Vegan Basbousa

Last year was a very quiet year on Gormandize. I don't know how so many women seem to accomplish so much while raising tiny babies, but I salute them. I couldn't even begin to get my head around doing all the stuff I used to do before my baby came along. Caring for a tiny human, trying to keep my house moderately clean and working 2 half days a week already seems like an overwhelming amount to do. A lot of my personal interests have been put on hold.

Next week, my beautiful cheeky daughter turns one. I'm hoping this year to start exploring some of the things that used to occupy my time before her and this blog is one of them. Over the past few years I've put up about 380 free vegan recipes for you all to enjoy. That is a phenomenal database of delicious food. It has taken up a lot of time and resources! I won't be able to dedicate nearly as much time, effort and money to producing recipes for you all as I used to, but this blog will live on.

I've got a new project that I'm working on for Gormandize and I'm also going to be bringing you some new recipes this year. I hope you enjoy what I've got in store.

I'm starting you off with a firm favourite. I love this dish. I must have made it countless times. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do :)

Wishing you a prosperous Year of the Rooster!

Basbousa (Egyptian Semolina & Coconut Cake)

Ingredients
1/2 cup nuttelex (or other vegan margarine)
3/4 cup raw sugar
75g dessicated coconut (unsweetened)
1 cup semolina
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup plain wholemeal flour
3/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Whole blanched almonds, to decorate

Syrup:
2/3 cup caster sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tbsp lemon juice

To Make:
1. Start with the syrup, so it has time to cool. Place the sugar, water and lemon juice in a saucepan over a medium heat and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 6-8 minutes, until it thickens. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Once cool, chill in the refrigerator while you make the cake.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. 
3. Melt the nuttelex in a saucepan and then add all the remaining ingredients except the blanched almonds, stir well to combine. 
4. Grease a square baking dish well and pour the batter into it, spreading it out evenly.
5. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden. Remove from the oven and score lines diagonally across the surface. Pour the chilled syrup over the hot cake and then decorate each piece with a blanched almond in the centre. Allow to cool slightly and then serve either warm or chilled. 

You can check out my the other delicious Egyptian & Egypt-inspired recipes here. 

Orange Teacake Biscuits

It's only since I started blogging that I realised how much I love orange. It had never really occurred to me before, but since I label each post according to key ingredients and the list appears in the side bar to your right, I've discovered that 'orange' is one of my most frequently used labels. In fact, I've got almost as many recipes labelled 'orange' and I do 'chocolate'! I glanced down the list, they're a fairly equal spread of sweet and savoury. When people ask me about my favourite ingredients I never think of orange, but it turns out I use it a lot more often than many of the ones I would list as favourites.

Part of the reason is because I'm a bit addicted to home made orange curd, and use it on a lot of things :) But actually I think the main reason is the use of oranges across the whole world to add flavour to such a broad variety of dishes. Many of my orange recipes on this blog are actually part of my world food challenge posts, recipes from all different parts of the globe which use orange as a central flavour to their cooking, it's amazing when you think about how far ingredients spread around the world to be adapted and interpreted by so many different cultures. Here are a few examples of the Orange posts from all over the globe, just to highlight my point:

The Netherlands - Dutch Orange Bitters (Oranjebitter)
Tunisia - Orange Flavoured Doughnuts (Yoyo)
Brazil - Fried Rice Balls flavoured with Orange, Olive & Brazil Nuts (Bolinhos de Arroz)
Nepal - Chilli, Grapefruit and Orange Salad
Egypt - Orange & Olive Salad with Cumin
Samoa - Chocolate Orange Rice Pudding (Koko Rice)
Costa Rica - Orange & Passionfruit Pudding

We could actually add Russia to that list now, because I found and adapted these lovely Orange Teacake Biscuits when researching Russian recipes for the blog.

Orange Teacake Biscuits

Ingredients
1 cup nuttelex (or other vegan friendly margarine or butter)
1 cup castor sugar
1 tbsp. orange zest
1 tbsp. orange juice
2 tsp orange extract
2/3 cup apple sauce (or you can use an egg replacement such as 'no egg"'to the equivalent of 2 eggs)
3 cups wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
Large granule sugar (sometimes called 'coffee sugar'), for decorating

To Make:
1. Cream the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer (or some nice vigorous elbow grease, which is my most common method). Add the orange zest, juice, extract and the apple sauce and mix until completely smooth.
2. Sift in the flour and the baking power and mix well. Form your dough into a ball and wrap in cling wrap, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. In the meantime preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Cut your dough into 3 pieces and roll out the first one on a floured bench to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out whatever shapes you like and arrange on a tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Press a sprinkling of the large sugar granules into the top.
4. Bake in batches for about 8 minutes, or until just lightly golden in colour. Turn the tray around about 5 minutes into the cooking to ensure even baking. If you're using smaller than average cutters, they will need a bit less cooking time.

