Peppermint Iced Cake in a Pot!

That day would be my first day meeting a new friend. He's a vegan and when I think of vegans, I just want to give them something from nature. Hahaha! This image of a potted plant couldn't get out of my head, so I decided to just trust what I have in mind, and make it!!!

I ended up making a mint iced cake that looked like a pot of plant!

This might be a little troublesome to make as it involves 3 different layers, but I assure you, whoever you're making this for, they will be really happy to receive it!

I was looking for containers that looked like flowerpots, and I found these $2 beautiful clay cups from Daiso!!! Very happy!

Now that we have our 'flowerpots', we can start making this delicious iced cakes~! ^^

The ingredients listed here are made for 2 pots! ^^

Bottom Cookie Layer

Ingredients:

- 50g all-purpose flour

- 20g cold vegan butter

- 1 tbsp granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 220℃.

2. Rub butter into flour until its like huge cookie crumbs.

3. Toss in sugar.

4. Transfer to baking dish or tray and bake for 12~15 minutes, until thoroughly baked.

5. Remove from oven. Spoon into 2 pots. This will be your bottom layer! ^^

Brownie Layer

Ingredients:

- 40g vegan chocolate chips

- 24g all-purpose flour

- 7g cocoa powder

- 1/4 tsp baking soda

- 21g brown sugar

- pinch of salt

- 42g soymilk

- 21g oil

- 4g vinegar

- 1 tsp vanilla paste/essence

1. Lightly grease 2 muffin tins and preheat oven to 150℃.

2. Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or microwave oven. To make a double boiler, just place your stainless steel bowl of chocolate chips over a smaller pot of water. Melt over gentle flame.

3. Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking soda.

4. Stir in brown sugar and salt. Mix well.

5. Mix all the wet ingredients (soymilk, oil, vinegar, vanilla essence) together.

6. Mix melted chocolate into wet mixture.

7. Pour dry ingredients into wet and mix gently. Stir until just combined for a tender crumb. Do not overmix.

8. Pour mixture into 2 muffin tins and bake for 18 minutes.

9. Remove brownies from muffin tins and slice brownies into half to make 4 discs of brownies. Put 1 disc on top of the cookie crumb layer in the pot. Do the same for the other pot. 

Peppermint Cream

Ingredients

- 40g vegan whipped cream (about 20g whipping cream)

- 3 drops peppermint essential oil/extract

1. Stir peppermint essential oil/extract into whipped cream.

2. Spoon in whipped cream on the first brownie layer and top the cream with the other brownie disc.

3. Put a plastic wrap over the pots and freeze cakes in freezer until ready for consumption.

These are delicious straight from the freezer! The whipped cream would develop a texture like ice cream, but it would be very light and refreshing. ^^

For a cute touch like mine, get 2 stalks of mint leaves, wash the stalk gently, careful not to wet the leaves. Dry on paper towels. When you're ready to serve, stick a stalk of mint leaves into each pot!

Don't stick on the mint leaves into the pot and place them into the freezer to cool. If you do that, when you take the pots out again, the mint stalk would just flop and will be unable to stand straight and tall!  

Hope whoever you are making this for would love it!!! Thanks for reading~!!! ^^

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Delicious Vegan Banana Pancakes

And again, I couldn't stop myself from experimenting Chef Chloe's delicious vegan recipes!

This one looked really easy, so I tried making them! I altered the original recipe (Pancakes for Dinner) though, with a smaller serving!

Ingredients (Serves 2):

- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder

- 1/4 teaspoon salt 

- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 1/4 cup water

- 2 tablespoons maple syrup, plus extra for serving

- canola oil, for greasing
- 2 bananas, sliced, for topping
- granola and lemon curd for topping (optional)

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. 

2. In a seperate small bowl, whisk together water and maple syrup. 

3. Add the liquid to the flour mixture and whisk until just combined. Do not overmix; the batter should have some lumps.

*If batter gets too thick, add a little more water, 1 tablespoon at at time.

4. Lightly oil a nonstick pan and heat over medium-high heat.

5. For each pancake, pour 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan. When small bubbles appear in the centre of the pancake, it is time to flip it. Let it cook on the other side until lightly browned and cooked through, about 1 more minute. Repeat with remaining batter, adding more oil to the pan as needed. 

6. Top with sliced bananas, granola and lemon curd.

7. Enjoy!!!! :)

Actually, although this was really easy and fast to make...they were not the best pancakes I've eaten... Haha! I will search for a better pancake recipe another time!!

