Red velvet carob cake

This was another one of my carob experiments, and yes it is also another single serving mini cake. It also happens to be an opportunity to test out a few other more unusual ingredients- namely teff flour and red palm oil.  I haven’t had much experience of either, but after reading lots of good stuff about their nutritional value I was keen to give them a try.

I will warn you now, red palm oil is bright orangey-red and it stains if you get in anywhere you don’t want it to be….wear an apron…you have been warned!

Red palm oil is strong in flavour when compared to the coconut oil I more typically use, the natural red pigment is due to the unrefined nature of the oil and the oil itself is full of vitamins and antioxidants, most significantly vitamin E , betacarotenes and co-enzyme Q10.

This recipe uses the dominant flavours of the carob and raspberry to carry the red  palm oil so that it does not dominate the sweet cake with its slightly savoury taste, you won’t notice it in this recipe. I would advise using strong flavours in conjunction with red palm oil, unless you are opting for a savoury dish where you want the natural flavour of the palm oil to come through.

By the way, you can quite easily sub the red palm oil for coconut oil in this recipe, and the teff flour for another GF grain, it should still work just fine!  The ‘red velvet’ title was generated by the use of the red palm oil along with raspberries, however the photos give the impression of a much more ‘brown’ chocolatey cake…oh well the thought was there.  

Either way, I promise you this little light and fruity dessert with a chocolately twang is worth it, and with just a couple of minutes of your time...how could you resist?  I used my silicone egg poach again…I’m having so much fun playing with it, and also added a ‘surprise’ sweet berry centre, but again that’s optional.  

I also got a little bit more carried away and with few small tweaks to the recipe I made red velvet carob pancakes…you can find the recipe for those in my guest post here! P.s I had some help to eat the pancakes…I’m not quite that greedy.

Recipe: Red velvet carob cake for one

Serves 1

Ingredients

2 tbs teff flour

2 tsp carob

½ tsp baking powder

Tiny pinch salt

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 tbs pureed raspberries (I used frozen)

1 tbs red palm oil

1 tsp agave syrup

Up to 2 tbs soy milk/juice

2 tsp sugar free jam- optional for centre and for glaze

Method

Mix together well in a small bowl. In another greased/lined small microwaveable dish (or use a silicone egg poach!) spoon half of the mixture, add a dollop of jam to the centre and then spoon the remaining batter on the top.

Microwave for 1 minute at full power. Test gently with the tip of your finger and if the sponge springs back you’re done!

Serve with a little extra sugar free jam and vegan cream or yoghurt of desired.

 ...and for the pancake version..... find me here!

This recipe has been linked with Allergy Free Wednesdays.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Sticky orange and ginger cake

You know how much I love a super simple two-minute cake, right?

Well, can you imagine how excited I was a week or so ago whilst wandering through the bakeware section of the supermarket, when these caught my eye….

That’s right, they are silicone ‘pods’ for poaching eggs… ah, but I don’t eat eggs. Confused?

…can you see where my thoughts are going yet?

They are the perfect way to create a perfectly domed single serving ‘mug cake’ that can easily be removed for serving on a little dish.  So much prettier than eating straight out of a mug (though nothing wrong with that either!), and so much simpler than trying the line a mug with clingfilm (as I did with my carrot cake) so that the cake can be removed.

Go on treat yourself!

I’ve already tried a few flavour combo’s out…and I have another recipe for another time, but for now how about a bit of sticky orange and ginger cake?

The magic ingredient in this cake is sugar free orange and ginger jam (you could easily use sugar free marmalade and add your own ginger). I use these ‘jams’ for all sorts of things… and they come in loads of flavours (I’d just run out of my blueberry). Great as a glaze, or as a juicy surprise centre like in these coconut tarts. They are sweetened with fruit only.

So onto the recipe itself, I have used white spelt flour but you could easily sub a GF mix (my usual one is equal measures of ground almonds, buckwheat flour and tapioca starch). Some of the jam is mixed through the batter or used as a surprise melty centre and the rest is melted over the top of the freshly cooked cake as a glaze. You will need very  little extra sweetener (if any) so go sparingly!

This sweet and citrusy dessert was the perfect pick me up for my Friday afternoon…and I certainly needed it after I’d given blood in the morning and then without heeding the nurses order of ‘rest and no strenuous activity’ for the rest of the day…I spent it on my feet for 5 hours in the kitchen, and as you know that is often a very strenuous activity. Ooops!

Resting with some cake now. All is better in the world.

Recipe: Sticky orange and ginger cake

Serves 1 (or double up for a sharing portion!)

Ingredients

3 tbs white spelt flour (or GF mix)

½ tsp baking powder

Tiny pinch salt

¼ tsp ground ginger

1 tbs melted coconut oil

1 tsp orange jam (for centre or mixed through) plus extra for glaze

1 tsp agave syrup (if needed to taste)

Up to 2tbs  orange juice

Method

Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix well.  You can either add the jam to the mixture or reserve it to add as a melty centre.

In another greased/lined small microwaveable dish (or use a silicone egg poach!) spoon half of the mixture, add a dollop of jam to the centre (if preferred) and then spoon the remaining batter on the top.