Makes 25-35 biscuits, depending on the size of your cutters.

Orange Blossom and Almond Friendship Cupcakes

They say that every little girl dreams of her wedding. I didn’t. But I did often think about which of my friends I would pick as my bridesmaids. I’m not sure why, but I found the prospect of picking bridesmaids exciting. I loved the idea of honouring some of my friends with a gesture that said “you are important to me”. When I was young though, I was always glad that I didn’t have to pick bridesmaids just yet, because I had so many friends that the decision would just be too hard. How could I pick just a few when I had so many friends? Is it ok to have eight or nine bridesmaids? It’s only been about 7 years since I finished school, but how things have changed. I still think about it sometimes, even though I have no plans to get married. Only now I feel happy that I don’t have to choose because I’m not sure if I can think of that many people who have really been there for me when I needed it.

When I was a child I used to wonder why my parents didn't seem to have as many friends as me. When I was in primary school I had so many friends to play with, when I was in high school I could easily have 50 people to invite to my party. So, what happened to all my parents’ friends? Now that I'm getting older I have a much better understanding. These days I can put almost all my friends under one of two categories: those who are moving away from me and those who never get in touch.

Those who are moving away are people who care about me and love me, and I know that the fact that they’re moving away isn't personal. I wish them the best of luck and I’m happy for them. It still saddens me though, and it can’t help feeling that it’s them saying “I don’t really mind it I barely ever see you anymore”. They’ll still remain friends, but it’s not the same. You can’t really expect somebody to be there for you if they’re in another country, another time zone, another world away.

Those who don’t get in touch are the ones who never text, never call and never take action to organise any catch ups. This also includes the ones which pull out of the things I organise consistently and at the last minute.  So, I see them only if I contact them or I organise an event and they don’t bail at the last minute. On the few occasions that I do see them they always exclaim “we should see each other more often, we should organise a time to do {whatever}”. Yet, I don’t hear from them again until the next time I get in touch. There are a lot of reasons for this, of which I can guess at. Sometimes it’s because friends value their relationships more then they value their friendships, sometimes it’s because they're too lazy to organise things and sometimes it’s probably because they’re not actually that interested in seeing you.

The other day I needed some time away from home. This happens when you live with somebody, you occasionally just need some space. I went out for a walk and I was trying to think of somebody that I could visit at short notice just because I needed to be away from my house and spend some time with a friend. The sad thing was, I couldn’t think of anybody.

Perhaps tv shows raise our expectations of friendships, just as romance movies raise our expectations of love and relationships. Maybe shows like Sex and the City create unrealistic expectations? Is it too much to expect to have a close group of friends who love you, make time for you, contact you often and are physically and emotionally there for you when you need it – even when they have boyfriends, work and children? I guess it probably is. I’d love to know what other people think, please share your thoughts below.

This reflection on friendship accompanies these beautiful little cupcakes for two reasons. Firstly, because it’s an issue that is on my mind a lot at the moment. Secondly, because I made these lovely cupcakes with a friend while we caught up over tea and it was lovely. While we were eating and drinking tea, I took this photo. It makes me feel happy because to me it symbolises the simple pleasure of making time to catch up with a friend.

Orange Blossom and Almond Friendship Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

1 cup of soy milk

1 tsp of apple cider vinegar

¾ cup of sugar

¼ cup of oil (I used rice bran oil)

2 Tbsp of roasted almond butter

2 Tbsp of orange blossom water

1/2 cup of almond meal

1 cup of plain flour

1 ½ tsp of baking powder

Glaze:

2 Tbsp of orange blossom water

1 tbsp of almond/soy milk

1 ¼ cups of icing mixture

1 Tbsp of roasted almond butter

Whole almonds, to decorate (optional)

To Make:

Preheat oven to 180 Celsius.

1. Whisk together the soymilk and apple cider vinegar

2. Add sugar, oil, roasted almond butter, orange blossom water and almond meal and whisk until well combined.

3. Sift in flour and baking powder and whisk until combined.

4. Divide into 12 patty pans.

5. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool.

