Vegan Chocolate "Cup" Cake

There are probably many shop-bought chocolate cupcake mixes out there, where you can put a small amount of the mix into a coffee cup (rather than one of those big mugs), add a liquid to it, and microwave it for a minute or two to get a cupcake.  One of these mixes that I've had was from Foodness, where you spoon a couple of spoons full of the cupcake mix into a cup, add a bit of milk, cook it in the microwave, and then eat it.  Sure, you could use a plant-based milk such as almond, hazelnut, oat or soy milk as an alternative to dairy for making this, but this unfortunately still won't make the cupcake vegan as there is actually egg in the dry cake mix itself.

While I was trawling through the World of Wanderlust website (a travel website founded by Brooke Saward), I came across the recipes section of the site, which included recipes inspired by her travels.  The recipe that the one I'm going to share with you was inspired by was under the title of "A Single Girl's cake for Valentine's Day" because the recipe yielded enough to make just one cupcake (plus a very small amount left over).  While this recipe didn't need milk to be added to it for cooking, it still contained one egg yolk.  Back in October, I made some Oreo cupcakes for a film-watching afternoon with my friends (featuring Rent and playing a Hobbit card game), which used mashed up banana as an alternative to eggs.  Surprisingly, my family still thought it tasted nice even though it contained no eggs and was completely vegan, so I knew that a banana could be used again in this recipe.  I've also skipped the espresso that was in the original recipe on the World of Wanderlust website!

Ingredients

3 tablespoons plain flour
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
dash of vanilla essence
1 tablespoon oil (I used olive oil)
half a large banana, mashed

Instructions

1. Mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and sugar in a mixing bowl until well-combined.
2. Add the mashed banana, oil and vanilla essence, and continue to stir until all the ingredients are combined.
3. Pour the mix into a well-greased coffee cup.
4. Cook in a microwave on medium high for 90 seconds, until the cake has risen and cooked through, but avoid overcooking.
5. If you wish, serve with vanilla ice cream, strawberries, caramel or a dusting of icing sugar!

Oreo Chocolate Cupcakes

A few weeks ago at RamAir's 35th anniversary party, unknown to me at the time and the guest of a friend of a friend, was Yasmina Magdy.  I later learned via good old Twitter that she is the vegan and cruelty-free lifestyle Newcastle blogger of The July Journal.  Having a peak through her blog, I found some posts on food, most recently including a recipe for vegan-friendly chocolate cookies, a guide to a vegan barbecue, and the below recipe for vegan Oreo chocolate cupcakes, which Yasmina adapted from a recipe posted by Sarah from The V Nice Life.  A lot of the time, I want to try recipes but struggle to find time to gather together the ingredients to make one of them or I just don't quite have time.  Luckily, it didn't take me too long to be able to try this recipe as I decided to (almost secretly) make a batch to take to a friend's house for a lazy Saturday afternoon of watching Rent and playing card games.  My family also tried a few and actually liked them, despite being surprised at the lack of eggs or any other animal-derived ingredients!

Ingredients (to make 12 cupcakes)

100g vegan margarine, such as Pure
100g caster sugar
1 banana, mashed
75g self-raising flour
25g cocoa powder

For the frosting:
225g icing sugar
100g vegan margarine
4 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5-6 crumbled Oreos

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.  Line a tin with medium-sized paper cupcake cases.
2. Whisk together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.  Use a fork to mash up a banana, and whisk in the mashed banana with the self-raising flour and cocoa powder.
3. Divide the mixture into 12 cupcake cases and bake for 10-14 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.  Transfer the cupcakes onto a cooling rack.
4. For the frosting, whisk the margarine and icing sugar together.  Add the cocoa powder and vanilla extract and whisk until the mixture reaches a smooth, buttery consistency.
5. Once the cupcakes have cooled, spread the icing onto the cakes and crumble the Oreos over the cakes.

DIY Chocolate Body Scrub

This week is National Chocolate Week, so I have a couple of posts this week to do with chocolate.  The first of those was inspired by a chat with Yasmina from thejulyjournal.com about making a vegan and cruelty-free gift pack inspired by chocolate.  We were both sent an up-to-date list of vegan-friendly products by The Body Shop for reference at a future time.  Then I remembered this morning that I have a recipe for a DIY chocolate body scrub that also uses vegan and cruelty-free ingredients that you can easily find in your kitchen.  I found this recipe in The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls by Rosemary Davidson and Sarah Vine.  I've been pretty tired over the past few weeks due to uni coursework, stress over my health, and worrying about friends, so this would be a good thing for me to use to relax and finally unwind when I've finished my project proposal later this week!

