Around the World in 80 Plates: Lebanon

Again, for this entry, I had to ask for my mom's help and the recipe I used is from World Vegan Feast. This time it was Yellow Semolina Cake with Lemon Syrup (Sfoof) from Lebanon. As the name would indicate, it is made with semolina flour and is soaked with a lemon syrup after it's baked. It also has a traditional ingredient of turmeric to give it a bright yellow hue (and no joke, it's yellow!). Bryanna says in the header of the recipe that she added the less traditional lemon flavouring to the cake and a lemon syrup as well but I think it was a great addition. I love lemon cakes, they may just be my favourite of all the cakes so when I read over this recipe, I knew I had to try it.

It goes together quite quickly with the assistance of a stand mixer and the top is studded with slivered almonds which makes it quite pretty. I also love that it will hold for a few days though I'm not sure how long it will last around here. This cake is seriously moreish. It is dense and moist and full of lemony flavour. It's surprisingly not as sweet as I would have imagined with the syrup poured over top. Its just right. Mac loved it too and the fact that we are eating cake at 10:30 am too!

Also, you have until tomorrow morning at 10am EST to enter to win one of nine cookbooks (you get to choose). It is open to anyone, worldwide and all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (http://threeandahalfvegans.blogspot.ca/2012/10/around-world-in-80-plates-finland.html).

This is my final Vegan Mofo post, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I found some great new blogs to follow and ate a bunch of delicious food thanks to some wonderful vegan cookbook authors. I do plan to keep up on the trip around the world just not at this pace. Hope you will come back to join me for those as well!  

My First Made Up Baked Good

I'm definitely one of those people that cooks with a little bit of this and a dash of that, never measuring and usually making it up as I go along. I can usually recreate the dish again and again because I usually have the same instincts each time. Of course, I never bake like this since baking is an exact science. That is until today when I decided I was going to make up a baked good to use up some of my homemade pumpkin butter. I wasn't even sure what I was going for until I was done and I'm still not even sure what to call them. They are kind of like a mix of a light cake and a whoopie pie except they are so big that you couldn't eat two of them sandwiched together. I decided to keep them separated and poured a simple icing over the top to solve that problem. I'm taking suggestions for names but for now I'll call them Pumpkin Butter Mini Cakes and here's the recipe!

Pumpkin Butter Mini Cakes

Makes a bakers dozen

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups pumpkin butter (or apple butter would work I'm sure)

1/2 cup soy milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil of your choice (I used safflower)

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 tbsp molasses

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. I usually mix it with a whisk or a fork instead of sifting.

In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin butter, soy milk, oil, brown sugar and molasses. Use a whisk to really mix it together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined trying not to overmix. The batter will be on the stiffer side. Use a muffin scoop (1/4 cup) and scrape up the side of the bowl as you go to make sure they are level scoops. Place on the baking sheet with about an inch or two of space between them. Bake for 14 minutes, or when a tooth pick comes out clean.

Let cool on a cooling rack at least 15-20 minutes before putting on the icing.

Simple Pumpkin Butter Icing

1 cup icing sugar

1 1/2 tbsp pumpkin butter

(or you can use 1 tbsp of apple cider)

Just mix the two together in a small bowl until you have a pourable icing. Pour a spoonful over each little cake once they have cooled a bit making sure to put the parchment you used on the cookie sheet under the cooling rack to catch the dripping icing. Enjoy!