Rich Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes

Many peo­ple would as­sume that any­thing both ve­g­an AND gluten-free must be about as de­li­cious as card­board. Get ready for shock and awe, peo­ple, as we pre­sent a cup­cake recipe that will.. Blow. Your. Mind!

Cup­cake Mix:

1½ cups Self-Rais­ing Gluten-Free Flour (we used Laucke Easy Bak­ers Spe­cial White Gluten-Free flour, avai­l­able in the health sec­tion of many su­per­mar­kets)
1 cup Cas­tor Su­gar
3 ta­ble­spoons Veg­etable Oil
1 ta­ble­spoon Egg Sub­sti­tute (eg. No Egg) mixed with 3 ta­ble­spoons Wa­ter
½ cup Nut­telex (or other ve­g­an mar­garine)
                                                   

2 tea­spoons Vanil­la Ex­tract/Essence
¾ cup Soy Milk
½ cup Des­si­cat­ed Co­conut

Cho­co­late Cof­fee Ic­ing:

2½ cups Ic­ing Su­gar
¾ cup Nut­telex
3 tea­spoons Vanil­la Ex­tract/Essence
3 ta­ble­spoons hot Fair-trade Cof­fee
7 ta­ble­spoons Raw Ca­cao Pow­der OR 2 ta­ble­spoons Fair-trade Co­coa

SERVES: 20 cup­cakes  PREP: 30min  COOK­ING: 30min

Pre­pa­ra­tion

Pre­heat your oven to 180C.

Toast the co­conut in a fry pan over low heat, stir­ring reg­u­lar­ly un­til just gol­d­en.

Com­bine all in­gre­di­ents and mix us­ing an elec­tric mix­er un­til thor­ough­ly blend­ed and slight­ly fluf­fy.

Place cup­cake pa­pers in­to a cup­cake pan and drop a gener­ous, heaped ta­ble­spoon of mix­ture in­to each cup­cake pa­per so they are filled close to, but not quite to the top.

Bake in the oven for ap­prox­i­mate­ly 30 min­utes, or un­til gol­d­en and a skew­er comes out clean when poked in­to one of the cakes.

Al­low the cakes to cool for 15 min­utes and then trans­fer them to a wire rack and al­low to com­plete­ly cool be­fore ic­ing.

Ic­ing the Cup­cakes

Com­bine all of the ic­ing in­gre­di­ents in a bowl and beat with an elec­tric mix­er un­til the ic­ing is com­plete­ly blend­ed and looks shiny.

Fit a pip­ing bag with a wide star-shaped noz­zle and fill the bag with ic­ing.

In one mo­tion, pipe the ic­ing on­to a cup­cake, start­ing from the out­side spi­ral­ing in, and then pipe up and around, with an ex­tra squirt at the end to form a tip.

Store in an airtight con­tain­er un­til ready to en­joy.

Mis­ter Nice Guy Cup­cakes

If you don’t feel like mak­ing your own cup­cakes and you live in Mel­bourne, try Mis­ter Nice Guy Ve­g­an Cup­cakes. They have an as­tound­ing range of de­li­cious flavours and use on­ly or­gan­ic, fair-trade in­gre­di­ents. For more in­for­ma­tion you can read our ar­ti­cle about them or vis­it www.mis­ter­n­iceguy.com.au

Easy Creamy Cheesecake

You’ll be a con­vert to dairy-free deserts af­ter try­ing this creamy, sump­tu­ous cheese­cake. Use the ba­sic recipe to ex­per­i­ment with dif­fer­ent flavours – we’ve shown you le­mon and ber­ry va­ri­eties.

Base:

1/2 pack­et Arnotts Nice bis­cuits (or other ve­g­an va­ri­e­ty)
1 hand­ful of raw un­salt­ed Al­monds
1/2 cup Nuttlex (or other ve­g­an mar­garine)
1 spring-load­ed cake tin (the type that can open up to re­move the cake)

Filling:

1 tub Bet­ter Than Cream Cheese (227g)
200g soft to­fu
                                                   

1 tea­spoon vanil­la essence
200g gol­d­en syrup (or to taste)
1 tbl­spn po­ta­to flour (mix to paste with 2 tbl­spn cold wa­ter)
juice of one le­mon

For le­mon cheese­cake:

juice from 2 ex­tra le­mons

save one of the le­mon skins for grat­ing

For ber­ry cheese­cake:

1 pun­net of ber­ries (blue­ber­ries or rasp­ber­ries work well)

SERVES: 8  PREP: 30min  COOK­ING: 40min  COOL­ING: 2hrs

Le­mon Cheese­cake op­tion

Pre­par­ing the base

Turn on the oven to pre­heat to 180c.

Place the bis­cuits on a large chop­ping board and crush them with a rolling pin. The meal should be grit­ty and course.

Blend the al­monds in a blen­der un­til a fine meal and add                                                    

to the bis­cuits. Heat the mar­garine un­til run­ny (easi­est in the mi­crowave for a minute) and use on­ly as much as ne­ces­sary by gra­d­u­al­ly pour­ing and stir­ring in­to the bis­cuit mix­ture un­til the meal can be brought to­gether as a sticky crum­bling dough.

