Vegan almond cake with summer fruit
Vegan almond cake with summer fruit
Hope you guys are enjoying summer? We have finally had some glorious weather here in Bristol, so I have cleared my schedule so that I can sink into my hammock, podcast in my ears, and top up my vitamin D with abandon. It was a lovely thing to be able to do and reminded me to be grateful for being my own boss and not having to trudge into an office every day. I am done with Serial, but my current addiction is its sister podcast This American Life.
If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a beautiful array of thought-provoking real life stories arranged around a different subject every episode. It may be just my personality type (ahem…the obsessive type 😉 ), but I find it really addictive. I’m selective when it comes to picking episodes though, carefully avoiding the ones that talk about American politics as that’s not exactly a relaxing subject, is it? Politics is so depressing here right now too that I oscillate between getting really enraged and despondent about it, to blocking it out altogether. The lack of tolerance and compassion that is currently sweeping across the globe is frankly terrifying. Have we learnt nothing from our history? My belief in humanity is waning…
Other than listening to podcasts obsessively, I’ve been doing some more yoga at home and I have already noticed how I feel a tiny bit stronger with each practice. I have also found a new Pilates class and a yoga class practically on my doorstep and I am excited about giving them a go next week. Fingers crossed it will work out.
I have also finally had a bit of a breakthrough in my running. I live in a hilly area of Bristol and no matter how I cut it I need to conquer a very long (close to 400 meters) hill at the very end of my run. I’ve been dishearted by this hill for some time as when my heart inevitably soars to 180 BPM, I stop half way through each time. It went on for months, although the point I had to stop at would shift slightly every few runs or so. This week, I finally managed to do it all in one go on two consecutive runs and although I was not a pretty sight after (I got some sexist comments from a drunk man who struggled to stay upright as I ran past him as a confirmation! A**h*le!!), I have a real sense of achievement and I am excited about working towards my next running goal.
While I’ve taken a bit of time off developing sweet recipes, I have not really succeeded at taking time off sugar, unfortunately. It’s my ongoing battle. But as it’s been a while since I published a cake recipe, I thought it’s about time.
This simple almond cake topped with nectarines has been a frequent occurrence in my household lately as I was developing this recipe (you might have seen my trials in our Instastories). Luckily, Duncan took most of it to work for an afternoon tea with his team, so I managed to consume a respectable amount this time 😉 . This cake is easy to make, uses no oil (vegan butter or margarine) and is sweetened with maple syrup. You can also make it gluten-free if you need. I like to have it with a dollop of creamy vegan yoghurt and some sliced fresh or roasted nectarines on the side. I hope you’ll give it a go! x
- 60 ml / ¼ cup smooth almond butter or tahini
- 125 g / ½ cup thick vegan yoghurt (I used peach and passionfruit KOKO)
- 120 ml / ½ cup almond milk
- 150 ml / ½ cup + 2 tbsp maple syrup or other neutral-tasting liquid sweetener
- 2 tsp lemon or lime juice
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 nectarines, peaches or large plums, cut into 8 segments each
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 240 g / scant 2 cups all purpose flour or GF all purpose flour mix* (I use this one)
- 80 g / slightly heaped ¾ cup ground almonds (aka almond flour)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1½ tsp cinnamon (optional)
- 3 tsp ground ginger (optional)
- Set the oven to 180° C / 355° C. Grease a 20 cm / 8″ square cake tin with a bit of oil or line it with baking paper.
- In a large bowl, mix almond butter and vegan yoghurt with a wire whisk until smooth.
- Gradually (to prevent lumps from forming) whisk in almond milk and then maple syrup.
- Finally mix in lemon / lime juice and vanilla extract.
- Grab a second bowl and sift flour, ground almonds, baking powder, baking soda and spices (if using) into it. Mix really well.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones, in batches, using a spatula in a slow clockwise folding motion until no flour pockets remain. If you used wheat flour, be careful not to over mix.
- Transfer the batter into the baking tin, spread it evenly and decorate with nectarine segments.
- Bake for about 50 min (it depends on your oven). It’s done when a toothpick comes out fairly clean.
- Glaze the top with maple syrup (optionally) and let it cool down completely before removing from the tin.
Yes, it most certainly is! Whole wheat flour is coarse and not used to make a delicate sponge typically. Furthermore, it has different absorbency to plain flour so your batter probably ended up too dry and the cake got overbaked as a result. If you don't follow the recipe exactly then you have to accept that there is always a risk the recipe will not turn out as expected. Hope this helps! Ania
Welcome to the wonderful world of baking where precision and following recipes is really quite key ;) . Having said that it sounds like the cake could not have been that bad if it disappeared so quickly. It's hard for me to say why your cake's batter was 'sticky with lots of texture' - I suspect that perhaps you had flour lumps in there. If it was dense and 'breadlike', I suspect that you used too much flour and that you also may have overmixed the batter (which activates the gluten and makes the cake more chewy, like a bread). Next time, I would suggest picking a recipe that you have all the ingredients for so that you don't need to make any swaps. Once you get more baking experience and knowledge under your belt, you'll be able to swap ingredients with more confidence. Hope this helps! Ania
I have never tried doing that with any of my cakes so I am really not sure. Ania
I haven't but I don't see why it wouldn't work. They make be a bit overcooked/soft by the end, but that's not a big problem in this particular context. x Ania
Theoretically, yes, but I have not tested it so I cannot guarantee a successful outcome. Hope it works out well. Ania
It may be a UK thing, but very finely ground up almonds that you buy in a baking section are simply called 'ground almonds' rather than almond flour here - although I believe they are the exact same thing. I suspect that the term flour isn't used as almond flour is technically not a flour at all so yes, you can totally use almond flour. I hope that helps! Ania
It may be a UK thing, but very finely ground up almonds that you buy in a baking section are simply called 'ground almonds' rather than almond flour here - although I believe they are the exact same thing. I suspect that the term flour isn't used as almond flour is technically not a flour at all so yes, you can totally use almond flour. Ania
Thanks!!
P.S. This recipe sounds yummy!!
Any thick (spoonable rather than pourable ideally, but not a deal breaker either!) vegan yoghurt is fine. It does not matter what flavour as long as it goes with the fruit you put on top and if it's sweetened or not as it's a very small amount we are using here. As for ground almonds, I simply bought them in a baking section of a supermarket, but you can grind them finely in a coffee grinder if you need to. Hope that helps! Ania