Sarah Cupcakes - Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes!

Sarah Cupcakes - Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes!

Soon it will be my lovely daughter's birthday! She will be 3 (I know right!! Time flies!). I was looking for a good vegan cupcake recipe to make, and preferably one that I could taste! Luckily, my lovely friend Sarah sent me one of hers! The design above was a fluke, but amusing! I think I'll probably change the design for a 3 year old's birthday party!! The first vegan AND gluten free cake I have made, really delicious.

Makes 12-14 cupcakes

What you need:

*50g Cocoa Powder

*6 tbsp Boiling Water

*3 Egg replacer eggies ( make them up with the instructions on the box - you can find them at most health stores :) )

*4 tbsp almond/rice/soy milk

*175 Gluten Free Flour (we used Dove's Farm)

*1 rounded tsp baking powder

* 100g Vegan Marg

*200g Caster Sugar (you can get away with less though :) )

*1/2 tsp Xanthin Gum

*Almond Flavouring ( I used maybe a tsp in the cake and 1/2 tsp in the icing)

* Cupcake cases (12-14)

For the icing:

*Icing sugar

*Coconut Oil - Melted over a stove

*Almond Flavouring 1/2 tsp

*Cocoa Powder

What you need to do:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
• Mix cocoa powder and boiling water in a cup/jug until it forms a paste. Add almond flavouring

• Cream butter and sugar in another bowl
• Add the egg replacer, then sift in the flour, baking powder and xanthin gum.
• Place the cupcake cases on a tray, then scoop the mixture into the cases. Should look something like the above picture.
• Into the oven!
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until they look and smell delicious! Check with a fork or skewer, if it comes out clean it should be done.
• Cool on a wire tray

• Now time for the icing! The measurements are kind of sketchy on this so just make as much as you feel you need! If you make too much, then you can just eat it! Omnomnom!
• Sift the icing sugar in a small bowl
• Melt the coconut oil in a pan, and pour into the icing sugar once liquid.
• Add the cocoa powder
• Add the almond flavouring
• Mix!
• Spoon over the cupcakes, and leave to dry. Before it sets, decorate! 

So there you go, delicious chocolatey vegan gluten free cupcakes!! Deelicious. :)

Thank you to Kate for delegating, and Sarah for the lovely recipe!

Hannah x

Stuffed Butternut Squash with Tomato Chickpea Sauce Recipe

Stuffed Butternut Squash with Tomato Chickpea Sauce Recipe

OH MY GOSH I seem to have acquired an actual working oven!! This is wayy too exciting for me, life without an oven isn't impossible, just makes life a little more difficult. Plus having to fry everything isn't the most healthy way to live!!

I have been ridiculously busy today, toddlers are really amazing, but exhausting! If you still have a toddler running around, trying to sleep in the cupboards or taking things out the fridge, giving them a few tasks to do with this will keep them occupied and be pretty helpful! Anyway, FOOD!

What you need:

1 Butternut Squash

Punnet Mushrooms

Basil

1 Onion

2 - 3 Cloves Garlic

1 Tin Chick Peas

Carton of Passata (or tin of tomatoes)
Cherry Tomatoes (optional)

Bag of Spinach
10 olives

Salt/Pepper

1 tsp chilli powder 

Olive Oil

What you need to do:

• Preheat the oven at 180 degrees
• Slice the Butternut Squash in half, scoop out the seeds with a spoon
• Lattice (make grooves across and down the flesh) but very lightly (treaadd lightly)
• Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and put in the oven for 45mins - 1 hour (depending on how big it is - check with fork for softness!)
• MEANWHILE... (in another universe)
• Chop mushrooms finely.. I got my daughter Esme to chop them with a blunt knife, and then went over with them with a sharp one. Alternatively throw them in the food processor.
• Chop 3-4 leaves of Basil and 3/4 bag of Spinach finely, then 1-2 large cloves of garlic, and the onion, as finee as you possible can!! Try to chop the olives, if your 3 year old doesn't try to eat them all.
• Fry up the onion, garlic, olives and mushrooms with a slug of olive oil. Put to the side
•  In another pan, fry 1 clove of garlic, empty a tin of chick peas and the passata, and stir. Add the chilli powder, cherry tomatoes and 3-4 leaves of basil (roughly tear up), cook on low heat, then turn off.
• If you have time, put your feet up for 10 minutes! I went for a run, like a crazy person.
• Check the butternut squash, if getting softer, move onto next step
• Turn on the heat to the mushroom mixture, add the spinach and basil, and heat for a few minutes.
• Once wilted, scoop into the hollow parts of the squash, and bake for another 10-15 minutes
• Heat the tomato sauce through, place onto plate with extra spinach if you fancy :)
• Serve, eat YUM! I added seeds and nutritional yeast to mine, but then I am obsessed with nutritional yeast.

Extra Puddingy part!:

I spotted a discounted pineapple at my local co-op, so I thought it was only fitting to do something with it. Spending hours making a roasted butternut squash didn't leave a lot of time to cook anything else. So I just threw something together:

All you need is: 1 Pineapple, Coconut Cream (just buy coconut milk in a tin, scoop the cream off the top - I bought quite a few of these on offer for 3 for £2), Sweet Freedom or syrup of your choice, Coconut oil (not required, just tasty!)