Ingredients

5 tablespoons sunflower oil
4 tablespoons soft brown sugar
1 heaped tablespoon cocoa (NOT drinking chocolate)

Instructions

1. Mix ingredients thoroughly in a bowl.
2. The chocolate scrub will be quite runny, so it's best to use it all over your skin while in the shower and to be careful when applying.
3. Wash it off thoroughly with your favourite soap or body wash for very soft skin!

Rainbow Salad with Chocolate Dip

Last Friday (26th June 2015), shortly after I published my post for last week, it was announced that same-sex marriage has now been legalised in all 50 states of the USA.  Although I'm UK-based, where legislation to allow same-sex marriage was passed in July 2013 and came into force in March 2014, I think that it's a great step for Americans to be granted this right as well.  So many couples have been negatively affected by their relationships not being acknowledged by the American government and in some cases, the medical system.  One example of this that I have been reading about is Shane Bitney Crone, who was prevented from seeing his partner, Tom Bridegroom, who had accidentally fallen from a friend's roof.  Crone and Bridegroom's 6 year relationship was not acknowledged by the hospital or the government, thus Crone was not considered as "family" when it came to knowing about Bridegroom's condition.  Unfortunately, Crone was also banned from attending his partner's funeral by Bridegroom's parents, who threatened Crone with violence should he attend the funeral.  I hope that this step forward will prevent things like this from happening to anyone else in the future, but with so many countries still to legalise same-sex marriage and some to even decriminalise homosexuality, there is still a long way to go.

However, to celebrate this (and a late Pride weekend), it could be fun for a Pride party to prepare a rainbow assortment of fruits on a plate for guests to dip in chocolate.

Ingredients

A handful or two of strawberries
1 orange
1 banana
1 green apple
A handful or two of blueberries
A handful or two of purple grapes
Approximately 50-75g good quality dark, dairy-free chocolate

Instructions

1. Wash and prepare all fruits – a sieve may be useful here. Remove skin from orange and banana, and cut both these and the apple into slices.
2. Place all fruit into a large bowl or plate.
3. To make fondue, break chocolate into pieces, place into a bowl and heat, either in a microwave or in a saucepan filled with water over low heat for a few minutes.
4. Dip fruit pieces in melted chocolate to serve.

Toasted Chocolate Sandwiches

So this is my first post as a 20 year old (i.e. no longer a teenager), but that doesn't necessarily mean I'll be sharing complicated and "grown-up" recipes yet, especially as I have no intention of learning how to cook meat.  At this point, fairly simple is still the way I'm going.  In the end, my birthday did not involve an outdoor archery session (*cries*), but I spent the morning listening to the Rent soundtrack in bed while starting sewing a Winnie the Pooh cross-stitch pattern, and then spent the afternoon in the kitchen listening to Hilary Duff while preparing the ice cream cake from the recipe I shared last week.  And for a special breakfast treat, I decided to make myself a toasted chocolate sandwich using the recipe I found in Coffee Bites by Susie Theodorou.

Ingredients (to serve 1)

2 slices of thick-crusted white bread
30-50g (1-2oz / ½ cup) dark (dairy-free) chocolate

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius fan-assisted (or 425 degrees Fahrenheit, or gas mark 7) and preheat a baking sheet.
2. Chop the dark chocolate and place the pieces in the centre of the pieces of bread.
3. Toast the sandwich in the oven for 5 minutes, turn and bake for another 3 minutes.
4. Let the sandwich cool, then slice to serve.

Vegan Chocolate Rice Krispie Nests

This Sunday is Easter Sunday, so I thought a little Easter-related post was in order.  Ten years ago just before Easter, I had my best friend over for a sleepover and my mum organised three different Easter-related craft activities for us to do during the day.  One of them was making pompom chicks, the second was using stamps to make Easter cards, and the third were chocolate Rice Krispie nests.  Although my mum made a lot of Rice Krispie nests for school events when I was in primary school, these then fell out of favour, so I haven't had them in a while.  Then last week, I wondered "Hmmm, I wonder if I can find a vegan-friendly recipe for chocolate Rice Krispie nests?"  A quick search on Google brought up this recipe from Laurenne Hopkins.  In the recipe ingredients list as shown on the website, butter was listed as an ingredient, so I asked a vegan friend if she knew of any alternatives to butter that I could find easily in a supermarket and she suggested a brand called Pure.  I also plan to make these for a departmental "Ladies Tea Party" at uni in 2 weeks!

Ingredients

100g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
100g Rice Krispies

Instructions

1. Measure the chocolate into a bowl and melt in short bursts in a microwave (stirring really often to avoid the chocolate burning) or in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water.
2. Pour the Rice Krispies into the chocolate mixture and cover them with the chocolate.
3. Use a spoon to divide the mix into cupcake cases.  Refrigerate until the "nests" are set.

