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YNBO Vegan genoise cake with a chocolate glaze

Did you watch it? You know what I’m talking about right…. The magic that is Great British Bake Off is back and I for one could not be happier. Obviously I already have my favourite: Benjamina but I’ve got a soft spot for Val. I spent the entire hour glued to the show, looking away only to text my Aunty & sister who were also watching. Last night we had the joys of drizzle cake, Jaffa cakes & of course a genoise sponge with a mirror glaze as the show stopper. I have two things to say – firstly who bakes Jaffa cakes???? And secondly I have decided to enter the GBBO this year, or rather I have decided to set myself the challenge of baking a plant based healthier version of the show stopper for you each Thursday.

Welcome to YNBO – Yolanda’s Natural Bake Off

This morning was a little bit stressful. Genoise sponge is a type of sponge that doesn’t use a raising agent. To get volume you whip up egg whites and sugar. When you set yourself the challenge of plant based it means no eggs and you have to think hard about alternatives. In my panic I turned to chickpeas, no seriously, this cake uses chickpeas.

I had heard about chefs using Aqua faba as an alternative to egg whites when making meringue. Aqua faba is the water in a tin of chickpeas. This unassuming liquid is magic and despite the fact that I had to whip it by hand (bicep ache!!), it really did allow me to make an egg less sponge.

For the mirror glaze you traditionally use gelatin to give it the shine and so I crossed my fingers and used agar-agar. My cake is certainly not super smooth and polished but if you want yours to be, you can either cover it first in a cream and then allow it to chill before glazing or you can trim the top of the cake to get a perfectly flat surface.

This cake is two very simple flavors but you could get creative. Pistachio & lemon cake or orange & rose water would be delicious. You could also infuse your cream in the glaze with rooibos tea, ginger or elderflower.

I have no idea what is coming up each week or even if I will manage to recreate a plant based version each Thursday….but for now here is my (chickpea) vegan genoise with a chocolate mirror glaze.

Ingredients – makes one 6inch sponge
2/3 cup chickpea water

3/4 cup raw unrefined sugar

1 cup plain flour

1/4 coconut or rapeseed oil

Method
Place the sugar and chickpea water into a large clean bowl

Whisk together until the mixture thickens & can form soft peaks

Gently fold in the oil & then slowly fold in the sifted flour

Place into a greased cake tin & bake for approx 40mins

Leave to cool

Ingredients – chocolate glaze
4 tbsp cocoa

1/2 raw sugar

1/2 oat cream

1/2 cup water

1 serving agar agar dissolved in 1 tbsp water (or according to packet)

Place the cocoa, sugar, cream & water into a pan

Heat gently, whilst stirring till the mixture thickens

Remove from the heat & add in the agar-agar

Stir well to dissolve

Allow to cool & then pour over the cool cake

Decorate & enjoy

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Toasted coconut and maple double chocolate donuts

It seems a total cliche to need mum friends when you become a mum but I did & I do. There is some sort of solidarity in numbers. When you want nothing more than a glass of wine at 4pm, when another mum gave you a funny look at the Playpark, when your baby fell over at said Playpark because you were updating Instagram, it’s feels good to know that someone has your back.

There are days when it’s going wrong and you just need to share. For me, it’s the days when the baby is cranky & the house feels tinier by the second & you have run out of ideas. It’s those days when an invite to the swings is like a golden ticket. It’s the moments when you get to sit in someone’s else’s flat on the floor with a coffee & an hour passes quickly & you’re an hour closer to bed time & it all feels good again.

Seriously though, being a new mum, in a new city has been a culture shock. There are many times when I have missed my family, old friends and the simple ease of the familiar. When you’re tired you crave certain people, certain rituals, certain foods and when non of those things are available it feels harder. Somehow though, in the midst of all this I’ve found some mama friends here and quite frankly they rock! They have adopted me into their families. They have fed me, caffeinated me & dropped off gifts. They hug the baby with love. They have babies & children that are older and they are full of gentle advice. They hug me when I don’t want to hug my husband. They love wine & chocolate. They are happy to taste test my recipes & gossip about kardashians. They know when not to ring the doorbell & what time is nap time.