6. To make the glaze: combine all the glaze ingredients in a bowl and mix well until smooth. Drizzle over the cupcakes once they are completely cooled. Top with an almond, if you like.

Makes 12 cupcakes (and reminds somebody that you love them).

Triple Threat Vegan Coconut Cake

Coconut cake looks and sounds very unassuming and not particulary special. Don't let that fool you! This coconut cake is special with a capital spec. It's my second Indonesian inspired recipe to go up this month, and my first sweet offering. A small heads up, if you are allergic to coconut then Indonesian month might not be your month, as it's all loaded with coconut!

So, why is this cake a triple threat? Yes, it can sing, dance and act, but there's more. It's not just a cake with some coconut, oh no, it's a cake with coconut, coconut cream and coconut oil. It's also drizzled generously with coconut glaze, so maybe it's a quadruple threat? The result of this combination is really triple the goodness - the texture of the cake is exceptional. It's moist and dense and packed with flavour.

Triple Threat Vegan Coconut Cake

Ingredients
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup palm sugar (liquid)
1 x 400ml can coconut cream (minus 1 tbsp for the glaze)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 cup dessicated coconut (you could probably sub fresh grated coconut if you have it)

And for the glaze:
1 tbsp coconut cream (just reserve it from the can you used for the cake)
1 cup soft icing mixture
Pinch of cinnamon (optional)

To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.
2. Heat the coconut oil over a low heat until melted. Remove from the head and place in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the palm sugar and stir well.
4. Shake up the can of coconut cream well before use. Open it and set aside 1 tbsp of it to use for the glaze. Add the rest to the bowl along with the vanilla extract. Whisk to combine.
5. Add the flour, baking powder and bicarb and whisk through. Finally, stir through the dried coconut.
6. Line a well grease medium square baking dish with greaseproof paper on the bottom and pour the batter in.
7. Bake for about 30 minutes or until springy to touch and a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Set aside to cool while you whip up some glaze.
9. To make the glaze: place the icing mixture and 1 tbsp of coconut cream in a small bowl and stir well with a fork or spoon until smooth.
10. Once the cake is completely cool, cut into slices and drizzle the glaze liberally over the top. Ready to eat!

*TIPS*
~ If your coconut cream comes out of the can a little lumpy, don't worry. Just whisk it well when you add it to the bowl to get rid of lumps
~ If you're going to make this cake in advance, I recommend NOT storing it in the fridge. Putting this cake in the fridge will cause the coconut oil to solidify making the cake much harder. I advise storing it in an air tight tupperware container in the cupboard, and the same goes for any leftovers.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Indonesia!

Check out my other Indonesian recipe posts:

Gado Gado

Acar Kuning (Hot, Sour & Sweet Vegetables)

Lontong Paris 

Jus Alpukat (Avocado Milkshake)

Rujak (Spicy Fruit Salad)
Lawar Ayam (Coconut and Bean Salad)

Rendang Tofu

Vegan Frankfurter Kranz (German Bundt Cake with Cherry Jam and Rum Buttercream)

I generally have a rule that I never post more than one recipe a day. Today I am breaking that rule big time! Why? Because all my blogging events have happened to fall on exactly the same day. Today. Today I will be posting four recipes!

Firstly, at 8am this morning entries opened for the infamous Chopped/Vegan challenge hosted by vegan cooking guru Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The challenge was to create brunch dishes using butternut pumpkin, fresh rosemary, popcorn and apricot jam - quite a challenge but I really did enjoy it! Here are my two entries: Pumpkin Rosemary Popcorn Crumble and Lemon Rosemary Popcorn Cupcakes with Pumpkin Apricot Glaze. It was so much fun cooking with this unusual combination of ingredients and I have to say the results were actually quite delicious!

Secondly, it's time again for the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, this month hosted by Jennifer from Delicieux with a 'High Tea' theme.

Thirdly, the Eating the Alphabet Blog Hop is kicking off as well featuring the letters S and T, I've put up these lovely Balsamic Strawberry and Cucumber Sushi Rolls.

Whenever I think of high tea I always think of tiny mini cakes and bundt cakes. I'm not sure what it is about cakes cooked in a ring shape that makes me think of sitting on a balcony drinking tea at a white table strewn with doilies. This month is also German Food month, so I am pleased to be able to combine this Sweet Adventures Blog Hop with my theme for the month and bring you Frankfurter Kranz - a German bundt cake which translates to Frankfurt Crown. It's not hard to see why, it does look rather like a crown.