Rose and Violet Chocolate Drops

We are now officially a full week into December, and with that has come a string of events that you'd find around Christmas or at the end of the year.  For example, on Friday night I attended the inaugural New Bradford Playhouse Awards, and on Saturday night I attended my dad's choir Christmas concert.  This week, I'm booked every night until Friday with a Christmas/winter concert dress rehearsal, the concert itself, a main show meeting, and a Christmas meal and theatre trip.  In addition, I have an essay deadline and a user-testing lab for a website I've built.  I'll be glad when it's Friday when I'm free to do a bit more of this other website I'm starting to build, read, and watch the pile of films I've been wanting to watch for several weeks (mainly Rent).  I found the following recipe for rose and violet chocolate drops in the most recent (Christmas 2014) edition of the Tesco Food and Living magazine.  It could be an ideal gift for friends!

Ingredients (to make 20)

100g (3 1/2 oz) plain chocolate, broken into pieces
1/2 teaspoon rose water
1/4 sunflower oil
1-2 tablespoons violet crystals

Instructions

1. Put the chocolate into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of shallow, gently simmering water.  Stir occasionally until melted and glossy.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the rose water and sunflower oil.  Set aside to cool for 2-3 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper.  Using a teaspoon, drop small rounds of chocolate onto the trays.  When the rounds are just beginning to set, scatter over the violet crystals.  Leave to set in a cool, dry place (but don't chill).

Double Chocolate Cookies

This is rather late (it's now Sunday, not Friday), but I've had a more busy and interesting week than usual, and I'm now trying to catch up with everything before my next placement talk (where CVs and interviews will be discussed) on Tuesday morning.

This week, I've been attending some of the films shown at the National Media Museum's Media and Conflict Interchange as part of my Media Ethics, Compliance and Sustainability module.  The three films I saw, The Wind Rises (a Studio Ghibli film), Leave to Remain (a drama about young asylum seekers applying to stay in England), and Still The Enemy Within (a documentary about the miners' strike of 1984-85), were all excellent, and I'm looking forward to probably watching them again as I write my essay on them for my coursework.  I would definitely recommend these films even if you don't have to study them.

Also, at the end of last week, I took part in a 24 hour show performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.  This means that auditions, all rehearsals, costumes and set-building were completed within 24 hours.  I only had 4 hours sleep (between 2am and 6am), and most of the rest of the time, we were rehearsing different songs (including the Time Warp) and running through lines (I was one of the four narrators), and most mealtimes were much later than I'd normally aim to have them.  In any case, it was so much fun with all my friends.  I'd have expected to have felt a lot more tired (I did just before bedtime though), but I think I'd had much more energy than usual because I'd taken a LOT of fruit, chocolate and other goodies with me.  One of those goodies was a packet of double chocolate cookies grabbed from Morrisons at the last minute.  I'd had to take a couple of beauties with me to one of the rehearsals due to the rest of my food being in a different part of the theatre.  The following recipe is a double chocolate cookie recipe from Susie Theodorou's Coffee & Bites.

Ingredients (to make 15 cookies)

225g (8oz/1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
225g (8oz/1 1/4 cups) soft light brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
275g (10oz/2 1/2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (i.e. Bournville)
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
175g (6oz/1 1/4 cups) plain (bittersweet) chocolate (i.e. Bournville), roughly chopped
butter for greasing

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, 160-170 degrees Celsius fan-assisted, 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or gas mark 4.
2. Cream together the butter and the sugar until smooth and fluffy in texture and light in colour - it will be faster using either a food processor or an electric mixer.  Then, gradually beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) into a large bowl, then fold into the cookie mixture.
4. Fold in the chocolate pieces, using a plastic spatula to scrape well along the sides of the bowl to ensure that all of the ingredients are mixed together.  Chill the mixture for 20 minutes.
5. Grease 2-3 large baking sheets with butter.  You will have to bake in batches as the cookies expand a lot - 3 cookies per baking sheet.  Roll the cookie mixture into 15 golf-ball-size balls and place well apart on the baking sheets.  Press them down gently with the back of a greased spoon.
6. Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes until the edges are firm, but the centres are still just soft when gently pressed.
7. Cool for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack.  Serve warm or cold.

What Katie Wants to Eat - week ending 12/09/2014

Here's an idea: why don't I, in addition to the weekly recipe, share a few links to dishes that I've seen each week on my rounds of the Internet.  These dishes all look delicious from the pictures shown, and I'm sure they'd taste even better.  I might make one or two of these myself soon.

