Gluten & Sugar Free Vegan Good Times in a Ball – Monday Made

This is sort of like a rum ball. But without the rum. You could put some rum in it. I’m sure it would taste great.

I actually think you could lots of different things to this recipe to make awesome new tastes. Like using peanuts and a pinch of salt instead of almonds. Or add an orange rind. Or some peppermint oil. Cinnamon and ginger. The possibilities are endless.

I have just made a basic recipe here for chocolatey yummy protein packed vegan treats. If you used raw cocoa powder, they could even be RAW food.

Some trivia: One can of chick peas drained weighs 245g.

What you need:

• 120g Chickpeas (half a can, drained and rinsed)
• 100g dates, about a cup (doesn’t have to be medjool)
• 1 1/2 tbsp rice malt syrup (non vegans can use honey)
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 100g natural almonds (could also experiment with oats if gluten wasn’t an issue)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 70g shredded coconut, about 1 cup
• extra coconut or cocoa for covering the outside.

What to do:

1. Blend the dates, chickpeas, rice malt syrup and vanilla in a blender until fairly smooth.
2. Add the almonds and cocoa. Blend until almonds are finely chopped.
3. Add the coconut. Don’t blend it so much that the coconut gets completely obliterated.
4. Using wet hands, roll the mixture into balls and then roll in coconut or cocoa. Mine made approximately 20 balls.

Vegan Mud Cake….it’s a TARDIS! – Monday Made

“Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey.”~The Doctor

Had a big party on the weekend. Made a big cake for it that kind of speaks for itself. It was vegan. It was delicious. It was bigger on the inside.

      

      

    

I used a 30cm square tin and did a triple batch of the recipe, cooked it for 1 hour 50 minutes at 150deg fan forced. I wrapped up my tin in a couple of brown paper layers so the edges wouldn’t dry out. Cut it into quarters, stacked it up using plenty of peanut butter icing as glue and then set to work on the fondant….

For just a regular everyday cake, I make this recipe in a 22cm round tin as follows:

What you need:

• 2 cups plain flour (could try GF flour….)
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder (good, heavy dense stuff….I wish I’d weighed mine to give a more accurate measurement)
• 1 ½ teaspoons bi-carb soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups raw sugar
• 1 ½ cups rice milk (or espresso)
• ½ lemon, juiced
• ½ cup vegetable oil (I don’t really recommend olive oil unless you REALLY like that taste)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla pod)

What to do:

1. Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees fan forced (165, normal). Line a 22cm round tin with paper.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients, except sugar, together in a mixing bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix until well combined. You can do this by hand or on a medium speed in an electric mixer.
3. Pour mixture into tin and bake for 50-60 minutes. Do not open the oven before 45 minutes. I usually wait until the cake pulls away from the side a bit or doesn’t stay completely sunk when you push the top. It will not “spring back” because it does not contain a lot of rising agent. Waiting for it to do so will lead to over cooking. ICK!
4. I like my chocolate cake with a bit of peanut butter icing on top. I talk about how to make that in general terms here at the very last point in the “what to do’s”. It is not an exact science. Make it to your own taste. For something a little more grown up, try a coffee icing…….

Chocolate & Beetroot Cake – Monday Made

“The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.”~Tom Robbins

The idea of putting vegetables into cake is, quite frankly, pure genius. Because, you know, it instantly makes them health food to be eaten with not a scrap of guilt.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

We get an organic vegetable box every week and sometimes at the end of the week I am left with a couple of items I’m just not sure what to do with. Oh, I know, I could have roasted my leftover beetroot, but when I was pregnant and vomiting a few times EVERDAY for the entire time, I was also going through a stage of eating roasted beetroot (over supply from my mother). So much that my pee changed colour one week! Eeek! Like a lot of things I ate frequently while pregnant, I not get a little be squirrelly at the thought of eating roast beetroot.

I found this recipe on Taste.com and them proceeded to add twice as much cocoa and less flour. I was actually trying to adjust the quantities so I could cook it in my slice tin. Why? Every week I bake something with the kids that becomes a treat. I needed  it to be in a form that could be cut into small, easy to hold portions for my littlies. This turned out perfect.

It also stopped me from portion distortion. Not that eating a lot of this cake is a problem since it is health food, right?  😉

The true test of this cake’s yumminess? My friend’s husband ate it and thought is was really good. He absolutely detests beetroot.

What you need:

• 150-200g (about 2) trimmed beetroot, washed
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 50ml water
• 3/4 cup, firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 1/4 milk
• 60ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil OR 40g melted butter + 1 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cups self-raising flour, sifted OR plain flour + 1  1/2 tsp baking powder

What to do:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degreeC (160 fan forced).
2. Cut beetroot into quarters and then roast in the oven until a tender (doesn’t have to be really soft, though).
3. Left beetroot cool a bit and then trim the skin off, and put in a blender with the water and oil. Blend until the beetroot is very finely chopped. More so than what grating would produce.
4. In a mixing bowl (electric mixer is best) place the eggs, vanilla and beetroot mixtures. Combine thoroughly.
5. Combine the dry ingredients and then sift into the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
6. Bake in a lined slice tin (mine is 27 x 18cm) for about 25 minutes, but really keep an eye on it. You don’t want to dry it out!
7. I iced my cake with cream cheese, cocoa and a little bit of icing sugar blended up. I did that part by taste. I don’t like my frosting to be very sweet. I also like my chocolate to be a little bitter….