Sunday, October 2, 2011

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.

8 comments:

  1. I love apple products when it comes to baking - and I often adapt from Taste.com.au :) This looks like a brilliant result and definitely a good start to your Vegan MoFo month!

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  2. Oh! Definitely bookmarking this one! Looks wonderful :)

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  3. *DROOLS*
    this looks amazing and crying out for some custard.
    Happy MoFo'ing
    :-)

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  4. great mofo theme - works in nicely with your blog name! will look forward to seeing why makes it into your list of golden oldies

    Apple sponge is something my mum made often because my dad loves it and I have come to appreciate how practical it is to use up apples that were so plentiful esp when her apple tree(s) were producing.

    Interesting that you made this with a cupcake recipe that had eggs - I was interested to discover when I got my mum's old sponge pudding recipe (I made apricot sponge) that she never used eggs in it anyway.

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  5. I don't think I've ever had a sponge cake... time to change that!
    Thanks for sharing the recipe!

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  6. Thanks Kari, I love using apples in baking too! taste.com.au is a great reference for base recipes and the user reviews can also be handy.

    Thanks Zuckerbaby, hope you give it a try one day. :D

    Thanks Jeni Treehugger, I never thought about serving it with custard but that would also pair very well with this. Vegan custard is something I haven't actually attempted yet, thanks for the idea. Happy MoFo'ing to you too!

    Thanks Johanna, I didn't relate the theme back to the blog name when I thought of this idea but I guess it does work well. I actually should have checked with my mum about her original recipe prior to making this but I'm pretty sure she used to whip up a cupcake mixture.

    Thank MeShell, although the name sounds like it is a sponge cake, the mixture is based on a cupcake recipe which is a bit denser and not as light as a sponge. It is delicious though!

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  7. Apples in baked goods is always a great combination and I've never made anything like this so I'm going to try it, thanks for sharing :)

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  8. Thanks Mandee, hope you enjoy this if you do give it a try!

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