I am slowly going through some of my bookmarked recipes and starting to tick them off.
Today, I share with you this Raw Vegan Carrot Cake with Cashew Cream. This Raw Vegan Carrot Cake comes from Lorraine Pascale.
I have to be honest, I don't really do celebrity chefs, so when I first saw Lorraine Pascale on British TV. the first thought that came to me was, here we go again another model turned celebrity chef, but her approach was really different from all those domestic goddess wannabees. Lorraine Pascale gained popularity without the gimmicks. She really did win me over on her first cookery show and her down to earth honest approach, I have also come to have a much deeper respect for her as a person too.
Anyway, this Raw Vegan Carrot Cake was the first that I had bookmarked from her Eating Well Made Easy from Lorraine Pascale. The only change I have made to the recipe was the use of hazelnut, the original recipe uses walnuts and I did not have to pop this in the freezer, my fridge was plenty chilled.
The recipe makes a generous cake, I took a lot of this Vegan Carrot Cake into work and gave around tasters. Everyone who had a piece was stunned first at the fact that it was completely raw, secondly that it was very much like baked carrot cake and lastly how Delicious it was, some even wanting a second piece. The only person who was not that crazy about it was my husband. He said. I will eat this, but raw cakes just don't excite me. Oh well, you cannot win everyone over.
For the recipe for Raw Vegan Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Cashew Cram see here.
Keep refrigerated.
Eat within the week.
Apparently it is British Tomato Week.
I am a little surprised as my greenhouse seedling specimens are not even the length of my hands and those that I picked up from a garden nursery have only just begun to flower. I guess other parts of the country, tomatoes are thriving under poly tunnels. Not in this part of Wales, where on days I am still wearing layers.
I had originally bookmarked to make Bloody Mary Jelly around the Christmas or New Year festivities, but then thought, what is wrong with now?! Oh and before you read any further, I must highlight that this Bloody Mary Jelly is made with a carton of tomato juice picked up for a different recipe, but never did and noted over the weekend that it was reaching its best before date.
I have to throw my hands up and admit that I have somewhat lost my blogging groove. At the same time I have also found myself uninspired in the kitchen, I am not begrudging this at all, in fact I am a little thankful for it as it has allowed me to both cook those bookmarked recipes as well as peruse cookbooks from my burgeoning bookshelf, to which I have to confess I have added some more cookbooks.
For those of you who read my blog, will know that I went to the last Bristol Vegfest at the weekend. Whilst there, I picked up some vegan cookbooks including Kristy Turners But I could Never Go Vegan and But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan.
I had considered last year to put them both on my Christmas wish list, but then for some reason decided not to as I had other vegan and vegetarian cookbooks that I wanted more, but then when I saw both of them at the Vegfest. I was finally swayed to get the cookbook as my blogger friend Johanna who cooks much like I do at home, was making recipes on her blog and commenting, even fellow blogger Faye Veganopoulous was recommending it. Both Faye and Johanna have cooked extensively from them.
That evening when I returned home after the Bristol Vegfest, feet up, sitting in front of the TV with a glass of wine and paging through the cookbook very slowly, I knew exactly what I wanted to make first. It was the s BBQ Cauliflower Salad , not only did it look delicious, I had most of the ingredients to hand.
The following day, this BBQ Cauliflower Salad was made. The salad is smothered with a vegan blue cheese dressing and some oven baked onion rings, but I found the BBQ Cauliflower substantial enough on its own and quite hearty lunch after a spell in the garden Sunday afternoon. It was quite easy to put together with ready made BBQ sauce.
The cookbooks have some vegan recipes that are new to me, especially those made with sauerkraut (as I never know what to do with the jars I bring at home), Jackfruit Crabless Cakes and the Savoury Corn Cheesecake but some not so much like Chickpea Scramble, Chickpea Fries,
Faux Tofu Fish and Chips. I have been making my own and Tofu Fish and Chips inspired by Something Fishy that started their vegan fish and chips business in 2008 now almost 10 years later its appearing all over blogosphere and in cookbooks.
Still the cookbooks have enough inspiration for me to have finally wanted a copy of my own. The next bookmarked from the cookbook are Samosa Cakes and the Sunflower Sausage.
For the full BBQ Cauliflower Salad Recipe - see here.
To read Green Gourmet Giraffes Review of But I could Never Go Vegan see here
And to read Veganopoulous review of But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan click here
