German Apple Cake

This is the most beautiful creation I've made to date. The recipe is from The Joy of Vegan Baking and baking this cake certainly was a joy. The cake layer is very thin so the apples are really featured (I used Golden Delicious.) It's a surprisingly easy cake to make. Because the cake batter is so thick, the apples can easily be layered atop, a process I found quite fun. And even the non-vegans loved this dessert. I will definitely be making this cake again.

Pumpkin Pancake Disaster

I'm sure this recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking is typically great, but it didn't turn out so great with the pan I was using. This pan doesn't have a non-stick coating. Typically I can deal with it and only have small issues with tofu or garlic sticking to it but can save the dish. These pancakes, however, ended up unsalvageable. The pan grabbed hold of the batter and would not let go. The result was globs of half-cooked pancakes and was a mess. I got one to look okay, albeit a bit burnt since I had trouble getting it to let go of the pan, so I placed it on top of the pile of disaster to try to make things look a bit better.

Sugar Cookies

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of these since I had made them as a surprise. Still, they were delicious and deserve a post.

I wanted to bake something a little fancy for an anniversary gift so I attempted a more involved cookie than the typical chocolate chip. The recipe for the cookies along with the royal icing I used to hold bright red sprinkles both came from The Joy of Vegan Baking.

I didn't realize how much work sugar cookies can be, especially with such little counter space. Mix the dough by hand since I have no electric mixer here, let the dough cool in the fridge, roll it out, cut out circles with the lid of a peanut butter jar since I had no cookies cutters, put the baking sheet in the fridge to cool the dough again so they don't expand too much in the oven, actually bake them, repeat the rolling out through baking again for tray 2, let cookies cool, mix icing, ice cookies, add sprinkles.....and done.

It was all worth it though. I thought the combination of the cookie and the icing was delicious.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I've actually made this recipe twice in the past few days. The recipe comes from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, a really wonderful book which is yet more proof that great desserts do not need to be packed with milk/butter/cream/eggs to taste good.

I chose to make coffee cake because I wanted something sweet that I already had all the ingredients to make. This recipe uses basic ingredients that are already in the fridge/pantry (or fridge/bookshelf, in my case) so it's very easy. These basic ingredients can also be a problem because it's too easy to make and eat this tasty dessert too often. Not only are the ingredients basic, but it's such an easy cake to make. Prep is maybe 10 minutes and it only takes 35 minutes to bake. So it is tempting to do a little baking all the time.

I first made the cake last Tuesday night on a whim. The problem was that I didn't have a proper cake pan so I had to make only half the recipe and use a tiny pan. Of course it still tasted great, just looks a bit sad in the picture.

When my parents came to visit on Saturday, I baked it again for them for their anniversary. This time I had a proper cake pan (thanks to them!) but I did get distracted talking to them and combined the crumb part too much so it no longer appeared crumbly. It was more like pouring strands of the topping on the cake rather than crumbs but still tasted just fine. I always know that a vegan recipe is good if my dad enjoys it and he did indeed like the cake.