The Pink Whisk November challenge is to make a tray bake recipe- for all those charity fund-raisers that happen at this time of year. I have had a few people request the recipe for the vegan pumpkin spice cake, and even though I can make it in the individual cake tin tray, I generally make it in a brownie pan and slice it up. I thought a vegan recipe would be good as with dairy allergies and things like that it is nice to have something at a bake sale that appeals to those specific diets. I have also made it gluten free (once) by using quinoa flour.
My recipe is based on the Sweet Vegan recipe, but I have reduced the oil, changed up the spices and made a few other modifications.
You will need
- 260g plain flour (I use 130g white, 130g wholegrain spelt, or use all quinoa flour for gluten free- rice flour may work too)
- 240g soft dark brown sugar
- 2tsp baking powder (Dove’s Farm is gluten free)
- 1 tsp bicarb (again Dove’s Farm is gluten free)
- 2tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
- 50ml rapeseed oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 420g pumpkin puree (one tin of Libby’s from Waitrose or Ocado)
- 150ml milk (I use soya, but almond would work, or dairy milk)
- 3tsp ground flax seeds mixed with 4 tsp warm water (this replaces the egg- I have made this non vegan using an egg and it was still lovely)
Preheat the oven to 170C, and line a brownie pan with baking paper.
In a large bowl mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and spices.
Then add the oil, milk, vanilla, pumpkin and mix until well combined.
Add the flax seeds in water and mix gently to combine.
Pour into the baking tray, and bake for 40-55 minutes. It is a very moist cake but a skewer should come out clean when it is cooked.
Leave to cool before slicing (and then selling at a bake sale!).
Optional- top with spiced cream cheese frosting (use a vegan cream cheese if you want to keep it dairy free). 100g cream cheese mixed with 200g icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and a tsp cinnamon. Low fat cream cheese will go very runny, so if you want to use it (I do sometimes) then add 1/2 tsp xanthan gum (again from Dove’s Farm) which will thicken it up.
These are sooooo good- they are gently sweet, and the spices are lovely and warming. Don’t take my word for it though, have a go at baking them yourself! 🙂
They need turning/ shaking a few times- these took around 20 mins.
Yum! Leave to cool, then store in an airtight jar. I will make a variation of these as Christmas gifts.
I have also been making some more warm lunches.
Another from my squash box- this was a red onion squash- with such vibrant orange flesh.
This was chopped up along with a couple of carrots and a massive sweet potato, and roasted in the oven for 30 mins with a little rosemary. By the way, I walked up to Aldi today (I actually went to go to Sweatshop to spend my race vouchers, but it was closed despite having Sunday opening hours of 11-5pm, anyway..) and I got a big bag of sweet potatoes for 69p! And a big bag of apples for 69p! And 3 peppers for 69p! Super cheap.
Then I cooked 50g quinoa and 50g wholewheat giant cous cous with some vecon stock, added a tin of tomatoes, chilli flakes and a tin of black eye beans.
This made 5 servings all layered up, and some more roasted veg for dinner on another day. After all that chopping I have very orange fingers, so to match I nibbled on;
Yum- Montezumas Milk chocolate with orange- soooooooo good!
Saturday started with some gingerbread porridge (2 boxes for £3 in Waitrose, but they only had 1 box left!)- nice but I think it could do with more ginger! I think I am a spice addict.
This was meant to be my post run snack, but I actually forgot to drink the milk. The Larabar was amazing though- tasted very similar to the almond fudgy bars.
Then heat 220ml almond milk and add 2 tsp dried yeast- leave to bubble for 10 mins. As the almond milk was sugar free I also added a tsp sugar here to help the yeast.
This gets sticky! You may need to add a little more flour to make it into a soft dough.
Then leave covered for 2 hours to double in size.
Hooray!
Then put it on a board and roll out, pour on the fruit mixture and knead it all in.
Then split it into however many loaves you want (I did 3). Roll each one out, put some marzipan in (which seems to be vegan? For some reason I thought it contained egg whites but the ones I have are just sugar and almonds) and sprinkle a few flaked almonds inside.
Then roll up into a loaf shape and attempt to seal the crack down the middle. Leave for an hour to rise. Then heat the oven to 200C.
Bake for 40-45 mins, and then dust with icing sugar. This is in the recipe but also handily covers the bits where the dough opens back out again.
I could not wait to try some (with some lovely vanilla rooibos tea). My one came out blurry, but look at this slice;
The marzipan in the middle is the best bit! 🙂
I was fancying something warm for lunch this week, so I cooked up a big batch to have each day. I cooked some quinoa (80g I think) and giant cous cous (40g?) together in water, with a little vecon stock added (smells like marmite), plus some paprika because I like the colour. I stirred it a bit and let it absorb all the water.
I also had it in a stuffed pepper, alongside yet more roasted squash. Still enjoying the squash box! 🙂
My fridge is currently being attacked by yoghurt too! The lovely people at Rachel’s organic contacted me and asked if I would like to try out some of their recipes. They sounded fab, so I agreed- I thought they were sending me some plain yoghurt and some coconut yoghurt.