For a healthier pancake, you can replace 1/4 to 1/2 of the all-purpose flour with wholewheat flour for more fibre~! ^^

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Summer Berry Cream Pie

It's a recipe from Chef Chloe again! I altered the recipe a little because I do not have a 9-inch pie tin. ^^" And instead of a lattice top, I covered my fruit pie with cinnamon-flavoured vegan whipped cream! It's really yummy~!

For original recipe, please support Chef Chloe's cookbook! ^^

Ingredients (Makes two 4 1/2-inch mini fruit pies):

Pie Crust:
- 320g all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup vegan margarine
- 1/2 cup ice water

Pie Filling:

- 85g brown sugar

- 32g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 2 cups mixed frozen berries

Whipped Cream:
- 10g cold vegan whipping cream
- ground cinnamon, to taste

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Cut margarine into flour until mixture has a crumbly consistency. Add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and mix with a wooden spoon until dough just holds together. You may not need to use all of the water. Do not overprocess.

2. Form the dough into 2 discs and wrap in a plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

3. Remove 1 disc from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Carefully lift the dough and fit it into the prepared pan, letting about 1 inch hang over the sides. Do the same for the other disc. Refrigerate piecrusts for 10 minutes.

4. Whisk together sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Add berries and mix with a large spoon until berries are coated with the dry mixture. Fill the piecrust.

5. Crimp the overhanging dough between your 2 index fingers to make a decorative border. Bake at 180℃ for 45~55 minutes, until the crust is nicely browned. Remove from oven and let the pie cool

6. Whip your whipping cream till soft peaks form. Sprinkle ground cinnamon into the cream and continue whipping until stiff peaks form. Spread this whipped cream over the pie filling! ^^

7. You may cool the pie before serving! The whipped cream tastes like ice cream!

Enjoy!!! ^^

Where to buy:

1. Vegan whipping cream

I actually bought mine at Sunlik at Bugis. Kitchen Capers at Kallang sell it as well! This is the most delicious and easy-to-whip whipping cream I've ever used. Its taste is light and not at all oily. And it's very affordable too! I think I bought mine at S$4.80.

2. Mixed berries

I bought mine from Phoon Huat! It's available in a 1kg pack.

Easy Delicious Potato Gnocchi

I was attracted to make these foreign objects when I saw them described as 'soft little pillows of potato heaven'. Haha!

I had no idea what gnocchi was beforehand.

In Chef Chloe's cookbook, she uses sweet potatoes. Since I had no sweet potatoes, I used a regular potato. It was delicious!

There are many ways to eat gnocchi, as my friend, Sedonia, has shared with me.

- with creamy tomato sauce and basil

- with gorgonzola cheese sauce

- with olive oil

- with butter (which is what I did. ^^)

- with garlic

- with sage

When I tried a done gnocchi, I really wanted it paired with tomato sauce as a first instinct! I may make it again with a great tomato sauce next time! ^^

Ingredients (Makes 1 serving):

- 1 potato

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

- a splash of ground black pepper

- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

- 1 tsp olive oil/margarine/butter for cooking

1. Boil potato in water until soft. Pat dry with paper towel.

2. Mash the potatoes. Add salt, nutmeg, black pepper and stir well.

3. Add flour, a spoonful at a time, mixing well with a spoon to combine. Once a soft, slightly sticky dough has formed, divide it into 3 portions.

4. Roll each portion into a rope and cut them into little pillow pieces.

5. Fill a medium pot with heavily salted water and bring it to a boil. When water is boiling, bring the heat down to a gentle simmer and gently drop in the gnocchi. When the gnocchi floats to the surface, they are cooked. Let them cook a little bit more for about 30 seconds.

6. In a medium saucepan, heat oil/margarine/butter, and transfer the gnocchi from the pot into the heated pan. Let them cook, turning frequently, for 1~2 minutes.

7. Serve immediately with freshly ground black pepper.

Cooking these are really fun. I like the 'cutting the rope into little pillow pieces' part and throwing them in boiling water, to see them floating on the surface a few minutes later. I love things like that. Haha! I hope you will try making these delicious things!!! ^^

Vegan Fruit Tarts

Vegan custard tarts were the first thing I was curious to make when I found the world of vegan sweets! Haha! 

Firstly, I was very surprised to know that custard powder was just mainly cornstarch! 

