My Week According To My Camera

1) Orange, Walnut and Thyme Bundt Cake Recipe here!
2) Chocolate and Thyme Cupcakes available at Biddy's Tea Room.
3) Victoria Sponge with buttercream flowers just before it got collected by my lovely customer!
4) Hot breakfast on a cold day! Cheezy grits with stir fried black kale, onion and tomatoes from my garden!
5) Asian Tofu with ginger and carrot bulgar wheat and wilted bok choy with sesame seed oil dressing.
6) Trying to dress more 'local'! Jumper made by my mum and dress by Longshanks Original Articles
7) My life is basically all about cakes, schnauzers and deers. So I spend my free time on Schnauzer play dates at Imi's house with Noggin, Fred and Aggi!

Orange, Walnut and Thyme Bundt Cake

This is such a yummy cake full of orange sweetness, the herbal taste of thyme and the walnuts add a little bit of crunch. It went down so well with my family that my mum asked me for the recipe (and she hates baking!) Of course you can use a normal tin to make this cake but I jazzed it up by using this flower bundt tin that I got as a wedding present. Enjoy!


Ingredients:

2 Cups of Flour
1 Cup of Golden Sugar
1and 1/2 tsp of Baking Powder
1 Cup of Soya Milk
1/3 Cup of Vegan Margarine (and a Tbsp more to grease your bundt tin with.)
1/2 Cup of Walnuts
1/3 Of Orange Juice
1 tsp of Fresh Thyme Leaves
Icing Sugar, thyme leaves and edible flowers to decorate

Tools:
Bundt Tin
Sieve

Pre-heat your oven at 190c. In a bowl, cream the sugar and margarine together until light and fluffy. Add the soya milk, orange juice, thyme and walnuts. Add the flour and baking powder and mix well until incorporated. Grease your bundt tin well and then pour in the cake batter.
Place in the oven for 45 mins until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely, or when you turn out your cake it will crack apart!
Gently turn out the cake from the bundt tin onto a plate. Using a sieve, dust with icing sugar and then decorate with edible flowers and some more Thyme leaves. Serve with vegan cream!

Chocolate Caramel Tarts

I love these and often make them for my stalls but as it's Vegan Mofo I thought I would share my recipe with you! They are a wonderful shortcake biscuit pastry base with a gooey caramel center topped with lots of melted dark chocolate and are probably in my top 5 favourite things to eat! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Make 6 Mini 4.5'' Tarts

Ingredients: 

Pastry:

2 1/2 Cups of White flour
1 1/2 Cups of vegan margarine
1/2 Cup of Icing Sugar
1/4 Cup of soya milk

Caramel:
1 Carton of Coconut Cream (Blue Dragon)
1/4 Cup of Organic Unrefined Sugar
Pinch of Salt

Topping:

2 100g Bars of Dark Chocolate 

Flaked Almonds

Tools:

6 4.5'' Mini Flan Tins

Baking Beans

Baking Paper

In a bowl incorporate the margarine and sugar into the flour, rubbing between your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Then add your soya milk a bit at a time and bring together to form a dough. Grease and flour your tins then roll out the pastry and lay over the tins gently pressing into each one and then use a knife to trim any excess pastry. Using some parchment and baking beans (you could use dried beans, lentil or rice if you don't have baking beans) blind bake the pastry for 20 mins in a 200c oven. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

In a sauce pan bring to the boil the carton of coconut cream, sugar and salt. Once at the boil reduce to a medium heat and stir. It should now becoming more opaque and thick and will not easily run off your spoon, it takes a good 10-15 minutes to reach this point. Once it is thick and has a light golden colour, it is ready to pour into your cooled pastry cases. 

Next chop all your chocolate into rough small cubes. Place half of the chocolate in a bain marie (a saucepan of boiling water with a bowl on the top for your chocolate to melt in) Stir occasionally until completely melted and glossy. Next take it off the heat and add the rest of the chocolate (this is a simple tempering method which will allow your chocolate to set with a nice shine to it) stir until it is melted. Pour it gently over the top of your caramel tarts, making sure to seal the edges of the tart with the chocolate so that the caramel doesn't run out when they are set. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and leave for 2-3 hours to set at room temperature.

