How to Make a Vegan Birthday Cake

It was my mummy's birthday on Saturday! Happy birthday, Mum!

Mum recently turned awkward vegan. I wanted to make her a lovely cake, but all my normal recipes use eggs, milk, butter, yoghurt, etc. etc. The only one I know of that doesn't is carrot cake, but Dad moans like a 3 year old if you suggest a cake with vegetables in it!

Luckily Google is my friend and after a few minutes searching I came across the Vegan Society's website, and more importantly their birthday cake page. I liked these recipes because they used ingredients most people already have, rather than the bizarre concoctions found on other websites.

I chose to make the chocolate cake recipe. The only ingredient non-vegans might not have is vegan chocolate for icing, but you can get this in a lot of health food shops. Alternatively, I just decided to make a chocolate-flavoured “butter” icing instead.

The cake ingredients:

200g self raising flour
2 heaped tsp baking powder
25g cocoa
75g Barbados sugar (this is muscavado sugar)
100ml vegetable oil
550-750ml cold water (I only used 500ml. I think if you used the full 750ml it would just be chocolate flavoured water!) 

My chocolate-flavoured "butter" icing:

50g vegan margarine (eg. Vitalite, which is made from sunflower oil)

100g icing sugar

1tsp cocoa powder

The recipe says to just blend all the cake ingredients together in a food processor, but I didn't have one to hand. For the non-technologically advanced, I suggest the following:

1. Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the baking powder, cocoa and sugar, then mix together.
2. Mix in the vegetable oil.
3. Add the water in little by little, mixing it until it has the consistency of normal cake mix; pourable, but not too runny.
4. Divide the mixture evenly between two greased cake tins (I used 8 inch tins) and cook for 25-30 minutes at 180ºC (380F, gas mark 4).
5. Once cooked, cool on a cake rack.
6. Make up “butter icing” (beat 50g vegan margarine, 100g sugar and 1tsp cocoa together) and use to sandwich the two halves together.
7. Decorate by sieving icing sugar over the top!

It turned out a LOT better than the last birthday cake I posted on this blog.

The Reviews

“It's the best cake ever!” - Mum, the vegan. (Possibly slightly biased? :D)

“It's actually not that bad” - The Boyfriend, he likes meat.

“You wouldn't know it's vegan” - Dad, a compliment by his standards!

I think it tasted pretty nice. If you go for the chocolate icing that the website recommends, then I would add more sugar to the cake mix as the sweetness of mine mainly comes from the “butter” icing.

Mum was happy to be able to have cake for once! :)

Charitable Giving on a Budget

When you're barely keeping your head above water it seems inconceivable to give money to charity, even if you'd really like to. I'm here to tell you that there are a lot of different ways to make a difference without breaking the budget!

• Do you have an old mobile phone you no longer want or used printing ink cartridge? Even if it's broken, many companies will recycle it for you for free. Recycle 4 Charity let you choose who receives your money, paying £1 for an ink cartridge and up to £70 for a working phone.
  
  
  
• What do you do with old pairs of glasses? Did you know that 10% of the world are disabled or disadvantaged because they don't have access to spectacles? Many are excluded from school and cannot see properly to work. If you get a new pair of glasses, please don't throw the others away! Take them to your optician and they will send them to Vision Aid Overseas free of charge.
  
  
• Have a bit of a spring clean and donate old clothing, CDs, DVDs, games, ornaments or even furniture to your local charity shop. Most places are always in desperate need of new stock. Charities range from animal welfare to medical research to global humanitarian groups, so you can choose who you want to support.
  
  
• You can make a donation in someone's name as a birthday or Christmas present for someone in your life who wants to help too, but perhaps can't afford to make a donation themselves. Oxfam have a great range of clutter-free gifts that allow you to provide water, food, education or shelter to people in need.
  
• Many people save their copper coins but even with a full piggy bank you are left with little reward but a lengthy trip to the bank to get it changed to more usable tender! Why not donate your 1p and 2p coins to charity whenever you pass a collection box? It'll be a quick and easy way to make a small difference.
  
  
• What about taking part in a sponsored event, or organising your own? Most charities have a link on their websites for information on events and how to help. You might even get to try something you've never done before – skydiving, anyone?
  
  
  
• Volunteer! You can find out about a huge range of volunteer work in your area using Do-It. From conservation work to working with the elderly, from charity shop work to helping to run a youth centre for children; pick a charity you feel best suits your concerns about the world and then go out there and make a difference.
  
  
• Many charities rely on small monthly donation. A £2 a month donation to Oxfam provides food for people that need it most, at a cost of £24 a year to you.

“We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.” 

Mother Teresa

Happy Birthday to Me! :)

It's my 23^rd birthday today! 23 seems like a pretty pointless age really! I went for Sunday lunch with my family and The Boyfriend, then I spent my evening.. at work!! Rarrr! Oh well, I haven't spent any money so that's a good thing! :)

Frugal gifts: My Nana got me some looovely warm gloves and a wind up torch. A minute of wind-up gives 30 minutes of light, or it can be charged by USB to give 6 hours! It'll be perfect for night hikes! :)

 Also, my parents and sister got me some vanilla syrup and ground coffee from Starbucks. Now I can make my own vanilla lattes!! :) Nom nom nom!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! :)