Vegan Bakes!

These first few posts are certainly following a then vs now trend, but I'm finding it interesting to reflect on my previous bakes and see where I'm at now (even if no one else is!).

So I thought I'd do the same here, and take the time to show off some of my vegan bakes! I've really struggled with vegan baking in the past, but my latest attempts were very tasty (if I do say so myself)!

My Latest Vegan Bake:

My latest attempts at vegan baking, and probably my most successful, are these Lemon and Elderflower Cupcakes.  

Decorated with lemon peel and chrysanthemums!

Decorated with white roses and chrysanthemums!

A combination of roses, lemon peel, gypsophila 
and chrysanthemums!

Personally, I think these cupcakes are rather pretty. My initial idea was to use union flag cupcake cases with little cocktail stick flagpoles to better relate these cupcakes to the platinum jubilee. The recipe I was following for these cakes wasn't vegan, but I had the audacity to believe that I could improvise a couple of simple swaps to make it vegan friendly.

I started by switching out the butter for stork. So far so good. However, the problem came from my choice of egg replacement. I didn't do very much research, and after reading that aquafaba could be used not just to replace egg white, but to replace whole eggs, I thought I'd cracked it. However, I didn't fully research how this aquafaba would behave in cake batter.

After baking, the cake consistency was very claggy. I'd had this trouble with gluten free bakes before, which I fixed with xanthan gum. I therefore tried to add xanthan gum to this recipe, as I'd made enough batter to bake 50 cupcakes, so had plenty to spare.

This however didn't completely solve the problem, and by this point I was out of ideas. The remaining batter and the baked cakes had to go in the bin.

For a second attempt, I followed an easier vegan recipe from BBC Good Food (why I didn't just do this in the first place I'll never know...). I then soaked the cupcakes in a lemon and elderflower cordial syrup, and topped with a lemon flavoured vegan cream cheese frosting!

To be perfectly honest I'm glad my first attempt didn't work out. The flag cupcake cases weren't as big as I thought (hence there being so many cakes!), and I realised that I found them to be quite tacky. These finished designs were much more to my liking!

Vegan Strawberries and 'Cream' Meringue Cake:

By following the recipe from The Big Book of Amazing Cakes, and then adding a vegan passionfruit curd and sliced kiwi, I created this meringue cake!

The recipe makes it clear how using aquafaba in meringue results in a more unstable meringue when compared to using egg white. I assumed this would mean the unbaked mixture. However, as I found out, the bottom layer of the cake was crushed under the weight of the three upper the layers, the strawberries, kiwi, curd and coconut cream in between layers, and the strawberries on top. Not a big deal really, as this cake wasn't for any particular occasion I just wanted to give it a go.

We then planned to go and see our friend's new house, so I decided to take this for my friends to try. However, over the course of the day the cake began to collapse in on itself, and slowly toppled over. The meringues were dissolving for some reason, and whilst the cake still tasted great the texture had turned a little mushy. The fruit juices probably didn't help with this. By the time I got home, the cake had completely collapsed. 

On the plus side, it was still very tasty!  

Vegan Brownies

Vegan Triple Chocolate Brownies!

These brownies weren't bad for a second attempt, but I did find them a little disappointing when compared to non-vegan versions. They were definitely one of those bakes were you could tell they are vegan, whereas the cupcakes above had the same lighter and fluffy texture (if not fluffier) than 'normal' cupcakes.

Many of my less successful attempts come down to me using the wrong kind of tin or not having the correct equipment. I used a tin that was too wide for the first attempt at these, however I didn't think to adjust the baking time. As a result, the brownies turned out very burnt. I think you can see from the photo that the second batch were a little cakey around the edges. Not that there's anything wrong with a cakey brownie, I just prefer gooey brownies!

Vegan brownies are definitely a bake I'm keen to revisit some time soon

My First Vegan Cakes:

Clearly I've come a long way where decoration is concerned since these cakes! 

I made these cakes for a friend with several food intolerances. They're gluten free and vegan vanilla cupcakes with the most randomly flavoured vegan buttercream, flavoured with mojito, strawberry daiquiri, pina colada and gin fizz gels (from tubes from an old line at Morrisons I think?).

Much like the latest cupcakes, the baked cakes were very claggy. I had this issue 3 times, and it wasn't until I posted my frustrations on my Instagram story that someone I know from university messaged to tell me about the uses of xanthan gum. This sorted the problem straight away. You learn something new every day.

As much as I love the cases that these cakes are baked in, my piping lets the design down. Since then I've invested in a variety of piping nozzles in different shapes in sizes, allowing me to create designs like the first cupcakes above. Random sprinkles as decoration isn't really my style anymore either!

I've made some real progress when it comes to vegan baking. However, I'm really excited for Freya Cox's vegan baking book later this year, as I reckon that'll have some amazing recipes and tips for success!

Gibby x