It's Cake Week but Vegan!
Welcome to Bake Off season, babies!
It’s Bake Off season, babies! It may surprise you to know that I was never much of a Bake Off fan before this fall. When The Great British Baking Show first aired, I wasn’t really into baking myself. And while I have always liked conflict-free TV, thirteen years ago the whole thing felt a bit too cutesy and twee for my taste. This past September, however, I was laid up for a full week with covid, and my time had come — I leaned into the Bake Off franchise hard.
When I was in undergrad, and still had dreams of becoming an actor, I took classes with a likely talented, but moderately deranged theatre professor with a poof of wiry gray hair and an intimidating British accent who used to tell her students, dramatically, “A cold is just unwept tears.” (She also once grasped my chin in her hand and said straight into my face, “You would be a very good actor if you would just commit,” largely snuffing out the aforementioned dreams, but I digress.) The cold thing really stayed with me. While we all know — we know, right?? — that covid is far from “just a cold,” I thought of my old prof’s advice as I binged seasons of Bake Off in my bed and cried and cried. Even if it wasn’t helping, you know, medically, it felt good to just let all the fluids fall out of my face at once, really surrender to the beauty of a contestant helping another solder his caramel bowl back together; or Paul Hollywood offering his dickwad handshake to a contestant who had struggled all weekend; or someone really fucking slamming a technical, you know? Convinced it was necessary to my healing, I made my way through several seasons of the classic British show, made a quick detour through Netflix’s Blue Ribbon Baking Championship, a wild ride through American state fair style baking (recommend, tbh), and finally got into my own country’s foray into the franchise, The Great Canadian Baking Show.
Normally I’m with everyone who yammers “Why do we do these embarrassing low-budge Canadian versions of things instead of creating our own original things!” but in this case I have to say I may like our version even better than the original? Though I originally found the British show too cutesy and twee, the Canadian version is way more so. It feels almost like a children’s show with its punny humour, cartoonish costumes, and over-the-top kindness. Unlike Paul and Prue, Kyla and Bruno always have something nice to say about a bake, and when they circulate the tent, they seem genuinely pumped to try things infused with miso and pandan and pedron, rather than seeming skeptical and sometimes, um, blatantly racist. I’ll tell you what: it’s calming as fuck. Maybe I’ve lost some edge I had thirteen years ago, but I don’t really care. I like how nice all these people are, I like Alan and Ann’s cheesy jokes and encouraging banter, and these days of course I also love to bake. As I made my way through all of these series, of course I often idly considered what I’d be doing for the challenges were I in the tent.
When I realized mid-binge that a new season of Canadian Bake Off was starting in October. I decided I’d see if I could do my riff on the Signature Bake each week, giving myself the week after each episode aired to conceptualize and execute. If I have time some weekends, I might time the challenge, but mostly it’s just about using the prompt to try something new to me; to keep upping my vegan baking game; and to keep sharing ideas with you, my beloved reader.
The signature is my favourite of the three — not a gotcha-game like the technical, and a little more of-the-people than the showstopper. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very impressed by your gingerbread baroque church adorned with a different flavoured macaron to represent each of the dogs you’ve had since childhood topped with a bouquet of rice-paper flowers affixed to tuile stems in homage to your step-grandmother who taught you to bake, but like. Am I gonna bring that to my friend’s place for drinks? There’s just too much air-brushing and fondant and isomalt and shit for my taste, and I’m not gonna do it. The signature offers the bakers creative freedom within a liberating constraint, my favourite way to work on anything, really.
Though I’m nearly 1000 words deep into introduction here, I’m aiming to typically keep this series about the bakes; to actually heave out a recipe every week (if it works!), rather than unhinged character studies of the hosts or contestants, or the philosophical revelations I may have while boiling jam. But you know, we’ll see.
Finally, a note on my judges: my partner David gamely tries everything I bake, but Paul Hollywood he is not (I mean thank god, can you imagine that guy’s eyes on you all the time??) What I mean is he generally is like, “It’s really good babe!” and leaves it at that. He also mostly just likes chocolate cake. Just before launching this series, I decided some more substantial feedback would be in order in keeping with the nature of the show. On a whim, I texted two lovely women who live in my building to see if they’d like to taste my bakes for the next ten weeks and fill out a google form lol. To my delight and surprise they agreed! So please, welcome to the stage, my personal Kyla and Bruno: the wonderful Shannon and Sam! I will also offer some notes for myself, maybe a little more Paul Hollywood-style.
Okay, ready? On your marks, get set, bake!
