Cupcake kebabs

When Greg & I decided to host a potluck (blogged about by Kristy here), he decided that we should make cupcake kebabs which I thought was the best idea ever!  I decided to make them completely gluten free & thread cupcakes, mini donuts, biscuits & lollies on the skewers.  I had a disaster with the first lot of cupcakes I made, so ended up making some mini choc chip muffins instead using this recipe:

Ingredients

• 340 grams self raising gluten free flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 120 grams caster sugar
• 120 grams nuttelex
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar 
• soy milk, to mix
• vegan chocolate chips - about 3/4 cup

Method

1. Rub the dry ingredients in with the nuttelex.
2. Add the wet ingredients, adding a little milk at a time to get a soft dropping consistency.
3. Beat the mixture well to combine & stir through the chocolate chips.
4. Add paper liners to the muffin tin and fill with the mixture.
5. Bake at about 190 degrees Celsius until cooked through & brown (about 10-15 minutes for the mini muffins)

I then made mini donuts using my donut maker, yes I have a donut maker which I have now used a total of two times.  I used this recipe from the Sunbeam website which worked really well:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups gluten-free plain flour
• ½ cup caster sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
• 125g butter, melted
• ¾ cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (I used egg replacer)

Method

1. Preheat Doughnut machine. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Whisk in the butter, milk and egg until mixture forms a smooth batter. Transfer to a jug.
2. Spray machine with cooking oil. Pour batter into preheated doughnut rings. Close lid and cook for 6 minutes or until doughnuts are golden and cooked. Use a non-stick spatula to transfer doughnuts to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter to make 10 doughnuts in total.

I then added halved Leda choculence biscuits & topped each skewer with Organic by Nature Cheery Bear lollies (these lollies are so good!!)  I think my gluten free baking still needs A LOT of work but the kebabs turned out ok & looked very impressive!!

Fry's Chicken Strips

Doing my grocery shopping recently I noticed Fry's chicken strips which I believe are a new product so decided to give them a go.

The first meal I made with them was Bibimbap which I made during a week of huge spicy food cravings - I loved this meal!  The chicken strips however, I had marinated for a couple of hours in soy sauce, garlic & ginger & they ended up almost inedibly salty.  Everything else was great though - marinated mushrooms, seaweed salad, kim chi & cucumber salad.

The next meal I made with them was a simple salad with a tahini dressing & I actually really liked them in this.  I wouldn't buy them all the time but they are quite tasty & a nice addition to salads.

Easter treats

As I was seeing my family for Easter lunch I decided to make them some Easter treats.  I made the super easy & delicious cookies & cream truffles from Fat Feminist Foodie, but covered them in Sweet William milk chocolate & piped white chocolate crosses on them so they kinda looked like hot cross buns. I also made Sugar Cookies from 'The Joy of Vegan Baking' which I cut into Easter shaped & badly piped some icing on.  These biscuits were nice but they became super sweet with the icing.

Easter pre-lunch

Easter Saturday was spent having a family lunch at my mum's place.  I decided to take some pre-lunch noms since she was doing the whole big lunch herself.  I bought divine marinated olives from the Vic Market & decided to make some bread & dips.  I am sure that she just thought I would go to the supermarket & buy some crackers & dips & did not intend for me to get up at on Saturday morning & start baking bread at 7am but I tend to go all out if I am given a task.  My mum bought herself 'The Joy of Vegan Baking' a while ago & is obsessed with it & everything she has made from it has been amazing so I finally got myself a copy & made the focaccia from it.  This was hands down the best focaccia I have ever eaten!  I have made focaccia a few times & have eaten plenty of it & this was divine - tasty, not dry, not too yeasty tasting, perfect!  There is lots of resting time involved but very little actual work.

The dips I made to go with the bread were muhummara, as blogged about by Where's the Beef  & sweet chilli hommus.  I make up hommus as I go by blending up chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice & salt & pepper & with this one I stirred through some sweet chilli sauce when it was done.

Baking for the Aduki Vegan Bake Off

Last weekend was the Aduki Vegan Bake Off,  I had no idea what to make & on the day before decided to make White Chocolate & Cherry Blondies to enter into the slice category & Brownie Bite Cookies to enter into the biscuit category.  I make both on the Saturday morning & was not super happy with either, they were fine, but not winners.

I had some leftover blondies at home & were so much better the next day, oh well - we enjoyed them!  They are based on a recipe on taste.com.au but I did change it a bit, so my recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

• 100g nuttelex, chopped
• 180g Sweet William white chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• Egg replacer made up to the equivalent of 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup self-raising flour, sifted
• 3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
• 1 cup (175g) pitted cherries (I used canned morello cherries)

 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease an 18cm x 28cm (base) rectangular slice pan. Line base and sides with baking paper, allowing a 2cm overhang on all sides. Melt nuttelex and chocolate in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Remove from heat. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool.
2. Add sugar, made up egg replacer and flours to pan. Stir to combine. Spread into prepared pan. Press cherries into mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or until edges are firm and top golden. Cool in pan. Serve.
   
   
   

I wanted to make a really decadent biscuit so thought that the brownie bite cookies would be perfect - they are biscuits with chunks of brownie in them - genius!!  When these came out of the oven I thought that they were a disaster because they looked horrible, too big & they looked really dry, but they were deceptively delicious.

I used almost the exact recipe from Have Cake, Will Travel (that blog is amazing) but mine didn't look anywhere near as good as hers.

Ingredients

For the brownies:

• 1/3 cup (75 g) nondairy butter
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (120 g) brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons (30 g) vanilla soy or other nondairy yogurt
• 3/4 cup (90 g) light spelt or (94 g) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup (20 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

For the cookies:

• 1/4 cup (180 ml) canola oil
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (90 ml) plain soy or other nondairy milk
• 3 cups (360 g) whole wheat pastry flour (I used plain white flour)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Method

To make the brownies: Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C, or gas mark 4). Lightly coat an 8-inch (20-cm) square baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
With an electric mixer, cream butter and Sucanat until light and fluffy.
Stir in vanilla and yogurt.
Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt on top of the wet ingredients.
Stir dry ingredients into wet.
Place and level batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake for 10 minutes, or until the sides of the brownie start to pull away from the pan.
Let cool in pan, on top of a wire rack, and chill before slicing. Cut into medium to large chunks. Set aside.
To make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C, or gas mark 4). Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats, such as Silpat.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, vanilla, salt, and milk until combined.
Sift flour and baking powder on top of the wet ingredients.
Stir dry ingredients into wet.
Fold in brownie chunks, or use your hands to gently incorporate them.
Divide into 12 (about 1/4 cup each) portions of dough.
Flatten onto prepared cookie sheets: the cookies won’t spread much while baking, but leave 1 inch (2.5 cm) in between anyway.
Bake for 16 minutes. Wait a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Yield: 12 cookies