Vegan Hot Dogs

A few weeks ago I had a lovely weekend in York visiting my bestie - during a little stroll around Bishopthorpe which is a lovely little area of York not far from the centre, we came across a quaint little cookware shop where we both indulged in some new baking bits and bobs. Amongst the things I brought was a hot dog cookie cutter. It wasn't long and I had already decided that I would use this to create 'hot dogs' having been inspired by the puns and play on words that feature so heavily in Frances Quinns 'Quinntessential Baking'.

These biscuits are a dairy free shortbread flavoured with chilli flakes, drizzled with plain chocolate and some extra chills at one end for those who like a bit of a kick! This batch were also made using gluten free flour so that my sister didn't have to miss out! As they were gluten and dairy free the dough is very soft and tricky to handle as it can very easily become misshapen and tear. So, patience is key with this bake. You can of course substitute the dairy free butter for dairy butter and the gluten free flour for standard plain flour if you wish.









Right - lets get baking!

Dairy Free Lemon, Blueberry and Almond Muffins

This week I turned 26 (boo), to celebrate we planned a little family tea party complete with home baked tasty treats. I wanted to bake a variety of things that would appeal to all of my family members including a showstopper birthday cake, something dairy free and home freshly baked bread. Having looked through all of my cook books I decided to make an eton mess inspired cake - the recipe for which can be found in the Meringue Girls cooked book everything sweet. I will type up my attempt at this cake including the few changes I made as soon as possible. I was also keen to try my hand at bread making. One of my birthday gifts was a bread making course so I thought I would have a go at making some baguettes to test my abilities before going on the course. I will report back in a few weeks as to how I got on.

For now though, my dairy free muffins. Both my brother and sister in law are vegan so I wanted to make something they would be able to enjoy. I found the basic recipe in a vegan baking book that I have and made a few alterations to make the recipe my own. This recipe can be used as the foundations for any dairy free muffins - just change the fillings and flavours to suit.

The verdict was that these was tasty but that the lemon taste was quite faint (but nice) so if you want a really zesty flavour you can add additional zest or even some lemon juice into the mix.

Dairy Free Caterpillar Cake

Not that I need an excuse to bake, but my sister in law's birthday at the beginning of June was a perfect reason to book a days leave from work and have a relaxing day in the kitchen. The brief was a caterpillar cake, which if your family is anything like mine, is an absolute birthday favourite. However this little caterpillar was to be extra special and completely dairy free.

Before making this I had a look for a vegan swiss roll recipe, to no evail. Before failing at the first hurdle, I took to twitter during the weekly #bakershour hosted by She Who Bakes and asked for help. Fortunately, fellow baker Collin's Time to Bake obliged and went away to devise a dairy free recipe that was flexible enough for rolling but strong enough not to fall apart.

I was really grateful that my fellow bakers came to the rescue and spent time going through trial and error for the perfect recipe - this kind of experimenting is something I would like to spend more time doing in the future. But for now, I will share this with you and hopefully sometime soon will be sharing experimental recipes of my own.

The recipe that was created by Collin was adopted slightly for the purpose of creating a chocolate caterpillar cake.

Chocolate Bourbons

This week I've had a number of boring jobs stacking up like going to the bank so, I decided to have a day off work using my stored up toil hours. Fortunately I picked a lovely sunny day so as I type this I am sat in the garden slightly cautious that it doesn't take much sunshine to burn my pasty skin!

As well as doing my boring jobs I decided to do a bit of baking - this was the first baking I have done in a while that was relaxed and wasn't a mad rush late night baking or at a weekend between running here there are everywhere. I really enjoyed taking my time - its reminded me why I use baking as a form of relaxation!

Today's blogging view

Anywhoo less of the chit chat this is a baking blog after all so lets get stuck in. I decided to take part in the secret ingredient challenge hosted by itsabakingthing and today's ingredient was syrup. Rather than going out and spending money I picked a recipe for which I already had everything I needed - chocolate bourbons.  The syrup they include is the ever so sticky, golden syrup. Shop brought chocolate bourbons also happen to be dairy free, so in keeping with this - so are mine.

Jammy Dodgers

So for this last 8 days I have been away from my normal working day and on a training course. At the beginning of the course the usual rules were explained which included an understanding that as busy professionals we may need to answer our mobile phones and that this is ok. However there would be a sanction if it rang out loud during the course. The sanctions were as follows:

1. If it rang once you would have to buy doughnuts for the rest the group
2. If it rang twice you would have to buy cream cakes for the rest of the group
3. If it rang three times you would have to buy a round at the pub at the end of the course

According to the trainers no one had ever made the mistake of letting it happen more than three times but if necessary a further sanction would be created! After 7 days not one phone had rung out so we had to take matters in to our own hands and whilst a phone was left unattended during a break it was quickly switched on to loud, needless to say today lots of doughnuts were eaten!

Anyway, the point of that little tale was that for a two week course tea breaks and treats have proven to be key in keeping us on task and concentrating. So not to disappoint, when my colleagues discovered I enjoy baking I quickly convinced to bring in something for the troops. One of the ladies on the course is dairy and gluten free so I decided to make these little dodgers so that everyone could enjoy a biscuit during our morning tea break. Last week I also made a lemon drizzle cake and some chocolate brownies for my course mates as well.

Right, enough chit chat, lets get baking! 

I used a recipe from 'The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town' and simply substituted standard plain flour for an equal amount of gluten free plain flour. 

Dinosaur Celebration Cake

The 31st of March marks a very special occasion, my big brother is turning 30!

Not wanting this occasion to go uncelebrated his girlfriend organised a surprise meal for friends and family. As I am writing this, the surprise meal hasn't happened yet but I know he will be really happy to see some of the family that have travelled up to see him that we don't see very regularly.

I booked a day's annual leave to make a cake fitting for the occasion - the brief was 'dinosaur themed' and this is what I came up with....

I felt very guilty as my brother tried to rope me in to painting fence panels on my day off so I had to tell a little white lie and pretend I had a physiotherapy appointment for my dodgy knee - sorry Daniel! But I couldn't tell you what I was really doing on Friday as it would have given the game away!

My brother and his girlfriend are both vegans so I had to make a cake that would appeal to all. The bottom square layer of the cake is a classic vanilla sponge with swiss meringue buttercream, the upper round layers are a vegan vanilla sponge with vegan buttercream. The little 3D dinosaurs are also vegan friendly. I used dairy free fondant icing to create the leaves and added a little extra decoration with some mini eggs and then some special vegan treats which are the ones in gold wrapping.

It was a mammoth baking session as not only did I make this I also whipped up a batch of chocolate eclairs which I have been promising my cousin I would make him for ages!

I was really proud of the finished cake - it turned out to be a real show stopper!