Daring Bakers - April Challenge: The Failed Opera Cake

This is what happens when you are sent to work across the country for nearly a month, then come home and realise that a daring bakers challenge is due.

Now opera cake, something that has always intrigued me, but I have never really personally bothered with. Somehow, it just seemed like an really arrogant cake- yes, if a cake could display emotion, this opera cake would be full of it, to the point where you want to knock it down a notch, but you don't because you realise that this cake has every right to be full of itself.

As a part of the challenge, the aim was to make a 'light' opera cake- traditionally they are made of yummy stuff like chocolate. I ended up using the flavours of ground almond, orange and white chocolate in mine.

Sadly, I did not give this cake the time it deserved- it still tastes nice, but it is not up to my usual standards. Oh well, I had a lot of fun juggling around all of the components!

Daring Bakers - April Challenge: Veganising Cheesecake Lollipops

Daring Bakers? Why, they are a group of lovely people who once a month bake the same recipe and compare the results.

For a sweet loving maker like me, it is heavenly.

Even more so that there are a number of alternative bakers - including vegan - who rise to the challenge of turning many recipes into sumptuous vegan-friendly versions.

For this month, the challenge was Cheesecake Lollipops. Now, back in pregan (a term to denote life before veganism) days I adored cheesecake. Now that I am vegan, I find that I love the alternative cruelty-free cheesecakes, just as nice, wether the "cream cheese" base made from a soy based substitue or from ground nuts (yes you heard me right- 'cheese' made from nuts. It is tastier than you think!). So, this challenge was right up my alley.

Except that I kept pushing it back- until this weekend where I was in a panic, as all those expensive pots of faux 'cream cheese' had disappeard through the Not Chef's gullet. Finally I did manage to come up with something like this:


They aren't as pretty as Hannah's, Gail's, or shellyfish's but oh my, do they taste fine!

I ended up halving the recipe- there was no way I could afford all those tubs of faux cream cheese required (about 1kg's worth!!). To replace the eggs + cream in the recipe, I used a combination of firm silken tofu and egg replacer (Organ's No Egg). I was going to try vegan sour cream and egg replacer, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere where I live sadly. I amped up the vanilla flavour and coated with a dark swirl of organic, fair-trade chocolate. Some I covered in chopped almonds.

And you know what? They taste just like creamy ice cream- like Magnum I used to have back in the omni eating days.