefully selected beer list including the open fermented White Rabbit Dark Ale.

Hey! This is Toby, previously known as Mr T. I didn't really blog because I thought you can read about my life via Kristy's blog anyway.

Last Saturday we had two birthday drinks to attend: Liz's and Lisa's.

We made Cat cupcakes for Liz, who has a cat called Bella, using fluffy butter cream icing for the face, chopped Oreo as ears, quartered jellybeans as eyes, chocolate chips as noses and cut up licorice as whiskers. We also made some of them for our friends Craig and Bec, who have just moved in together, with two cats.

Using the same Vegan Oreo Cupcakes as the base, we also made Dog cupcakes for Dog lover Lisa.

The dog version are made with a Chocolate icing face, Oreo ears, Skittles eyes, jellybean noses and Licorice mouth. :-)

Lisa had her birthday drink at Bar Etiquette. The small but cozy bar has a carefully selected beer list including the open fermented White Rabbit Dark Ale.

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Pancake weekend

A couple of weekends ago I had to knuckle down and spend a weekend working on my thesis, to try to make me feel better on sat morning I made these 5 minute pancakes. I didn't have regular soy milk but had choc and then made Vegan Dad's easy blueberry sauce.

The pancakes were super easy, slightly sweet, and yummy although I probably wouldn't recommend using choc soy milk. The sauce was delicious and well kind of healthy too.



The next morning, I made them again with regular soy milk, and served them lemon and icing sugar. Mr T said that he had never had them with lemon and sugar before. I think it is my favourite way to eat them and you can also eat them with your hands when there is no sauce or sticky maple syrup.


I will be making this quick pancake recipe again and again and again.


5 Minute Pancakes

• 1 cup flour
  
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup soymilk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  

1. Set out all your ingredients.
2. Set a stove element with a pan to medium heat.
3. Combine the 4 dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in a bowl.
4. Add the soy milk and vegetable oil to your mixture.
5. Mix until smooth.
6. Now the pan should be ready for your batter, so spoon one pancakes' worth of the mixture into the pan.
7. Flip [carefully] when you see bubbles in the middle of the pancake, or if the edges are looking stiffened.

A couple of weekends ago I had to knuckle down and spend a weekend working on my thesis, to try to make me feel better on sat morning I made these 5 minute pancakes. I didn't have regular soy milk but had choc and then made Vegan Dad's easy blueberry sauce.

The pancakes were super easy, slightly sweet, and yummy although I probably wouldn't recommend using choc soy milk. The sauce was delicious and well kind of healthy too.



The next morning, I made them again with regular soy milk, and served them lemon and icing sugar. Mr T said that he had never had them with lemon and sugar before. I think it is my favourite way to eat them and you can also eat them with your hands when there is no sauce or sticky maple syrup.


I will be making this quick pancake recipe again and again and again.


5 Minute Pancakes

• 1 cup flour
  
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup soymilk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  

1. Set out all your ingredients.
2. Set a stove element with a pan to medium heat.
3. Combine the 4 dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in a bowl.
4. Add the soy milk and vegetable oil to your mixture.
5. Mix until smooth.
6. Now the pan should be ready for your batter, so spoon one pancakes' worth of the mixture into the pan.
7. Flip [carefully] when you see bubbles in the middle of the pancake, or if the edges are looking stiffened.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Marshmallow mud cake

The night before the scrabble party there was another party, Lexi's birthday/Tara's farewell potluck party. A couple of weeks before I heard Lexi say that you wants to make the marshmallow mud cake from my sweet vegan but she can't because we can't get ricemellow cream here. So I decided to try to replicate it with the marshmallow making kit.

The kit had instructions for making marshmallow 'cream' or fluff. So I did that and was left with a quite firm jelly like texture, I followed the recipe in the book but added more 'cream' that it asked for and it come out great, both texture wise and taste wise. Although I later decided that maybe it wasn't marshmallowy enough so decided to use the 'cream' to make letters which we put on the cake. We put x's on it because Lexi is straight edge. And then used black writing icing to make a shadow around the letters.

While I was impressed with the icing, the cake itself was tiny. It barely rised in the oven and was so flat. I wonder if maybe the mixture should have been put into a 8 inch pan instead of 9 inch pan like it asked for, or if I did something wrong.

The night before the scrabble party there was another party, Lexi's birthday/Tara's farewell potluck party. A couple of weeks before I heard Lexi say that you wants to make the marshmallow mud cake from my sweet vegan but she can't because we can't get ricemellow cream here. So I decided to try to replicate it with the marshmallow making kit.

The kit had instructions for making marshmallow 'cream' or fluff. So I did that and was left with a quite firm jelly like texture, I followed the recipe in the book but added more 'cream' that it asked for and it come out great, both texture wise and taste wise. Although I later decided that maybe it wasn't marshmallowy enough so decided to use the 'cream' to make letters which we put on the cake. We put x's on it because Lexi is straight edge. And then used black writing icing to make a shadow around the letters.

While I was impressed with the icing, the cake itself was tiny. It barely rised in the oven and was so flat. I wonder if maybe the mixture should have been put into a 8 inch pan instead of 9 inch pan like it asked for, or if I did something wrong.

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Scrabble Cake

My friend Bec celebrated her birthday with a scrabble party and her boyfriend thought of making a scrabble cake. So I jumped at the challenge, I've never really decorated a themed cake before. It took us ages and I struggled a little with lots of small things like getting a proper red colour but am really pleased with the finished look. Her surname is hale in case you were wondering.

So how did I do it? I got white icing ruled off squares, and then used paint brushes to paint on food dye on to the squares and made tiles and a little holder out of the icing and stuck them on with a little bit of water. It sounds easier that it actually was though, well for the novice me. The dye kept leaking on to other squares, and even though I made a little diagram on which colours to paint where I stuffed up and I kept smudging the writing.

We made the scrabble board first and then made the cake on the day. We made the easy vegan choc cake and the chocolate frosting from vegweb. I wasn't overally impressed with either but that could just be our errors like overcooking the cake. The cake was moist but didn't seem sweet or chocolately enough and the icing was unlike any that I made before because it was cooked and the texture was a little like pudding. In the middle, we put mashmallow icing which I will discuss in more detail next.


The funny thing was Bec's sister turned up with a scrabble cake too.

My friend Bec celebrated her birthday with a scrabble party and her boyfriend thought of making a scrabble cake. So I jumped at the challenge, I've never really decorated a themed cake before. It took us ages and I struggled a little with lots of small things like getting a proper red colour but am really pleased with the finished look. Her surname is hale in case you were wondering.

So how did I do it? I got white icing ruled off squares, and then used paint brushes to paint on food dye on to the squares and made tiles and a little holder out of the icing and stuck them on with a little bit of water. It sounds easier that it actually was though, well for the novice me. The dye kept leaking on to other squares, and even though I made a little diagram on which colours to paint where I stuffed up and I kept smudging the writing.

We made the scrabble board first and then made the cake on the day. We made the easy vegan choc cake and the chocolate frosting from vegweb. I wasn't overally impressed with either but that could just be our errors like overcooking the cake. The cake was moist but didn't seem sweet or chocolately enough and the icing was unlike any that I made before because it was cooked and the texture was a little like pudding. In the middle, we put mashmallow icing which I will discuss in more detail next.


The funny thing was Bec's sister turned up with a scrabble cake too.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad