Desserts

Vegan Blueberry Swirl Bread

I love my Blueberry Muffin recipe. It is one of the first things I baked after going vegan and over the years, I’ve really perfected this recipe to a science. It’s so good, that my husband actually got sort of angry when I told him I wasn’t going to include it in the cookbook. I figured–what’s the point? It’s already on the blog. But he truly believes that my Blueberry Muffin recipe is “spectacular,” the kind of thing that will allow him to “retire early.” And so, I felt compelled to include it in my cookbook (which you can now preorder, in case you didn’t know!). But, loyal blog subscribers, you do not need to wait for the cookbook to try that recipe out. But, this post isn’t about blueberry muffins. It’s about what happens when I decide to turn blueberry muffins into BREAD.

I mean, I know a lot of people are really into banana bread and pumpkin bread and zucchini bread. But why aren’t more people making blueberry bread? Given the prevalence and popularity of the eponymous breakfast pastry, it’s sort of a mystery. In lieu of figuring that out, I decided to just make a bread out of blueberry muffins. But, I also thought it would be really fun to give it a little flair by creating a gorgeous little swirl that you can see when you cut into it.

The trick to this is creating two different colored batters. Given the natural coloring afforded by the blueberries, again, I ask you–why is this not done with more regularity? Who knows. But it was simple enough. You mix a cup of thawed frozen berries into a portion of the batter without having to be gentle with the berries, and you get a lovely, brilliant purple batter.

Feel free to use food coloring, as well, but I didn’t need to (though I had it out just in case). You will get a darker color once it comes out of the oven (that’s what happens when you use baking soda and add heat), but it’s still a decidedly blue swirl, so that people will know immediately–“Hey, you used blueberries for that!”

You just layer the different colored batters on top of one another, give the batter a swirl with a handy dandy wooden skewer or chopstick, and you stick it in the oven for about 50 minutes, and you’re good to go. You’ve just made Blueberry Swirl Bread, and you will be the envy of all those who stuck with making just boring old Banana Bread.

Vegan Blueberry Swirl Bread

5 from 1 vote

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Ingredients

3/4 cup plant milk
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp aquafaba (or sub in plant milk)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 1/3 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder see prior video for full recipe
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt minced
1 1/4 cup frozen blueberries and/or blackberries (thawed) diced

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Add vinegar to plant milk and set aside. This is your "buttermilk."
Using a standmixer (whisk attachment) or handmixer, mix together butter and sugar until the butter is creamy. Add aquafaba (or plant milk), vanilla extract, and buttermilk and mix until ingredients are combined. It'll look curdled, but don't worry.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined (do not overmix). The batter will be very thick–much more like a biscuit batter than a cake batter. This is what you want, but if it's simply too thick to work with, add 1 tbsp of plant milk to slacken it a bit.
Scoop out approximately 1/3 of the batter into a separate bowl. Add 1 cup of the thawed berries (together with any juice) to this smaller portion of the batter. Mix the berries into the batter, until it turns a lovely bright purple color.
Add the remaining berries to the larger portion of the batter, using a spatula, so as not to break the berries.
To a 1 lb loaf pan, generously misted with cooking spray, Add a layer of the light colored batter. To that, add two generous scoops of the purple batter. Then repeat until all the batter is used up.
Using a large wooden skewer or a chopstick, swirl the batter around a few times.
Place in the oven and bake for approximately 50-55 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

4 comments

Desserts

Vegan Mint Chocolate Cake with Simple Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

A few years ago, while walking into the office, and a woman stopped me to say, “Girl, you look gorgeous.” I can’t remember what I did that day: I probably emailed ppl, sat in on conference calls, looked through some contracts. I can’t remember when I left the office or what I ate for dinner. I can’t even remember what I wore that day. But I will never forget the way that woman’s words darted through me like a shot of espresso. It’s International Women’s Month and while we can and should celebrate the women who fill our history books, let’s also remember to celebrate the women who can change our lives every single day: each other.

I figured there was really no better way to celebrate women than to make chocolate cake. Like a really GOOD chocolate cake. Not dry, not too dense, not too sweet. Now, you have to understand, guys, I’ve been making chocolate cake since I started The Korean Vegan all the way back in 2016. It’s my husband’s absolute FAVORITE dessert and therefore, it was among the very first things I learned to veganize. But over the years, I’ve been tweaking it here and there to make it a little more perfect, a little more scrumptious.