Microwave for 40 seconds on full power. Test with a finger and if the sponge springs back you’re done. Cook for another 20 seconds if necessary.

Serve cake on a plate and spread a little more jam to glaze whilst the sponge is still hot. Decorate with mango or orange pieces, soy yoghurt/cream and a dusting of ginger.

(look at the gooooey melty centre peeping out at you....!)

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Single serve carrot cake

I’ve enjoyed making my ‘2 minute breakfast cookies’ so much recently, more for dessert than breakfast! I’ve tried out lots more flavour combinations so I will be sharing those with you soon, but today I fancied a single serving more of the mug cake variety.

Using this gluten free raspberry cheesecake mug cake recipe as a basis I set about making a super nutritious ‘fill me up’ type dessert with some added oats for oomph. To make smaller portions you could divide the mixture into two small ramekins to serve two.

Instead of serving it straight from a bowl or mug I decided to line the ramekin with lightly oiled clingfilm so that once cooked I could easily lift it out and peel away the clingfilm to serve. It worked pretty well although if I’d waiting a couple of minutes for it to cool and firm up slightly it probably would have been even easier….me impatient…never!

Using orange juice instead of soy milk really helps to bring out the flavour of the carrot, and the ground almonds really help add to the moistness of the crumb, you could probably get away without the added oil since the texture was in no way dry. You could serve it with a dollop of nut butter or a creamy cheesy style frosting. Here I served mine with a thick cashew cream made with much less water than usual.

Single serving 'microwave' cakes are great as a time saver and also as an ingredient saver particularly when being a bit adventurous or experimental and you don’t want to make a whole batch of cake to find it tastes awful! Today this ‘5 minute cake’ really did the trick and meant that I could have a 10 minute time-out before rushing off the do the next thing on my list…so much to do today…busy busy busy, I will reveal all very soon!

Recipe: single serve carrot cake

Serves 1!

Ingredients

2 tbs GF flour mix

1tbs ground almonds

1 tbs oats

1 tbs rapadura

Tiny pinch salt

¼  tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

1 tsp mild flavoured oil (coconut or rapeseed)

1 small carrot grated- approx. 3tbs

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp cinnamon

2-3 tbs orange juice

Nuts to sprinkle on top- optional

Method

Add all the ingredients to a small bowl adding orange juice last just enough to achieve a medium thick batter. Mix well so there are no lumps or dry patches of unmixed flour.

Pour into a mug or large ramekin (line it with clingfilm if you want to be able to take it out to serve). Note the mixture should only fill no more than just over half the height of the mug/ramekin. Sprinkle nuts over the top if you like. 

Cook on full power (900W) in microwave for 1 min. check with a cocktail stick until stick comes out almost clean. Cook for 20 seconds more if necessary (up to two times) until cooked.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

The mighty mug cake

My new favourite dessert is without a doubt… (drum roll please)…. the Mighty Mug Cake!

It ticks all my criteria:

·         Quick and simple to make

·         Healthy (as healthy as possible for a dessert) 

·         Contains chocolate

Oh, and there are endless variations, which again is important to me as I love experimenting and have an aversion to making exactly the same thing twice!

This is the perfect single serving snack… perfect for when you need a quick fix or a little something to cap off a virtuous dinner. I also think in many ways it makes you even healthier as you don’t have to make a whole batch of cookies or a full size cake which means there are no leftovers to be tempted by on subsequent days (there is a logic there somewhere!)

I will no doubt be sharing more mug cake recipes in the coming weeks and months so please check back!

There are countless vegan mug cake recipes out there on the internet, many with varying ratings and seemingly unpredictable results. In making my first mug cake I combined 'the best' of a number of recipes and had a go. The result was super yummy BUT not healthy in any way, so in order to rectify this and produce a yummy but 'healthy' cake for my blog (and for my life!) I subbed the oil, sugar and flour for healthier versions reducing the oil and using part soy yoghurt in the process. I bet you wouldn't be able to taste the difference!

Recipe: ‘the original’ chocolate mug cake

Serves 1 mug or 2 ramekins (if you can bare to share!)

Ingredients:

3 tbs wholewheat flour

1 tbs rapadura and a few grains of stevia! (approx. 1/8th tsp)

Tiny pinch salt

1 tbs cocoa and 1/3 tsp chocolate extract (or 2 tbs cocoa)

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

3 tbs soy milk

1 tbs coconut butter

1tbs soy yoghurt or apple puree (I used yoghurt)

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs dark chocolate chunks

1 tsp choppped nuts (optional)

(Note: in these pictures I'd added fresh orange juice to sub some of the soy milk and some grated orange rind and flesh to the batter to make a chocolate orange cake- super yummy!)

Method:

Place coconut butter, vanilla and soy milk in a mug and melt together until coconut melted. Mix dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and mix together.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in the mug and keep mixing until there are no lumps or dry patches of unmixed flour. Mix half the choc chunks through the mixture and sprinkle the remaining on the top along with nuts if using.  Cook on full power (900W) in microwave for 1 minute. Check with a cocktail stick until stick comes out almost clean. Cook for 20 seconds more if necessary (up to two times) until cooked. Note: timing is critical so you don't end up with a dry cake!!