“Oh Mom, vegan food can be quite delicious you know”?
From the time I first started introducing foods to my daughter many years ago, she had a violent distaste for meat. I tried Gerber starter meats in a jar, I tried mixing it with veggies, I even made my own baby food with carrots, peas, and sauteed ground beef gently seasoned and made into a puree. No matter what I tried, she just couldn’t stomach it.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying though. As a youngster, she desperately wished she could eat a hamburger. She wanted to feel like she ‘fit in’ at children’s birthday parties at McDonalds, and was quite embarrassed by her predicament.
As she grew, I tried hiding things in her food. Salmon mixed in with scrambled eggs. I used to tell her that pepperettes were a vegetarian salted delight. It got the the point where she no longer trusted my food.
Last year she became a Vegan.
There is a saying that goes “Bless the beasts and the children, for they have no voice and they have no choice”.
I used to think that there was something wrong with her, and her food choices. The more I got to know what it was like for her, the more I started to think that perhaps its the rest of us that have it all wrong?
My daughter is a lover of all the world’s creatures and she has decided that she will not participate in innocent slaughter, so she eats NOTHING that comes from an animal. Ironically, that takes great intestinal fortitude in my books and I’m really proud of her.
One evening while we were sitting around wondering what snacks were in the house, she suggested we try creating a vegan dessert. She assured me that one doesn’t have to feel like one is going without, in order to eat delicious food. I tried this version of a standard chocolate pear cake and added a few twists to eliminate all animal products. This means, no milk, no eggs, no butter.
The result was surprisingly and shockingly good! So good, that my other ‘meat-eating’ children couldn’t get enough of it and gobbled it up. If you have any Vegan recipes you would like to share, please feel free to drop me an email and provide your particulars and I will try my best to post in a timely fashion.
Vegan Chocolate Pear Bundt Cake – with Caramel Rum Sauce
• 1/2 cup olive oil or coconut oil
• 1-1/8 cup warm water
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda melted in 1 teaspoon of warm water
• 3 cups of pastry flour
• 6 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 4 medium pears, peeled and diced 1/2-inch
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar for dusting
For the Caramel Sauce:
• 1 heaping teaspoon of coconut oil in a small pot
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/4 cup spiced brandy or rum
Directions:
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Grease and flour a bundt cake pan and set aside.
• In a Kitchenaide mixer, add the oil and brown sugar, molasses and cream together.
• Add in the warm water, vanilla, baking soda and vinegar. Mix well.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and spices.
• Slowly add in the flour and spices into the mixer until incorporated.
• Mix at medium speed until mixture is smooth with no lumps.
• Add in the cubed pears and incorporate well into the mix
• Pour batter into the bundt pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out of the cake dry.
• If cake is not yet done, leave to cook for an additional 5 minute intervals.
• Let cool for at least one hour, then invert the cake onto wire rack.
• While the cake is cooling the icing can be prepared.
Directions for Icing:
• In a small saucepan, add the oil and brown sugar and bring to boil while constantly stirring.
• Sugar will look as if it is separating from the oil while heating.
• Add in the vanilla and salt then add in the rum or brandy.
• The mixture will instantly boil up. Continue stirring throughout and it will settle.
• Mix will be smooth, not grainy after adding the alcohol.
• Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
• When cake and sauce have cooled, sift powdered sugar onto cake over top and sides.
• Stuff the sauce into clear plastic sandwich bag
• Seal bag and cut off tip (small cut)
• Squeeze the caramel sauce onto cake in zigzag pattern
• Remove finished cake from wire rack and onto serving plate.
Slight variation,: For an equally moist and delicious alternative, you can substitute 3 cups of shredded zucchini in for the diced pears.
Let me know how this turns out for you 🙂
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