Incredible Vegan Carrot Cake

Dairy-free/Egg-free

Our good friend and neighbor Darcie shared this recipe with us. She made it for her family at Easter; we're about to make it for one of our hubby's birthday. (Before you go thinking we've got more than one husband, remember that "we" isn't the royal "We" - there are two of us, and we've each got one husband. Still with us?) 

We confess that we haven't tried it, but she said it was really, really good, and Darcie has great taste, so for now, we're going to take her word for it. Whether it totally flops or is a huge hit at the birthday party, we'll update this post, so check back with us. Darcie found the recipe at VegWeb online, submitted by someone named Tate, where it earned rave reviews. And we're guessing our results will be equally rave-worthy.

  

We saw Darcie's cake, which she embellished with the cutest marzipan carrots (she used parsely for the carrot tops - how cute is that?) but of course we can't do that because marzipan is definitively NOT nut-free. If you have a nut-free marzipan recipe, send it along to allergyfoodies(at)gmail(dot)com.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or allspice
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 3/4 cup light brown cane sugar
  
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
  
• 3 eggs worth of Ener-G egg replacer
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 1 cup vegetable oil
  
• 2 cups finely grated carrots
  
• 1 can (about 14 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained
  
• 1 cup shredded coconut (if you have a coconut allergy, or aren't sure if you have a coconut allergy, omit this ingredient)
  
• raisins optional 
  

Steps

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  
• In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, spice, baking powder, and salt.
  
• In a large bowl, mix sugar and egg replacer until creamy (works best with an electric mixer), next add vanilla, then add vegetable oil.
  
• Mix the wet and dry ingredients together and add the carrots, pineapple and coconut, if using.
  
• Depending on whether you prefer a thicker or thinner carrot cake, grease a 9 x 9 inch or 9 x 13 inch pan. Smooth the batter into the pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting with faux cream cheese frosting.
  

Faux Cream Cheese frosting

 

Ingredients

• 1 package vegan cream cheese (Darcie used Tofutti)
  
• 1/3 cup vegan soy margarine, softened (Darcie used Earth Balance)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 2 cups confectioner's sugar
  

Steps

• With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and margarine. Next add the vanilla, then the confectioner's sugar.

4/26/2008 Update:

As promised, we made this cake for the birthday party, and it was a huge success. We baked our cake in a stoneware pan, so it took the full time to bake, but turned up moist and delicious. If you make this cake in a metal or glass pan, check the time a little early. With all of the fruit in there (we deleted the coconut, skipped the raisins and upped the pineapple to the 20 ounce can we had on hand) you probably couldn't go wrong even if you do forget about it in the oven and overbake it a bit, but let's not even go there.

One of the biggest bonuses was that the kids ate it, and since they're the ones we're baking for, that is a very good thing. Doesn't it just stink when you put all of this huge effort in and they act like they could take it or leave it? Argh. Well, not in this case. We ate it all before we could take any pictures. When we bake it up again, as we are sure to do, we'll have to snap a few pics then.

Also, in reading the recipe we thought the frosting was going to be WAAAAAY (yes, that's five As) too sweet with two cups of sugar. We were wrong. It needed it. And it was good.

Finally, have a look at this recipe's first comment - the one from Speedbump Kitchen. Not only do we love her site (and if you also love her site please let her know) but she's got a link to a recipe for marshmallow fondant, so you, too, could actually embellish your cake with little carrots like true bakeries, and our friend Darcie, do.   

Chocolicious Mocha Muffins

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Dear Diary,

I know it's been a long time since my last entry, but SOO much has been happening! Today I wore my pink capris with the white vee-neck sweater, and yesterday I got a note from that cute boy in my biology class - oh wait. Wrong blog. 

Just kidding.  It has been a while since we last posted any recipes, but to be truthful we're trying to lay off the baked goods for a while. Swimsuit season is fast approaching and we've been spending loads o time on the treadmill trying to get as swimsuit ready as possible. Diets be damned, we're back and ready to rock you with these delish chocolate muffins.

The original recipe came from theppk.com, and later became a recipe in Isa's book Vegan with a Vengance. (Don't you love how we say "Isa," without her last name, like we she's one of our pals?)