I'll give you a heads up though! It's very sweet. Vanilla cake + cherry jam + buttercream + sugared almonds equals a whole lot of sweet! I thought it was fantastic though, so don't let this turn you off, just make sure you invite some friends around to help you eat it!

Thanks again to the lovely hostesses of the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop. Here are my entries from the previous months:

September's Saucy Hop - Afghan Brides Fingers with Orange Blossom Syrup

August's Berry Hop - Sugar Free and Vegan Raspberry Fudge

July's Nut Hop -  Best Ever Vegan Carrot Cake  (I got this one in just in time, but it never appeared on the link list so you may have missed it!)
June's Pie Hop - Easy, Sticky, Messy Banana Rum Pie

May's Tea Hop - Thai Red Tea Vegan Jelly with Poached Apples
April's Lemon Hop - Lemon Curd 'Cake Sandwiches'

March's Layers Hop - Rhubarb and Apple Sago Parfait

February's 'Love' Hop - African Almond, Pistachio and Orange Blossom Bites

January's Choc Hop - Black Forest Shots & Truffles in 3 Flavours: Paprika, Tahini & Strawberry Gum
December's Festive Hop - Chocolate Ice-Cream Christmas Pudding


Vegan Frankfurter Kranz

Ingredients

The Cake
2 cups soymilk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup canola or rice bran oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond meal
2 cups wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda

The fillers and toppers*
1 cup nuttelex (or other non dairy margarine)
3 cups soft icing mixture
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp vanilla rum (if you don't have vanilla rum just use plain dark rum - but don't use vanilla white rum!)
Black cherry jam
1/3 cup castor sugar
2/3 cup blanched almonds

*This recipe for buttercream makes enough to do a crumb coat and a top coat of icing, which is a good idea for a layer cake, as there will be plenty of crumbs to get though the icing. If you don't want to do a crumb coat then you can probably make about 2/3 of the icing quantity.

To Make:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Combine the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and whist until frothy. Set aside to curdle.
3. Add the oil, sugar and vanilla to the soy milk and mix well.
4. Add the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
5.  Pour into a well greased bundt tin and cook for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15-20 mins and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
While it's cooling you can:
6. Cream the margarine, icing mixture, vanilla and vanilla rum together to make the buttercream.
7. Lightly toast the blanched almonds in a pan or a grill/oven.
8. Heat the castor sugar in a small saucepan until completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir the almonds through it until completely coated with the sugar. Then spread out onto a sheet of greaseproof paper and put in the fridge to harden up.
Now that the cake is cooled you can:
9. Cut the cake into 3 fairly even layers (the top one will obviously be smaller, don't stress).
10. Spread a generous amount of cherry jam onto each layer. Then top with a layer of your rum buttercream.

11. Reassemble your layers and you're ready to ice it.

12. Spread a layer of the buttercream icing all over the cake, don't worry about making it too neat because this is the crumb coat or 'undercoat'. Then put the cake in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

13. Take it out and do the top layer. Make this layer nice and neat and smooth it out as much as you can. 

14. Roughly chop/break/smash your almond brittle and decorate the top with it liberally.

Makes 1 ring cake.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Germany!

Check out my other German recipe posts:

German Apple Pancakes

Rohkostsalat (Cabbage and Fruit Salad)

Deconstructed Black Forest Cake Parfait

Rosenkohl in Bier (Brussels Sprouts in Beer)

Zwiebelkuchen (German Onion Pie)

German Potato Salad

Kaiserschmarrn (Torn Pancakes with Apple)

Rote (und grün) Grütze (German Fruit Jelly)

Chokladdarraksboll (Swedish Chocolate Aniseed Balls)

I can't say that I know any Swedish people personally (much as I'd love to!), however, it does appear that from all accounts they have a serious sweet tooth! If you just have a quick glance at the wikipedia page then you'll notice that the list of sweet dishes listed there is about double the size of the savoury dishes. So, taking that into account it was difficult to decide which sweet dishes to cook for Sweden. I had it narrowed to about eight ones that I wanted to try - but I really couldn't justify cooking (and eating!) that many sweets!

