Vegan MoFo - A is for Apple Sponge

The time has come for Vegan MoFo (Vegan month of food) with the aim of the game to blog as much as possible through the month of October with a minimum of 20 posts being the benchmark. I have set the bar a little higher and decided to try an alphabet theme as I enjoyed following quite a few bloggers who went with this last year.

My A-Z theme is going to be based on golden oldies as well as some newbies. The reasoning behind this was to lighten the load for some posts as the oldies will be shorter posts with links back to the recipes. The rules I have set for myself are:

• all of the food needs to be cooked in October
• a minimum a 2 new recipes per week to be posted
• a minimum of 12 new recipes for the month

I really want to be able to see this through until the end of the month and hope you will enjoy me for the ride!

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When I was a child it was always exciting to hear that my uncles were coming over for dinner as mum would usually make their favourite dessert which was also a favourite of mine - Apple Sponge. The title is rather misleading as it gives the impression of a cake rather a baked dessert that is usually served hot. The other misnomer is that the topping is based on a plain cupcake mixture rather than a lighter sponge cake that the name leads you to believe.  

It's been ages since I last ate Apple Sponge and had totally forgotten about it until I starting planning out this month of cooking. I looked up a basic cupcake recipe on taste.com.au and swapped a few ingredients to make it vegan. Dairy-free margarine for butter, soy milk for milk and ground flaxseeds to replace the eggs. This dessert is very easy to make taking only 15-20 of preparation time. It would really taste better served with some soy ice-cream or a dollop of cashew cream, the latter will be prepared for us to enjoy the leftovers.

Edited to add: After having some leftovers the following night, the apple to cake ratio didn't seem quite right. Next time around I would probably use 2 more apples or even halve the cake quantity below.

Apple Sponge (Cupcake mixture adapted from taste.com.au)

4 apples, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/4 cup water
2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup soy milk
125g dairy-free margarine, melted
2 tablespoon ground flaxseed mixed with 1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanillla essense

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Place the apples, cinnamon, sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until the apples are soft and most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Sift the flour into a large bowl and mix through the caster sugar. Add the soy milk, margarine, flaxseed/water mixture and vanilla essense and stir with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are combined.

Spread the apple mixture into a pie dish then cover with the cake mixture. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Poke the cake with a skewer and when it comes out clean it is ready.

Serve hot out of the oven or cold with a scoop of soy ice-cream or cashew cream.