I have a few tricks up my sleeve–like using bananas instead of eggs (which you can’t really taste, btw), two shots of espresso to really intensify the flavors (I use decaf), and heating the chocolate mixture up so that the cocoa powder becomes totally liquified. I also like to use oil in lieu of melted butter, to keep the cake a a little lighter and soft (what does butter turn into when it’s being cooled? You guessed it–hard!).

But, my Achilles heel has always been the frosting. When I started baking with vegan butter, my buttercream frosting would always break and it would literally drive me bonkers. I tried everything–keeping everything at the same temperature, chilling the frosting and then mixing, using a hair drier while mixing, adding more cocoa powder and even flour to help emulsification, letting the stand mixer beat the living daylights out of it for 20 minutes straight, you NAME it, I tried it. My frosting always started to curdle. So, one day on my own initiative, I decided to start with the dry ingredients and then add the butter and the other wet ingredients.

Look, baking professionals can yell at me all they want, but this has SAVED my buttercream frostings. By adding the dry ingredients first and THEN the wet ingredients, I can keep an eye on the consistency and make sure I’m not adding too much fat (i.e., butter) to throw off the delicate balance that is seemingly necessary to achieve a non-curdled buttercream frosting.

I added peppermint to the batter because my husband prefers mint chocolate cake. However, if you don’t want to add any, just skip it. A word of warning: peppermint extract is powerful stuff so I only added 1/2 teaspoon!

Vegan Mint Chocolate Cake with Simple Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

5 from 5 votes

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8 slices

Ingredients

Mint Chocolate Cakes

2 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour (370 g)
2 cups sugar (400 g)
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt optional
1 1/8 cup cocoa powder (120 g)
2 shots espresso (see Note)
1/2 banana, mashed
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cup water
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup sifted cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)
1/4 cup melted chocolate (at room temperature)
2 tbsp plant milk (at room temperature)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Mint Chocolate Cakes

Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Spray 2 7-inch cake pans with cooking spray and line them with parchment paper. (Watch the video for how I do this.)
Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk and set aside.
To a small saucepot, add cocoa powder, vegetable oil, water, peppermint extract, espresso, vanilla extract, and banana. Stir together over medium-low heat until the cocoa powder has completely dissolved.
Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients. Using a whisk, mix together all ingredients until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated.
Divide cake batter equally into the two cake pans (use a scale–it's not as intuitive as you think!).
Bake in the oven for ~38 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for about 5 to 10 minutes. Run a sharp knife or offset spatula around the edges to loose the cakes before flipping the cake pans over and gently dislodging the cakes.
Allow the cakes to cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before frosting them. You can also wrap them up and place them in the fridge overnight (this will actually make it much easier to frost them).

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Add powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a large bowl.
Add 1/2 of the butter, melted chocolate and vanilla extract and mix using handmixer until the mixture becomes creamy. If the frosting is too thick, additional butter (1 tablespoon at a time) and plant milk until you reach desired consistency.
Wait until the cakes have completely cooled before attempting to frost them. I generally do not like too much frosting, but if you like frosting, double the frosting recipe.

Notes

If you don’t have espresso handy, you can substitute in 2 teaspoons of instant coffee powder, but add 1/4 cup (for a full 2 cups) of water to the recipe.

7 comments

Desserts

Peach Cobbler Cake

That Time Betty Made Me Want To Each Peach Cobbler

July always make me think of peaches which is how I came up with this Peach Cobbler Cake. I had my friend, Betty (@stemsandforks), in my kitchen and we were discussing how impossible it is to eat desserts one portion at a time. I mean, have you ever tried eating only one donut? Or one slice of homemade pie? It’s totally different when you buy said pastry, but when it comes directly out of your own, I think it’s almost impossible to limit yourself to one serving. In Betty’s case, she was lamenting over the challenge of eating just one serving of peach cobbler.