When I read about Chokladdbolls, I immediately knew I wanted to give them a try. They were simple and easy to make, but who doesn't love balls of chocolate? I love chocolate truffles of all kinds (check out all my other chocolate truffle posts here) so it was a no brainer to try this new type. So I firmly put them on the list and then kept reading. THEN I found something else.... Arraksbolls! Balls made of cake crumbs flavoured with arak (a Lebanese aniseed spirit). Now I couldn't decide! I loved the sound of both!

Then I came to an exciting realisation - I didn't have to choose between them! 

Chokladdbolls + Arraksbolls = Chokladdarraksbolls.

Easy as that!

Now comes the confession! I had a bit of a look around for some arak so that I could make these, but sadly none of the bottle shops anywhere near me stocked it :( They stocked Ouzo and Raki - but not Arak!

I happened to have half a bottle of Raki sitting in the cupboard from a Turkish dinner party I hosted quite a while ago, which I was very happy to use up. Raki, Ouzo and Arak are all essentially the same thing from different countries (I'm sure there will be some Lebanese, Greeks and Turks which will dispute this and I'd love to hear from you what the actual differences are!). Raki is Turkish, Ouzo is Greek and Arak is Lebanese - all are aniseed spirits.

So, on a technical note - these are actually Chokladdrakibolls. But lets not split hairs! I'm sure you can make these with any aniseed spirit that you can find - so give it a go!

Ingredients

(Adapted from The Vegan Swedes)

100g Nuttelex (or other dairy free margarine)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup castor sugar

1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats

100g dark chocolate, melted in a double boiler (or a metal bowl over a simmering pot of water)

3 tbsp arak (or raki...)

Chocolate sprinkles, to roll (you can also use dessicated coconut)

To Make

1. Measure the Nuttelex, vanilla, sugar and oats into a bowl. Mix together.

2. Melt the chocolate and add. 

3. Add the Arak (Raki) and stir well.

4. Using your hands, roll out walnut sized balls and roll them in the chocolate sprinkles. Continue until all the mixture is gone - should make 25-30 balls.

5. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour before eating (these are perfect made the night before and left to chill in the fridge over night).

Makes 25-30 balls.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Sweden!

Check out my other Swedish recipe posts:

Ärtsoppa (Split Pea & Mustard Soup)

Vegan Smörgåstårta (Swedish Sandwich Cake)

Vegan Swedish Meatballs

Almond and Cranberry Semla

Jansson's Temptation (Creamy Potato Bake)

No-Knead Cardamom Braid 

Kladdkaka (Gooey Chocolate Cake!)

Garlicy Field Mushrooms with Rödkål 

Scottish Vegan Oat Scones

Oats and scones are both very quintessentially Scottish - so oat scones are about as Scottish as they come. These delicious oaty and currenty scones turned out delicious, however, I almost didn't post them because the photos didn't turn out that well. But in the end Scottish food is about delicious homely cooking so taste won out. 

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups plain wholemeal flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup dried currants

1/3 cup soy milk

1/3 cup oat milk

1 tbsp tapioca starch or arrowroot powder

125g Nuttelex (or other non dairy margarine), melted.

To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Combine the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, tapioca starch, currants, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl.

3. Make a well in the middle and add the melted Nuttelex and milks. Mix to create a soft dough.

4. Turn out onto a floured benchtop and knead briefly until the dough is a smooth ball. Flatten slightly into a thick disk about 8-10 inches diameter. Score the top into eight wedges.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Cut into wedges and serve warm spread with Nuttelex (and a cup of tea preferably).

I'm featuring lots of recipes from the United Kingdom,

Check out my other recipe posts here:

Vegan Cauliflower Cheese

Summer Pudding

Mushroom & Guinness Pie

Treacle Tart

Vegan Bakewell Tart

Roasted Love Apple and Wine Soup

Cranachan (Whiskey Cream with Raspberries and Oats)

Orange and Lemon Vegetables

Swede & Parsnip Mini Cottage Pies

Vegan Lemon Curd Cake Sandwiches

I've been doing a lot of blog hopping at the moment, in fact I had three over three days. It started with my own blog hop - The Soup-Off Challenge which was my first ever so I was a bit worried about whether it would work. It turned out to be a flop unfortunately, but c'est la vie! Next time I will know just to sit back and enter other people's hops rather than have any of my own. Nevertheless, I made an awesome soup which you should check out here - Green Tea Noodle Soup with Leek and Shitake Mushrooms.

