Friday 18 November 2011

Guest Post: Vegan Chocolate Quinoa Cake


Hey everyone so I recieved a great response from the last time there was a guest blog post so I decided to ask my friend Gail to talk to you guys today... enjoy!

Hello everyone, my name is Gail and Justine has asked me to guest blog for today. I met Justine in the summer time after I moved to Montreal to work as an au pair. How unsettled my stomach felt afterward and I realized that is how dairy reacts in me, and the food containing dairy isn’t that nutritious- thus, I have been a vegan for four months and I’ve never felt healthier.
             The family I live with are five guys but they are always happy to try something new and healthy. The first cake I made for them will always be remembered as the ‘fish cake’ but since then I have had quite a few successes. One being Justine's Vegan Carrot Cake,  which they were not completely excited about at first but nonetheless it was devoured within the day, followed by the eldest child saying ‘Gail, your cakes aren’t so bad any more, you should probably start making them bigger’. Vegans:1 – Dairy Farmers: 0.
            So the original of this recipe is from a cookbook called Quinoa 365 and it is the only cake recipe that actually uses cooked quinoa (opposed to quinoa flour) which gives the cake a deliciously moist and puffy texture. In the past I made it for the boys and it was a huge success and they couldn’t even guess that it was made with quinoa! This is my first time veganizing the recipe and the batter seems to have a much nicer hold as the quinoa wasn’t falling to the bottom as it did with the previous non-vegan version.

Moist Vegan Chocolate Quinoa Cake

You will need:

2/3 cup quinoa (uncooked)
1 1/3 cups water
1/3 cups soy/almond milk
4 eggs (I made flaxseed eggs; which is 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds, and 3 tablespoons water)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
¾ cup margarine/ earth balance (melted and cooled)
1 ½ cups white or cane sugar
1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

To start bring your quinoa and water to boil in a medium pot. Cover and reduce to a simmer cooking for ten minutes (or until all the water is absorbed). Turn off heat and leave covered for another ten minutes. Fluff with a fork and allow to cool. If you are making flaxseed eggs you should also prepare this as well at this time.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly greese two 8-inch round or square cake pans lining the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.

Combine: ‘Milk’, ‘Eggs’ and vanilla in a blender. Add two cups of cooked quinoa and the margarine and continue to blend until smooth. Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl and then add the wet ingredients and mix well. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. FYI: It does not rise very much so I am trying a 10x10 dish and I’ll see how that works out.
Leave in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until you can stick a knife in the centre and it comes out dry.

I was going to put some of my vegan chocolate chips on top, but after I licked the batter I knew that there was no need. That has to be one of my favorite parts about baking vegan is being able to lick the batter without feeling sick after.

So I was planning on taking a picture of the finished product… but yet again… when I got back from class there seems to be no more cake. I will take a picture from the book though :) 

p.s. Hey I'm back (Justine), I hope you guys enjoyed the post! Just a reminder I am now following a posting schedule of posting every Tuesdays and Fridays. So my next post is going to contain a bunch of recipes and i'm really excited to share it with you so make sure you come back here on Tuesday!!!!

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