Chocolate Hedgehog with Cranberries

dairy free egg free nut free vegan

Mmmm. Just love biscuity chocolate goodness that is classic hedgehog, and you get a nice flavour kick with the cranberries. McVitie's Digestives is a great vegan biscuit (though package states they're made on a production line handling milk. We take the risk on these occasionally because they're so nice). Eskal and Freedom Foods make gluten-free biscuits so you could make these gluten-free also.

125g dairy-free margarine

100g dairy/egg/nut free chocolate

1 tablespoon golden syrup

1 egg replacer (Orgran)

220g McVitie's Digestives or other dairy/egg/nut free biscuits, broken into small pieces

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup cranberries

Chocolate topping

200g dairy/egg/nut free chocolate

50g vegetable oil or dairy/egg/nut free margarine

Grease a slice pan (17cm x 27cm) and line with baking paper, allowing some to overhang at long ends.

Place margarine, chocolate and syrup in a saucepan over low heat. Cook gently stirring for a few minutes or until smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Whisk in egg replacer.

Meanwhile, place biscuits, coconut, sugar, cocoa and cranberries in a bowl. Stir to combine, then add chocolate mixture, mixing gently. Transfer to prepared pan and press mixture evenly using the back of a fork. Cover and refrigerate until firm.

To make chocolate topping, place chocolate and margarine/oil in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until smooth. Spread over slice and refrigerate for a couple of hours until set.

Using a hot knife, cut slice into 24 pieces.

Election Cupcakes

dairy free egg free nut free vegan

Gloat post alert:

AS SEEN ON ABC TV!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/11/27/3078260.htm

My home-made, wish-i'd-spent-a-bit-more-time-on-them cupcakes got their 15 milliseconds of fame. I made a hurried batch for the Elwood Primary School fundraiser during election day recently in Victoria. So hurried in fact that when the usual issue arose of red icing refusing to budge darker than pink, I decided to add a drop of black colouring.  You can't make red out of pink. If you add black to pink, you  just get darker pink. I already knew this. And still, in my bleary-eyed state, I did it.

Early indicator to the result of the election, I believe.

Never mind, I thought - no-one will notice, or care, right? Well who should be skulking around the school doing vox pops at the polling booth but ABC TV.  After a few encouraging words to the cameraman by my husband, they took some footage. Unbelievably, it didn't end up on the cutting room floor - but closed the community piece on the 6pm news!

The winning cupcake



Lemon Coconut Bundt cake - part two

dairy free egg free nut free vegan

Bundt, be gone.

Though this post is part 2, it's actually my third attempt at this cake, and I didn't dare risk the conundrum that is lining a bundt tin. So a plain round cake tin just had to do this time around. No matter - this is simple, light and moist - a perfect afternoon tea cake. Because it rises so well, I think you could easily make cupcakes with this recipe, adding a swirl of lemony frosting, and a sprinkling of coconut.

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup caster sugar
125g dairy-free margarine, melted
2 egg replacers
1 cup coconut milk
icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180 C and grease and line a deep 20cm round cake tin.

Combine dry ingredients, then wet ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon until mixture is smooth. It will be runny.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean when inserted into centre of cake.

Leave cake to cool slightly before removing from tin on wire rack. Cool completely.

Sprinkle with icing sugar, coconut or desired icing.