Phew! Ok, I *might* squeeze this post in within the deadline for one of my fave events Vegan Ventures - guess it depends on how fast I can type! Yes, apparently, I love this event, but I haven't submitted a post for it yet. What can I say, I'm a lazy bum? :)
After the last almost-vegan posting, I did my homework well before attempting a truly vegan dessert - I actually found it harder than I'd imagined! As I poked around several dessert recipes, I found a vegan orange-almond cake recipe from an all-time favourite book - Didi Emmons' Vegetarian Planet. But surprise of surprises! Didi wasn't vegan all the way! Her recipe used a couple of kinds of honey! Wow, guess she doesn't quite meet Suganya's standards here :)
BTW, molasses rock! I'm in love with them. Truly, madly, deeply. When I was a kid, I used to have this gooey multivitamin concoction called Vidalin M - I absolutely loved the syrupy flavor of this medicine. And molasses totally reminds me of this :) So, I liberally swallowed a few spoonfuls of molasses as I baked this cake. Yum!
So, I reworked this recipe to skip the honey. I also went with whole wheat flour - this ended up in a slightly denser and more chewy cake, but it actually absorbed the citrus drizzle really well - so no complaints there. I'm glad I skipped the chocolate icing in the original recipe and went for the citrus glaze instead.
No creatures required :)
Servings - makes a whole bundt cake
1 cup almonds - lightly toasted
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup margarine spread (Earth Balance)
2/3 cup of molasses
1.5 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 cup (+ 1/3 cup) chocolate soy milk
2 T grated orange rind
1 t vanilla extract
Heat the oven to 350 F.
Grind the toasted almonds in a food processor to a fine powder.
In a large bowl, mix the flour along with the almond powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a smaller bowl, mix the softened margarine along with the soy milk, molasses, vanilla extract and orange rind.
Add half of the liquid mixture to the flour and mix well.
Now add the other half and continue mixing till well blended.
If more liquid is needed, use the extra 1/3 cup of soy milk to get the mixture to blend completely.
The batter is not of a dropping consistency like most cake batters, instead it is really thick and gooey.
Pour (or rather scoop?) the batter into a greased bundt pan and bake for 40 minutes.
Cool for 15 minutes before tipping over onto a plate or cooling rack.
Citrus Drizzle
1 T margarine
1/2 cup orange juice
2 T crushed orange bits
1 T molasses
a few drops of amaretto extract
Heat all of the above in a saucepan with constant stirring until thecontents starts bubbling.
Take off the stove and pour onto the cake.
Ok, this turned out waaaaaayyy better than I expected. The cake was a little chewy courtesy of the whole wheat flour, but that was to be expected. The drizzle turned out really tasty - the orange explosion was *so* good! :) The one thing I'd definitely do differently next time around is probably use regular soy milk instead of the soy chocolate milk - it seemed like the chocolate milk overpowered the almond flavor.
Damn! Past midnight! Oh well, Suganya, you get this anyway :)
