Where did I go wrong?

[Phoenix]

This is a thread to share culinary mishaps in the hope that more experienced vegan cooks :chef: can help get to the source of the problem to offer advice &/or a solution! :o

On Sunday, I made my first attempt at cooking a vegan cake. My housemate enjoyed it, (thank goodness), but I was a bit disappointed. It tasted great :yum: but the texture was a bit heavy. According to the recipe book, the cake should have been light and airy. The following recipe is copied word for word from the cookbook ‘How it all Vegan!’ by Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer. (Copyright © 1999.)

Vanilla cake.

1½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup dry sweetener
¾ cup soy milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup oil
Egg replacer (equal to one egg)

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the sweetener, milk, vanilla, oil, and egg replacer and mix together gently until “just mixed”. Pour into a lightly oiled cake pan and bake for 25 – 30 minutes. Check with a knife to see if done. When cooled, ice (pgs. 149 – 150) and serve.


How I made it.

I used level measures of all ingredients. Organic plain white flour, baking powder, sea salt, organic raw sugar, a creamy-style soy milk that I bought to cook with, a rich vanilla extract, canola oil, and egg replacement powder.

I sifted the flour, baking powder and salt together, added the sugar and stirred it together with a wooden spoon, then I added the milk, vanilla, oil, and egg replacer powder (mixed with water as per the instructions on the box). Poured the whole lot into a light cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper, and cooked it in a pre-heated 180°C oven for 30 minutes. (I checked it after 25 minutes but it was still mushy in the middle.) The frosting didn’t work – but that’s another story – so we ate it unadorned.

Should I use a different kind of egg replacer, such as psyllium husks mixed with a little water? Should I just use self-raising flour instead? Any thoughts?

Next Sunday, I’m going to make chocolate pecan brownies. :dribble:

[paul]

MMmmm possible not geting air into the mixture you need air.(to be honest ive no idea apart from that).
ive never used egg replacer, mainly because the people i know who have used it didnt rate it, it was a long time ago ,ive got a simlar recipe to yours, i havent tried it yet, the big diffrence is bicarbonate of soda(apart from the choc chips :D ) im sure some baking expert will have a better idea than me.


Vanilla Sponge with chocolate chips and pecans

I used an 8" square tin for this cake but any shape you like would be fine.

Ingredients.

300g/12oz/2 cups of self raising flour

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

100g/4oz/half a cup of sugar

1 cup/8 fl.oz/200ml of sunflower oil

1 cup of soya milk (or possibly a little more to get a good mixture)

2 teaspoons of natural vanilla extract

50g./2 oz./quarter cup chocolate chips (or more if you like!)

50g/2 oz/half a cup of pecan halves

Oil your cake tin and preheat oven to 180C/360F. Mix together your dry ingredients of flour, sugar and bicarbonate. Make a well in the middle and pour in the oil, soya milk and vanilla - mix well. Pour into cake tin and then sprinkle on the chocolate chips and arrange the pecans on top. Bake for about half an hour or until cooked in middle (insert a knife or skewer into the centre of cake and if cooked it will come out clean)

[Phoenix]

Oooooh, thanks for the recipe, Paul. :agree: Sounds good. :yum:

About a hundred years ago :rolleyes: I used to be able to make cake that was light as a cloud. (But those cakes were made with cows milk and chooks eggs.) :o

But I can't live in a world without cake :lol: so I'll keep trying!

[thevegantwins]

I find that vegan cakes do tend to be a bit heavier than cow pus/chicken embryo/menstrual waste cakes but not significantly heavier. Sounds like you did everything right. Do you use an oven thermometer? I have found that what you think your oven temperature is and what it actually is can be very different.

[Bowwowmeow]

I made us a Baking Basics (http://www.thenakedvegan.net/showthread.php?p=30302) thread. I hope it helps, and I hope people will add their own experiences in baking to it!

