I've been enjoying baking for many years, since the time my dad helped me and my friend Marian make currant fairy cakes in our very basic kitchen at the back of the shop when we were both about eight. Lots of recipes have been tried since, with a fair number of failures along the way. I love the whole process involved: choosing and reading the recipe, preparing the equipment, the mixing, the vague wondering, even with old favourites, if the mixture will rise/crisp/colour/stick in the tin, and finally, of course, the tasting. (I'm not including the washing up and putting away. I detest that.)
Being vegetarian means I can use eggs, butter, milk and cream in my baking endeaviours. But lately I've been trying recipes which don't use conventional ingredients. Yep, I've dipped my toes into the challenging waters of vegan baking. (I thought, why not? My diet is about 80% vegan and change is good, yes?)
First up were the oaty peanut butter and choc chip cookies which featured in this post and which were so very melt in the mouth tasty if a tad on the sweet side for my taste. I'll certainly reduce the amount of sugar next time and post the amended recipe.
Next were cherry bakewell cupcakes. I used this recipe and, whilst mine were certainly not as pretty as Siobhan's (I toasted the flaked almonds, halved the quantities and couldn't be bothered with the piping bag for such a small batch), they were moist and tasted pretty damn good. The frosting was much sloppier than my usual buttercream but the recommended spell in the fridge sorted that.
Yesterday we had vegan pancakes.
They looked similar to the American-style pancakes I usually make and bubbled reassuringly in the pan whilst cooking but all of that baking powder (at least I think it was the baking powder) left a rather unpleasant aftertaste. And the mister delared them 'dense'.
Oh well, you win some.......