Veganmania Street festival and Raw Avocado Chocolate Mousse

Last saturday I was taking part at the "Veganmania"-Streetfestival in Winterthur. As it is pretty far away from my home it was the first time I was up there. The weather was perfect and I had a great day. 

I'm standing on the right under the red lamp in the tent -beside the woman with blond hair - (I'm looking down)

If you're expecting a huge festival - no it was small all situated on a marketplace with lots of exhibitor selling their products. 



While passing through it - already fully loaded with stuff - came by "the green fairy"  a sweet vegan producing shop with selfmades cakes, ice cream, muffins and so on. For today they seld ice cream and raw chocolate mousse. Hesitating weather trying the ice cream or mousse I decided for the ice cream curious about made from provational persons as I've haven't aten a lot good made vegan ice cream. 
All I can say - delicious!!!

All in all I ate a lot on that day - snacking a lot and having lunch (a great vegan dürüm wrap) I went home full with great impressions and stuff. I even met two persons I've been on the boat with in Croatia.

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A few days later I tried a recipe I got from "the green fairy"-Cookbook. A raw avocado chocolate mousse - haven heard that made with avocado it tastes great and so started and I can prove it - it tastes great. 

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Raw Avocado Chocolate Mousse 

Mousse 
ingredients 
2 ripe avocados 
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon raw cacao powder 
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon raw agave nectar (or to taste) 
1/2 tablespoon vanilla 
1 tablespoon coconut oil (optional) gives the dish after cooling more stability 

Preparation 
Place everything in a blender and mix well. 

Thereafter, the mousse is immediately enjoyable. Even better it tastes when the mousse was for 1 hour in the refrigerator. 

Serve and garnish with seasonal fruit, such as raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, banana, mint, coconut, etc. .. 

Vegan chocolate-tahini timbale cakes

As you may knwo I'm not really a sweet person, but if I have guests over for a cup off coffee I can't just serve them "nothing" - and today I wanted to surprise them - as they hardly expect myself serving a dessert. 

Anyway, back to the roots. I got a new cooking book and in there I saw and found a recipe for chocolate-tahini cakes. 

I had to try - I could not really imagine tasting tahini good in a sweet cake, but the result- and yes I tasted it off course - was astonishing good!!! The original recipe said using muffin-forms but as I'm not having real muffin form I decide to make timbale cakes - looks even better than cakes in a muffin form. 

As I'm guarding my sister home with the garden I even had some rasperry to serve with - fresh harvest at my sisters garden. (and this for the next two weeks) As my sister fridge is overfilled I mostly will take the harvest things at home, either cooking or preparing jams out of it. 

My guest really like it and this is always a good sign, hmm? And served with fresh sweet rasperries just delicious.....

If you wonder as well if they tastes, try them out and you will be surprised!

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Vegan chocolate-tahini timbale cakes

This variation involves using tahini in place of butter. The batter is baked in timbales. You'll need to have enough (about 2 ml) nonstick (silicone) timbales to make two dozen timbales at a time.

Makes about 24

Ingredients:115 g dark baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
120 ml unsweetened plain soya milk
160 ml Kahlua or other coffee liqueur
120 ml tahini
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
190 g all-purpose flour
1 cup powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
1½ teaspoons baking powder
43 g cocoa powder 
½ teaspoon salt

Direction:

Preheat the oven up to 180C

Put the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, heat the soya milk over medium heat until it begins to steam and almost comes to a boil. Pour the soya milk over the chopped chocolate, then add the Kahlua, tahini, and vanilla. Let stand for 1 minute, then stir until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate is entirely melted.

Sift the flour, powdered sugar, baking powder, cocoa, and salt together into a large bowl. Add the chocolate mixture and stir gently until just combined. Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag without a tip or a resealable
plastic bag with one corner snipped off.

Put about two dozen timbale moulds on a baking sheet (the number of moulds per pan varies, so just get as close to two dozen as you can). Pipe the batter into the moulds, filling each about two-thirds full.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the tops are firm but the inside is still slightly soft (test by inserting a wooden skewer or toothpick). Transfer the moulds to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes, then invert the moulds and let the timbales cool completely, about 15 minutes. Lift off the moulds and dust the timbales with powdered sugar. These treats are best eaten the day they're made.

