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.

Choc Chip Banana & Coconut Muffins (dairy free, egg free, nut free)

Another muffin. Well what can I say, kids love them, and they fill up a corner of the lunchbox!

125g dairy-free margarine, melted
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 egg replacers
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup dairy/nut free choc chips


Preheat oven to 200 C and fill a 12 hole muffin pan with muffin or cupcake liners. Beat melted margarine, sugar, banana, egg replacers and vanilla until well combined. Place flour, coconut and choc chips in a large bowl, then fold in banana mixture. Fill liners 2/3 full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until risen and golden. Cool slightly in pan then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Moroccan Sausage Rolls (dairy free, egg free, nut free)

I'm very partial to a sausage roll. Though if, like me, you are more than a little suspicious of supermarket sausage meat (what IS it?), then you need to make your own. Crucial to any sausage roll filling is the fine processing of the raw mince - you want a very fine texture and regular minced meat doesn't do the job. Whack it in the food processor and blitz it with your choice of flavourings.

These Moroccan-spiced ones were gobbled up by both my girls - spices, herbs and all. Delicious!

Makes 40 mini size, approx

500g lamb mince
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 brown or red onion, chopped
1 tsp paprika 
½ tsp each ground coriander
½ tsp each ground ginger
½ tsp each ground cinnamon
1/4 cup fresh chopped mint
1/4 cup fresh chopped coriander
4-5 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed (non-butter Pampas version and some supermarket-brand varieties are dairy/egg/nut free)
rice milk or water for the "egg" wash
sesame seeds

Preheat oven 200c. Line baking trays with baking paper.

Place the garlic, onion, ground spices and herbs in a food processor with sea salt & pepper. Pulse to chop the onion and garlic and combine. Add lamb and process until smooth.
Cut each pastry sheet in half lengthways and then across, making 4 sheets. Place one piece of filling on edge of each pastry square in a long sausage shape, then roll up to enclose. Turn rolls seam-side down and cut each roll into 3-4 pieces, trimming the ends.

Place on the lined baking trays, brush with rice milk and sprinkle sesame seeds. Cook in the oven for 10 – 12 mins until puffed and golden.

Halloween Cupcakes (dairy free, egg free, nut free)

I made these last year for kinder class - the ghost cupcakes in particular were a huge hit. The eyes! Such expression! We fell in love.

Happy Halloween :)


Chocolate Cupcakes
makes approx 24 standard cupcakes

300g plain flour
400g caster sugar
100g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp soda bicarbonate
450ml rice or soy milk
100ml vegetable oil
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 C. Fill two cupcake/muffin pans with cupcake liners.
Sift together in a large bowl the flour, sugar, soda bicarb, cocoa and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, oil, vinegar, vanilla and add to the dry ingredients, mixing well until smooth.

Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until risen and firm to touch. Cool in trays for 5 minutes then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

Chocolate Frosting
100g dairy free margarine
4 tbsp water
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
4 tbsp cocoa powder

Combine margarine, water and caster sugar in small saucepan; stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.
Combine sifted icing sugar and cocoa in medium bowl; gradually stir in hot spread mixture until smooth. Cover; refrigerate for at least half an hour, until thoroughly cool. Using wooden spoon, beat frosting until spreadable.


Ghosts
White ready to roll fondant, 1/4-1/2 packet
Marshmallows (one per ghost cupcake)
Using white ready to roll fondant, roll out to 1/2 cm thickness and use a round cookie cutter (slightly larger than the circumference of the cupcake, so it overlaps by about 1cm). Frost cupcakes with chocolate frosting and secure a marshmallow in the centre. Ensure you sit the marshmallow on its side so the rounded part is at the top. Drape fondant circles over the marshmallows, covering the cupcakes. Using the blunt end of a toothpick or skewer, make two holes for the eyes (until you reach the marshmallow underneath) then fill with a dot of black gel decorating pen. So cute!


Tombstone Cookies
This is a good standard cut-out cookie recipe. Roll these out relatively thinly (1/2 cm) before baking or they'll be too thick to wedge into the cupcake.

