Secret Recipe Club - Vegan Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

Another month and and another Secret Recipe Club post. (Each month members are assigned another person's blog which they must look through, choose and make a recipe and then blog about it).

This month I was lucky enough to be assigned the awesome Wifes with Knifes blog written by Cathy. Cathy actual sells homemade granola, trail mix and roasted nuts at a local farmer's market (What an awesome job!) and she has a ton of really great recipes on her blog. The photo's are lovely and the recipes look just scrumptious. I had a hard time choosing the recipe I would use this month - These granola cookies really stood out along with this banana cake and snickerdoodle bread (See a lot to choose from). In the end though I had a pint of blueberries in the fridge and thought that this blueberry buttermilk cake would be tasty.

I made a few subsitiutions to make the cake vegan and it seriously turned out so good. I think this might be one of the best cakes I have made when starting with a non vegan recipe. The texture was perfect very much like a coffee cake - so all you vegans out there take note - use this as a base recipe and add whatever fruit or flavour you like to change it up. Thanks Cathy for the great addition to my kitchen.

Oh and I don't think I have mentioned it yet but P and I are pregnant! The baby is due in mid August and here is a photo of my belly.

Vegan Blueberry Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Wifes with Knifes

1 cup non-dairy milk
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 3 Tbsp water
1/2 cup vegan margarine, room temperature
2 teaspoons lemon zest
7/8 cup sugar (or 3/4 plus 2 Tbsp)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 Tbsp sugar for topping

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9 inch square cake pan.

Make "buttermilk" by mixing non-dairy milk with the apple cider vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes.

Cream margarine with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flaxseed mixture and vanilla and beat until combined.

Meanwhile toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Then fold in the blueberries.

Spread batter into pan (the batter will be very thick). Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness. Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Vegan Cranberry & Lemon Bread

This month's Secret Recipe Club assignment was awesome. I was given Christina's blog Mele Cotte (Baked Apple in Italian). Christina blogs about a lot of desserts which is right up my alley and her pictures really show off all the beautiful things she makes. I highly suggest you head over to her blog to check out all her awesome stuff. Plus if you want to learn a little Italian she give you all the recipe titles in Italian as well!

I was really excited to cook something from Mele Cotte and after much debate I decided to try this cranberry bread but with my own twist. Christina uses orange and walnuts in her bread but I had a whole bag of Meyer lemons in the fridge and no walnuts. So this became a vegan Cranberry and Lemon bread. It was very delicious and not to sweet. Good alternative to banana bread.

Vegan Cranberry & Lemon Bread
Adapted from Mele Cotte

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp. salt
Zest of one lemon
1/2 cup lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 6 Tbsp of water
½ cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soy milk
1 ½ cup fresh/frozen cranberries

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl whisk the flour with the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, salt, and zest. Form a well in the center of the flour mixture and add juice, flax seed mixture, oil, and milk . Mix only until combined, being careful not to over mix.

With a wooden spoon, stir in cranberries. Transfer into the prepared pan. Bake for about an hour or until an inserted toothpick comes out almost clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing the bread from the pan. Allow to cool completely on the wire rack.

Vegan Spicy Chocolate Pudding & Iced Chai Tea Latte

This is my Secret Recipe Club post for April. For those of you who don't know the Secret Recipe Club is this great group of bloggers that each month get assigned another food blog from which they must try a recipe and blog about it on reveal day. Anyway it's a lot of fun and this month was no different.

I was assigned the lovely Cooking in Stilettos (Which I have to say is one of my favourite blog names of all time). Aly is super passionate about food and has many awesome looking recipes to try. In fact I couldn't decide this month so I made two recipes from her blog.

I choose two somewhat spicy but cooling recipes both of which turned out great. They were super easy to vegan-ize by just replacing the regular milk with non dairy. Thank Aly for the yummy-ness with your Mexican Chocolate Pudding and Iced Chai Latte.

Vegan Spicy Chocolate Pudding
Via Cooking in Stilettos

1/2 cup organic sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups non dairy milk
2 Tbsp vegan margarine
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions
Whisk together sugar, molasses, cocoa, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt and milk in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking often, then boil, whisking, 1 minute.

Remove from heat and whisk in butter, vanilla and cayenne pepper.

Pour into serving dishes and cover the surface of the pudding with cling film to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until cold, at least 1 1/2 hours. If you want garnish with some grated dark chocolate and orange peel. Enjoy!

Vegan Iced Chai Tea Latte
Via Cooking in Stilettos

1/4 cup of loose tea or 4 tea bags
2 1/2 cups of water
1 tsp. black peppercorns
3 green whole cardamom pods
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
5 whole star anise
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 cups non dairy milk
2 tbsp. turbinado sugar

Directions:
In a mortar and pestle crush the peppercorns and cardamom pods.

Over medium heat, add water to a medium saucepan and add crushed cardamom pods, peppercorns, cinnamon, star anise, and ginger. Bring to a boil for one minute and then add the tea. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in the milk and return to a simmer. Sweeten with sugar to taste and remove from heat.

Cool chai to room temperature. Once it is cool, pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a pitcher. Discard the tea and spices and refrigerate chai.

To serve, fill glasses with ice and pour the chai over the ice.

Vegan Almond Butter Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

It's that time again. Secret Recipe Club time. Once a month a bunch of food blogger's get together, are secretly given someone else blog to cook from, then blog about it.

This month I was given a lovely blog called The Boys Made Me Do It (Such a cute name!). Blogger Cara has a husband and three young boys which  is where the inspiration for the name comes from. Go check out her site. She has lots of great recipes and usually does a weekly menu planning post letting you know what she is cooking for the week. I love this idea.

I had a bunch of great recipes from Cara open, trying to decide which one to cook but something about these cookies kept calling out to me. I made some changes to the recipe to make them vegan. Also the original recipe uses peanut butter but since P hates peanut butter I used almond butter instead. The cookies turned out really yummy but I decided to fill them with just plain almond butter rather than a frosting. I will definitely be making these again (I think they are the perfect texture to make ice cream sandwiches).

Vegan Almond Butter Oatmeal Cookies
recipe adapted from The Boys Made Me Do It

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegan margarine, softened
1/2 cup smooth almond butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
1 Tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 3 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup oats, quick cooking or old fashioned


Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Sift together with a whisk.

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine, peanut butter, sugar and molasses until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

Add in the flaxseed and water mixture and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients and mix  just until incorporated. Stir in the oats until evenly blended.

Use a small cookie dough scoop to portion out the dough (about 2 teaspoons), rolling each portion into a ball, and place them on the prepared cookie sheet, a couple inches apart. Bake about 10 minutes.The cookies will look very soft but let them cool on the baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cook completely.

To turn the into sandwiches layer some regular almond butter between two cookies and enjoy with a glass of almond milk!