That Time I Went Peach Picking On the Hottest Day of my Life and We All Got Sick Eating Too Many Peaches

It was hot outside. The kind of hot that mutes everything but the arching keen of cicadas. It reminded me of the one of the hottest days of my life—the time I went peach picking with my family. For some ungodly reason, I was convinced that peach picking in St. Louis would be a fun trip in the middle of July. So, my entire family, including my grandmother, packed into a couple of cars and we drove 7 hours (it seemed that long…) to Missouri. There, we were greeted by neat rows of pretty peach trees. Within minutes, we were stuffing our faces with the most delicious, mouthwatering, sweetest peaches we’d ever eaten, while my still spry and self-sufficient grandmother was climbing up the branches of the trees in blatant defiance for all the signs reading “DO NOT CLIMB TREES.”

This sounds like fun. And it was. For about 23 minutes. Before long, our hands grew sticky with peach juice and our faces drenched with sweat. After scaling a handful of peach trees, my grandmother looked like she was going to pass out from heat exhaustion and all or stomachs were beginning to ache from gorging on 17 peaches each. So, after spending 4.5 hours driving to St. Louis, we spent all of 43 minutes on the peach orchard before packing all the peaches into our trunks and settling in for another 4.5 hour long ride home. Was it worth it??

I dunno.

I mean, I can tell you without a doubt that these were the BEST PEACHES OF MY LIFE, but I don’t know if it was worth the drive back and forth, especially when the peaches at the grocery store or farmers’ markets are pretty good.

peach cobbler cake on plate with person holding fork in it

I Like The Cake Part of Peach Cobbler Almost As Much As The Peaches

Anyhow, moments from that scorching trip to Missouri were flickering through me as Betty detailed the irresistible appeal of her peach cobbler, and I decided then and there that I needed to make a peach cobbler cake. You see, the thing is, I like my cobbler to be way cakier than the traditional cobbler. I also liked the idea that rather than a hapharzard conglomeration of cake and peach, that a Peach Cobbler Cake would have a set “cake” part and a set “peach” part.

And that is how this Peach Cobbler Cake came to be. The question is:

Can you limit yourself to one slice?

Other desserts to try

Peach Cobbler Cake

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Ingredients

Filling

3 large peaches cubed
1 teaspoon corn starch
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons vegan butter
1/2 lemon juiced
pinch salt
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

For the cake

7/8 cup non dairy milk
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon vegan sour cream or vegan yogurt
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons vegan butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping

1 peach sliced into rings
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1 Tablespoon soy milk

Instructions

Prehea toven to 400F. In a large bowl, mix together filling ingredients and place at the bottom of brownie pan (I used a round cast iron).
Next, begin preparing cake batter. Mix together all wet ingredients, plus sugar until well combined.
Ina separate bowl, sift dry ingredients and mix together. Add wet ingredients to dry and whisk until just combined (don't overdo it).
Pour batter over peach filling and smooth out with back of spoon.
Place in the oven for approximately 30 minutes or until cake starts to stiffen. Remove from oven and gently add sliced peaches to the top and glaze top of cake and peaches with maple syrup+soy milk with a pastry brush.
Place back in oven for an additional 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Serve with ice cream (this is mandatory).

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Desserts

Vegan Strawberry Shortcake Cake

This Vegan Strawberry Shortcake is straight out of my childhood. When I was little, my mother used to buy me a strawberries and cream birthday cake from a famous Chicago bakery, Lutz. To my mom, there was no greater proof that we had “made it” in America than picking up a perfectly crafted cake, topped with gilded strawberries and whipped cream for her daughter’s birthday. The thing is, It was ok, but, the cake was often dry and the strawberries were too big. And the creamy filling was, well, too sugary, while the strawberries weren’t sweet enough. You feel me?? So, for this birthday, I decided to come up with my own cake—with everything just the way I like it and the BEST part is—it’s a LOT cheaper than some fancy shmancy cake from a ritzy bakery. My cake was moist (not dense). My creamy filling was thick but not overly sweet. And my strawberries were cut up into bite sized pieces and stewed with a little balsamic and maple syrup for just the right amount of tarty deliciousness. And voila—the perfect strawberry and cream cake was born.

Lutz isn’t open anymore. Like many family owned bakeries, it gave way to the massive bakery chains that have swept the world over (for better or worse). But, I know my mom would love this cake if I could cut her a slice (we are both in quarantine, still). If your mom is within arm’s reach, make this for her. If the mother of your children is nearby, make this for her. If you are a mom, make this for yourself.

Or, if you just like cake, make this Vegan Strawberry Shortcake Cake just for the hell of it. You won’t regret it!