1. This raw chocolate cake recipe from The Rawtarian looks so easy to make, is fruity and nutty as well as chocolatey, takes virtually no time at all to prepare, and doesn't need to be cooked! - I think I'll make this in a few weeks when I have some time after a lecture.
2. One of many raw chocolate slices that I've seen on the Instagram of the Coco Bliss Superfood Bar in Australia.  These delicious-looking treats are secretly good for you - I'm so jealous that Coco Bliss is currently only in Australia.  I would love to have one really close to me, so that I can visit it all the time and try all the things that I've seen on their Instagram.  Can somebody please get on that really soon for me?  Thank you.
3. Vegan dumplings from the Instagram of Australian sisters Alyssa and Taylan at veganopia.  This recipe is a fine example of something savoury and vegan-friendly to eat, and seems reasonably easy to make.  It would probably make a fine contribution to a Chinese-themed food table, and shows that there needn't be just stir-fried veggies and rice or noodles!
4. Ally's big bowl of her homemade version of Cold Rock ice cream also looks rather inviting, especially when alongside Finn Cold Press veggie juice.

More of what deliciousness I've seen and want to try next week!

Rocky Road Crunch Bars

This recipe from Nigella Express is one that I was introduced to by one of my friends a few years ago when she had made it for our class.  It is chewy and chocolatey and crunchy and delicious.

Ingredients

125g soft butter
300g best-quality dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
3 x 15ml tablespoons golden syrup
200g Rich Tea biscuits
100g mini marshmallows
2 teaspoons icing sugar for dusting

Method

1.  Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan.  Scoop out about 125ml of this melted mixture and put to one side.
2. Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and then bash them with a rolling pin.  You are aiming for both crumbs and pieces of biscuits.
3. Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, and then add the marshmallows.
4. Tip into a foil tray (24cm square); flatten as best you can with a spatula.  Pour the reserved 125ml of melted chocolate mixture over the marshmallow mixture and smooth the top.
5. Refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight.
6. Cut into 24 fingers and dust with icing sugar by pushing it gently through a tea strainer or small sieve.

Makes 24.

Boston Fudge Brownies

I didn't do a post for last week, but there was one for this week that I found and quite enjoyed.  This isn't my favourite brownie recipe, but there is an aspect of this brownie recipe that made me want to share it.  That is because it was a chocolate fudge brownie recipe that was in The Miele Cook Book, which gave it a sweeter taste and gave me the feeling of there being icing on the cake with the chocolate fudge topping.  However, the brownie recipe itself led to a batch of brownies that had a consistency more similar to that of a chocolate cake than to the gooey brownies that I normally have.  Due to this, the chocolate fudge topping used in this recipe may be added to my usual chocolate brownie recipe, instead of this one.

Ingredients

Fudge Topping
200g (7 oz) caster sugar
110g (4 oz) plain chocolate, grated
275ml (1/2 pint single cream
110g (4oz) butter, cut into pieces
Few drops of vanilla essence

Brownies
250g (9 oz) butter, softened
250g (9 oz) plain chocolate, grated
250g (9 oz) soft dark brown sugar
250g (9oz) self-raising flour
4 eggs, lightly beaten
175g (6 oz) chopped nuts (such as cashew or hazelnuts)
60-90ml (4-6 tablespoons) milk

Method

1. For the fudge topping, place the sugar, grated chocolate and cream in a saucepan.  Melt over a low heat and bring to the boil, stirring well, until the mixture thickens and a small amount dropped into cold water forms a soft ball.
2. Remove from the heat, add the butter and vanilla essence, and stir until smooth.
3. When the mixture has cooled a little, beat vigorously until it has thickened.  Leave to cool completely.
4. Meanwhile, lightly oil a baking tray.  Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.  Stir in the sugar and leave to cool.
5. Sift the flour into a large bowl, make a well in the centre, and pour in the chocolate mixture.  Gradually mix together, bringing the flour into the chocolate mixture until well blended.
6. Beat in the eggs and add the chopped nuts.  Stir in enough milk to give a soft dropping consistency.
7. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tray and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Spread the chocolate fudge topping over the cooled brownies and cut into squares.

Instant Chocolate Mousse

Three years ago, I found this recipe for chocolate mousse that didn’t involve eggs (safer because of the uncooked eggs salmonella risk) in Nigella Express.  It involves mini marshmallows instead, and tastes really nice as well.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6)

150g mini marshmallows
50g soft butter
250g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), chopped into small pieces
60ml hot water from a recently boiled kettle
1 x 284ml tub double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Put the marshmallows, butter, chocolate and water in a heavy-based saucepan.

2. Put the saucepan on the hob, over heat, though keep it fairly gentle, to melt the contents, stirring at regular intervals.  Remove from the heat.

3. Meanwhile, whip the cream with the vanilla extract until thick, and then fold into the cooling mixture until you have a smooth, consistent mixture.

4. Pour or scrape into 4 glasses or ramekins, about 175ml in capacity, or 6 smaller (125ml) ones, and chill (in a fridge, just to specify) until you want to eat.

I intend to write my next post this Friday and then continue to post every Friday, so until then, have a great week!