Then, the very next day I participated in the Eat-the-Alphabet Blog Hop, a monthly group which featured E and F as the letters this month. The idea is to base the dish around a fruit, vegetable, bean, grain or pulse that starts with E or F. I made Vegan Fig and Red Wine Ice Cream - yum!

So, I almost didn't get time to make anything for the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, which this month is lemon themed and hosted by a favourite blogger of mine, Delicieux.  But I decided that I should try and get something in because I believe in supporting the blogging community by trying to make the culinary projects of other bloggers a success.

Lemons are a delicious theme! I don't know anybody who doesn't love lemon desserts. Several ones immediately spring to mind: lemon cake, lemon tart, lemon cupcakes, lemon meringue pie, lemon pudding, lemon pie etc. All delicious and classic recipes. However, I like to challenge myself with themes which is why I decided to invent something completely new which (to my knowledge) has never been done before. My answer was....

The Cake Sandwich.

These gorgeous tea party delights look very unassuming. In fact, they look like fairly plain and boring brown bread sandwiches. However, they are actually made from light lemony cake filled with wonderfully tangy lemon curd. They are perfect for a tea party because they combine two classic afternoon tea/tea party elements - cakes and triangle sandwiches. They can be almost completely prepared the day before and just assembled on the day - plus they are finger food so don't require plates or forks (=less washing up!).

Also - the lemon curd was to die for.


On another note - I've been nominated for the Best Australian Blogs 2012 People's Choice Award - you can vote for me by hitting up this link: http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/bloggingcomp/peopleschoice.html


Lemon Curd Cake Sandwiches
Vegan Lemon Curd Recipe from vegnews.com


Ingredients
Lemon Curd:
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (should be about 2 lemons - note: zest lemons before juicing!)
3/4 cup coconut milk
3 heaped tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp turmeric

Cake:
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup apple sauce
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange essence
1 1/4 cups wholemeal plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda

To Make
Lemon Curd (must be made a day in advance)
1. Zest the lemon. (You may as well go ahead and zest the other lemon as well and set it aside for later as you will need it for the cake.) Then juice the lemons.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and stir well.
3. Place the saucepan over a medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring continuously, to bring to a warm temperature (at no point should it simmer/boil - it it starts to simmer turn it down immediately).
4. Reduce the heat to low and continue stirring constantly. Leave over the low heat for 7 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer straight into a clean empty glass jar (don't leave it sitting in the hot saucepan).
5. All to cool and then refrigerate over night before using.

The Cake (can be made a day in advance)
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Mix the lemon zest, lemon juice and soy milk together and allow it to curdle for a few minutes.
3. Add the sugar, apple sauce, canola oil and extracts and mix well.
4. Sift the remaining ingredients into the batter and mix well.
5. Lightly grease a square 20cm x 20cm baking dish and line it with baking paper (mine was actually 21cm x 21cm, so don't worry about a few cm difference). Pour the batter in and smooth the top over evenly.
6. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool completely before using.

Assembly
1. Take out your cooled cake and cut it into even quarter squares. Then cut each square along both diagonals so that you have 4 small triangles in each quarter. If you are having difficulty visualising what I just described then here is a (not to scale) drawing:

2. Cut each small triangle in half lengthways (like you would slice open a bread roll) so that now you have two small pieces of cake which look just like brown bread. Now here is the clever trick - you want it to look just like brown bread so you need to spread the lemon curd (the sandwich filling) on the darker "crust" of the bread so that the middle bits of the cake are facing out. (If you find that a bit confusing just have a look at the pics of the finished products - you will see the softer middle parts of the cake form the look of the bread whilst the top and bottom edges of the actual cake face inwards with the lemon curd filling.

3. Continue filling sandwiches until you use up all the cake (you will have lemon curd left over but that's just a bonus!).

4. For best results refrigerate the made sandwiches for about 10 minutes to help them stay together.

Serve with tea of course! 

Makes 16 triangle sandwiches (and 2 small jars of lemon curd).

African Loz (Almond and Pistachio Bites of Amazingness)

I've been reading a lot of blog entires lately and have noticed a lot of Valentine's Day bashing going on. It's mostly along the lines of "why do we need a special day to be shown love when somebody who loves you should show you every day". My answer to this question is: we don't - but what's wrong with taking a moment out to appreciate how lucky you are to have love in your life and celebrate it a little?