Other desserts you will love

Vegan Strawberry Shortcake Cake

This Vegan Strawberry Shortcake is straight out of my childhood. When I was little, my mother used to buy me a strawberries and cream birthday cake from a famous Chicago bakery, Lutz.

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9 Slices

Ingredients

1 cup plant milk
1 Tablespoon vegan sour cream
1 teaspoon white wine
66.6 grams sugar
3 Tablespoons vegan butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
187 grams flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 package instant vanilla pudding powder
1 cup plant milk
9 ounces vegan whipped cream
4 cups vegan wafers or shortbread cookies
3 cups strawberries cut into quarters
1 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon orange juice
1 Tablespoon sugar or maple syrup
1 Tablespoon potato starch
4 Tablespoons water

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray cake pan (I used a square 9x9 brownie pan) with cooking spray.
Add vinegar to 1 cup plant milk and set aside.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a large bowl. Whisk together ingredients to remove clumps.
Using stand mixer on medium low (with whisk attachment) or hand mixer, whisk butter, vegan sour cream, and sugar until fluffy. Next add plant milk + vinegar mixture and vanilla and almond extract.
In two parts, add flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
Pour patter into greased baking pan and place in the center rack of preheated oven for ~18-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
While cake is baking, make pudding following instructions on the box but with half the amount of plant milk (e.g., if the instructions require 2 cups of milk, use only 1 cup of milk).
Once pudding is thick and creamy, fold in vegan shipping cream and mix until fully incorporated. Set aside in fridge.
Next, make strawberry layer. Start by making slurry, but adding 1 tbsp of potato starch to 4 tbsp water. Stir together until starch dissolves.
In a small pot, add strawberries, together with balsamic vinegar, orange juice, and sweetener over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until strawberries soften (3-4 minutes).
Remove from heat altogether. Add slurry and begin stirring immediately to create sauce. Place in fridge to cool, while cake continues to bake.
When cake is done, set aside and allow it to cool for ~15 minutes.
When cake and strawberry filling are both cooled, add a layer of wafers/cookies over the top of the cake.
Next, top the cookie layer with pudding/cream layer.
Next, top the pudding/cream layer with the strawberries.
Add another layer of cookies.
Top the cake one final time with pudding/cream layer.
Place in fridge for at least 4 hours before serving. Best served one day after.

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Desserts

Super Simple Vegan Chocolate Mint Cake

Mint and dark chocolate make the perfect combination for a deliciously delightful vegan chocolate mint cake.

chocolate cake on white plate, sitting on a wooden table

I have made many chocolate cakes in my time and I always look fondly at this Super Simple Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe. It is the first recipe I tried baking after going vegan in 2016, because my husband (then boyfriend) truly believed that all other desserts were superfluous next to chocolate cake. At that time I was (and still remain) an avid follower of the legendary Stephanie Jaworski of JoyofBaking.com. I learned so much about baking from her and set out to veganize a lot of her recipes. Her rich, dark chocolate cake was the first thing I tested in my vegan kitchen.

top view of chocolate cake on white plate

Now, I always feel like the beginning of summer is truly the best time to bake a chocolate cake. What better way to celebrate brighter, warmer weather than derailing your “beachbody” plans from the get-go? LOLOLOL. Look, I’m all about being fit and healthy, but there should be no arbitrary “clock” that starts in May. I like eating 80% healthy year-round. And I like eating 20% chocolate cake, year-round!

slice of chocolate cake on plate, next to coffee cup and whole cake on a separate plate

The great thing about summer, of course, is that you have so many berries to choose from in terms of toppings. Blackberries, blueberries, and of course, the iconic strawberry all make wonderful toppings for your chocolate cake. If you’re my husband, the only true soulmate to chocolate cake, though, is vanilla ice cream. Sigh. Is there anything that declares “summer is here!” more brilliantly than a slice of chocolate cake with a scoop of ice cream?

Regardless of the weather, this Super Simple Vegan Chocolate Cake will make your eyes pop at how good it is and it will be one you make so often, you’ll have the recipe memorized (I do!) before you know it.

top view of chocolate frosting and berries on top of cake

This Super Simple Vegan Chocolate Mint Cake is:

Moist
Intense
Dark
Adult

Wow, the above sounds like a description for an improper movie.

