Vegan Banana Bread

Okay I'd be a great big vegan fibber if I didn't admit that this isn't the fluffiest banana bread in the universe... but, it's passable and tastes lovely. Might do an extra 1/2 tsp of bicarb and vinegar next time for more lift. Well worth a go though if some bananas need using.

Ingredients:

130g Plain Flour
1/2 cup White granulated sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Soy milk or soy cream
1/2 tsp Cider vinegar
2 Large ripe bananas
1 tbsp Veg oil
3 tbsp Agave nectar (you could use syrup)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 175c and oil a small loaf pan and set to one side. In a mixing bowl mix the flour, sugars, bicarb of soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside and get the wet stuff mixed together.

In another (larger) mixing bowl, whisk together the soy cream and cider vinegar and let stand for a couple of minutes. Then add the banana (mashed up), vegetable oil, agave, and vanilla extract, whisking until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing until just combined.

Bake for an hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre emerges clean. Allow the bread to cool on a wire cooling rack for 20 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Vegan chocolate cake

There's a fabulous Punch cartoon from the Victorian era that labels the nascent vegetarian movement of the day to be an inglorious collection of 'pudding eaters'; it was deemed that to a man (and woman) they had an incurably sweet tooth. This blog however, has been stuck in savoury mode for two weeks now and so it's high time some desserts made it in.

The thing about vegan desserts is that they do seem to many to be an impossibility. Other than a fruit salad, most chefs seem stumped, and can't imagine that it is possible to come up with anything that isn't a fusion of eggs, cream and dollops of other dairy products. They're wrong of course, as this super simple vegan chocolate cake - originally from my mother in law in New Jersey - amply proves. Get stuck in!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Tsp basking soda

1 cup pain sugar

1/2 tsp salt

5 tbsp corn oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Tbsp cider vinegar

Icing sugar to sprinkle

Method:

Pre heat the over to 180 degrees centigrade. Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the corn oil, vinegar and vanilla with 1 cup of cold water. Whisk this mix into the dry ingredients and keep on going until the mixture is completely fee of lumpy bits. Pour the mix into a greased 9" cake tin (or you could make cupcakes with this mixture) and bake for 35 minutes or so - basically until the top springs back to the touch; the other way to check if the cake is done is to stick a toothpick or knife into the centre and if it comes out clean, the cake is done. Let the cake cool for a while in its tin before removing, and dust with icing sugar to serve.