Vegan Vanilla Cake

For the blogs 2nd bloggaversary, I thought I would invite some friends over since it was on a Saturday (aaany excuse right?), the deal being that everyone brought something home made or drinks with them in the spirit of home cooking.

Knowing that some of my friends might have dietary needs due to allergies or lifestyles, that i would try my hands on a vegan cake! I went over to June's blog, as she has been a great inspiration to me as of late, and she suggested this cake here. Which I halved as I only wanted a one-layer cake. I used xylotol in the cake mix, making the base sugar free, but I used proper icing sugar for the frosting - needs must! Also, if you want, you can make 2/3 of the frosting, as the recipe makes a little bit too much.
I decided to decorate it with berries the next morning when the frosting had set, and ta-dah! This came to life *smiles*

A delicious vanilla cake, animal friendly and all, my friends couldn't believe it was vegan - score!

Vegan Vanilla Cake
(Makes 1 cake)

170g plain flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
60g Earth Balance or neutral vegan butter (I used sunflower)
60g coconut oil
170g xylitol or sugar
110g tofutti tofu-based cream cheese or silken tofu
1 tsp vanilla extract
120ml non-dairy milk (I used coconut)

For the frosting (makes a little too much, an excuse to make some cupcakes too?):
115g vegan butter or tofutti (I used the latter)
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
240g/2 cups icing sugar
30ml coconut milk

Berries or vegan chocolate for decorating - perhaps chopped nuts?

- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Grease a cake tin or mould (about 20-24cm diameter) with either vegan butter or coconut oil, and set aside.

- In a bowl, sift in the flour, and mix it with the baking powder and salt. Stir well to combine.

- Take out another bowl and have the Earth Balance/vegan butter in with coconut oil and beat until creamy, add xylitol or sugar and keep stirring until you have a lovely slightly fluffy mixture. Now add tofu, vanilla extract, followed by the flour mixture and stir until well incorporated.

- Pour the batter into the cake tin/mould and place in the middle of the oven and bake for about 35-40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Set to cool compleeetely before running a knife along the edge and tip over onto a serving plate.

- Now, for the frosting, simply whisk all the ingredients together until you have a nice, thick and slightly runny frosting. If it's too thin, add a little more icing sugar. It's supposed to be pourable, with a little help of a spoon at the end. Spread evenly out, and set to chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours (or overnight) until the frosting has set. Decorate close to serving and tuck in!

The turnout was great! There were about 10 of us, and everyone brought something to either eat, drink, or both! And I got so many amazing recipes to try!

Gorgonzola crackers and coffee kisses

There were crackers with home-made gorgonzola garnished with walnuts and radishes, Scandinavian-style open rye bread sandwiches by my Danish homie Anna, amazing curried pears, stuffed bacon with red peppers and other such delicious things, juicy roasted onions, coffee kisses and gingered cupcakes as well as sweets, mmmm *smiles*

Love from Scandi-land!

Have you ever been to a party where everyone brings a little something? And in that case, what did you bring? I love these pot-luck set-ups as it's such a nice way to get together, catch up and enjoy some great company and food! I hope you're having a lovely weekend so far!

Original source:
http://philosophyandcake.blogspot.com/2014/07/neapolitan-celebration-cakes-part-iii.html

- Jules