Vegan Chocolate Cake

Recently I was asked to make a birthday cake for a friend, since I love making cakes this was a very welcome request, until came the stipulation that it had to be vegan. oh... I've never made a vegan cake in my life! The idea quite baffled me I mean eggs and butter are pretty much a staple in cake. This would be quite a challenge! It also had to be sturdy enough to stand up to being carved and covered in fondant as they wanted a rollerskate cake (as a side note Renshaw Regal-Ice and Modelling paste is totally vegan!).

I set about researching in earnest for vegan cake recipes, there are a few out there, most of which use oil, I tried one of the highest rated ones. I don't know what it is about oil based cakes but they just don't do it for me, the flavour always seems to be lacking the richness that butter gives it and it just seems to taste flat to me, I also really don't like the texture. Maybe it's just me, but I really don't get on with those kinds of recipes! So 1 try down and it was just ick, fudgy to the point of cloying in your mouth, almost like unbaked cake batter.

But, I had an idea! You can buy vegan butter so that's a start, and eggless cakes are quite popular as well so maybe an eggless cake was the way to go and I could 'veganize' it from there. This was by far the best choice. I found a simple eggless chocolate sponge and adapted it from there with almond milk in place of skim milk and vegan butter instead of butter. I also divide the flour between self raising and plain for a bit more lightness and added in some dark chocolate to up the chocolate factor a bit. The result was deliciously rich, moist cake that was tasted pretty much like a normal sponge cake. 

I will say that a problem of vegan cake is that it is quite crumbly, probably due to the lack of eggs so I found it best to leave it to cool completely in the tin before trying to move it and then by using two plates to kind of flip it over so you're not lifting it out as it's likely to crack. It also is much more stable to next day when it's had time to settle but if you are using it for carving/decorating you do need to be a bit more gentle!

For carving the cake I layered it up with peanut butter frosting (vegan butter, icing sugar and peanut butter) and then wrapped it in greaseproof and foil and froze it before attempting to do anything with it. It actually worked out quite well with minimal crumbling, just make sure you have a very sharp knife. Before crumb coating it I chucked it back in the freezer for half and hour and made sure my frosting was not too cold or thick otherwise it would have pulled off the crumb. Then just proceeded as usual, chilling the crumbcoated cake before covering in frosting. It turned out quite well if I do say so myself! And went down quite a treat with the intended birthday person!
(I used this recipe for vegan royal icing)

Vegan Moxi Skate Cake

Overnight Oats

Now the warmer weather is coming in I don't feel like filling up on a steaming bowl of porridge in the morning, but I do like my oats! They are so very healthy and tasty. What's a girl to do??

But then I discovered this wonderful, magical food called overnight oats! Have you heard about overnight oats? I think I'm quite late coming to this party but they are pretty amazing! Basically you toss oats, milk, chia seeds and whatever flavours you like into a jar, shake it up and throw it in the fridge overnight. In the morning you have gloriously thick oats that have absorbed all the liquid and become tender and delicious!

I also love them because they are so simple, no faffing about in the morning with the stove when you're sleepy and likely to burn down the house. No bowls/saucepans to wash up. Everything gets made into the jar and shaken up and then you can eat out of that jar too. Bonus! You make them the night before so it's just grab and go and you can make them up for a few days and not have to worry about breakfast! yay!

They are also so incredibly healthy! No nasty stuff in it and it's a really good way to get fruit into your breakfast as well as protein and everyone knows the oats are like the best superfood. What's not to like?

See? So healthy!

Into the jars it goes!

Salted Caramel Cupcakes oh my!

Browsing around the supermarket yesterday I came across this:

Oh my, I adore salted caramel there is just something about that salty sweet goodness that hits just the right spot! I mean look at it! Golden and thick and gooey, mmh... (yes, that spoon did go in my mouth right after that photo was taken)

So, as you can guess, I bought this wonderful pot of deliciousness and decided that the only decent thing to do with it, besides spooning it directly into my mouth, was to make cupcakes with it. I mean cupcakes are awesome, salted caramel is awesome so put them together and you have something extra awesome right? Right! 