125g dairy-free margarine, softened
1/2 cup (115g) caster sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) rice/soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour
1/2 cup (70g) plain flour
black and green Queen food gel writing pens

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

Use an electric beater to beat the margarine and sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in milk and vanilla extract. Fold in the flours.

Press the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to rest.

Roll out one portion of dough on a sheet of non-stick baking paper to about 1/2cm thick. Cut out tombstone shapes (freehand) and place on the trays.
Bake for 5-8 minutes or until light golden.
Cool for 5 minutes on the trays before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Repeat with remaining dough (or freeze for more cookies another day).

Pipe RIP on tombstones then insert into cupcakes. Add some green grass to the edges of the tombstone.

Enjoy!

Lemon Coconut Bundt Cake - part one

dairy free egg free nut free vegan

It's important to remember that baking is a science.

For example, you might get impatient and want to turn out a cake before it has cooled in the tin.
You mustn't.

Or perhaps the original recipe insists you line the base of the tin with baking paper but because you decided to change the tin shape from loaf to bundt, you sort of forgot that bit...(though how do you line a bundt tin anyway?)

So out it fell - broken, stuck, ruined.

Then my taste tester tells me, scraping the bits of cake from the tin, that it's the best cake he ever ate.

So it's back to the kitchen for take 2 - I don't mind - it's beautifully lemony and moist.  Even on second attempt though, this cake doesn't rise. It sinks in the middle, quite spectacularly. I must tweak the recipe - it seems the coconut cream is too heavy and might need replacing with coconut milk. But my third attempt will have to wait until after I return from a child-free holiday to Port Douglas later in the week (yay!). Plus I want to share some cute cupcakes in time for Halloween before I go.

So until then - feast your eyes on this disaster, and stay tuned...

(original sinking recipe - though if eggs aren't an issue for you, this should work spectacularly!)
125g dairy-free margarine, softened

125g caster sugar

2 x egg replacers

1 cup self raising flour, sifted

½ cup dessicated coconut

1 lemon, zested and juiced

1 x 270g coconut cream
icing sugar, dusting



Method

Preheat oven 175 C. Lightly grease and line a loaf pan with baking paper.

Beat margarine and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the egg replacers and beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl combine flour, cocount and lemon zest. Add half of this mixture and coconut cream into the mixing bowl and mix well.

Repeat with remaining flour and coconut cream. Add lemon juice and mix until well combined.

Pour cake mixture into prepared loaf pan and bake for 50 - 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Dust with icing sugar.

Quest for the Holy Grail: Egg-free Meringue

Sometimes - just for fun - I google 'vegan meringue'.

Ok admittedly, it's not fun anymore, it's become an obsession. I am a relentless researcher if nothing else. I have been searching in the hope that somewhere in the world, someone has discovered how to make an egg-less substitute to this holy grail of vegan cooking. It usually leads to a depressing read of world wide lamentations, e-how dead-ends and bloggy disasters.

Then one day I stumbled across something called Vegan Meringue Cookies by AngelFood.

Inconceivable!

Immediately went shopped online (Vegan Perfection in this case) and next day (or so) delivery, it arrived.

I am a sucker for a pretty package, and she is very pretty indeed. I had zero expectation though - other than to produce something that quite possibly resembled a chewy meringue with a crispy outer layer. Which very probably can only be achieved by using real eggs. Yep - zero expectation.

The package claims it makes 'crisp' cookies. With two sachets in the box - once mixed and beaten together, it was looking really good: glossy and stiff, just like beaten egg whites should look...

I piped onto tray (oh but they are darling!)

 

Baking in the oven (bit annoyed I lost the little peaks in the cooking process)

Crispy yes they are!



Sandwiched together with some Sweet William chocolate spread (dairy/egg/nut free), they are not bad. Quite tasty in fact (thanks to the chocolate I suspect).

So here they are - a very crispy, aerated version of meringue kisses...though won't be attempting a pavlova any time soon.