Gluten Free Vegan Carrot Cake

Jess and Tom here!

We were craving carrot cake, but struggling to find a gluten free vegan recipe for one that didn't require a long list of weird ingredients we didn't have to hand, we decided to wing it and make it up using the contents of Jess' cupboard. And it worked. It worked so well we ate most of it in one night. Now, as happens quite often in our joint kitchen ventures, the exact method and quantities got blurred a little by wine (now Jess is eating clean this should happen less now!). But anyway, these ingredients make a large, gluten free, vegan carrot cake. 

1 cup ground almonds
1 cup plain gluten free flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
2 carrots, grated
1 apple, grated
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
3 tbsp brown/demerara sugar
3 tbsp agave syrup
1/2 cup raisins/nuts (optional)
1-2 tbsp dairy free milk
2 bananas, mashed
1 orange, juiced and zested

I think the general gist of the method is to combine the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients, then add them together. The mashed bananas, juiced orange and grated apple and carrots add plenty of moisture so no additional fat is needed.  Then, once this incredible smelling cake had come out of the oven, we decided it was too good not to be iced. So we made our own orange-almond frosting up:

1 cup icing sugar (probably more like 2 or 3 cups, we just kept adding til the consistency was right)
1 orange, juiced and zested
2 tsp almond butter
2 tsp dairy free butter/spread
1 tsp vanilla essence

Add orange juice and zest to the icing sugar and mix, adding the vanilla essence along the way. Then add the butters and beat them in until you have a glossy frosting. Add more icing sugar as required until you have the right consistency.

Please do let us know if you know of a better way to spend an evening than eating carrot cake, drinking red wine and watching Girls?

Anyway, sorry this isn't the most useful recipe in the world. But do give it a try and let us know if you come up with something as amazing as we did!

Apple Blueberry Protein Bars

Hey, it's Jess today!

So, in another attempt at this whole lose fat/gain muscle thing, I've started another diet. I'm on day 6 of it now and haven't yet failed - yay! This time, I'm following the LiveFit Trainer plan, created by Jamie Eason. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-easons-livefit-introduction.html Just look at her, and you'll see why this seems like a good idea. Sadly, I am going to have to start the plan again exercise wise as my back and knee have been giving me grief all week so I've had to rest early, so I will start again. But the basis of this plan as far as food goes is to eat clean, high-protein meals every 2-3 hours. Meals generally consist of a decent sized portion of lean protein, a restricted portion of clean carbs (think brown rice, sweet potato, quinoa...it does allow certain types of pitta bread etc. but we're keeping this gluten free too), and unlimited vegetables as long as they're grilled, boiled or steamed (OK, I kind of failed, I fried my broccoli last night because I couldn't face it boiled again). Oh, and you're meant to consume 10 egg whites a day. Which I am not, because that would involve spending £60+ a month on eggs which isn't feasible on my stipend. But anyway, I am trying. And clean eating feels good, I haven't been bloated for six whole days or felt guilty about anything I've put past my lips, which is always a good start :)

So one of the small meal options on this plan is homemade protein bars. A recipe for carrot cake bars is provided, as well as chocolate, lemon and pumpkin flavours, but all the recipes include sweeteners such as Stevia or Ideal, which I am really not a fan of using. So I adjusted the recipes to suit what i want to use, and went for apple blueberry flavour.

Makes 8 servings:

1 cup oat bran
2 scoops vanilla whey protein
4 egg whites
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking powder
125g blueberries (1/2 mashed, 1/2 whole)
1 apple, grated
1 tbsp milled flaxseed (optional)
2 tsp chia seeds (optional)
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
50g flaked almonds (optional)

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine egg whites, mashed blueberries, grated apple and a tbsp or two of water. Mix two bowls. Pour into pyrex dish and bake for 20-25 minutes at 180C.

Simple enough. Divided into eight portions, one bar provides 141 calories, 12g carbs, 11g protein and 7g fat. All the ingredients are approved for livefit, I just edited the original recipes by leaving out the unnatural sweeteners and using blueberries instead. And I added flax and chia seeds to add some omega fats and fibre, and the almonds make them a little denser and add some protein. These could easily be left out though. Mine turned out great though and will definitely be having them as small meal/snack options throughout the day.