I don't like to buy processed food in the supermarkets, but sometimes, there are things you just have no idea to make, and you usually don't think of making it yourself since you can get them so conveniently, right?

Ever since I met my boss, Mervyn, however, I've been curious to know how things are made and I started to think a lot about if I could make those things myself!

Once, Mervyn told me that he had just made green curry (I love green curry!), and I had assumed he just bought the paste from the supermarket, but he told me how he made it, and I realised he had made the paste from scratch! I was very intrigued, and I asked him how he knew how to make it! And he said that he just grabbed a bottle of a green curry paste in the supermarket, read its ingredients, and then went to find the ingredients himself!!! Hahahaha! He's such a genius! (Or maybe I am not too clever like that. Haha!) 

Well, anyway, ever since that time, I began to love reading food labels. Hohoho!

I wanted to make a fruit tart, and I always had the impression that custard cream is not vegan. After some googling, I was really happy to know that Bird's Custard Powder was vegan! That made it so easy to start my baking experiment because I didn't have to think about substitutes. Also, Bird's Custard Powder is sold everywhere and is very affordable.

Bird's Custard Powder

I happily bought a packet of it. The powder is white, but as you cook it, it will turn yellow!!! I was horrified! Hahaha! I'm sorry that I'm so anal about things like that, but it scares me when things like that happen. I read the ingredient list and I realise, besides cornstarch, there was yellow colouring. I really didn't need my custard cream to be yellow, so I gave up the idea of making fruit tarts for awhile, until one day, I saw a recipe from a vegan baking book!

The Joy of Vegan Baking

This book is really fun. It's thick and it covers everything from cookies to bread! There is even a recipe for the Japanese Melon Bread! ^^ 

So, anyway, I'm going to share the recipe for the custard cream here, as well as a recipe for the pastry. 

Custard Cream

Ingredients (makes 4 mini tarts):

- 65g white granulated sugar

- 16g plain flour

- 32g cornstarch

- 60ml water

- 315ml soymilk

- 3 lemons (to taste, or lesser, or none at all)

1. Beat together sugar, flour, cornstarch, water on high speed in medium bowl until creamy.

2. Bring soymilk to a simmer in a medium-size saucepan. Pour 100ml of the warm soymilk into the mixture above and stir thoroughly to combine.

3. Add this mixture back to the saucepan with the remaining soymilk. Heat over medium-low heat, whisking constantly. It will begin to thicken. (This might take up to 15 minutes! Be patient!)

4. Remove from heat. Wait for it to cool down.

5. If using lemon juice to make lemon custard, stir it in after your custard has cooled. You will be able to control the taste better.

It's fun to make this right? I enjoy seeing the liquid turn into a thick custardy texture! Haha! I made this using unsweetened soymilk, but you can use any other kind of milk, with or without sugar I guess! It's up to you. :)

Now for the recipe for the tart shells. This is my own recipe. It smells really good when baked and taste sweet and buttery, really perfect for a fruit tart shell! :)

Vegan tart shells

Ingredients (Makes 4 mini tarts):

- 60g cold vegan margarine (if not vegan, just use unsalted butter)

- 140g cold plain flour

- 40g icing sugar

- 1 tsp flaxseed meal soaked in 3 tsp water (if not vegan, just use 1 beaten egg)

Preheat oven to 180℃.

1. Cut margarine into flour until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Stir in icing sugar. Add in flaxseed meal mixture (or egg) to form dough. 

3. Wrap dough in plastic wrap. Roll dough to 4mm thick. Chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4. Cut out rounds using 7cm round cutter. Lightly press rounds onto tart moulds. Chill for 15 minutes in fridge.

5. Place baking paper and some baking beads on top of each pastry shell. 

6. Bake for 10 minutes until tart shells turn a golden brown. 

7. Remove from oven. Cool on rack.

Now, you just have to assemble your tarts.

I made peach ones for my friend's birthday, using canned peaches, but the taste was weird! Haha! (Really sorry!!! >"< ) My best take was lemon custard with strawberries and mint leaves. It tasted really refreshing and light. I hope you will make it and like it too. :) 

I actually didn't use any cutters for this. Just grabbed some dough and mould them into the liners with my fingers! But it is more time-consuming to work like this. 

I use chickpeas on parchment paper to weigh down my tart pastry when baking to keep the space empty and hollow for my custard cream! ^^

Mint leaves always make a fruit tart look complete, and they smell great and are delicious too! ^^

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