Double it to make a layer cake, triple it to wow your friends. You can bake it in a sheet pan to make a sheet pan cake. You can bake them in a muffin pan to make cupcakes. Add chocolate chips/chunks to them for the resident choco-philes in your life. The point is, I want to make this a true “starter recipe” for you—just like it was for me. It paved the way to so many other vegan cakes, cookies, breads, and pastries that I added to my little recipe box over the years and it can do the same for you!

chocolate cake on white plate, on wooden background

Super Simple Vegan Chocolate Mint Cake

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 shot espresso or 1 Tablespoon instant coffee
1 cup plant milk
1 Tablespoon white or apple cider vinegar
1 cup organic sugar
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder unsweetened
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 Tablespoon bourbon
1/4 overripe banana mashed

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease baking pan (I prefer a 6-inch springform pan for this) and line with parchment paper.
Add vinegar to plant milk and set aside.
In a large bowl, add all dry ingredients, except for cocoa powder.
In a small pot, over medium-low heat, add espresso, oil, banana, cocoa powder, vanilla, bourbon, and plant milk+vinegar. Stir until cocoa powder is dissolved.
Add chocolate mixture to dry ingredients and stir with whisk until all flour is incorporated.
Pour batter into baking pan and place in oven until toothpick comes out clean (~28-30 mins).
In a bind for time? Pour into muffin pan and make mini cakes! Cuts baking time by 10 minutes!
Frost with a little vegan whipped cream mixed with melted chocolate (after it’s cooled) and top with berries!

2 comments

Bread and Breakfast Desserts

Vegan Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Sweet bananas and dark chocolate make the perfect combination for breakfast, snack time, or any time with these vegan banana chocolate chunk muffins.

muffin pan with banana muffins on top of table

Everyone is all about banana bread these days, but I’ve always preferred banana muffins, which is why I busted out these Vegan Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins the other day. The problem with banana bread (you can find a killer recipe here) is that before you know it, you’ve eaten half a loaf, which inevitably leads to food guilt. No one’s got time for food guilt. These muffins, however, are easy to divvy up—you eat one (maybe two) and then save the rest of them for breakfast the following morning. This recipe is only enough for 4-6 large muffins, which means you won’t have leftovers tempting you for the rest of the week. The other massive disadvantage to banana bread is that it takes about twice as long to bake in the oven as muffins do. Bummer.

woman sitting next to muffins in muffin pan

Now why chocolate chunk? Is there a more dynamic duo in the food world than chocolate and bananas? I don’t think so. Have you ever had a chocolate and banana milk shake? It is truly the elixir of the gods. I also like to use chunks—not chips—of dark chocolate. I don’t know, there’s something about the uniformity of chocolate chips that just annoys me. I very rarely use them (perhaps in pancakes, because they’re so thin) as it’s always more delicious (in my view) to break up a brick of my favorite chocolate. I also feel like my muffins look more “sophisticate” that way!

woman reading newspaper behind a muffin on a brown plate

So, if you’re in the mood for banana bread but don’t want to wait that long for it, try these Vegan Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins. You won’t regret it!

Vegan Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins

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Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour sub gluten free flour for a gluten free option
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
3 large bananas very ripe
1/3 cup vegan butter or vegetable oil
1/3 cup vegan sour cream can use plant based milk
1/8 cup plant based milk
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips/chunks

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a small cup, mix together plant milk and vinegar and set aside.
In a large bowl, add bananas, butter, sour cream, plant milk + vinegar mixture, and vanilla extract and cream together using an electric hand mixer.
In a separate bowl, add baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and chocolate chips/chunks, and then sift in flour.
Incorporate wet ingredients into dry ingredients using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Make sure to get underneath the batter to check that all dry mixture has been made wet, but DO NOT OVERMIX.
Scoop batter into lined muffin tray (I got 5 jumbo muffins out of this) and place in oven for up to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° F and cook for an additional 18 minutes (more like 12 mins if smaller muffins), until muffins bounce back when pressed.

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Desserts

Vegan Pistachio Biscotti

vegan biscotti with an orange half and kitchen tools

bisotti cookies with orange and kitchen tools

I came up with this Vegan Pistachio Biscotti recipe because of my father-in-law. Roberto was Roman and it is largely due to him that I started baking at all. He baked massive blueberry muffins (hence my obsession with jumbo muffins) and cherry pies. But he was probably most well-known for his little biscotti. I say “little” because his were never those obscenely large batons masquerading as Italian cookies inside coffee shops. Not only are store bought biscotti too big, they are often times dry and hard enough to damage your teeth.