Coat mar­garine over the in­side of the spring-load­ed cake tin. Sprin­k­le enough mix­ture over the bot­tom of the tin to loose­ly cov­er it and then press the mix­ture down to form the base. Take clumps of the re­main­ing mix­ture and press half-way up the sides of the tin un­til the base is com­plete. Set aside.

Mak­ing the mix­ture

Pour the Bet­ter Than Cream Cheese and to­fu in­to a blen­der. Add the vanil­la essence and gol­d­en syrup and                                                    

blend. Mix the po­ta­to flour with 2 tbl­spns wa­ter to form a run­ny paste and add to the mix­ture. Juice the le­mon and pour through a strain­er in­to the mix­ture. If you’re mak­ing the le­mon cheese­cake, add the ex­tra le­mon juice now too. Blend the mix­ture un­til smooth and creamy.

If you’re mak­ing the ber­ry cheese­cake, add the ber­ries (don’t blend).

Pour the mix­ture in­to the cake tin and base. If you’re mak­ing the le­mon cheese­cake, sprin­k­le fine­ly grat­ed le­mon rind over the en­tire top of the mix­ture.

Place the cheese­cake in the 180c pre­heat­ed oven and bake un­til it’s changed colour on top and looks set in the cen­ter – ap­prox 40min. To check, wob­ble the tin slight­ly and the top should wob­ble as one piece – if it’s still soft                                                    

in the cen­ter bake a lit­tle longer.

Place on a chop­ping board and al­low to cool for 15min and then put in the fridge (on the chop­ping board) and re­frig­er­ate un­til cool.

Serve with dairy-free ice­cream or Ber­ry Sauce (see be­low). Yum!

Quick Ber­ry Sauce

If you re­al­ly want to im­press your friends serve the cheese­cake with this quick ber­ry sauce.

Sim­p­ly blend 1 pack­et of mixed ber­ries (you can use the frozen va­ri­e­ty if you like) with some le­mon juice and gol­d­en-syrup to taste. Blend un­til smooth.

To serve, pour a quick zig zag in the mid­dle of each plate and use a skew­er or fork han­dle to draw out wavy lines through the sauce. Place a slice of cheese­cake on top of the sauce. Serve with dairy-free ice­cream.

Sweet Potato and Lentil Pie

This de­li­cious Sweet Po­ta­toe and Len­til Pie recipe was pro­vid­ed by Amy and An­drew in their Not Your Typ­i­cal Tree­hug­ger pro­file.

In­gre­di­ents:

2-3 sheets of Ve­g­an Puff Pas­try (some su­per­mar­ket va­ri­eties are ve­g­an – just check the in­gre­di­ents)
1 can of len­tils
1 large sweet po­ta­to
1-2 ta­ble­spoons nut­telex or other ve­g­an mar­garine
Soy milk for mash­ing sweet po­ta­toes
Salt and pep­per to taste
1 cup of frozen peas and corn
½ cup of rice
1 serve of ve­g­an gravy such as those made by Mas­sel’s, Or­gran or Mari­gold.

SERVES: 4  PRE­PA­RA­TION TIME: 30min

Pre­pa­ra­tion

Pre­heat oven to 200c and take out 2-3 sheets of pas­try and al­low them to de­frost.

Cut sweet po­ta­to in­to small chunks, boil and mash with nut­telex, soymilk, salt and pep­per. While sweet po­ta­to is boil­ing, cook the rice. Drain and set aside.

Drain and rinse the len­tils and add to the rice. Add the peas and corn to the rice and len­tils mix.

Make up one serve of ve­g­an gravy (about 3/4 cup), add to len­tils, mix and com­bine.

Line pie tin with pas­try, leav­ing enough for the lid. Add                                                    

len­til mix to the pie tin then take the sweet po­ta­to mash and cov­er the top of the len­til mix. Cov­er the pie with re­main­ing pas­try or al­ter­na­tive­ly leave open at the top.

Place in oven and cook for 30-40 mins

* Pic­tured is a sin­gle serve open top vari­a­tion

Hearty Pasta Pronto

A quick, de­li­cious and hear­ty pas­ta sauce that’s sim­ple to pre­pare even when you’re in a hur­ry.

In­gre­di­ents

1 small Onion
3 ta­ble­spoons Soy Sauce (or Ta­mari)
250g firm To­fu
1 ta­ble­spoon Oregano or Basil (dried or fresh)
3 cloves Gar­lic
1 ta­ble­spoon fine­ly grat­ed Gin­ger
1 can italian diced To­ma­toes
2 ta­ble­spoons Red Wine or Ap­ple Cider Vine­gar
Penne pas­ta
1/2 cup chopped Conti­nen­tal Pars­ley

SERVES: 3  PRE­PA­RA­TION TIME: 20min

Pre­pa­ra­tion

Note: It’s best to use a non-stick pan to pre­vent the to­fu and other in­gre­di­ents stick­ing to the pan.

