Vegan Carrot Cake w Coconut Chantilly Cream Icing


My beautiful best friend Tess came down and stayed with me for a week recently, and that's how this cake came about. NYE 2015 leading into 2016, almost a week after my birthday, and it came out that I hadn't had a birthday cake. Well this was simply no good, and we had just been pondering what to make and bring to a NYE party, so cake it was! Carrot cake to be exact, no explanation needed. Vegan, gluten free, delicious, complete with a creamy coconut icing, demolished by a whole party of people; this cake ticks all the boxes.

What you need:

For the cake:

2 and a quarter cups of buckwheat flour
4 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
4 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of nutmeg
Pinch of sea salt

1 cup of mylk of choice (we used Nutty Bruce Almond Coconut Milk)
1 cup of coconut sugar
2 cups of grated carrot
1 fresh vanilla bean, scraped out (alternatively, 2 tsp of vanilla extract)
1 cup of mashed banana (about 2-3 bananas worth)
1 tablespoon of chia seeds

For the coconut chantilly cream icing:

2 tins of full fat coconut cream
1 vanilla bean, scraped out (or 2 tsp of vanilla extract)


What you need to do:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius, and grease your baking pan (we used coconut oil spray).
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, mylk, chia seeds, vanilla and coconut sugar.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, fold through, then add the grated carrot and fold until just combined.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the icing, don't shake the coconut cream cans up before you open them; simply open them up, and scrape out the top layer of cream. The coconut cream and the water separates in the can, and you only want to keep that top layer of cream and ditch the water. In a bowl, whip the coconut cream with the vanilla using a whisk or an old fashioned egg beater. Refrigerate for 2 or so hours, or until it has set. Wait until the cake is completely cool before icing, or you'll end up with a (delicious) puddle of coconut around your cake (speaking from experience here!)




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Dark Fudgy Chocolate Avocado Cookies (gf, vegan)


If you like your chocolate nice and dark, then I promise you will love these cookies. They're rich and fudgy, chunky (almost brownie-like), and verging on bittersweet. They also just happen to be, you know… Really good for you. I know, I'm pretty happy about it too.

You know those times where you just really. want. chocolate? One of those times is the reason these cookies came about. I just really wanted chocolate. Rich, dark, sinful-tasting chocolate. And boy did they do the trick. They may have even done the trick a bit too well - I was a whirl of energy for the rest of the afternoon and well into the night. Maybe eating like, half of the batter (yes I licked the spoon, and ran my fingers around the bowl, and I expect the same from you) and then two cookies straight from the cooling rack, and then another one once they'd cooled down was a bit excessive… Just a friendly reminder that cacao does have a bit of caffeine in it, so these bad boys aren't great for a pre-bed snack! I speak from experience. No regrets.

But anyway! Let's talk ingredients. I used amaranth flour because it's what I had in the pantry, but I'm 98% sure that coconut flour would work just as well. If anyone tries that out let me know how it goes! If you want to use other flours, just remember that amaranth and coconut flour are very absorbent flours, so you'd have to play around with the liquid/dry ratio. I also used raw cacao powder, which is the unprocessed, unheated, much more nutrient- and mineral-rich, natural form of cocoa powder, and it also tastes much richer than cocoa powder. In saying that, I'm sure cocoa powder would work well, and if you're sensitive to caffeine/prefer not to eat cacao, then try using carob powder instead!

I completely adore the addition of avocado into any desserts. If you haven't ever tried avocado chocolate mousse, then I absolutely recommend giving it a go. I've fed it to friends before who don't normally like ~vegan~ ~healthy~ food and they've loved it! The use of avocado in this recipe is what gives the cookies their delicious fudginess.

Finally! I used Loving Earth's chocolate buckinis in this recipe, which are oh so heavenly, but I am well aware that many of you wouldn't have these in your pantry (especially if you don't live in Australia. If this is the case, I'm so sorry that you miss out on the goodness that is Loving Earth, and I hope they sort  out international postage stat). Chocolate buckinis are basically a mix of activated raw buckwheat, coconut flakes, goji berries, raw cacao powder, and coconut sugar. As a substitution, mix together 3/4 of a cup of raw buckwheat, a tablespoon each of coconut flakes and goji berries, and a tablespoon of coconut sugar.

Enough talk. We need cookies.