The original recipe calls for instant coffee, and we're posting it as written.  However, we've made a few modifications to it to suit our taste (and also because we were out of an ingredient or two) and the results were great. 

Both times we've made these, we've omitted the instant coffee. One, we're not crazy about coffee flavored items, unless it is actually coffee. And then, we're pretty much purists. Sweetener and creamer (soy creamer if necessary) are the only things that should alter the taste of a coffee bean. But, we digress. Two, our kids would almost certainly not eat anything mocha flavored because, well, they're kids, and mocha tends to be a grown-up flavor.

Okay, so the other thing we've done to change it up is use a couple of extra tablespoons of soy milk when we didn't have soy yogurt on hand. Both with and without the soy yogurt, the results were yummy.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 3/4 cups sugar
  
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
  
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee (remember, we left this out)
  
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 cup soy milk (see above - we used a bit extra when we didn't have soy yogurt)
  
• 2 tablespoons soy yogurt
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (if your soy milk is vanilla flavored, like ours, you could probably leave this out if you had to/wanted to)
  
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (dairy-free/egg-free/nut-free, of course - check your brand's label for details)
  

Steps

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffins tins with paper liners.
  
• In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients, except the chocolate chips.
  
• In a separate bowl, whisk the wet ingredients until they come together.
  
• Add the wet to the dry and combine until the flour mixture is moistened, then fold in the chocolate chips.
  
• Fill the muffin tins almost to the top. 
  
• Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  

Happy Hamentaschen

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Why are the hamentaschen so happy, you may be asking? Or you may be asking: what exactly is a hamentaschen? In reverse order, a hamentaschen is a triangle-shaped cookie with an exposed fruit filling, traditionally eaten during the Jewish holiday Purim - think Mardi Gras without the parades, liquor, beads, or boobs. 

Now to the first question: the reason that these hamentaschen are happy is because they are dairy-free, egg-free and nut-free! Can you say "hurray"?! We can't hear you! Now, you, in the back row! Alright! All together now!

These cookies totally rock - no kidding! If you like yours a little crisper, roll them just a bit thinner than 1/4", and if you want them a little crumblier (crumblier?) stick with rolling them out to the recommended thickness.  Someone we know and love called the crisper ones "cookietashen," but what does he know? A beloved member of the older generation (read: our Mom) thought the crisper ones were better, and everybody knows Mom knows best. The dough ingredients are from the Fig Not-Ins cookies, in the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, but the method is ours.

Dough Ingredients

• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
  
• 1/4 cup shortening
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  
• 1/4 cup soy milk
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or to taste, depending on whether or not your soy milk is vanilla flavored like ours is)
  
• 2 cups flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  

Filling Ingredients

• Jam or spreadable fruit of your choice. Try to find one that seems pretty thick but won't lose too much moisture when baked. Traditional fillings are poppy seed, prune, apricot, but we've also seen strawberry and blackberry, so knock yourself out. You could probably also try apple (or apple pie filling - nice!) with great success. We think.
  

Steps

• In a mixing bowl, cream together the margarine, shortening, and sugar. 
  
• Add the cornstarch and mix well. 
  
• Beat in the soy milk and vanilla. 
  
• Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix well. 
  
• Refrigerate the dough, covered, until it's chilled but still malleable enough to be rolled out, probably around an hour in the refrigerator.
  
• Roll the dough to about 1/4-inch thickness, maybe just a little less.
  
• Using a round cookie cutter (with a decorative edge, if you have one) with about a 3-inch diameter, cut circles out of the dough. 
  
• Put a small dollop (around a teaspoon) of fruit in the center of the circle, then the tricky part: you want your circle to become a triangle. So, mentally divide the circle into three equal pieces.  Create a pinch in the dough (creating one corner of the triangle) at the "top", repeat it to create a second corner, and do it once more for a third corner. Note: You don't want to mangle your dough, but you don't want the cookie to open up in the oven and your filling to run out all over the place, either. Leave a good portion of the filling exposed. Look at the photo for tips on this.
  
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are as crispy as you'd like. The thinner you roll your dough, the less time it will take to bake to your preferred degree of doneness. 
• After 3 to 4 minutes on the baking sheet, remove to a wire rack to fully cool.