These donuts are for them. They are inspired by Fonuts in LA and I would love nothing more than to pack us mamas up and fly to the other side of the pond. We would get mani pedis. We would have brunch at Gjelina before shopping in the sun. We would drink coffee, swim & get fish tacos for lunch. We would head into town for most instagramable Fonuts. We would stock up on beauty products & perfectly tiny Frankie & Sue outfits. We would sleep in huge American beds with thier oversized pillows & have a lie in. Then we would fly home, because after one night our mama hearts would be longing for the little ones and we would be scrolling through our photo albums cooing.

These donuts are for them. As a big thank you for making these last 11 months happy & silly & fun. For everything they do for me. My piece of LA in Munich. These donuts are rich and brownie like but they are refined sugar free & vegan. I topped them with a simple glaze & then dipped them in ground pumpkin seeds & ground toasted coconut. You could also drizzle them with melted chocolate or top them with a coconut cream. They are totally delicious & the perfect size to have with a much needed strong coffee.

Ingredients
1.25 cups plain flour

0.25 cup cocoa powder

0.33 cup maple syrup

0.5 tsp baking soda

0.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

0.75 cup almond milk

0.25 cup rapeseed oil

Method
Preheat your oven to 180C

Combine all the dry ingredients then add in the wet ingredients and beat well

Pour into greased donut tray rings and place into the oven for 12-14 mins or until they feel springy to the touch

Allow to cool completely

To make the glaze:

Heat 1.5tbsp of coconut oil with 2tbsp maple syrup or honey and 2 tbsp cocoa powder. Dip the donuts into the glaze and then dip into toppings of your choice

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Summer Corn Salad

Most days I shop with a list & a plan but sometimes it all goes out the window. Some days I walk into the “bio laden” planning to pick up the basics & I leave with a kilo of blueberries and a heap of corn on the cob.Those are the days when I get to play in the kitchen & when lunch is extra fun.

Corn on the cob makes me think of summer. Of barbecues and long, hot car journeys through the French countryside. Growing up we spent every summer in France, for the first years packed into a caravan with a pop up top, and then later in a 150 year old farm house that my parents fell in love with.

The house is in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by working farms. Corn is a huge crop and yet strangely it is grown there as animal feed. During the summer you see huge piles of corn on the cob, drying in the heat of the midday sun, ready to be fed to cattle.We were always the “crazy English” that were willing to pay for fresh corn and my parents were the “crazy English” willing to feed their children animal food.

This salad turned is delicious. The corn is fresh & lightly grilled. The avocado gives it a creaminess & teamed with the coriander and lime makes me think of LA Mexican inspired salads. The chickpeas are optional but I like the bite that they give and also the extra density that they add.

It’s the perfect satiating summer salad. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Ingredients (serves 2)
2 corn on the cob

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 avocado

10 cherry tomatoes

1/4 red onion finely chopped

1/2 tin chickpeas (129g cooked chickpeas)

2 tbsp olive oil

Small handful fresh coriander

Salt & pepper

Juice 1 lime

Method
Preheat your grill or griddle plan

Chop the avocado & place into a bowl with the quartered cherry tomatoes & finely chopped onion

Rub the corn with rapeseed oil & place under the grill or on the griddle

Watch closely & turn every 3 minutes or as the kernels start to colour

Once fully grilled remove & set aside for 5 minutes

Holding one end run a knife down the corn to remove the kernels into the bowl with the other vegetables

Mix everything together

Whisk together the lime juice, olive oil, salt & pepper

Finely chop the herbs & mix in with the dressing

Toss the salad with the dressing & eat immediately

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Roasted tomato and hummus tartine

Moving to Munich has been great and scary and fun and lonely and exciting. On the one hand nothing could be greater than experiencing a new city with our new baby girl. On the other we said goodbye to our roots. Years of friends and relationships stayed in London. I no longer know the hidden spots or the shortcuts. I don’t know the easiest tube exits. I don’t know where to go to get the best coffee (actually I do, it’s Emilio’s on Buttermelcher str) and I haven’t mastered any Bavarian.