I'd like to put forward two points on this matter (before I get to the delicious point of this post): Firstly, if you are in a relationship in which your partner (he or she) ONLY shows you love on Valentines Day then you shouldn't be in that relationship full stop - so that shouldn't even be an issue! Secondly, although there is no need to get commercial or expensive on Valentine's Day, there is nothing wrong with taking a moment out to appreciate the people in your life that you love and who love you. I'm not just talking about partners/spouses, but about the friends and family who love you and want to spend time with you - having people in your life who love you makes you the luckiest person in the world - so celebrate it!

I have to admit, I'm not the kind of person who does Valentine's Day. I don't buy into all the commercial stuff they push at you to try and make you believe that "she" (notice how all the push is on giving gifts to women on Valentine's Day? Highly sexist - why not give flowers and jewellery to the men??) won't love you unless you  buy her a really ugly diamond bracelet costing $1999. However, I think that people immediately jump in to hate Valentine's Day because of the commercial side - but Christmas is very commercial too and do you hate Christmas??? (I hope not because Xmas is awesome).

As a final note in this opinion article, I'd like to point out that you could apply the logic of "why do we need a special day to be shown love when somebody who loves you should show you every day" could be equally applied to any other 'special' day of the year. Do you expect people to only be nice to you and be happy that you are alive on your birthday? No, you expect that all year round but you still celebrate your birthday! Do you only appreciate living in a great country with amazing first world problems on Australia Day? No, if you have any sense you realise how lucky you are all year round but you can still appreciate the public holiday and have a celebration with friends and family if that is your tradition. Do you only eat chocolate on Easter? No, chocolate is for all year round but that doesn't mean you can't indulge on Easter! (As you can see from that I am not religious and the only think Easter means to me is chocolate). In SUM! Of course Valentine's Day shouldn't be the only day that your lover/friends/spouse show you that they love you - but what's wrong with it if they want to show you they love you on Valentine's Day as well?

After that very long intro - let's get to the recipe. When the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop girls announced that this month's theme was to be Love At First Bite, I thought that it was a pretty easy topic because it's so broad you can really post whatever you want, so I though this month I would combine it with the theme for this month on our blog: Chadian Food. Here on Gormandize with A-dizzle and K-bobo we like to take a different  country each month to explore their foods and learn as much as we can about recipes and ingredients from that country (if you'd like to check out our past months posts or to suggest a country for us to feature then hit up this post here!). This month we are featuring food inspired by Chad (to learn more about Chad and Chadian food check out this post here!) and we are continuing that this month with these incredible little African/Middle Eastern sweetmeats called Loz.

This is the second 'Valentines' themed blog hop I've participated in this month - check out the other hop too by checking out my entry - Vegan Strawberry Cherry Sago Trifle!

In my opinion there are 3 flavours which just ooze the idea of love: rosewater, orange blossom water and raspberries. These three ingredients always make your food so sensual! In this case these little babies are laced with orange blossom water and their aroma will make you fall in love at first smell whilst their incredible taste will be love at first bite!

I mean, look at it! What's not to love??

Ingredients:

230gm almond meal

120gm icing sugar

7 tablespoons orange blossom water

30gm shelled pistachio nuts finely chopped

30gm caster sugar

Icing sugar for dusting

Extra pistachio nuts for garnishing

How to make:

1.Combine the ground almonds and icing sugar with enough orange-blossom water to

form a stiff paste.

2.Knead until smooth and allow to rest for about 10 minutes.

3.Combine the finely chopped pistachio nuts and caster sugar, grind in a mortar and  

pestle until fine, and set aside.

4.Roll the paste into balls the size of a walnut, and using a teaspoon handle, make a small hole in each ball and and fill it with the combined pistachio mixture, then close the hole over the filling so it is once again a ball. This takes a bit of technique, as the powdery sugar filling makes it difficult to close over the hole - after a few tries I perfected a method of sort of pinching the seam together and smoothing in over by tapping it repeatedly with my index finger. It worked really well, but sadly I don't have a YouTube channel so I can't really show you how I did it!

5.Roll the balls in icing sugar and place in small paper cups or on a serving plate.

6.Decorate the top of each ball with a pistachio nut and serve.

Makes approx 13.

Check out our other Chadian recipes as well: 

Chadian Breakfast Bouille

Millet Balls with 3 dipping sauces

Chadian Sweet Potato Fritters

Chadian Irio (Mashed beans, potatoes and vegetables)
Kachumbari 

Maharagwe