(Sorry, I don't know how to make this vegan, when on a diet that requires you to consume 10 egg whites a day veganism isn't something I can really think about :( )

Jess Tries Paleo(ish)

Hey!

So, I've become a little obsessed with going to the gym recently. For instance, last week I did three 3+ hour sessions (as well as normal length sessions on the other days) and I'm trying to take strength training a little more seriously (mainly because my knee hurt too much to run, it's feeling better now so I'll see how things pan out but I'm kind of enjoying improving my strength a lot more right now). I won't post about my training because I am utterly clueless. Maybe someday, I'll post one of those amazing before and after photos with a slightly chubby version of me on the left and me with my six pack on the right, but Tom will have to stop making me cupcakes before this is achieved.

Anyway, in an attempt to start seeing real results in the gym, I have to clean up my diet. So after a lot of research, I'm going to give a paleo diet a bit of a go (sorry vegans). I don't know if I'll ever be able to do it 100% and I certainly can't afford to keep up with the organic side of it right now, but I'm going to try to cut grains from my diet as much as possible (saying goodbye to my morning porridge is going to be the hardest thing I ever do food wise, even harder than giving up chocolate for lent has been). I'm not keen on eggs, but I'm going to attempt to make them work for me. Already being gluten free will make the transition a lot easier though, as I don't eat that many carbs anyway and sweet potato is already my favourite. Also, a lot of paleo recipes use bacon. And it's a long time since I allowed myself bacon, so this could be good.

Before you do anything else, have a look at some of the recipes on these two blogs and then you will realise why I want to try this diet. http://gabbysgfree.com/recipes/ http://paleomg.com/ I want to try every recipe these guys have come up with. And maybe I will someday - pineapple stuffed chorizo burgers sound too amazing for words. But right now, I'm trying to come up with ways to replace porridge in the mornings and relatively cheap meals that don't require too much hassle because I don't have much time for cooking when I'm in the lab for hours on end and working out for the remainder of my waking hours.

My first consciously paleo meal today:

Baked Turkey with Roasted Pepper, Mushroom and Garlic Spinach

Now, when I made this, it didn't occur to me that agave nectar might not be paleo since it's vegan friendly. But apparently honey is more paleo friendly than agave. But anyway, I baked my turkey in agave and it was yummy.

Serves 2
2 turkey breasts
(optional - 2 tsp honey or agave nectar)
1 bell pepper
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 cup spinach

Quite simply, coat the turkey in whatever you choose (1 tsp agave nectar per turkey breast worked great for me) and bake in the oven at 180C for 15-20 minutes (until its not pink inside but do not overcook).  Cut a bell pepper (I went for orange) in half and roast for about 15 minutes, until it is softened and starting to brown slightly. Then fry the roasted pepper, mushrooms and garlic in a little  oil (use coconut if you have it, I didn't) until softened. Then add the spinach and fry until wilted, this took me just 1-2 minutes.

 I added a bit of lemon, as I do to most things

Sweet and Salty Carrot Chips

I can't take credit for these, I found them on Gabby's G Free blog http://gabbysgfree.com/2013/01/sweet-salty-carrot-chips/ and they are a great little snack or meal addition. Just take as many carrots as you want to use, cut them how you want to eat them (I went for a mixture of rounds and batons) coat in cinnamon, salt and oil (I omitted the oil and added a tablespoon of tamari instead) and bake in the oven for 10-20 minutes (depending how crispy you want them). And there you have it, sweet and salty carrot chips. I served these, with mangetout, alongside my turkey and spinach and it was amazing.

This meal came to 280 calories, with approximately 40g protein. So a great post workout meal (and yes, I have saved the other half for tomorrow night after the gym).

I can't promise to stick entirely to paleo meals, because I will just end up giving in and gorging on grains. But I am going to try to phase them out gradually, and with meals like this maybe it won't be so hard. Let me know if you have any good paleo blogs or recipes! Hopefully Tom and I will find a way to combine vegan and paleo cooking somehow...wish us luck!