What you need:

1/2 cup of amaranth flour + an extra tablespoon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup of raw cacao powder
1 cup of Loving Earth Chocolate Buckinis (see above for substitutions)
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
Pinch of salt

1/3 cup of almond milk (I'm sure any milk would work just fine)
1/2 an avocado, mashed
2 tablespoons of maple syrup/agave/coconut nectar (don't skimp on this, when I say tablespoons I mean like… heaped tablespoons) (the cookies aren't ridiculously sweet, which is what I love about them, but if you've got a mega sweet tooth then maybe add extra)



What you need to do:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius, and line a tray with baking paper.
Mix together your flour, baking powder, cacao powder, cinnamon and salt. Add the buckinis and stir in well.
In a separate bowl, mash the avocado. Add the almond milk and your sweetener of choice, and mix together until very well combined.
You should have a nice sticky batter, which holds together well.
Dollop onto your cookie tray. You should have 12 pretty big cookies.
Pop into the oven for 25 minutes. Try not to eat them all at once!


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Hot Cross Bun Muffins (Vegan and Gluten Free)




I find there's something so nostalgic and cosy about Easter time, and I completely adore it. Maybe it's the shift of the seasons happening at this time of year, the summer warmth giving way to the colder and cosier months. Maybe it's the fond memories that I have of chocolate-fuelled long weekends spent running around my grandparents' home in the mountains (I can't say much has changed…). Maybe it's the understated and easy-going nature of Easter, compared to Christmas, as families come together to spend time with each other, without that seemingly inescapable stress that Christmas time brings. Maybe it's simply that smell of baking hot cross buns, the scent of cinnamon reaching every corner of the house.

As I've grown older, hot cross buns have steadily overtaken chocolate's prime status as my favoured Easter treat (!) and I find myself hanging out for them in the months leading up to Easter. I just can't say no to a freshly-toasted, dried-fruit-studded, cinnamon-spiced, subtly sweet homemade hot cross bun (especially when paired with a cup of tea!). But I think it's their fleeting, transient nature that I love most - with only a few weeks out of every year in which to make the most of their goodness, they take on a somewhat ephemeral quality.

These muffins were very much a trial-and-error experiment. I obviously wanted to bake up some hot cross buns myself, however I've had zero time for bread-making lately, so I thought why not take the whole yeast step out of the mix and see what I end up with? I basically ended up with scones, which were fabulously delicious and hot-cross-bunny (heh) regardless. I then played around with the recipe, remade them, and ended up with these muffins instead. The texture is deliciously soft, and subtly sweet, studded with currants and a hint of citrus, and to top it all off, I made the cross out of raw cacao for extra deliciousness. Plus, they're vegan, gluten free and refined sugar free - much unlike the buns you find in supermarkets.

Hope you enjoy them as much as my family and I did!


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Banana peanut butter bars


Grain free, refined sugar free, wholesome banana peanut butter bars with cacao chips, walnuts and buckwheat. Phew. Was that a mouthful, or what? A delicious mouthful. These babies are the perfect energy-packed, goodness-filled, tasty snack for busy mornings, hectic afternoons, as a little something to tide you over until dinner, or for dessert! I basically threw whatever I had in the pantry that I thought would be delicious into these bars, so a few of the ingredients are optional add-ins. And if you have other ingredients on hand that you think would go nicely, feel free to play around!

The buckwheat groats, cacao nibs, and nuts make for a delicious balance of textures, and the banana flavour is subtle but, paired with the peanut butter, perfect. Every ingredient is nutritious, and the bars are protein-packed with healthy fats (coconut! Nuts! Buckwheat!) AND lovely carbs (bananas!), so they're basically a square meal, amiright…?

I'm sure any other flour would work just as well but remember that coconut flour absorbs a lot of moisture, so if using another flour, make sure you reduce the amount of water you add. You could also use a different sweetener instead of coconut sugar if you don't have any on hand!

Ingredients:

¾ cup raw buckwheat groats
¾ cup coconut flour
½ cup coconut sugar
½ cup cacao nibs (optional, but delicious)
½ cup of walnuts (optional, or any other nut!)
Pinch of salt
1 tsp of baking powder
2 eggs
½ cup of water (more or less, as required)
1 Tblsp of soft coconut oil
2-3 mashed bananas (I used three smallish ones)
½ cup all-natural peanut butter
1 Tblsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract


Mix the coconut flour & sugar, salt, baking powder together, before adding the buckwheat groats, cacao nibs and walnuts and mixing it all up. Add eggs and stir through well. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas, add the peanut butter, honey, vanilla, and coconut oil (you're allowed to eat a spoonful of this fab mixture… Or two… I won't can't judge).
Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture, stir together well. Add the water so that you have a lovely dough that sticks together well.

Pop into a lined and greased tray, push down so it’s all nice and flat. Bake for 25 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius, leave to cool, cut into squares/rectangles/however you fancy, and nosh!

These actually taste even better the day after as the peanut and banana flavours mature, so if you have the patience/restraint, save a few for that reason… If not, I certainly won't hold it against you.








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