[Phoenix]

I find that vegan cakes do tend to be a bit heavier than cow pus/chicken embryo/menstrual waste cakes but not significantly heavier. Sounds like you did everything right. Do you use an oven thermometer? I have found that what you think your oven temperature is and what it actually is can be very different.
Thanks TVT. No, I don't use an oven thermometer :no: I'll see if I can buy one next week.

My housemate has mentioned several times that the cake was really good :yum: so maybe I was just expecting something different because I've never tasted vegan cake before. Hell, until last weekend I hadn't had any cake since early January 2006. :crying:

Tomorrow we get chocolate pecan brownies! :crossfingers: :hungry: :cheer:

[paul]

Your proberly being to hard on your self, good luck with the chocolate pecan brownies, i'll always test them for you:whistle: :D :dribble:

[Phoenix]

... good luck with the chocolate pecan brownies, i'll always test them for you:whistle: :D :dribble:
Does that mean that you'll be coming to Oz :boat: in the near future? Or should I just post some brownies to the UK? :D

[paul]

Im not planning to visit oz but you never know.:D

[Phoenix]

Last Sunday, I made chocolate pecan brownies with chocolate frosting – except the frosting ended up more like a rich chocolate sauce! It was delicious though. :yum: The following recipes have been copied word for word from the cookbook ‘How it all Vegan!’ by Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer. (Copyright © 1999.)

The specific ingredients I used are in blue.

Chocolate pecan brownies.

1 cup soft or medium tofu. (Soft.)
1 cup dry sweetener. (Organic raw sugar.)
2 tsp vanilla extract.
4 tbsp oil. (Organic virgin coconut oil.)
4 tbsp cocoa or carob. (Cocoa.)
1 & 1/3 cup whole-wheat pastry flour. (Organic plain whole meal flour.)
2 tsp baking powder.
¾ cup pecans, chopped.

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). In a blender or food processor, blend the tofu, sweetener, vanilla, oil, and cocoa powder until smooth and creamy. In a large bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the pecans and tofu mixture, and mix together until “just mixed”. If the batter is too dry, add a splash of water. Spoon the batter into a lightly oiled 8x8 cake pan and bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Test with a knife to see if done. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before icing (pg. 149) and cut into squares. Makes 6 large brownies.

Tomorrow, I’m going to make Bowwowmeow’s vanilla cake. :chef: :hungry: :dribble:

And Paul, I thought about you and your kind offer to taste the brownies for me when I had the first bite. :D

[thevegantwins]

I made Chocolate Beaver Cake in honor of my friend, Paola visiting from Italy on Thursday and Friday. This cake is fool-proof. It is called Beaver Cake because the recipe came from an AR group, The Beaver Defenders. I made chocolate ganache frosting. Paola and Mr. TVT LOVE this cake. My adaptions are in blue.

Chocolate Beaver Cake:

1 cup sugar (organic cane sugar)
1.5 cups unsifted flour (whole-wheat pastry flour)
1.5 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cocoa (organic)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon lemon juice (organic)
1/2 cup oil (organic canola)
1 teaspoon vanilla (organic and fair-trade)
1 cup cold water
1 bag of vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix the ingredients in order given. Mix to just incorporated. Pour into ungreased square 9X9 baking pan. Bake in oven for 35 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting :choc:

3/4 cup non-dairy milk (chocolate almond milk)
1/4 cup soy margarine (Earth Balance)
12-14oz vegan chocolate chips or chopped vegan chocolate

In the top part of a double boiler (place metal bowl into a saucepan that has about an inch of water in the bottom making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water), place the non-dairy milk and margarine. Heat until the margarine melts. Add the chocolate and continue heating and stirring until the chocolate melts. Keep mixing untii everything is completely incorporated. Pour over the cooled cake and refrigerate the cake. There will be leftover ganache. Pour into a container and place in the fridge. Can be used as a spread, reheated for frosting, or you can dip fruit and nuts into the room temperature ganache then place dipped stuff onto parchment paper and place into fridge.