Blueberry Mille-Feuille with Vanilla Creme Patisserie

I have always wanted to have a go at making a Mille-Feuille and dream that I am working in a french bakery! And well it kinda came true in that I made a super yummy Mille-Feuille! The hardest and most time consuming part of this bake is the puff pastry (it takes several hours to make and then has to be left to prove over night.) Although of course you can always buy some ready made!

Ingredients:  Makes 4

Leavened Puff Pastry Dough:
3 Cups of Plain Flour
2/3 Cup of Sugar
1/2 Cup of Water
3/4 Cup of Soya Milk
2 Tbsp of Dried Yeast
1 Cup of Margarine
Plus extra flour for rolling

Creme Patisserie:
3 Tbsp of Plain Flour
2 Tbsp of  Margarine
2 Cup of Soya Milk
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Tbsp of Vanilla Bean Paste

To Decorate:
1 Punnet of Blueberries
1 Cup of Icing Sugar
2 Tbsp of Soya Milk
1 Tbsp of Suma Pear and Apple Spread

Tools:
Rolling Pin
Piping Bag
Cling Film

In a bowl add the yeast, water, soya milk and sugar. Allow the yeast to activate for 5 mins. Then add the flour and mix until combined. Flour your work surface and knead the dough for 5 mins. Then roll out the dough into a large rectangle add the cup of margarine to the middle of the dough and spread it thickly so it covers the middle third of your dough. Fold each side of the dough over the margarine, so there is one layer of dough on the bottom, a layer of margarine, then two layers of dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour. 
Flour the surface again and roll out your chilled dough into a rectangle. Fold again in the same way as before, folding the two long slides into the middle. Chill again for another hour and repeat this process a further 2 times before cling wrapping and leaving to rest in the fridge over night.
Roll out your pastry on a floured surface and cut into 12, 5'' X 2.5'' even rectangles (3 per Mille-Feuille) place on some baking paper and cook for 15-20 mins until golden brown and puffed up! Once cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Meanwhile in a saucepan add the flour and margarine and gently melt. Slowly add the soya milk and stir until thickened. Add the sugar and vanilla bean paste and stir until the sugar has melted. Take off the heat, pour into a piping bag and allow to cool. 
In a bowl mix the icing sugar and soya milk tomake a thick but slightly runny icing. Take 2 Tbsp of this icing and add to another bowl. Add the pear and apple spread and mix to make a brown icing. So now you have a bowl containing white icing, and a bowl containing brown icing for the decoration on top of the Mille-Feuille. Take four of the pastry rectangles and gently cover the top side with the white icing. Then drizzle the brown icing in lines across the white icing. Using a cocktail stick, gently drag the brown icing to make the distinctive pattern in the photos.
Now it's time to assemble! Take one un-iced rectangle of the pastry and pipe the creme patisserie onto it in a continuous S shape, and dot with blueberries. Place another un-iced rectangle of pastry on top, then more creme patisserie and blueberries. Finally top with the iced rectangle of pastry. 
Now you serve them, making sure you get one to reward you for all your hard work! X

My Week According To My Camera!

1) Carrot Cake available at Biddy's Tea Rooms
2) My Apple and Pine Nut Tart Recipe here
3) Coconut and Mango Cake available at Waterstones Cafe W!
4) Protest in the city against the privatisation of the Royal Mail
5) Kyle had a stall at the Norwich Zine Fair
6) Mimilicious Klotted Kream for an order
7) My Miranda Elizabeth Zines came through the post from Cananda yay!
8) Aggi in her jumper as it has turned pretty nippy here in Norwich!
9) Because it's cold I have been craving soup so here is my Kale and  Potato soup with sour cream
10) and Borscht soup with sour cream soooo good!

