Chocolate Cake for Valentine’s Day (Vegan)

Chocolate Cake for Valentine’s Day

Hello everyone! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Missed all of you for nearly 3 months, I have been away and it has lots of fantastic things happened recently.

Today is Valentine’s day, it seems we haven’t celebrated this special day since a long time ago.

Despite that, I like to bake this little chocolate cake for my hubby. 🙂

This is a simple, no fuss and easy to achieve success even a new baker.

You can get a lave cake from this simple recipe, but I have baked a little bit over-time accidentally. Sadly, I can’t have a lovely lava cake that I want to. This is what I get at last: a fluffy, soft chocolate cake.

Vegan Chocolate Cake (Lava Cake)

Ingredient:   (Make 2 ramekins)

• 1/2cup Plain flour
• 3 tbsp cacao powder
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1/4tsp Baking soda
• 5tbsp Unrefined brown sugar
• 1/2cup Coldwater
• 2tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1/2tbsp Lemon juice or vinegar
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract

Added later:

• 2 Dark chocolate cubes, 75% cocoa, (dairy-free)

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Sieve the plain flour in a bowl, with the salt, cacao powder, and baking soda, set aside.
3. Put sugar and cold water in another small bowl, stir until the sugar dissolved.
4. Add the vanilla extract and lemon juice, mix well.
5. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until well combined but not over mix.
6. Pour the batter in the greased ramekins.
7. Then, place one chocolate cube in the batter, press down to immerse into the batter.
8. Place in the hot oven and bake for 27 minutes. Don’t overcook if you want a lava cake.
9. Remove out from the oven and leave to cool 2 to 3 minutes. Then gently invert the ramekins on a serving plate.
10. Tap the base of the mould and let the cake slid on the plate.
11. Dust some cocoa powder or icing sugar on top. Then serve immediately.

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Flickr Photos

Flickr Photos

Here is the first time I’m not talking about cooking recipes.

Because I heard bad NEWS from Flickr (photos storage). They announced that Free members with more than 1,000 photos and/or videos uploaded to Flickr have until Tuesday, January 8, 2019, to upgrade to Pro or download content over that limit. After January 8, 2019, members over the limit will no longer be able to upload new photos to Flickr. After February 5, 2019, Free accounts that contain over 1,000 photos and/or videos will have content actively deleted—starting from oldest to newest date uploaded—to meet the new limit.

Has anyone stored your photos in Flickr? If you own a Flickr Pro account, that’s no problem at all but not the free members, sadly!

But I am one of the free members for so many years since. And my blog’s photos are linked in Flickr mainly.

If they changed the policy to keep 1,000 photos only for free, and more than that will get deleted automatically.

How about my blog’s photos were there so many years already? Once they deleted, my photos will get vanish!  And I can’t afford to pay the Pro account as well.

I am begging someone can give me some idea?

Vegan Apple & Ricotta Cheese Tart~GF

Vegan Apple & Ricotta Cheese Tart ~ Gf

It is stealthily entering to the frosting winter after the happy Halloween. Do you like this weather? I like the autumn more actually! Looking at the tree’s leaves turn into brown, then gradually to yellow. And gently falling on the road or lawn without any notice.

Halloween Spider Web Pumpkin Tart ~ Gluten-free

Halloween Spider Web Pumpkin Tart, gf

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Nearly forgot about it, silly me! Although I saw all the Halloween stuffs like costumes, sweets, decorations, and buckets as well. But…

What will be your fancy costume this year? A vampire or a mummy? A skeleton or a spiderman? But I like to be a pumpkin, why? Because I look like a pumpkin already! hahaha :p

Roasted Squash Stuffed with Multi-grains ~ Gluten-free

Roasted Squash Stuffed with Multi-Grains ~ Gluten-free

Now is nearly the end of the autumn and the beginning of the winter. Although the time still hasn’t changed back to winter time yet, I can feel the chill wind hit me all the time.

Vegan Apple Custard Tart ~ Gluten-free

Vegan Apple Custard Tart~Gluten-free

Now is the apple harvest high season, what will you do with the apples?

We pick up a lot of different species from a huge apple orchard. Some of them I will storage in my garage by wrapping them individually with newspaper, it can keep for a longer life.

 

Part of the apples, I like to make it into applesauce for cake making later. And the others I would make tarts,  crumbles or cakes. And today, I would like to make it a little different, I mess up with custard and apple puree in a tart with different layers.

In the meantime, I decided to make it healthier with low in fat, less sugar and without gluten. What do you think?

First, I need to prepare the crust, it is gluten-free without any flour, just oat flour, dates and walnut for the main ingredients.