Episode One: Cake Week
For my non-Canadian readers, I’ll plop an illegal YouTube of each episode here so you, too, can experience the glory of Kyla and Bruno, Alan and Ann, and all of their impossibly cute outfits and words of affirmation. Canadians, stream it on CBC Gem!
The Signature:
The first signature challenge was a Love Cake. While it wasn’t clearly defined on the show, it seems based on my research, that they were referring to both Sri Lankan and Persian-style Love Cakes, both of which feature aromatic spices and nut flour, which were required for this challenge. I also asked one of the contestants, Patty, on Instagram, if further parameters were given, and she gamely replied “ which was left pretty open-ended on the show, aside from the judges requiring the cakes to include nut flour and aromatics. I asked contestant, Patty, if more instructions were given, and she said nothing else except that it must include a soak. When I researched Love Cakes, the most famous ones appeared to be a Sri Lankan one, often made with semolina flour as well as nuts, and a Persian one, also with nut flour, and redolent of cardamom and rose. Contestants riffed in all kinds of directions, from Patty’s Filipino flavour homage incorporating lemongrass and jackfruit, to Erika’s soaked with a tonic water syrup, to Guillaume’s applewood smoked mousseline. Inspiring, truly!
I started the back of my brain working on it, and then, drumroll, got sick again! It was truly just a cold this time, but I was still tired as hell. I decided to save myself a trip to the grocery store, and the overwhelm of unlimited possibilities by using only ingredients I already had in the house. It so happened that one of the ingredients I had was a loose version of
’s Purple Rain jam from her excellent book, Jam Bake — a combination of coronation grapes, figs, and blue plums, all of which I’d bought of glut of and allowed to get a little too ripe. In Nadine Abensur’s delicious recipe for Fresh Fig and Port Sorbet, she recommends serving it in homemade chocolate caskets, but “if you haven’t made these, I urge you to bring some crisp black dark chocolate into the equation somehow.” That instruction has always stayed with me, so dark chocolate was where my mind went next; and then to the last of the lovely locally grown hazelnuts I had, which of course go great with chocolate, but also with plums and grapes. Finally, because I’d hoped I’d be well enough to visit my parents this weekend and bring them some of this cake, I was trying to ensure it was full of things the two of them liked. This inspired me to add some brandy I happened to have in the freezer, bought for a sauce a few weeks back. All of these ingredients got my thinker ticking through the fog of my cold, and here’s what I came up with for my first foray into “the tent.”Chocolate Hazelnut Purple Rain Love Cake
Cake:
2 tbsp fava bean flour (sub cornstarch if you don’t have, though I haven’t tested)
1 tbsp soy milk
1 tbsp water
80 grams semolina
100 grams hazelnuts, toasted, peeled, and ground to a fine meal in the food processor
60 grams cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp sea salt
60 grams brown sugar
½ cup olive oil (see Judges’ Notes)
⅓ cup vegan yogurt (I had coconut on hand) (see Judges’ Notes)
¼ tsp Almond extract
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon to start
1 tsp Espresso powder
Soak:
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp of Purple Rain jam (see below) or grape/plum/fig jam of choice
3 tbsp water
¼ tsp espresso powder
1 tbsp brandy (I think bourbon, rye, or port would also be good
Icing:
½ cup icing sugar
½ tbsp maple syrup
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp brandy (or alcohol of choice or maple or vanilla extract)
1 tbsp soy milk to start, more as needed (or you can use a little more brandy if you prefer)
Jam:
I made a very loose version of
’s Purple Rain Jam from her book, Jam Bake. Ideally you have this done in advance and can bring it with you to the tent lol. (See Judges Notes.)I won’t reprint that recipe here without permission, but here is Wynne’s Italian Plum & Coronation Grape Jam in Chatelaine, which you could add some figs too. Please note I play fairly fast and loose with fruit ratios because I’m not canning, just making mini-batches of fridge jam. If you’re canning, you’ll want to make sure the amount of acid across ingredients is right, which Camilla does for you in her recipes.
You could also use a good quality store bought grape, fig, or plum jam, or a mixture of two or three.
Decor:
Chopped roasted hazelnuts
Chopped chocolate (in this case, chopped semi-sweet chocolate chips)
Sparkly purple sanding sugar
Small sprigs of teeny concord grapes
Method:
Note: I made two 4 inch cakes plus a small ramekin cake, but I think this amount would also do well in an 8 inch springform or even a nine inch for a thinner cake.
Line the bottom of your chosen pan(s) with parchment and lightly oil the sides of the pan. Set a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat to 350 F (no fan).
