Vegan Vanilla Chocolate Layered Birthdaycake

This is a birthday cake, that is not only made easy but it also tastes so delicious. It is better than any present and it will be the cake on the table, no mater how many other non vegan cakes are there. Let me give you the recipe.

I got that recipe on a blog online, however the cake had to be soy free, so I changed some ingredients. In the end, the whole thing is now even easier to make.

Here we go:

Ingredients for the cake:
2 1/4 cups (360 ml) almond vanilla milk
3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (230 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (110 ml) canola oil
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups (250 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
4 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for the frosting:
1 cup cocoa butter
3 cups powdered sugar
3 Strawberries
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup almond vanilla milk

Instructions:
- preheat the oven to 350 degrees °F
- grease 3 x 6" or 8" inch cake pans
- in a large bowl mix the almond vanilla milk with the apple cider vinegar. Let it activate for 5 Minutes.
- add the oil and vanilla extract.
- in a separate bowl mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cornstarch. Sift the dry ingredients into the big bowl peu a peu while using an electric hand mixer.
- divide the cake batter evenly into three pans (leave 1/3 in the bowl and mix it again with the cocoa powder)
- bake for 22 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- let the cake cool down completely.

- For the frosting, blend strawberries in a blender with almond milk, mix liquid cocoa butter with strawberry - milk paste and powdered sugar. If it's too liquid, add more powdered sugar, if its too dry, add more almond milk.
You can decide if you want to use cocoa powder for a chocolate frosting or strawberries for a pink frosting. I made 1/3 pink frosting and 2/3 chocolate frosting.

Glutenfree guilt free Streusel Oat Bars

Here's a recipe that you should definitely keep in mind next time you are craving something unhealthy sweet and naughty. Why? These incredible oat bars are vegan, gluten-free and low in fat. They are made with natural ingredients only and no white sugar is used. Give them a try, you won't even take a lot of time. They are done in less than 40 minutes and you probably have all the ingredients at home!

I used blackberries for the topping, because I'm lucky to live in a neighborhood full of blackberry bushes and it's the season right now to pick them. But of course, you can substitute with any other sort of berry, like raspberry, strawberry, cherry, - you can even use the frozen berry mix from the supermarket. 

The crust is incredible, the use of oats makes me think of fresh granola, I just love the smell in the kitchen after opining the oven. I'll definitely make them again sometime around christmas and add cinnamon to the crust. That will be amazing.

I don't want to talk about how amazing this recipe is for too long. Simply try it and convince yourself.

Here is this simple and quick recipe:

Ingredients: 
4 cups of oats (doesn't matter if you use quick oats or big whole oats / you can substitute 1 cup with coconut flour or almond flour. That will make it amazing)
1/2 cup almond butter
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup maple syrup (alternatively use xylitol sugar and dissolve it in 1/3 cup water)
12 oz blackberries (or any other berry)

Instructions: 
1. Preheat the oven to 320 °F (180° C). Prepare a regular pan with parchment paper.
2. Process oats in a vitamix or a food processor until you have flour. 
3. Combine oat flour in a bowl with salt, and coconut/almond flour if you substitute.
4. Add the coconut oil, almond butter and maple syrup to the bowl. Use hands or a spoon to combine until the mixture comes together.
5. Set aside 1/3 of the mixture for the topping. Use 2/3 of the mixture to distribute in the parchment lined pan (1/2 inch thick crust works well in my opinion). Pick crust a few times with a fork. 
6. Bake crust for 10 minutes.
7. Add blackberries to food processor or vitamix and just pulse a couple times. Its nice to keep a "berry texture".
8. Remove crust from oven and add the berries evenly on the crust. Crumble the reserved oat mix as "Streusel" on top. Bake for another 15 minutes. 
9. Remove from oven, let it cool or enjoy them warm with some vanilla ice-cream.

Moist and delicious fat free vegan Bananacake

Ok this is the best vegan fat free Bananacake I've ever made. Even if you are not vegan, even if you don't care about fat, check this out!

The batter alone is so tasty and I love the simplicity of it. Adding cups of liquid butter used to gross me out, so this is my new alternative for a fast and easy cake.

This is actually a diet cake, considering there is no fat in it, I calculated the macros. 

I really like the texture of this goodie. The inside of the cake turns out soft and moist - almost gooey - (not dry at all) and the outside will be nice and crusty. 

It will be very sweet if you follow my recipe, so you might as well use less sugar. 