Chocolate hazelnut avocado cake

Don't worry about the the "avocado" in this recipe!!!

This Cake is super easy since the avocado helps replace the usual butter and eggs. The frosting is made simply by combining avocado, cocoa powder and powdered sugar and it can be used whenever you need a frosting fix in a hurry. With the addition of whole-wheat pastry flour and ground hazelnuts this cake is rich, dense and has a brownie like texture that is sinfully delicious. I have to admit that if I made this cake and left off the frosting I would gleefully eat a slice of this for breakfast. If you are hesitating because it seems to weird, trust me you have to try this one.

I made this cake for my Friends Birthday and I didn't tell everyone there's Avocado in it. As my friend doesn't live vegan and I didn't want her to be suspicious about the taste without eggs or milk. All she said, that the cake is great and she loves it, and when I told her there's Avocado in it instead of eggs, she was surprised and said she wants the recipe.

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Chocolate hazelnut avocado cake



Ingredients:

For the cake:
2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup hazelnut meal
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ cup soft avocado, mashed, about 1 medium avocado
2 cups water
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ cup chopped hazelnuts for garnis

For the frosting:
1 large ripe avocado, peeled and seeded
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ¾ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Direction:
For the cake:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans. Set aside.

Sift together all the dry ingredients except for the sugar.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the avocado and mix on medium speed until smooth. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and the sugar and mix until combined.

Add the dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

Divide batter between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Let cakes cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting.

Once the cake is completely cool spread the frosting on the top of one layer, place the other layer on top and cover with remaining frosting. Sprinkle the hazelnuts over the top and serve.

For the frosting:
In a stand mixer whip the avocado until it forms a smooth mixture. In a medium bowl sift the cocoa powder and powdered sugar together and then add to the bowl along with the salt and vanilla extract. Whisk the mixture until you get a smooth frosting.

Pesto polenta bruschetta

Pesto polenta bruschetta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

• Quick cook polenta
• Water (amount varies depending on how much polenta used- see polenta packet instructions)
• 2-3 tbs vegan pesto divided between polenta and the topping
• 1 onion- chopped finely
• 2 handfuls tomatoes- chopped
• Half a red pepper- chopped
• 2 handfuls spinach
• A few sprigs of fresh basil
• Vegan parmesan- optional

Instructions

• Cook the polenta according to the packet instructions and then pour/spoon immediately into a lined loaf tin (size based on the amount of polenta you’ve cooked up). Allow to cool and set in the fridge.
• Once set, cut into 1cm thick slices before frying on a griddle for approx. 5 minutes. each side to achieve a slightly golden crisp coat (mine should have had a little longer ideally). You couod oven bale the polenta. Note any extra polenta can be stored in the fridge for a few days prior to its second cooking.
• Meanwhile, prepare the bruschetta topping by combining all the remaining ingredients and toss together with the remaining tablespoon of pesto.
• If serving the polenta hot, heat the topping through before spooning over. Alternatively, both polenta and topping can be served cold.
• Dust with a little vegan parmesan if desired.

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Thought dessert aren't my favorite - I used to love chocolate when being younger, but the negative thing was that I had overweight cause of the chocolate. When eating chocolate I can't stop.

But when I came across this recipe I had to try, it sounded just so good, AND the cake was good!!!!

You may wonder about the wine in it, but hey why not. There are many recipes which calls for alcohol. It tasted light winy and I liked it. Gotto do this cake again.

Make this cake the day before you plan to eat it, it taste much better a day after.

 

Red Wine chocolate Cake

 

 

 

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
¾ cup unrefined cane sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla powder
5 table spoons extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup strawberry jam
1 cup red wine

Direction:
Preheat the oven at 150 degree Celsius.

Combine all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate small bowl combine the red wine, strawberry jam and olive oil together. Pour the wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir to combine well.

Pour the batter into a round pan which is greased with olive oil and dusted with cocoa flour. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cake cool well on a wire rack before you cut it.