Vegan Desserts

[Lisa Shock]

If you serve wine, make sure it's vegan. They are out there, but you have to look carefully.

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Yes I wondered about that. I'll have to figure out what to watch for on the bottle. Of course it raises the question of what wine goes with falafel?

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Unfortunately, most wine labels don't mention if they are vegan/vegetarian. There are some lists of vegan wines online. Also a winery's website will tell you about their wines. Barring that, an employee at a wine store should be able to guide you. All of the major wine distributors now indicate which wines are vegan in their wholesale lists and catalogs, and it's a fairly common request nowadays.

[John DePaula]

Lots of good ideas here.

Also you could look at:

Mexican Chocolate-Almond Cake

[gfron1]

I made this 50th Birthday vegan cake this weekend:

Prior to this cake I had never made a vegan cake that I really enjoyed - always too dry or gummy. This one was perfect- I mean I would have been proud to serve it to a non-vegan audience. Look how nice the crumb turned out:

Definitely more box cake-ish than genoise, but that's okay since the majority of the US prefers that type of cake anyway. And then I did the water ganache outlined HERE which was fast and easy.

I filled it with some Pakistani orange marmalade. The key to the cake is using good vinegar (I used yuzu vinegar), and I've outlined the process at my blog HERE.

[pastrygirl]

It has finally occurred to me that I need to put together a collection of vegan recipes for those occasional guests with special diets. Oh fun. I need a few breakfast pastries, cookies, and cakes. There are some good starting points here, but I am finding that a lot of the recipes online ask for ingredients that I don't have here.

What I DON'T have: silken tofu, margarine, shortening, soy milk (can get it, but it has added milk fat so not vegan), flax seed, egg replacer, succanat, maple syrup, commercial fruit juice concentrates, dates

What I DO have: vegetable oil, olive oil, coconut milk/cream, honey (I know it's not vegan but I'm looking at this more from an allergy standpoint than a moral 'oh those poor little bees' standpoint), apples, bananas, prunes, dried apricots, raisins, peanut butter, most other basic ingredients. Also agar-agar, pectin, tapioca flour, can those be used as binders at all?

I think I could replace the soymilk in recipes with coconut milk, but I can't have everything tasting of coconut. Olive oil scones? Any cookies recipes with oil instead of creamed solid fat?

I'm just waiting for some gluten free vegan billionaire to come on her private jet and demand a chocolate cake better be ready!

[merstar]

It has finally occurred to me that I need to put together a collection of vegan recipes for those occasional guests with special diets.  Oh fun.  I need a few breakfast pastries, cookies, and cakes.  There are some good starting points here, but I am finding that a lot of the recipes online ask for ingredients that I don't have here. 

I'm just waiting for some gluten free vegan billionaire to come on her private jet and demand a chocolate cake    better be ready!

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I've recommended this cake to many people, and they've all loved it. Some used a 9x13, and others used two 9" rounds. (If I were to make it for myself, I'd cut down on the sugar and salt, and use 1 cup brewed espresso and 1 cup water instead of the 2 cups water). You can use a chocolate water glaze to top it.

Crazy Chocolate Cake

http://www.recipezaar.com/53524

[tsquare]

I made this 50th Birthday vegan cake this weekend:

and I've outlined the process at my blog HERE.

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It's a might bit snazzier, but a variation of an old cake - tried and true. We baked them in hotel pans for the coffee house at UCSC back in 1975 - and we weren't the first. They never came out cleanly, so there were always way too many crumbling pieces to be had...20 pound freshman bulge! I still have the recipe for the carob version, and the kind of german chocolate topping, I think.

[pastrygirl]

It has finally occurred to me that I need to put together a collection of vegan recipes for those occasional guests with special diets.  Oh fun.  I need a few breakfast pastries, cookies, and cakes.  There are some good starting points here, but I am finding that a lot of the recipes online ask for ingredients that I don't have here. 

I'm just waiting for some gluten free vegan billionaire to come on her private jet and demand a chocolate cake      better be ready!

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I've recommended this cake to many people, and they've all loved it. Some used a 9x13, and others used two 9" rounds. (If I were to make it for myself, I'd cut down on the sugar and salt, and use 1 cup brewed espresso and 1 cup water instead of the 2 cups water). You can use a chocolate water glaze to top it.

Crazy Chocolate Cake

http://www.recipezaar.com/53524

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Thanks, I tried that one today and I was really surprised at how good it was! Just a slightly gummy texture, but in truth probably not noticeably different from my regular chocolate cake recipe. My coconut milk ganache was too soft but would make a great frosting for the cake.

Tomorrow I'll be on a vegan muffin quest, I'll post recipes later if I find some good ones.

[merstar]

It has finally occurred to me that I need to put together a collection of vegan recipes for those occasional guests with special diets.  Oh fun.  I need a few breakfast pastries, cookies, and cakes.  There are some good starting points here, but I am finding that a lot of the recipes online ask for ingredients that I don't have here. 

I'm just waiting for some gluten free vegan billionaire to come on her private jet and demand a chocolate cake      better be ready!

←

I've recommended this cake to many people, and they've all loved it. Some used a 9x13, and others used two 9" rounds. (If I were to make it for myself, I'd cut down on the sugar and salt, and use 1 cup brewed espresso and 1 cup water instead of the 2 cups water). You can use a chocolate water glaze to top it.

Crazy Chocolate Cake

http://www.recipezaar.com/53524

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Thanks, I tried that one today and I was really surprised at how good it was! Just a slightly gummy texture, but in truth probably not noticeably different from my regular chocolate cake recipe. My coconut milk ganache was too soft but would make a great frosting for the cake.

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You're very welcome. Glad it turned out well!

[merstar]

Tomorrow I'll be on a vegan muffin quest, I'll post recipes later if I find some good ones.

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Here's a recipe for Vegan Blueberry Muffins you might want to check out - had great reviews:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Vegan-Blueberry-Muffins-123809

Another one to check out (from the Vegetarian Times):

Double Orange Cupcakes

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/10422?section=

Edited December 26, 2008 by merstar (log)

[Eden]

I don't actually do Vegan cooking as a rule, but one of my friends is allergic to eggs (and chocolate, and flour and... ) so many of the sweets I make for her end up being vegan... I really recommend that if you expect to do much of this type of cooking you mail order some flax seed, and make flax seed goo* as an egg substitute.

I just made a vegan version of this Hazelnut Clementine Cake subbing in a scant 1/4 cup of flax goo per egg and it came out beautifully.

*Basic Flax Seed Goo

Bring 1/3 cup of water and 1-2 tbsp of whole flaxseeds (per egg you want to replace) to a boil, Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes until liquid is gooey & highly reminiscent of eggwhites. Strain out and discard the flaxseeds.

[beacheschef]

I'm re-opening this thread to see if anyone has found a vegan cake recipe they have made and really like.

A bride has asked me to experiment with some vegan recipes for her wedding cake. I've read the threads and checked out some websites - PostPunkKitchen looked like it had some good recipes to try.

I tried a couple of recipes last night, and found a chocolate cake to be pretty good and a chai-tea cake to be rubbery. I'm planning to make GFron's chocolate cake from his blog later today and have great expectations for it

Any recommendations?