Also you can leave out the cocoa powder, but hey, isn't that marble effect just perfect?

But first to the recipe:

For one bread tin you will need:

4 ripe bananas (middle to bigger size)
2 cups white or whole wheat flour
2/3 cups white or brown sugar
1 Tsp liquid vanilla (or substitute with vanilla powder/vanilla sugar)
4 Tbsp water
1 1/2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
4 Tbsp cocoa powder
optional: cocoa nibs or chocolate chips, nuts, raisins

Directions:

1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees F°. Depending on your pan, you might have to grease it, or you use a baking sheet.

2. mash the bananas with a fork. Add the water, vanilla and sugar. Mix until it is smooth and creamy.

3. add the flour, baking powder and salt and then mix everything with a handheld elective mixer. You can add the chocolate chips, cocoa nibs or nuts now.

4. pour 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan.

5. add the cocoa powder to the rest of the batter, blend it in and pour the chocolate batter into the pan was well. It will give you a nice marble effect in the end.

6. bake for 50-60 minutes. (Do the toothpick test, as every oven is different)

And now to the macros: One cake will give you

421g Carbohydrates, 8g Fat and 41g Protein and a total of 1,785 Calories (just the basic recipe, if you add chocolate or nuts you will have to add those). But hey, compared to a classic cake recipe, this is pretty awesome. 

Worlds bestest cherry pie inspired by Katy Perry

Katy Perry's new song called 'Bon Appetit' is out. She published the new single together with her own cherry pie recipe and on the day after the release, fans could meet her in New York at a food truck giving out of her Cherry Pie. For me as a food-addict and hobby cook/baker, this was something I had to try.

Well... you know me, I always have to change recipes up and I did it here too. So as Katy Perry makes the "worlds best cherry pie", I make the "worlds bestest cherry pie". Check it out!

So, what I tried to do is: Stay as close as possible to Katy's original recipe. She postet a written recipe and even filmed a "how to" video. 

The only thing I changed was replacing the cows butter with vegan butter. I used the Earth Balance, it comes in a cube-shaped tub and in my opinion is really close to what non-vegan butter tastes like. Also as I didn't have fresh cherries, I used canned ones. Didn't make a difference in my opinion as you bring them to boil anyways. 

Now, my version of the cherry pie is cruelty-free. I don't know how Katy Perry thinks about veganism but she should try it. You get the same taste, the same flavors and you don't higher your cholesterol level. Milk and any other forms of dairy products clog your arteries because dairy is always coming with a lot of saturated fat. It's not good for your cardiovascular system. The vegan butter alternative is made of oils from plants, so it's made out of unsaturated fats. 

Right now, there is a lot of advertisement happening to promote dairy. But don't let them fool you. Inform yourself. 

Here comes my recipe of a cruelty-free vegan cherry pie. Bon Appetit!

Ingredients for the crust:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I think you could even use spelt flour)
1 cup vegan butter (e.g. Earth Balance)
1/2 cup ice cold water

Ingredients for the filling:
6 cups cherries (fresh or canned, probably even frozen)
2 Tablespoons vegan butter
3/4 cups sugar (or brown sugar)
2 Tablespoons Water
3 Tablespoons Cornstarch 

Directions:
Combine flour and vegan butter with your hands until you feel like the dough is too dry (moist sand) and then slowly add the water, one spoon at a time. When the dough is sticky enough to stay together, form two balls, form a disk and wrap them into cellophane foil. Refrigerate while preparing the filling.
Heat 2 Tablespoons of the vegan butter in a pan on moderate heat and add the sugar and simmer. Stir around. When the sugar is dissolved, add all the cherries. Combine Cornstarch and Water in a little bowl until the cornstarch is completely dissolved. Add it to the cherries and bring them to a boil. Stir and let it boil for another 2 minutes so that the starch can thicken the cherries. Set aside and let it cool while you prepare the crust.
Preheat the oven to 350-375°F.
Roll out the first disk of dough until its big enough to be the base in your pie plate (about 9-inch). Roll out the other disk of dough and cut long stripes with a knife. These ones will form the lattice on top of the pie. Add the cherry filling into the pie pan and decorate with the dough stripes in the typical pie-lattice shape.
Bake the pie for about 50-60 minutes. Let it cool or serve warm. Listen to Katy Perry songs. Optional: Add vanilla ice-cream. Bon Appetit.