Garbanzo Banana Muffins (with Cherry Jam Centres)

Tom today,

Okay so after having made my housemate the most ridiculously non-vegan, wheat-filled black forest gateau for his birthday, I decided I needed something sweet for myself to have for the party (I'm only so strong when comes to cake). I found gram (garbanzo or chickpea) flour in Sainsbury's a couple of days before and had been meaning to try out a recipe with them. For once, the internet was totally unhelpful so I decided to just wing it and see how they came out. Surprisingly they were an absolute hit and every single muffin (except for the one I hid in my cupboard for breakfast) was eaten! There's quite a lot of ingredients in these, and someone who know's more what they're doing couple probably cut them down a bit, but I was just adding a bit of this and that to experiment and get the right consistency. After I've had a bit more experience of gluten free baking I will probably come back and edit this. Anyway, for now, here are chickpea muffins with black cherry jam centres - yes, this is 100% necessary, trust me, you don't want to miss out.

Incidentally, no one guessed what they were made from!

Ingredients: makes 10 small muffins

1/2 cup Gram Flour (or chickpea or garbanzo beans - these things have too many names)
1/2 cup Gluten Free Self Raising Flour (I use Doves Farm)
1/2 cup Oats
1/2 cup of Soft Brown Sugar
3 tsp Soya Protein Powder (or substitute 1 tbsp Cornflour)
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Cloves
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
3 tbsp Soya Butter
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 ripe Bananas
1/4 cup Raisins
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Distilled Vinegar
1/2 cup Almond Milk (or any other dairy free alternative)
10 tsp Black Cherry Jam

The vinegar here probably seems a bit weird, don't worry you won't taste it at all. Quite a few vegan recipes use extra baking powder to give cakes a lightness that eggs would normally give them, but to make sure you can't taste the baking powder, you have to add a bit of vinegar to neutralise it (I've tried it without - it's really really gross - still managed to get all of my friends to try them though, endlessly funny!). As this is gluten free as well I thought it would be a good idea to try this. If you have a soya allergy substituting the butter for oil will work fine, but again the cakes may be a bit denser - maybe sunflower spread would work. Also DON'T TRY THE MIXTURE! It tastes all beany and horrible from the chickpea flour - as is often the case with gluten free recipes - don't worry though, it tastes good once it's cooked.

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Combine all the dry ingredients (except the baking powder and sugar) in a sieve and sift into a mixing bowl
Add the sugar (do make sure to break up any lumps beforehand though - much easier)
Rub in the butter (I only used a spoon to do this roughly)
Mix in the oil
Mash the bananas, and mix in along with the raisins
Add the baking powder and vinegar and mix thoroughly
Mix in the milk bit by bit until the muffins are a thick consistency - you may not need all of this
Grease and line your muffin tin with cases (or I used squares of greaseproof paper, I just think it looks nice!)
Fill the muffin cases to just over half way
Add a generous teaspoon of jam
Top up the muffin cases to full (I like mine to rise over the top of the case - use less if you want them more like cupcakes)
Bake for 20 minutes - until a knife comes out clean (except for the jam...)
Cool on a wire rack

Once they were cooled I drizzled them with a bit of lemon icing for a nice effect (just combine half a lemon with 3 tbsp icing sugar in a mug and then drizzle over using a spoon). This recipe is easy enough to adapt to other flavours if you prefer. Anyone who comes up with a peanut butter themed recipe will win...everything. Ever. As always, let us know any suggestions you come up with at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com

Vegan Gluten Free Protein Granola Bars

Update 17/3  

Since I originally made these bars, I've done a little tweaking to reduce the sugar and calories whilst not losing the protein content, and they currently sit at 215 calories with 10g protein.

2 cups/160g oats
1/2 cup milled flaxseed
55g soy protein powder
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup cashew nuts
1/2 cup raisins
50g omega sprinkle (a seed mix from holland and barratt, but any seeds will do)
1 banana
1/2 cup almond butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1-2 tbsp cinnamon
5 dates
Water

The only difference in method here is I quickly made up a little date syrup by mashing some pitted dates with some water for 5 minutes and drizzling this over the oaty mixture before toasting it. I would have properly made date syrup the night before if I had planned ahead, but I didn't. It seemed to work OK though, and I will get better at using dates. Also, I used 1/4 cup agave for the oat mixture, and 1/4cup in the banana-nut butter mixture. Unfortunately, as yummy as maple syrup and golden syrup and honey were in the old recipe, I needed to cut the sugar down. I also added some water to the whole mixture before putting in the dish and baking to try to keep the bars a little more moist as they dried out a bit last time. You could use milk (dairy or non) but I didn't have any to hand and water is calorie free I suppose. These bars maybe aren't quite as tasty as they were, but they're a lot healthier and will give you less of a sugar rush, so are probably better...

