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!

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

This recipe for spiced pumpkin cake is one I found on the recipe card I collected at the UBU Green Thursdays pumpkin-carving event from last week!  I've adapted the original recipe a little bit to have dairy-free margarine and mashed bananas instead of the 2 eggs, just to see if it's ok.

Ingredients (makes one 23x33cm cake)

110g vegan margarine (such as Pure)
220g dark brown soft sugar
135g bread flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g pumpkin puree
1 1/2 bananas, mashed

Vegan cream cheese frosting (2 cups)
1 cup icing sugar
108g vegan margarine, cold
2 tablespoons non-dairy milk (such as almond or hazelnut milk)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Use a bit of margarine to grease the inside of one 23x33cm or similar sized baking dish.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or gas mark 4.
2. In a large bowl, combine the margarine, dark brown soft sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, pumpkin puree and bananas.  Mix until smooth.
3. Spread the mixture evenly in the baking dish and bake for 25 minutes.  Frost with the cream cheese frosting recipe shown below once cooled, if desired.
4. For the frosting, process all the ingredients together in a food processor for about 1 minute.
5. Scrape down the sides of the food processor and continue to process for another minute until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
6. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Here are some photographs of what I got up to over the Halloween weekend:

1. Carving pumpkins with UBU Green Thursdays.
   
   

   

   My pumpkin at the beginning.

   
   

   

   The unscooped insides (including seeds) of my pumpkin.
   Scooping the flesh out of the pumpkin was very messy!

   
   

   

   My finished carved pumpkin!
    

2. Archery's Halloween session, for which I dressed up as Jafar from Aladdin (there was a long black skirt)!
   
   

   Posted by UBU Archery - Photography/Film on Friday, 30 October 2015

    
3. Singing with BUSOM at the university's Red Ribbon Society's open mic night. This was my costume for being a magic broom from the Sorcerer's Apprentice in Fantasia.
   
   

   Posted by Bradford Student Productions on Monday, 2 November 2015

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!