Roberto’s biscotti were sufficiently petite to enjoy in one sitting. While they always possessed the characteristic “crunch” of a cookie, their centers were chewy enough to transmit both flavor and depth—two things often lacking in mass produced biscotti. In other words, if you want the kind of biscotti that will break your window, these Vegan Pistachio Biscotti are not for you.

bisotti stacked on top of a white coffee cup

Now, I could never quite master his trick for making them exactly the right balance of crunch to chew. Something in the drying process. But I have to say, these Vegan Pistachio Biscotti are the only ones I’ll eat—not only because they’re vegan, but now that Roberto is no longer with us, these are truly the next best thing.

vegan biscotti with an orange half and flowers

Vegan Pistachio Biscotti

Print Recipe

Ingredients

250 grams all purpose flour
250 grams caster (icing) sugar
1 Tablespoon orange zest
150 grams pistachio unsalted
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons aquafaba or flaxseed egg 1 tbsp flaxseed + 4 tbsp water
110 grams vegan butter
2 Tablespoons plant milk
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix together flax seed and water and set aside. [Skip if using aquafaba]
In a stand mixer, mix together vegan butter, together with sugar until creamy.
Next add flax egg or aquafaba and vanilla and mix until combined.
In a separate bowl, add all dry ingredients, nuts, and raisins/cranberries and whisk.
Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into stand mixer bowl until a rough dough forms.
Remove from bowl and place on floured surface. Shape dough into a large ball and divide in half.
On a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, shape the two balls into two large logs, approximately 12 inches long and 2inches wide. Make sure to put 3-4 inches of space between the two logs, as they will spread a bit in the oven.
Place in oven for ~25 minutes. Remove from oven and let the logs cool completely. Then, taking a bread (serrated) knife, cut the logs into 1/2 inch thick slices (I like my biscotti small!).
Place the slices cut-side down onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Reduce heat in oven to 275 degrees F and bake for an additional 25 minutes. Remove from oven and enjoy.

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Desserts Gluten Free

Healthy Carrot Cake (Vegan & Gluten Free)

top view of cake with white frosting and purple flowers and chopped nuts

This Healthy Carrot Cake was born out of necessity. My husband was going through his “I want to be gluten free” phase and I absolutely needed—like truly needed—carrot cake. At that time, I was also experimenting with going “refined sugar free” (why???) and therefore, the cake (not the frosting) has no added refined sugar. I also replaced the vegan butter I would typically include with applesauce. Bottom line, this is probably one of the healthiest cakes I’ve ever developed.

top view of cake with white frosting and purple flowers

And it still tasted AMAZING.

There used to be a restaurant across the street from my office that was famous for its carrot cake. Each thick slab would be lined with elegant cream cheese frosting, with a mini “carrot” piped on the top. The cake itself was moist and soft and carrot-y and was often times the perfect way to end lunch, before heading back to my billable hours.

The problem with this decadent cake, though, was that it always left me feeling slightly sick to my stomach. Not sure how much of this was caused by heavy frosting or the inevitable “food guilt,” but it was unpleasant enough that I steered clear of the carrot cake most lunches, even if it was my hands down favorite item on their menu.

woman behind layer cake with purple flowers and nuts on top

This Healthy Carrot Cake kinda checks all the boxes—no refined flour, no refined sugar, no dairy, no eggs, no processed fat. Not to mention that it’s full of carrots and cinnamon, both of which will give you a shot of antioxidants. Not sure you can get any healthier than this and still call it a cake?

I am very sensitive to “aftertastes,” which is one of the reasons I cannot STAND using pre-mixed gluten free flours from the store. No matter what brand I used, I could always taste “something” that I shouldn’t. So, I came up with my own simple blend. It usually works out pretty well and it created a very moist and soft carrot cake. I honestly wasn’t expecting much when I decided to create a Healthy Carrot Cake, but was pleasantly surprised with these results.