Homity Pie Recipe

Homity pie was one of the first things I made when I worked as a veggie/vegan chef over 10 years ago back when I was 17! The pie I learnt to make was full of cheese, milk and butter so I wanted to make a vegan version which tasted just as rich and cheesy as the original, and here it is! My vegan Homity Pie! Enjoy X

Pastry:

3 Cups of White flour
1 1/2 Cups of vegan margarine
Pinch of Salt
1/4 Cup of cold water

Filling:

6 medium potatoes boiled and cut into rough chunks
1 Red Onion
2/3 Cup of Nutritional Yeast
1/3 Cup of Margarine
1 tsp of English Mustard
1/3 Cup of Soya Milk
1 tsp of Mixed Herbs
Pinch of Salt and Pepper

Cashew Nut Parmesan

1/2 Cup of Cashews
1/4 Cup of Nutritional Yeast
Pinch of Salt


In a bowl incorporate the margarine and salt into the flour. Rubbing between your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Then add your water and bring together to form a dough. You may need more water for it to come together so add another tbsp or so until you have a dough that cleans the bowl. Wrap with cling film and allow to rest in the fridge while you make the filling. Using a tsp of the margarine add to a large saucepan and add the diced onion. Fry gently until golden at the edges and almost translucent. Then add the nutritional yeast, the rest of the margarine, mustard, soya milk, herbs and salt and pepper. Then add the potatoes and on a low heat gently fold all the ingredients together. Be careful not to over fold as the potatoes will disintegrate and you will be left with a lumpy mash potato! You want there to be lots of chunky potato left! Take off the heat. Roll out your pastry and line a 10'' flan dish. Pour in the potato mix. Then in a food processor, roughly chop the cashews, nutritional yeast and salt to make the 'Parmesan'! Sprinkle over the top of the potato mix and place in the oven for 30mins at 200c. It should be golden and crispy on top and the pastry cooked all the way through. Serve with salad or nice rustic beans like this recipe I made a few weeks back http://deerlybelovedbakery.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/cannellini-beans-with-smoky-tofu-lardons.html Enjoy!

Apple and Pine Nut Tart

This tart is very much like a bakewell tart. It has a layer of super crisp and buttery shortcrust pastry, a layer of thick apple jam and then a layer of cake studded with pine nuts and apple slices. It is probaby one of my favourite bakes I have made recently, and I was very happy that I got to eat it as I am usually sending my cakes off for others to enjoy!

Ingredients:

Pastry:
2 Cups of Plain Flour
1 Cup of Margarine
1/4 Cup of Icing Sugar

Cake:
1 Cup of Plain Flour
1/2 Cup of Sugar
1/3 Cup of Sunflower Oil
2/3 Cup of Soya Milk
1/2 Tsp of Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp of Vanilla Bean Paste
1/4 Cup of Pine Nuts

Filling and Topping:
1 Apple Sliced into Half Moons
1/4 Cup of Suma Pear and Apple Fruit Spread (or a jam of your choice)

Tool:
Rolling Pin
Baking Paper
A long 14'' X 4.5 Flan Tin

In a bowl mix the flour and icing sugar together. Add the margarine and rub between thumb and fingers to make breadcrumbs. Then bring the dough together with your hands, it shouldn't need anymore moisture to make into a dough as it is so short (meaning it is very margarine rich) It maybe slightly crumbly but don't worry. Roll out the dough on some baking paper, roughly the length of the tin. This will help make the pastry be nice and thin as the pastry isn't bind baked, and needs to cook in the time it takes for the whole tart to cook! It will look a little broken up but don't worry! Take the baking paper to the tin and gently slide the pastry into the tin. Then using your fingers gently press in the pastry into the corners and edges, filling any little holes as you go.
Next spread the pear and apple spread gently and evenly over the pastry.
Then in another bowl add the sugar, oil, milk and vanilla paste. Add half the pine nuts, flour and baking powder to the mix. Stir until incorporated. Pour the cake mix on the top of the pastry base. Next using your sliced apples, use them to make a decorative line down the middle of the tin. Sprinkle the rest of the pine nuts around the edges of the apples. Then place in a 190c oven for 25 mins until golden brown.