Pre-bake the crust first to make sure is not a soggy bottom. Then cook the apples like applesauce. Or I have the other idea if you don’t want to do lots of work. You can just slice up the apple and arrange all the slices on the baked crust like a pinwheel pattern, then cover with the custard, and bake. Isn’t that easy and save you lots of precious time!

But I have to advise you to make a smaller size if you haven’t a lot to feed. The reason is when the tart gets cold, the crust will get moist back.

Vegan Apple Custard Tart~Gluten-free

Ingredient:   24cm tart tin

Crust:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup pitted dates⠀
• 1/2 cup walnuts⠀
• 1-2 Tbsp water or coconut oil

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C/160C in a fan oven.
2. In a small food processor, process the oats, pitted dates, walnuts, water, and coconut oil until a dough forms and the mixture holds together when you pinch it with your fingertips.
3. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before baking.
4. Line a parchment paper over the crust. Fill with dry beans, rice or pie weights.
5. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the weights and the parchment paper. Return to oven for another 10 to 15 minutes. Allow cooling before filling.

Apple filling:    

• 2 Apples, diced
• 1/4 cup Maple syrup or Raw brown sugar
• 1  tsp Lemon juice
• 1/2 tbsp of Vegan butter, optional
• 1/4 tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp Ground nutmeg, optional

Method: 

1. Put the diced apples, sugar, butter and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook until the apples soft and turn a slightly brown. Off heat.
2. Pour the apple mixture in a food processor, add the remaining ingredients and blend to a smooth purée. Pass through a fine sieve. The purée should be thick and sticky like a jam, if it’s too thin, transfer to a pan and cook on a low heat until thickened. Set aside.

Vegan custard:

Ingredients:   

• 3 cups non-dairy milk (divided into 2 cups and 1 cup.)
• 1 lemon zest
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 5 tbsp cornstarch or tapioca starch
• ½ tsp vanilla bean
• 2 tbsp Vegan butter

Method: 

1. Place 400ml nut milk in a saucepan, add sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, Turn on medium-low heat.
2. Put the remaining 200ml milk in a bowl, add cornstarch, stir to combine. When the nut milk is boiling, turn down the heat. Add the cornstarch batter into the cooking custard slowly, keep stirring and let it cook until thickened. Remove from heat and pour over a fine sieve, and press through to a smooth custard. Then add the vegan butter in and mix until melted.

Assembly:

1. Preheat the oven to 110°C/gas mark 1/4.
2. Put the apple puree over the tart case. Then pour the custard over. Bake the tart for about 1 hour. Allow cooling to room temperature before slicing.

Roasted Aubergine/Eggplant ‘Steak’ with Miso & Tahini Sauce 味噌麻醬烤茄子扒

Roasted Aubergine/Eggplant ‘Steak’with Miso & Tahini Sauce 味噌麻醬烤茄子扒

Would you think it is steak? It tastes like real steak, I know I shouldn’t say so, but it tastes so good with the texture was so real.

This is the easiest way to get a super delicious dish in a quick way. Few ingredients with few steps. Would you think this will be your quick dinner after work?

Vegan Spicy Courgette/ Zucchini Burgers with Harissa Mayo (gluten-free friendly)

Vegan Spicy Courgette/ Zucchini Burgers with Harissa Mayo (gluten-free friendly)

Protein is one of the most essential nutrients for our diet. Homemade veggie or vegan burgers are an excellent source of protein. According to an article that I read before, we can easily get enough protein for a plant-based diet. Like beans, lentil, legumes, tofu or soy products, quinoa or other whole grains, nut, seeds, or nut butter, seitan, tempeh, or protein powder.

Vegan Taro Paste Mooncake with Layers Flaky Pastry (酥皮千層芋泥月餅)

Vegan Taro Paste Mooncake with Layers Flaky Pastry (酥皮千層芋泥月餅)

This is the most satisfied layers flaky pastry cake I ever made. Please look at the picture below.

Can you see the layers? I am so surprised after the pastry got cut out. It is the cake that I looking for. If you like to try it, check in the link here.

Vegan Pandan Lotus Mooncakes and Fruit & Nut mooncakes 斑蘭蓮蓉月餅，五仁月餅

Vegan Pandan Lotus Mooncakes and Fruit & Nut mooncakes 斑蘭蓮蓉月餅，五仁月餅

Now is the first batch mooncakes I made for Mid-autumn festival in 2018. Pandan lotus mooncakes and the Fruit  & nut mooncakes.

Those two are the most traditional and oldest between all different kind of mooncakes. But I made it for all vegan fans. We deserve to have the same celebration with the others without having some weird food OR the others feel we’re weird! Never mind anyone!

The pandan lotus mooncakes without egg yolk here. Wish you don’t mind, but you can add the vegan salted egg yolk in the middle of the lotus paste. Also, this time I toasted some melon seeds and mix with the lotus paste together.