Any Fruit Coffee Cake

As I have mentioned, Amanda and Mark had this fabulous idea to have a dessert bar instead of just a wedding cake. They accomplished this with a little help from friends and loved ones!

Because we adore them, many of us agreed to pitch in and make a couple of the tried-and-true family recipes that they had chosen for the day. I love that they wanted their families and friends represented in their desserts!

Aside from their wedding cake and the German Chocolate cake, I also made a delightful blueberry coffee cake. As the name of the recipe suggests, this can be made with any fruit (although the recipe does give some suggestions).

You will need:

4 cups of fruit

(chopped apples, apricots, peaches, blackberries, blueberries)

1 cup water

2 TBSP lemon juice

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

3 cups flour

(I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose flour)

1 cup sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground mace

1 cup butter or margarine

(I used Earth Balance)

2 slightly beaten eggs

(I used EnerG Egg Replacer)

1 cup milk

(I used almond milk, because that's what I had on hand)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

In a saucepan, combine your fruit and the water. Simmer it, covered, for about 5 minutes or until the fruit is tender. Stir in the lemon juice. 

Mix together the cornstarch and sugar and stir into the fruit mixture. Cook and stir until thinckened and bubbly. Remove from the heat and let cool.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and mace. Cut in the 1 cup of Earth Balance until it gets crumbly and is fully incorporated. 

In a separate bowl, combine Egg Replacer, milk and vanilla. Add it to the flour mixture and mix until blended.

Spread half of the batter into a greased 9x13" pan. Spoon the cooled fruit mixture over the batter and spread it out to the edges. Spoon the remaining batter into small mounds over the fruit mixture and spread out as much as possible. 

Combine the 1/2 cup of sugar and the 1/2 cup of flour and cut in the 1/4 cup of Earth Balance until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the nuts (if using), and sprinkle the mixture over the batter in the pan.

Place the pan on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until the cake tests done. You'll want to use the cookie sheet so you don't get fruit goo all over your oven when this bakes and bubbles over...trust me on this one.

As I said, I made this with blueberries but this time of year it would be wonderful with rhubarb and strawberries.

Gluten-Free, Vegan German Chocolate Cake

 What was left of the cake after Amanda and Mark's reception.

I made this cake recently for Miss Amanda's wedding. She had this fantastic dessert bar made of two 8-foot banquet tables with the wedding cake as the centerpiece. The tables were packed full of brownies, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, cheesecake, homemade truffles, mini muffins, coffee cake and so much more! The idea was that the desserts would act as the wedding favors for guests and boy-o-boy were there plenty of yummy things for take home.

One challenge in all of this, of course, is that there are typically few (or no) options for us vegan kids. The same is true for several of my very good friends who do the gluten-free thing. We feel generally left out of the party because we can't enjoy the same things everyone else is having. Harumph!

Even though Miss Amanda specifically asked me to make things "the normal way," I took matters into my own hands and directly disobeyed her request. Sorry, my friend, but I wanted to have a slice of something yummy for all of my efforts - and I wanted our gluten-free pals to have options, too!

If you follow me on Twitter, you should know by now that I have a serious cook book habit...but when I stumbled upon a recipe for Babycakes' German Chocolate Cake, I knew I had to buy yet another cook book. Their recipes are, "Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free" and fan-fricken-tastic!

The cake part of the recipe is all Babycakes but the frosting is mine. I like their frosting recipes but they melt really quickly if not refrigerated and, since these had to sit out for much of the day while I got ready, attended the wedding, and then partied until it was time for dessert, the Babycakes frosting simply would not do.

I have no idea why German Chocolate Cake has coconut (as far as I know, coconuts don't come from Germany and never have) but it's delicious, if geographically incorrect.

For the cake, you will need:

2 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup potato starch

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (the darker the better)

1/4 cup arrowroot

1 1/2 TBSP baking  powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp xantham gum

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups agave nectar

1 cup melted refined coconut oil, plus more to brush onto your baking pans

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/3 cup vanilla extract

1/2 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 325. Brush two 9-inch round cake pans with melted coconut oil and set aside (you only have to do the bottom of the pans).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, potato starch, cocoa powder, arrowroot, baking powder, baking soda, xantham gum, and salt. Add the agave nectar, coconut oil, applesauce, and vanilla and mix with a rubber spatula until fully incorporated (It's going to look more like cookie dough than cake batter - just go with it). Add the hot water and mix until a loose batter forms.

Divide the batter evenly between the two baking pans. Bake for 15 minutes and rotate. Continue baking 15 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pans for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, turn the cakes out onto a cake plate or wire rack and let cool one more hour (at least) before frosting. Remember, I like to let my cakes chill over night. This is definitely one of the fridge-only kinds of cakes.

For the frosting, you will need:

12 TBSP Earth Balance, softened

1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp coconut extract

2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

3 TBSP non-dairy milk

Just like when we made the plain buttercream frosting, you'll want to beat the Earth Balance until it is soft and fluffy. Next you'll add both extracts and beat again until combined. Add the milk and powdered sugar a little at a time and beat until combined. Once this tastes like the best buttercream frosting you've ever had, add in the coconut at the very end and mix until fully incorporated.

Frost using the techniques you learned in my last post and garnish with more shredded coconut and some pecans.

In addition to making this cake, the blueberry coffee cake, and the wedding cake, I also helped coordinate the desserts and set up the dessert bar. In all of that, the best compliment I got the whole day was from my friend Jack who, after sampling the German Chocolate Cake and the Gluten-Free, Vegan Blueberry Coffee Cake, gave me a giant hug and exclaimed, "I feel like a real boy!"

Blessed are the cheesemakers...

Blessed are the cheesemakers! 

Er, rather, blessed are the uncheese makers.

Many new converts to vegetarianism or veganism will tell you that they have no issue giving up dairy products, but cheese is quite another story. 

THANK GOD for Jo Stepaniak, author of The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook.

I just received my copy in the mail and I want to make every recipe in the book!

Why uncheese?

Because, readers, I like you. Because I want you to live a long, fulfilling life. Because I want you to eat great food. Because eliminating animal proteins from your diet is the single most important change you can make to increase your chance for a long, healthy life.

But we'll talk more about that in future posts.

The book includes these categories:
Uncheese Spreads, Dips, Pestos, and Sprinkles
Cheezy Hot and Cold Sauces
Fondues
Pasta, Polenta, and other Main Dishes
Quiches, Dinner Pies, Casseroles, and Souffles
Pizzas, Breads, Little Bites, and Sandwiches
Salads and Dressings
Block Uncheeses
Sweets

Most of the recipes are also Gluten Free and Corn Free. Many of the recipes offer substitutions also take allergies into concern and offer alternative ingredients to make the uncheeses Soy Free, Nut Free, and Yeast Free. Isn't that delightful?

Go out any buy it for yourself, folks. You'll be happy you did!