Unsophisticated Baking: My trusty brownies, with optional salted caramel Ⓥ

I've been making variations on this recipe for the last 18 months or so and I've yet to find one I like more. Several people have asked for it, so here it is:

80g vegan margarine 

2 tbsp ground flaxseed

200g dark chocolate

½ tsp coffee granules

125g self-raising flour

70g ground almonds

50g cocoa powder

250g light brown soft sugar

1½ tsp vanilla extract

Method

Heat oven to 170C/150C fan. Grease and lie a 20cm square tin with baking paper.
Then combine your flaxseed with 6 tbsp of water to make your flax eggs, and leave to go a bit gooey.

In a saucepan, melt HALF the chocolate, coffee and margarine with 60ml water on a low heat and
allow to cool slightly.While you’re waiting, you may want to chop up the rest of the chocolate.

Once cooled, stir in the sugar until it is dissolved. Then add your flax egg and vanilla, stir in,
then add all your remaining dry ingredients, finishing with the chocolate. 

DO NOT WORRY that it’s thick. This is very normal.

Spoon into your prepped tin and then bake for around 40 minutes, until your skewer comes out
clean with a few moist crumbs. You make need to poke a few times to make sure you don’t hit a
vein of chocolate! 

You can pimp this up by adding nuts, fruit OR  the salted caramel recipe below…..

1 can coconut milk (check it’s the kind that separates)

150g light brown soft sugar

¼ tsp sea salt

The night before (or a few hours before) pop your can of coconut milk in the fridge, upside down…

Turn your coconut milk over, open and drain off the coconut water. 

Heat the sugar in a small pan for about 1.5 mins to warm it through, then add the coconut milk
and sea salt, stir in til it all dissolves and is combined. 

Bring your pan to the boil, then let it simmer for at least 20 minutes. It;s ready to come off the
heat when it can coat the back of a spoon - I tend to leave it for as long as it takes! 

If you want it slightly saltier, now is the time to add a bit more to taste.

Leave to cool. I’ve had better luck with leaving it OUT of the fridge as it’s more malleable and
less likely to crystallise again. 

Once cooled, drizzle over brownies. Allow to set slightly, cut and eat. 

Unsophisticated Bakes: Vegan Chocolate, Coconut and Passionfruit Cupcakes

I like a challenge. Particularly when it pushes me out of my baking comfort zone. Having a vegan brother-in-law does mean I have to get a lot more creative. I've made vegan brownies, mojito cupcakes - and awakened his mojito obsession (soz Hannah), and even a vegan cheesecake using soaked cashews, but this time I needed to make something suitably fancy and chocolatey for my sister's 30th, and vegan-friendly for her husband, thus the idea for chocolate, coconut and passion-fruit cupcakes was born.

As it turns out, passion-fruit are extremely hard to find in Bristol at the moment, but after much traipsing and researching, and a test bake I slightly forgot about while watching Rick and Morty, here is the recipe I used:

You will need:

200g of self-raising flour
200g of caster sugar
3-4 tbsp of cocoa powder
4 tbsp of vegetable/sunflower oil
250ml cup of cold soya/almond milk
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tbsp of lemon juice

1 can of coconut cream(pop this in the fridge preferably 24 hours before you need to make the icing)
200g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp honey
3-4 passion-fruit to decorate

Equipment: 

cupcake tin
cupcake cases
electric mixer (seriously, you don't want to be whipping by hand)
ice cream scoop (optional but really handy)
mini palette knife (again, optional, but v useful)

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°/160° fan & line your tin
2. Mix together the sugar, oil, milk, vanilla and lemon juice. Make sure the milk is cold or the mixture may curdle.
3. Sieve in the cocoa powder and flour together in 2 stages, mixing in-between additions until fully incorporated.
4. Using your ice cream scoop (or spoon), place one scoop's worth of mixture into each paper case, and bake until tops are springy and a skewer comes out clean. (I didn't time them, I went by instinct, sorry! But I'm guessing around 12-15 minutes before you first check on them?).
5. Meanwhile... turn the can of coconut cream upside down before you open it, then drain off the coconut water for another day.
6. Add icing sugar (sieved), honey and vanilla extract to coconut cream and whip it, whip it real good! Then pop it back in the fridge until you're ready to serve, then ice, leaving a dip in the centre, fill well with passion-fruit and enjoy

Stray thoughts:
I carted these cupcakes around London for about 12 hours before they got to their destination so they did look rather distressed. If making again I'd be tempted to add some white chia seeds to the icing mix to give it some extra stability.