Jess and Tom today!

So, as we've both been working out pretty hard lately (Tom running millions of miles everyday, Jess complaining about her knee as she runs as far as she can and goes to a million Les Mills classes at the gym every week) and have been finding our diets fairly restrictive when it comes to sports nutrition, we decided to invent a vegan, gluten free, chocolate free protein bar. This is kind of 2 recipes in one, as we decided to play around with carob too. The protein bars are a take on our monkey bars which, if you've tried them, are just the best. I know a lot of protein bar recipes are raw but these baked ones are so good.

Carob

1 tablespoon vegan spread (we used sunflower, most recipes recommend coconut oil but we didn't have any to hand today)
1/2 cup carob powder
1tsp agave nectar
1tsp vanilla

Melt the fat (whichever you use), stir in carob powder over heat, add a little vanilla and agave to taste. Simple. Then, we poured this onto cling film on a plate, and wrapped it in another layer, and squashed it down nice and flat. Then we stuck it in the fridge/freezer to set.

Protein Bars

2 cups oats
1/2 cup flax seed (absolutely love the Linwoods one with sunflower seeds and goji berries in!)
1/4 cup oat bran
1/2 cup soya protein powder (50 grams)
1/2 cup cashew nuts
1/2 cup raisins
2 tablespoons cinnamon (or 3 or 4....)
2 tablespoons jam (optional but a nice sweet addition)
4 tablespoons maple/golden syrup (this time we used 3 maple to 1 golden but any combination works fine)
1 apple, grated

1/2 cup agave nectar
1 mashed banana
1/2 cup almond butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (your choice, we used Alpro hazelnut milk)

So, as per the monkey bars, mix the oats, flax, bran, nuts, syrup and cinnamon in a baking dish and toast in the oven at 180C for 10 minutes, stirring halfway. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Mash banana and add agave and almond butter, cook on the hob until the mixture is runny, remove from heat and add vanilla, salt and a drop of milk. You can also add more cinnamon here. We did.

When cooled, mix the oaty mixture, protein powder and banana-butter mixture. Add a grated apple and raisins (or whatever dried fruit you fancy) to this and add the milk. Mix thoroughly so that the ingredients are all coated and form a slightly doughy consistency. Spread half of this mixture in the bottom of the baking dish you are using, then spread jam on top of this if you are using it, and then we placed our carob flakes (yes, they came out as flakey bits but they taste nice anyway) on top of the jam. Then add the rest of the mixture and press down so that it is compact and neat. Then bake for 18-20 minutes.

And the result is high quality, high protein, vegan, gluten free granola bars. Using the above quantities, made into 14 servings these bars provide approximately 275 calories and 10g protein. So they're perfect to eat before or after a run or session in the gym. And they taste SO good. If you don't want to use soya protein powder, use whichever you prefer. We don't have much experience with protein additions yet so we'll add more recipes as we get more used to using it!

Mini Apple Pie

Tom here,

This recipe has become my new favourite thing ever. Made it for the first time a few days ago and have made it most nights since! It's super easy, super quick, and low calorie, all of my favourite things!

Ingredients:

1 Apple
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Brown Sugar
1 Biscuit (I used special gluten free and vegan ones, you can use whatever you prefer - I'm thinking ginger biscuits could be epic)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Peel the top centimetre of your apple (much much simpler to do this before I discovered!)
Cut around the core and discard it
Place the flesh in a mug
Using a spoon, hollow out the apple, throwing away the core and putting the flesh in a mug as you go (make sure to leave enough inside the apple that it holds together still)
Add the sugar and cinnamon to the flesh and mix
Spoon the flesh back into the apple until level
You'll probably have some left over - save this for now
Cover the bottom of your baking dish with water
Place the apple in the centre, and top with your biscuit
Spoon the remaining flesh around the edge - this will cook with the water and make a lovely sauce while keeping the biscuit moist
Cover with tinfoil and bake for 25 minutes
Remove the tin foil to brown the top for another 5-10 minutes as needed
Serve and enjoy!