What you need to do is: Cut the pineapple into rings (or just buy ones in a tin!), prepare a baking dish with a little coconut oil. Place the pineapple rings on the dish, add a little sweet freedom/maple syrup/anything and bake or grill for 5-10 mins. Add the coconut cream and voila! Pudding! 

Time to zzzz
 Hannah x

Vegan Nanaimo Bars Recipe

Vegan Nanaimo Bars Recipe

Ahh the elusive Nanaimo bar (or Noonoo bar, when I'm too tired to pronounce things right!). I have been meaning to blog about these since we made them last week, but have been wayy too distracted by reality. Damn you reality!

The above picture is from the raw vegan food night we went to, and although they aren't 100% raw, we brung them along anyway!! The bar is the one right at the back. Being organised humans as we are we took a lot of photos, but had to rush out at the end to eat all this delicious food. Whoops!

We used the recipe from this blog here. As I have worked out from many American recipes on the internet, it is well worth investing in a set of cup measurements, so as to spend less time converting measurements.  

So here is is! Much deliciousness in a bar!:

What you need: ( A lot of stuff!)

Base:

3 Tbsp Cacao Powder

4 Tbsp Coconut Oil

3 Tbsp Maple Syrup

1/4 Cup + 1 Tbsp Dates

1 1/2 Cup Walnuts

1 3/4 Cup Unsweetened Coconut Flakes

Middle:

1 1/4 Cup Cashews (soaked overnight) (alt. 1 Cup Cashew Butter)

4 Tbsp Coconut Oil

5 Tbsp Maple Syrup

1 Tsp Vanilla

Top:

1/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp Cacao Powder

2 Tbsp Coco Butter

2 Tbsp Coconut Oil

2 Tbsp Maple Syrup/ Agave

(We left out the salt in the recipe, but feel free to add if you feel it needs it!)

What you need to do:

• Base:  Whizz up (or if you are using a Masha aka Marsha then mash!) all the ingredients in a food processor. Press into a lined 8'' x 8'' tin. Set in the fridge while you make the filling.
• Middle: Puree the cashews, then add the oil, maple syrup, and vanilla, and then continue puree or mash! Spread over the base and put in the fridge for 30 mins.
• Top: Melt ingredients together. If you want to do this at a low temperature you can put a jug in a pan, and surround the jug with warm water out of the tap. Add ingredients to the jug and stir, refilling the pan if the water becomes cold quickly. Pour over the middle of the middle section and set in the fridge.
• Cut into squares, eat all the squares, become wayy too excited because of the deliciousness :) *bounces*

We hope to make these again soon, because they are sooo addictive, so may actually post proper pictures of the finished product. Cannot guarantee 100% because OMNOMNOMNOM

Hannah xx

All The Kale Please Vol. II..The Coconut Edition

All The Kale Please Vol. II..The Coconut Edition

I was inspired today by going on a play date with Esme. The kids were eating Thai Green Curry and the house just smelled amazing! It made me SUPER hungry! So I thought, what do I have in my cupboards or fridge that can even remotely replicate this? Being the beginning of the month, we had slightly more of an abundance of food than usual. So this means..KALE!! YUM!!

It was definitely a 15 minute throw everything together sort of meal! But pretty delicious and worth it :)

Note: This does not taste like Green Curry, but the nearest I could get with the ingredients in my cupboards!!

What you need: (feeds 2-3 people)

Tofu (1/2 block for 2 people)

Kale (1/2 bag, more if needed!)

Olive Oil/Coconut oil

Rice

Onion

Garlic (2 Cloves)

1 tbsp flour (GF)

1-2 tsp chilli powder

Salt & Pepper

Tin of Coconut milk
Seeds

What you need to do (apart from save the world)

• Put on enough rice to feed ALL the people
• Fry Onions and Garlic for a couple of minutes, throw in the chopped tofu. Saute until Tofu is brown
• Add the Kale, saute, then the chilli powder.
• Scoop the cream off the top of the coconut milk
• Add the flour, stir, then the water from the tin of coconut milk
• The sauce should thicken, add as much coconut cream as you think is needed!
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Decorate with seeeds
• EATS!!!

Hannah xx

Vegan Power Muffins - Vibrant Kate

Vegan Power Muffins - Vibrant Kate

Hannah suggested these Vegan Power Muffins (by the inspiring Jack Monroe) using her fave medium: a Facebook post (probably with a hint of Scott Pilgrim, I'll leave the .gif finding to the expert).

My friend saw the post, made the muffins and assured me that they were delish. So, inspired by the power of a double recommendation, I made them. I agree. They are brill. I used my Gadget of the Moment, a futuristic mashing device, and the process was super speedy!
Quite a short post, based on someone else's recipe, so here is some added value:

Trivia of the day: The gadget is called a Masha; Masha is a popular Russian girl's name (pronounced Marsha).

Pun of the day: if I had put more effort into composing this pic, would it make me a Power Muffin A-Ranger? Ho ho.

Note: We got wayy too excited today when this happened:

:D :D :D!!!!!