Whisk fava flour, soy milk, and water in a medium bowl and let sit at least 15 minutes while you do other things, stirring occasionally.
Mix ground hazelnuts, semolina, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda, and salt in a large bowl with a whisk until well combined. Set aside.
Add sugar to fava flour mixture and whisk by hand for about five minutes, until a bit aerated and foamy (or use a hand or stand mixer if you prefer). Add olive oil, whisk until emulsified, then add yogurt, and whisk again until it’s a nice shiny mixture.
Scrape the wet ingredients into the dry ones and fold together with a spatula until no dry bits remain. It will be about the texture of thick brownie batter. Scrape into your prepared pan(s) dividing evenly among the mini-pans if using. These rise quite a bit, so I recommend just filling them halfway. If you used minis, put the remainder into a ramekin. If you used an 8 or 9 inch pan, I think just put all the batter in there (haven’t tested!) If you’re using minis, you can set them on a sheet pan for easier rotation.
Bake the mini cakes 45 minutes, rotating a few times. I pulled the ramekin cake about 7 minutes earlier. If you’re using a bigger pan, bake until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean (see Judges’ Notes). Remove cakes from oven and cool completely in their pan(s) on a wire rack (see Judges’ Notes).
While the cakes are cooling, make your preferred jam if you haven’t earlier, and prepare the soak: mix all soak ingredients except the espresso powder and brandy in a microwaveable bowl or cup, fishing out big chunks of fruit with a spoon so it’s not too chunky. The fruit chunks are a chef’s treat. Microwave for thirty seconds, stir in the espresso powder, and microwave another 30 seconds. Stir in the brandy.
When the cake(s) are cool, stab all over with a skewer. If your soak has cooled, microwave it again until warm. Spoon soak all over the top of the cake. If it starts pooling, let it soak in before adding more. If it starts looking really wet, don’t add any more. I ended up using all of the syrup on my two mini-cakes. Let them hang out soaking in their soak for at least one hour before decorating (they can hang out longer, too, or you can freeze for later at this point).
When you’re ready to decorate, prepare the toppings and icing: chop some roasted hazelnuts, wash some little grapes, chop some chocolate, dig around your pantry looking for that teeny bag of sparkly sugar you’re sure you still have from 100 years ago, etc. For the icing, put the icing sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl (sift if you’re into that, I never do, I just break it up with a fork) and stir until well combined. Add the maple syrup, brandy, and 1 tbsp soy milk and stir together into a shiny smooth glaze the falls from your fork in a ribbon that disappears within a few seconds when it hits the rest of the glaze if you know what I mean? If it’s not making a smooth glaze, add a little more milk, just a few drops at a time, until you have the consistency you want. You want it to be able to spread and drip nicely when you put it on top of the cake without being so liquid that it just runs right off.
Spoon the icing on top of the cake and drizzle around the sides so it makes attractive drips on the sides. While the icing is still wet, sprinkle chopped hazelnuts, chocolate, and sparkly sugar around the border of the cake. Allow the icing to set up for twenty minutes or so, then spoon jam in the middle of the cake in a fairly generous layer. Top with a little sprig of teeny grapes if you have them. If you made a larger cake, you could experiment with more fruit on top, maybe even some halved figs, which always go so hard on a cake imo.
Alternatively, you could make the icing a little thicker and just have an icing crown on the top like I did here (David thought this looked weird, and I kind of did, too, so I added side drizzles after).
Judges’ Notes:
Shannon was out of town for Cake Week, but here’s a selection of notes from Sam and me!
Sam: It’s beautiful! A work of art even before the first bite! The cake was so moist and decadent. I loved the jam ratio and the drizzle of icing. The middle interior with all of the jam was my favourite part. The only thing that stuck out to me was that I didn’t love the feeling of the fruit skins in the jam. It kind of took me away from the smoothness of the cake. But I would definitely order that dessert off of a menu, or make that recipe for a party or holiday. Loved it!
Me: Thank you Sam!! I felt like the cake should maybe be moister, and would experiment with adding another tbsp or two of both olive oil and yogurt next time I make it. I might bake five minutes less, too, as I think the edges got a bit too dry. When I decorated the second of the mini-cakes, it cracked into three big chunks and I had to smush it back together and cover the fault lines with icing. I totally agree about the fruit skins. If I made jam just for this cake again, I'd probably push it through a sieve and get rid of as many skins as I could, or just do a jelly in the first place. Aesthetically I think this cake was cute, but because of the breakage, there were too many crumbs on top so the icing ended up a bit busted. But overall? Great job! Tasted great! The flavours came through!
Cake looked lovely