This recipe works out to around 150 calories, but obviously that depends largely on the biscuit used (and the size of the apple!)

A tiny pinch of ground cloves would add a nice flavour as well.

Vegan Pancake Day

Tom here,

Sadly me and Jess didn't see each other this pancake day, however we make pancakes an average of once a week anyway so it's probably a good thing...however I spent the day in Lancaster with my friend Phoebe and we made some pretty epic hangover pancakes. So here they are

Cinna-blue-bana-maca-choco Pancakes

There is absolutely nothing healthy about these pancakes so don't ask me to work out the nutritional information. Please. I don't want too.

Ingredients: (makes 5 heeeeeeeefty pancakes - plenty for two, even with hangover munchies)

500 ml Soya Milk
2 Bananas
6 oz Self Raising Flour
1 large pinch Sea Salt
150g Macademia Nuts
1.5 cups Blueberries
1 tbsp Cinnamon
1 bar Dark Chocolate (we used Divine)

Topping: all of the fruits and some golden syrups, or phoebe had peanut butter and jam on one (it did look epic to be fair), mix and match as you like!

Method:
Blend the milk, banana, flour and cinnamon together using a kenwood, magimix or hand blender or any other brand of food processor, or if you don't have one of these mash the bananas with a fork and then beat everything together
Stir in the rest of the ingredients except for the dark chocolate (crush the Macademia nuts if they are whole using a tea towel and rolling pin)
Heat some oil in a frying pan to the low end of medium heat (these pancakes with be thick so they need to cool through before they burn)
Pour a good pancakes worth into the frying pan and let it spread out
Break the chocolate into pieces and dot over the pancake (we found three or four was a good ratio)
Wait until cooked about a centimetre from the edge, then flip (if you can do this without a spatula I will be very impressed) and cook on the other side
Slather in fruit, cream, syrup, Nutella, dark chocolate spread (a personal favourite of mine), sugar, more cinnamon, whatever you want
Enjoy. We certainly did.

Quorn Chilli

Hi! Jess today!

I guess I should say Happy New Year since this is our first blog since 2012. We are bad bloggers I know, but Tom has had final year exams and I have been eating a lot of salad and ready made soup. Healthy, but it doesn't make good blogging to tell you how I chopped a carrot, a pepper and some tomatoes, threw in some rocket and some ham and then..ate it.

So anyway, on the healthy note, I decided I would try cooking with Quorn. I figured it's low in fat and calories and high in protein, therefore there must be something good to it. I know it isn't vegan, and technically it's not gluten free as it states it contains barley gluten, but I tried it anyway because I figured the gluten is probably negligible. And I really wanted to make chilli and Quorn mince was only £1 in Asda.

So, I will admit, this recipe failed a little in that after chopping all the veg up, I realised I'd forgotten to get kidney beans. A chilli without kidney beans isn't really a chilli i know. But i found baked beans, so I made do with them.

Ingredients
1 pack Quorn mince
1 red pepper
1 red onion
1-2 cloves garlic
2 chilli peppers (I used a red one and a birds eye one which was pretty spicy, but use what you're comfortable with)
1 cup mushrooms (I used chestnut)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
300ml vegetable stock
Paprika
Cumin
Chili powder
Cinnamon
Worcester sauce
1 tin drained Kidney Beans (or a tin of baked beans if you're forgetful like me)

This isn't a technical recipe; fry onion, chillis and garlic until onions are browning, add pepper and mushrooms, when brown add quorn. Fry for a few mins, add tomatoes, beans and stock, add as much paprika, chilli powder and cumin as you like. Add a dash of cinnamon and worcester sauce. Cook for another 8-10 mins on medium heat on the hob. And that's pretty much it.

Not an exciting recipe, but a single serving with a sweet potato jacket (which I made by microwaving a sweet potato for 8 minutes, no science in this one) is less than 400 calories so it's a perfect tasty option for those still sticking to their new year's diets. I wouldn't say Quorn is as good as beef, but it's so much lower in fat that it seems worth it. I'm not going vegetarian, but it's nice to know I don't mind veggie options :)

Planning on lots of low-cal dishes to come (and some more cake). Tom will be back soon too as his exams are now over (yay!), probably after our visit to Dough Pizza Kitchen in Manchester as his belated-birthday celebration (they do AMAZING gluten free and vegan pizza, need I say more?).