Slice the onion in half and then make thin slices – fry in a lit­tle olive oil un­til light­ly gol­d­en.

Squeeze any ex­cess wa­ter from the to­fu then crum­ble it in­to the pan with the onions – fry for about 5min stir­ring oc­ca­sio­n­al­ly – sprin­k­le soysauce (or ta­mari) over the to­fu and stir­fry for another 2 min.

Mean­while, add pas­ta to a pot of boil­ing wa­ter and stir oc­ca­sio­n­al­ly to pre­vent it stick­ing.

Sprin­k­le some basil or oregano over the to­fu, add the to-                                                    

-­ma­toes along with the fine­ly chopped gar­lic and gin­ger and red wine (or ap­ple cider vine­gar) and stir through un­til heat­ed and the sauce has re­duced a lit­tle.

Stir through a hand­ful of chopped conti­nen­tal pars­ley and serve on top of the drained pas­ta.

For ‘Cheeze’ Lovers

You can grate Chee­z­ly over the top, a ve­g­an cheese avai­l­able from some health­food stores, or in Mel­bourne try The Rad­i­cal Gro­cery Store in Brun­swick.

Savoury Yeast Flakes are great in­stead of parme­san cheese – just sprin­k­le th­ese cheesy-tast­ing flakes over your meal. They’re avai­l­able from most health­food stores.

Fresh Garden Salad

A mouth-wa­ter­ing sal­ad with in­ter­est­ing tex­tures and a sen­sa­tio­n­al dress­ing.

In­gre­di­ents

Mixed Let­tuce (Mes­clun mix is good)
1 bunch Broc­coli­ni
2 To­ma­toes cut in­to wedges
1 Av­o­ca­do diced in­to cubes
100g Pine Nuts

Dress­ing:
1/4 cup SoySauce (or Ta­mari)
2 ta­ble­spoons Gol­d­en Syrup (or Ma­ple or Agave)
Juice of 1 Le­mon
2 cloves fine­ly chopped Gar­lic
2 ta­ble­spoons Olive Oil
                                                   

1/4 cup Wa­ter

SERVES: 4-6  PRE­PA­RA­TION TIME: 20min

Pre­pa­ra­tion

Cut the broc­coli­ni in­to large strips and place  in a pan with about 1/4 cup wa­ter and 1 ta­ble­spoon olive oil – stir fry un­til the wa­ter has ab­sorbed – the broc­coli­ni should still be crunchy but wilt­ed. Trans­fer to a bowl of cold wa­ter to cool.

Pre­pare the dress­ing by com­bin­ing all dress­ing in­gre­di­ents in a bowl and stir thor­ough­ly.

In a large serv­ing bowl ar­range the mixed let­tuce leaves to cov­er, then al­ter­nate with the drained broc­coli­ni,  to-                                                    

-­ma­toes and more let­tuce leaves, sprin­k­ling lib­er­al­ly with the dress­ing as you lay­er.

Add the cubed av­o­ca­do on top, add some more dress­ing, then sprin­k­le toast­ed pine nuts over the top mid­dle sec­tion and serve.

Cherry Oreo Icecream Cake

A de­ca­dent du­al-lay­er ice­cream cake with Vanil­la and crushed Ore­os, Cho­co­late and Cher­ries.

In­gre­di­ents

1 litre tub So Good Vanil­la Soy Ice­cream (or any brand of ve­g­an ice­cream)
1 litre tub So Good Cho­co­late Soy Ice­cream
1 pack­et of Oreo Bis­cuits (Ore­os are ve­g­an)
2 cups diced Cher­ries (use a frozen pack­et with the pips al­ready re­moved)
Op­tio­n­al Ic­ing Su­gar for dust­ing
Op­tio­n­al Mint Leaves and ex­tra Cher­ries for de­c­o­ra­tion

SERVES: many  PRE­PA­RA­TION TIME: 4hrs

Pre­pa­ra­tion

Line a cake tray (or tub) with cling wrap.

In a se­parate bowl let one litre of vanil­la soy ice­cream soft­en un­til you can mix it, then cut up a pack­et of Oreo bis­cuits in­to small pie­ces and mix them through the vanil­la ice­cream. Scoop in­to the cake tray and pat flat with a spoon or spa­t­u­la. Put in­to the freez­er for 2hrs to re-har­d­en.

Once the vanil­la ice­cream has har­d­ened, re­peat the pro­cess with the cho­co­late soy ice­cream us­ing the diced cher­ries in­stead of Ore­os. Scoop on­to the vanil­la lay­er and leave for 2hrs or overnight to har­d­en.

To serve, put a serv­ing plate in the freez­er to cool for a while, then turn the tray up­side and drop it on­to the serv­ing plate, us­ing the cling wrap to help pull it out.

You can sprin­k­le ic­ing su­gar on top and de­c­o­rate with cher­ries and mint leaves. Slice and eat!