Having a baby in your home city is new enough & changes your perspective entirely on life. This move at 8 months pregnant has thrown me for a loop at times.

What’s more, I gave up my job…again. And now, from the trenches of teething & sleepless nights in trying hard to launch a brand. The second the baby shuts her eyes, I dash to the kitchen to cook and to photograph. Then I have to navigate the madness that is social media. Press releases, German magazine contacts, product placements….so much to think about & not enough caffeine to fuel it.

It’s hard, because it’s new. Because my support system is mainly available via what’s app. But I’m getting there, maybe, I think? A friend I value above most things made one of my recipes this week, that’s the greatest thing ever!

So todays lunch needed to be delicious. It needed to lift my mood and taste great. As always it needed to be healthy and hearty. Monday’s soda bread became today’s lunch. Toasted well and then topped with speedy hummus and delicious roasted tomatoes. The perfect lunch. Everything I needed it to be & able to be eaten single handedly. Make this if you can, whilst the summer is still here & tomatoes are at their peak.

Hummus & roasted tomato tartine

Ingredients
4 tbsp hummus

2 slices soda bread (or other bread) well toasted

4 ripe roma tomatoes (I like to roast a whole tray of tomatoes as they keep for 4 days in the fridge)

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt & pepper

Method
Preheat your oven to 180C

Slice the tomatoes into quarter wedges

Place into a baking dish

Coat with olive oil and season liberally

Roast for 25minutes

Remove & leave to cool for 10 mins

Spread the bread with hummus

Top with roasted tomatoes

Enjoy

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Vegan soda bread

The kitchen table, as it often the case, becomes the centre point of our entire lives. It is, at various times of the day, littered with snippets of our lives. Its is scattered with bowls and dishes, laid for dinner, or strewn with an array of cycling bits and bobs. The chairs are placed at odd angles to allow the baby space to crawl underneath it and play den. It is at the table that we prepare food, write recipes, share large mugs of brewed espresso, eat and talk.
Lately when lunch time is on the horizon and we haven’t made it to the bakery, I turn to this soda bread recipe. It is hearty and sustaining, spread with hummus and topped with rocket, dipped in fresh beetroot soup or spread with lemony avocado and sprinkled with salt. It is a quick and simple answer. The joy in making soda bread is that you simply measure, stir, knead and bake. Warm, freshly baked bread on the table in an hour. It is the easiest bread to add to your weekly repertoire and you will not regret it.

Soda bread has a tangy fresh taste to it and that comes from the natural yogurt and the homemade butter milk that I use. You can buy buttermilk, but it takes five minutes to make – you simply add the juice of half a lemon (1.5 tbsp) to 200ml of milk (dairy or almond) and wait five minutes.

I made this bread using wholegrain flour but you can also make it with wholegrain spelt flour too. It is also delicious if you add a few tablespoons of seeds to the mix. This is my tried and tested recipe but feel free to tweak away.

Ingredients
500g wholemeal/spelt flour
1.5tsp bicarbonate of soda
150ml of live natural yogurt (you can replace this with an equal quantity of milk)
200ml of milk (dairy or almond)
1.5tbsp lemon juice

Method
Preheat your oven to 190degrees
Pour 200ml of milk (dairy or soya) into a jug and add 1.5tbsp of lemon juice
Leave for 5 minutes until buttermilk is formed
Sift the flour and the bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl
Make a well in the centre and add in the buttermilk and the yoghurt (if using)
Stir well with a wooden spoon and bring the mixture together, forming a soft dough
Tip onto a floured surface knead for a minute or two
Place onto a floured baking tray and dust the top of the bread liberally with flour
Bake for 40 – 45 minutes
You know the bread is ready if the base of the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it

 

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