Let me know how you get on!

Vegan, Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Jess again today!

So, it was Tom's birthday earlier in January. Any UoM students will know this makes him incredibly unlucky as his birthday falls approximately a week before the start of the January exam period. Booooo. Therefore, we postponed his birthday celebration to this weekend, and we are going to Dough for pizza (the most amazing place in the world for the gluten free and vegan people of Manchester). And I have made him a birthday cake. A vegan, gluten free, chocolate cake, with peanut butter frosting. Everything Tom loves, in a cake.

I spent a very long time looking for a good recipe for this. So many GFV recipes contain a ridiculous number of ingredients that would cost me a month's wages to buy, I was starting to get disheartened. I came across a really easy recipe but decided it looked too easy. Basically, I was really picky. And then I found this http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2013/01/peanut-butter-chocolate-vegan-cupcakes.html and knew it was the one. I just tweaked it a little to make it gluten free (and I made a big cake, not cupcakes).

Ingredients
1 cup gluten free flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup vegan butter, melted (I used sunflower spread)
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used praline rice milk because it sounded nice and I lose all sense of cost in the Eighth Day veggie shop on Oxford Road, but soy milk or almond milk would work just as well)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
1/3 cup hot water with 1 tsp Chia seeds (flaxseed would work the same)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4tsp apple cider vinegar (I don't know how to measure this exactly, I probably used more like 3/4 tsp but whatever, I don't think it made a difference!)
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup blended fruit
Optional - handful dark chocolate chips, cacao nibs

Now where I say blended fruit, I used a whole mashed banana with a handful of mashed blueberries. The original recipe used blackberries, and suggests that any mashable fruit would work - strawberries, other berries, banana, apple...but I decided banana would go best (and I trusted it best) and just threw a few blueberries in for fun. I'd like to try this with blackberries or raspberries, I'll let you know if I do! Also, the original recipe used 1+1/2 cups all purpose white flour, but I substituted 1/2 cup ground almonds in because I think they give a nicer texture in gluten free baking. And the original recipe used just a cup of sugar, but in my experience a bit of golden syrup makes gluten free baking a bit more moist so I tried this.

Heat oven to 190C. First, blend the fruit and add the milk. You could use a food processor but I just did it in a cup by hand. Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl, sifted. Add the blended fruit, melted butter, seed slurry and other ingredients and mix together. Again, I just folded it all in together. At this point I added a handful of dark chocolate chips and a sprinkling of cacao nibs. This isn't needed but I wanted to make it a bit more decadent since it's Tom's birthday. Fold together, pour in your chosen baking tin and bake. Mine took about 30 minutes, but keep checking and go by your oven (if a fork comes out clean, it's done...). Cake done.

Cake mix is luckily not that great licked from the bowl...

 Yes, all my chocolate cakes do look the same...

Peanut Butter Frosting
1/3 cup peanut butter (use whatever type you prefer, other nut butters would work too if you wish!)
1/3 cup vegan butter
2 tsp vanilla
A few splashes of non-dairy milk
1 cup icing sugar
Optional - 2 tsp maple syrup

Basically, blend it all together. Use a whisk or a fork or a spoon or a food processor, whatever you like. Add more milk if its too thick, more sugar if its too runny. Just go with whatever looks best.

What dreams are made of

To decorate the cake, i literally slathered this beautiful frosting all over it, and then added some flaked almonds around the side. Then I spelled H.B. TOM on it with these cute little vegan chocolate chips 

So, this was the final product....

And in all honesty, it was wonderful. Perfect. Glorious. Incredible. I cannot stress how important it is that you make this. Make it into cupcakes, make it into a victoria sandwich with more frosting and some jam in the middle (had i had sandwich tins, this is what I would have done), just make sure you make this. It is vegan, gluten free baking at it's finest, if I do say so myself.


Then, to celebrate Tom's birthday, we ate cake (after our Dough pizzas), dipped fruit and dark chocolate in frosting, drank prosecco and watched Coyote Ugly. He is a man, I do know this, but he embraced his inner woman this day. And I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it.

 You must do this, it is amazing.

 Please make this and please tell me how amazing it goes :)