Vegan Soy-Free Cream Cheese Frosting

For the carrot cake I posted in the last recipe, I decided to try to make a soy-free cream cheese frosting. It was a bit lumpy, due to the nuts, but that didn’t matter that much on what’s already a lumpy-ish cake. Since M is allergic to some nuts, she didn’t love it (it made her think of the nuts she’s allergic to). But it was pretty good.

 

Depending on the size of your cake, you might need to double this recipe.

 

Ingredients:

½ cup cashews or ground almonds

2 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

4 tbsp Pure spread

2 cups icing sugar

 

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together well in a food processor, trying to get it as smooth as possible.

2. Spread on your cake as desired.

Vegan Almond Cookies

I had a craving for cookies late one evening, so I cruised the internet for some vegan recipes. A little tweaking and I came up with this. It was so good I ate a lot of the dough before baking it.

 

It was so good we made it twice in one week and discovered that it is fantastic with some chocolate chips or pine nuts mixed in too.

 

Ingredients:

¾ cup coconut oil or sunflower oil

1 cup ground almonds (or another nut, if preferred)

2 1/3 cups flour

½ - ¾ cup sugar, depending on desired sweetness

1 tbsp vanilla

¼ cup water

¼ cup or about 50 g pine nuts or chopped hazelnuts or chopped chocolate, optional

icing sugar

 

Instructions:

1. If using coconut oil, melt it.

2. Mix the coconut oil with all the other ingredients, except the icing sugar.

3. Roll the dough into flat rounds.

4. Bake at 175 C for 15-18 minutes.

5. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Vegan Chocolate Cake 3

This one is lovely topped with chocolate ganache.

 

Ingredients:

50 g (about 3 tbsp or ¼ cup) coconut oil, plus a little extra to grease the dish

150 g flour

20 g ground almonds (or another 15 g flour, if you prefer)

45 g cocoa

175 g sugar (I use a combination of dark brown and white, to add a bit more depth of flavour)

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp vanilla

235 ml (1 cup) coffee, water, or milk

30 ml (1/8 cup) maple syrup

 

Instructions:

1. Melt the coconut oil.

2. Sift all the dry ingredients together.

3. Mix in all the other ingredients.

4. Lightly grease a cake tin and bake for 15-25 minutes at 180 C.

Vegan Chocolate Ganache 2

I used this to top my vanilla cupcakes from the last post.

Ingredients:

90 g dark chocolate

1 tbsp coconut oil

1-2 tbsp rice milk (or soy or almond)

Instructions:

1. Melt all the ingredients together.

2. Cool slightly, then spread on cupcakes.

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

These are fast and easy to make and can be topped with any frosting you desire. I used vanilla frosting and fresh strawberries once and chocolate ganache another time. This recipe makes six, but you can double it or even triple it.

Ingredients:

¾ cup rice milk (or soy or almond)

1½ tsp lemon juice

¼ cup coconut oil

1 cup flour

½ cup sugar (or ¼ cup palm sugar)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. Mix the rice milk and lemon juice together and set aside for 10 minutes to curdle.

2. Melt the coconut oil (if you have it in solid form).

3. Mix the dry ingredients together. Stir in the vanilla, coconut oil, and milk mixture.

4. Pour into muffin cases and bake for 10-15 minutes at 175 C.