Last Day of Vegan Mofo 2013 Recap!

Well it's the last day of Vegan Mofo 2013! I am rather sad, but also excited for next years Mofo! I am always blown away by how much great vegan food there is out there in the world and how fantastic and creative my fellow bloggers are! 

I have found some lovely new blogs, made some great new internet friends and have eaten my own weight in pastry! So I think that means it's been a good month of Mofo! Thanks once again to all the wonderful Mofo team who make it happen, you are ace.  

So here is our Vegan Month of Food! 

We kicked off  our month of Pastry recipes for Vegan Mofo With Our

Apple and BlackBerry Pie With Thick Vanilla Custard

Tomato and Broccoli Quiche

Lemon Curd, Almond and Golden Raspberry Tart

Croque Madames

Fig Tarte Tatin

Lemon and Blueberry Cheeze Cake

Apple and Pine Nut Tart

Homity Pie

Blueberry Mille-Feuille with Vanilla Creme Patisserie

Chocolate Caramel Tarts

Orange, Walnut and Thyme Bundt Cake

 Bear Hugs

We have also had some great giveaways and competitions!

 The lovely guys at Chickpea Magazine have given me a coupon code for all my reader's to use to get 50% off a years subscription to their digital magazine! The code is F13KAYLEIGH So go to the Chickpea shop here and just enter the code near the checkout to enjoy your 50% off! 

Also we are still running our competition to win Isa Chandra Moskowitz's new book 'Isa Does It' and you get to ask her your baking and vegan questions too! Click HERE to find out more!

And here is what me and Kyle have been up to in 'My Week According to my Camera'

Autumn Clutter City!

Yesterday we had a stall at the lovely Clutter City! I was so nice to see all our friends, customers and fellow stall holders! It's always so great to be able to chat to our customers and find out which of our treats are you favourites Thanks to every one who came along to see us can't wait for the Christmas Clutter City! 

I like Pens and Su Owen 

Pin Pin Finds

Boho Boutique AKA our friend Rosie!

My Busy Baking Day!

Tomorrow I will be having a stall at the autumn Clutter City! We always love doing clutter city as many of our friends have stalls and it's always so vibrant and full of lovely customers! Today has been a busy day baking 8 different cakes for clutter city plus a cake for Biddy's Tea Room and Waterstone Cafe W!

We will also be selling our Cappuccino Cupcakes at clutter city, in aid of Wing and a Prayer which is a local rescue center for owls and wild birds. All profits from the cupcakes go straight to them!

 Here are some pictures from today!

Focaccia on it's second prove.

Cappuccino Cupcakes 

Pecan Gingerbread cake

Chocolate Mint Marble Cake with candied mint leaves

Tiramisu cake at Waterstones Cafe W and a Rose and pistachio Cake at Biddy's Tea Room

Aggi showing off my exciting mail this week!

Exciting mail! Happy Kayleigh!

Competition Time! Win Isa Chandra Moskowitz New Book and Ask Her Your Cooking Questions!

I am so excited to tell you all about this competition I am running! First off the lovely Isa is going to let me interview her for her upcoming release of 'Isa Does It!' her new cook book released 22nd of October! And I thought hey, why not let my readers ask some of those questions!
Your questions can be baking and cooking related or about her life as a vegan food hero! Where she gets her inspiration from, why she turned vegan or what is her favourite food to eat!  :)

To enter you need to:
A) 'Like' the Deerly Beloved Facebook page here and then
B) Comment underneath with your questions for Isa!
The top 5 questions will go in the interview to her, and if that isn't a good enough competition, the top question will receive a free copy of her recipe book!

Your questions can be baking and cooking related or about her life as Miss vegan cook extraordinaire! Where she gets her inspiration from, why she turned vegan or what is her favourite food to eat! Be creative and send us your questions

The competition will end on monday the 14th October. Make sure to let all your friends know!

The answers to the interview questions will be in a future blog post along with a review of the wonderful book!
Good Luck! XXX

Please note that if you win, the book cannot be posted out to you until the book release date 22nd October due to publishing rules. This competition is only open to UK residents. Thanks! X

Entries so far:

Angela Pestritto Dimitrov: What is the best egg substitute when my recipe asks for eggs? I live in a country that doesn't have all the great vegan substitutes like we used to have in Los Angeles.

Ellen Jones-Smith What is your favorite music to listen to while you are cooking and do you listen to different kinds of music while cooking different things?

Caroline Turner: I first saw Isa on the online Post Punk Kitchen tv shows with Terry many moons ago. I would like to ask Isa if there are any future tv plans? It would be awesome so see her on our screens.

Sheindal Cohen: I'd like to take over the world with cupcakes  but at the moment my world consists of 2 small boys to whom I don't want to feed refined sugar if I can avoid it, but I do want to give them cake sometimes... I know you discuss maple and rice syrup and agave nectar in your cupcake book, but have you worked on any cake recipes that use other sweetening methods, such as stevia leaves (I have a plant) or fruit sweeteners such as date? It's hard to find cake recipes that miss out eggs and the whole bulk/consistency of sugar if you want to use an alternative such as leaf stevia - not the processed powder - instead!

Coconut and Berries:  What's your favourite bean, grain, fruit and vegetable?

Jennifer Dunn:  would like to ask, when coming up with new cake recipes how do you decide how much baking powder and/or bicarbonate of soda would be best to use?

Liz Campbell: What has been your hardest non vegan food to make vegan, and how did you overcome it?

Jenny James: What is your biggest achievement in your vegan career to date and what else would you like to achieve?

Bear Hugs (Bear Claws)

These yummy leavened dough Bear Hugs, stuffed with Almonds, Marzipan and Sultanas are my pacifist take on the American classic Bear Claws! For some reason when I think of Bear Claws I think of Twin Peaks, which is one of my all time favourite tv series and is something Kyle and I watched together when we first started dating. I think the Log Lady orders a Bear Claw in the diner which is probably why I associate them with the series!
Once again these are made with leavened puff pastry which is a bit fiddly to make but the results are well worth it! 
Makes 8
Ingredients:

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

Filling: 
1 Cup of Marzipan
1/2 Cup of Flaked Almonds
1/2 Cup Sultanas
1/4 Cup of Almond Milk to seal the claws
Topping:
1/2 Cup of Icing Sugar
2 Tsp of Almond Milk
More Flaked Almonds for decoration

Tools:
5'' Saucer
Kitchen Scissors 

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.
Pre heat your oven to 190c
Roll out your pastry and place the saucer in one corner and carefully cut around it. Repeat 8 times so that you have 8 circles of pastry.
In the middle of the pastry place a tsp of marzipan, a tsp of the flaked almonds and a tsp of sultanas. Fold over the pastry, sealing it with a little almond milk. You will now have a sweet pasty! Using a pair of kitchen scissors, gently cut slits in the pastry round the edge to create the 'toes' while being careful not to cut into your marzipan mixture as it will seep out during cooking! Place on a baking tray and bake for 20 mins at 190c. Remove when firm, puffed and golden brown. Allow to cool.
In a bowl mix the icing sugar and almond milk to form a thick but runny icing. Drizzle the icing all over the bear hugs. use a little bit of icing to stick on some extra slivered almonds to form the 'claws'! 
Eat your bear hugs with a big mug of hot chocolate! X