I searched for some salted caramel cupcake recipes and boy were there many to choose from, should I go with Vanilla or Chocolate? How about double salted caramel? I actually tried out a few cupcake recipes but none seemed to hit the spot. One was a chocolate cupcake made with oil, I learned that I do not like oil in cupcakes they taste weird and have a funny texture, the other was a vanilla cupcake that just seemed to lack that wow factor I was after. Then I remembered these cupcakes from my first post that I adored. They were so chocolatey and rich and fudgy, perfect! They are quickly becoming my go-to chocolate cupcake.

Then onto the frosting, since I was using caramel I didn't really want to use plain old buttercream as it is so very sweet. I noticed that many of the recipes I was browsing used Swiss Meringue Buttercream but that had a heck of a lot of butter, but then I noticed once that had Italian Meringue Buttercream, it seemed much simpler than the Swiss kind, no whipping egg whites over a pan of simmering water.. yay! So I went with Italian. 

I am so glad Mr. Grad bought me a Kenwood Stand mixer for my birthday this year, oh boy do I love that machine and that man! I don't think you can really make this kind of frosting without one. It was my first time making this kind of frosting and it is a bit more involved than just whacking sugar and butter in a mixer but I followed this recipe by Annalise and it turned out perfectly. If you are struggling I totally suggest you to check out her step-by-step tutorial. Incidentally today I also learned how to make Marshmallow Fluff, now that is dangerous knowledge to have! 

So anyway back on track, cupcakes... chocolatey, fudgy cupcakes topped with a billowing cloud of caramel flavoured Italian meringue buttercream, drizzled with more salted caramel and finished off with a little chocolate shard! Heaven! These quickly got sent with Mr. Grad to work because, you know, its not a good idea to leave me alone with 12 of these babies! Everyone LOVED them. I tell ya I'm making that man look good! I mean... just look at them... who could resist?**

So without further ado, I present to you...

Hello! Sit down, have some cupcakes won't you?

I guess this is Hello!

This is, obviously, my first post here so perhaps introductions are in order no?

I'll keep it brief don't worry because I have a delicious cupcake recipe to share with you guys as a welcome.

So, I am Shen. I am 27 and a PhD student studying early modern History, so 1500-1700 (give or take a few years!). So I guess that makes me a hard up grad student as unfortunately studying does not bring in the money, at least not during your studies, in fact it tends to take it away from you in vast quantities! So whilst there are vast numbers of bloggers out there writing for students I think most of them focus on undergraduates, people who are just starting out their education career and perhaps need more help learning how to cook. Once you are further along in you studies (and life) a whole new set of challenges comes along. My days as a young, fresh-faced teenager entering into the wide world without a care in the world are far behind me (:() and now I live with my partner (who shall henceforth be known as Mr. Grad) and juggle studying full time with running a household on a limited budget whilst trying to keep things interesting, healthy and fun as well as cheap.

So, yes, that's me!  I am totally new to this whole thing so hopefully I won't bore you too much and we'll have some laughs and good food along the way!

Now, down to the real business... cupcakes!! Who doesn't like a good cupcake (or 5) now and then? I don't think I've met anyone who doesn't go gooey-eyed over cupcakes and I don't think I want to meet them if they exist! Seriously... you don't like cupcakes? What kind of monster are you?? 

Personally I prefer cupcakes over cake! There's something about those delicious bites of cakey goodness with the perfect ratio of mouthwatering icing with endless combination possibilities! They are just so much more versatile than cake! 

I recently made these cupcakes for Mr. Grad to take to work, they got massive thumbs up from his colleagues who devoured them in minutes. I do hope that you enjoy them! Scratch that, I know you will!! I mean... just look at them!! Imagine them with a nice cup of coffee (or tea) with your feet up!