Now, I didn’t include a frosting in this recipe because it’s hard to keep even this cake “healthy” with frosting. But, if you must have frosting with your carrot cake (I hear ya), I include an optional “frosting” recipe at the bottom. Enjoy!

woman standing behind cake that has white frosting and purple flowers and nuts on top

Print Recipe

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons vinegar
3/4 cup plant milk
1 1/2 cup sweet rice flour 170 grams
3/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup flax meal
3/4 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
300 grams shredded carrots
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
2/3 cup golden raisins
2/3 cup shredded coconut

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F.
Spray 7-inch round cake pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper.
Add vinegar to plant milk and set aside until it curdles.
In a large bowl, whisk together sweet white rice flour, almond flour, flax meal, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and raisins.
Add shredded carrots, coconut, applesauce, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, and curdled plant milk to dry ingredients and stir with whisk until well combined.
Pour batter into cake pan and place into oven. Bake for ~50-55 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool completely (15-20 minutes) before attempting to remove from pan.
For cream cheese frosting, add 2 cups of powdered sugar to stand mixer. Add 1 cup of vegan cream cheese + 2 tbsp vegan butter. Mix together on low speed with paddle attachment.

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Bread and Breakfast Desserts

Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins and My Proposal Story

My husband proposed to me over a tray of perfect Vegan Blueberry Muffins.

Just kidding.

But I rewarded him for finally stepping up to the plate (he was a bachelor for 45 years before finally taking the plunge!) with the Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins on the planet. I have been baking blueberry muffins since I went vegan. I’ve messed around with all sorts of so-called “best blueberry muffin” recipes and I always come back to the first one I started with. These are fluffy, moist, and buttery and the person who you bake them for will want to marry you—GUARANTEED. So, be careful about with whom you decide to share these proposal worthy muffins (i.e., the Best Blueberry Muffins you’ve ever made).

Oh, and here’s a snippet from my diary from the night he proposed:

On May 30, 2014, I read a message from someone who went by “MilesAhead” on OkCupid. Five months later, we would start a series of trips to New York City.

We have had four pivotal trips to New York. On our first trip together in 2014, we ran in Central Park, sipped on hot chocolate at the skating rink, took pictures of our pizza pies, and got into a terrible fight. Over bagel sandwiches at Isadora’s, I questioned, out loud, whether I was strong enough to be the woman he needed. A few days later, he concluded that it wouldn’t work and that the most we could be was friends and broke up with me.

Two years later, in 2016, I would take him to New York for his birthday. We were both feeling unwell, but, we managed to eke out runs along the Hudson, exchange secrets while waiting for the Jitney, re-discover a city that allowed us to hold hands in the rain, replace some of the bitterness from the New York of 2014. I learned then that New York could still be inviting and lovely, in spite of our first disastrous trip there.

In September 2017, I would take him to New York once more for his birthday. Between a dinner party with new friends, Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden, quiet lattes at cafes scattered throughout Greenwich, and, of course, long runs for both of us in Central Park, I realized that while easy loves were sometimes comfortable, I was never the kind of gal who settled for easy.

A few months later, we decided to visit New York again, right before Christmas. A few blocks from Chinatown, in a tiny studio bedroom crammed with books, I leafed through many of the pages from my own book–lingering on the portions I often skipped over. Pages filled with sad and bitter words from my past. But instead of trying to tear them out, I read them out loud to him because these were the pages that ultimately led me to the happiest chapter in my book thus far: The chapter that started on May 30, 2014.

Later that evening (or, into the wee hours of the morning), I told him this:

“You are worth every unhappiness in my entire life.”

He proved me right by putting a ring on my finger.

And then I made him the Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins of all time.

Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins and My Proposal Story

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

2 1/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon coriander
2 teaspoon lemon zest
2/3 cup vegan butter or coconut oil
4 tablespoons aquafaba (chickpea brine--you can sub flax egg for this)
1/2 cup plant milk
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup blueberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
Line muffin tin with muffin liners.
Mix lemon juice together with plant milk.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, coriander, and lemon zest. In a separate bowl, using a hand mixer, cream together butter with sugar.
Next add plant milk + lemon juice mixture and vanilla extract, as well as aquafaba.
Add dry ingredients in 3rds and mix until well combined.
Fold in blueberries with spatula so they don’t burst. Batter will be pretty thick
Using two spoons or an ice cream scooper, scoop batter into each liner so it’s nearly completely full.
Place in the oven for 12 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 350 degrees F for another 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Video

Notes

If you want smaller muffins, you can bake up to 12 muffins, but as I said, I like my muffins FAT.

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