Vegan Carob Cake Recipe

Truth be told, I hadn't baked in a while, let alone taking pictures of my creations or blogging about it! I feel like recently all I have time to do is cook proper meals, since to be honest, having to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day for two and a half doesn't leave you much spare time!

A couple weeks ago, we treated one of our friends to a vegan cooking class for her 30th birthday, and it was such a fun experience! The dessert was a carob brownie, which inspired me to cook this vegan carob cake this week. 

For those of you not familiar with carob, it's a healthy alternative to chocolate because it's naturally sweet, high in fiber, low in fat, has twice the amount of calcium compared to cocoa and, most importantly specially for kids or caffeine-sensitive people, it doesn't have caffeine.

I got the recipe from here (in Spanish), and it's SO GOOD! I feel like next time I want to go cocoa-free the whole way though, because this recipe has a bit of chocolate in it.

You know I'm a huge chocolate lover, but this doesn't mean I don't have a major crush on carob ever since I first tasted it a couple weeks ago. Some people dislike it because, obviously, it will never taste 100% like chocolate, but I simply love it. It's slightly different yet totally mesmerizing. 

So without much ado, here comes the recipe!

VEGAN CAROB BANANA CAKE

• 2 or 3 over-ripe bananas
• 1 and 1/2 cups of spelt flour
• 1/2 cup of carob flour
• 1 cup of chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 2 spoons of pure unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 spoon of ground cinnamon
• 2 spoons of baking powder
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cup of oat milk

1. Blend the bananas, sugar, oat milk and olive oil together.
2. On a separate bowl, mix the spelt flour, carob flour, baking powder, cocoa and cinnamon.
3. Gently place the dry mixture on the liquid batter and keep folding until blended. Fold in 1/2 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.
4. Pour the mixture into a pound cake pan or any other baking dish of your preference.
5. Last but not least, distribute the remaining 1/2 of chopped walnuts on top of the batter so as to create a nice coat.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes at 170C.

TIP: This recipe will be even healthier if you use 1 cup of dates or 1/2 of molasses instead of the sugar. 

***********

RECETA EN ESPAÑOL

BIZCOCHO DE ALGARROBA VEGANO

                                                        2 o 3 plátanos maduros

1 taza y 1/2 de harina de espelta

1/2 taza de harina de algarroba

1 taza de nueces picadas

1/2 taza de aceite de oliva

2 cucharadas de cacao puro en polvo

1/2 cucharada de canela en polvo

2 cucharadas de levadura

1/2 taza de azúcar moreno

1 taza de leche de avena

               - Bate en un bol los plátanos, el azúcar, la leche de avena y el aceite de oliva.

- En otro bol, mezcla la harina de espelta, la harina de algarroba, la levadura, el cacao y la canela.

- Incoropora la mezcla del punto número 2 al bol del punto número 1 con movimientos envolventes hasta que esté bien integrado. Añade 1/2 taza de nueces y integra suavemente.

- Pon la mezcla en un molde y esparce el resto de las nueces por encima.

- Hornea a 170C durante 50-60 minutos. 

NOTA: Puedes sustituir el azúcar por 1 taza de dátiles o 1/2 taza de melaza.

I hope you like it as much as we did. Thanks for reading!!! 

Via Tokyo - Green Tea Desserts in Hong Kong

Don't you even think for a second that I'm done blogging about all the afternoon teas and sweet treats I had in Hong Kong! In fact, I still have a traditional afternoon tea {the only one I had this time around} review pending.

Today's post is all about green tea again, this time at Via Tokyo, another hype in Hong Kong that doesn't seem likely to fade anytime soon. We visited their newest branch, in Tsim Sha Tsui, since less people knew about it and the chance of avoiding the queue was higher than in their original location in Causeway Bay. And... we didn't have to queue indeed and got a table for 5 people + a stroller, how cool is that? :)

I was meeting my friend Daisy who was at the very end of her pregnancy {the baby is born already!}, her husband, my husband :D and our friend KC. The five of us devoured five different desserts that we shared, and I absolutely loved it because it gave me the chance to try so many things! Indeed, when you know you only have that ONE chance to go a place you've been dying to try for a while, you're faced with the horrible responsibility of choosing one single item from the mouth-watering menu. Sharing 5 desserts was AWESOME!

I had really high expectations for this place and I think the reality was not up to it. I've only ever tried a green tea cheesecake once before, at Teakha, {which I blogged about} and totally fell in love with it. This one though, was not nearly as cheesy, more mousse-y, so not that great. The parfait was good, no arguing about that, as was the mille-feuilles. The two soft serves though were in my point of view disappointing. Way too sweet and the matcha one not matcha-y enough. The one from Shatin's Sweet House Cha Cha is way better on my opinion.

Have you been to Via Tokyo and felt just like I did or is it just me?!

Visited on: December 25th, 2015

Overall Quality: 4*
Price: pricey at around HK$60 for a dessert.
Value for Money: 4*
Would I recommend it? I do, but it's definitely not my fave.

Via Tokyo

G/F, 29A Cameron Road
Tsim Sha Tsui

+852 2385 6388

Dessert Art at ATUM Desserant Hong Kong

Abstract art, innovation, molecular cuisine, imagine all of this in a dessert plate designed just for you, right in front of you? This is ATUM Desserant, the new hype in Hong Kong which has brought dessert to a whole new level. Never again will you think of dessert as something simple if you happen to visit ATUM Desserant, an unconventional dessert bar in Hong Kong you don't want to miss out on! 

Basically, how this dessert bar works is you sit in the bar and have an appointed dessert artist, who draws the most amazing contemporary dessert plate in front of you. I really enjoyed the experience, not only because I was there with my good friend Chloris, but also because our artist turned out to be really nice and good at her job, and we had an amazing time watching her perform her magic! We also enjoyed seeing other artists performing dessert plates next to us, each of them was different!

ATUM Desserant Menu

The final touch, dry ice {liquid nitrogen} sorbet with a huge fog effect, makes for a killer ending! I made a video of the whoooole process that will be up on my Hong Kong trip vlog, (which I still didn't start editing!), so make sure to stay tunned on my YouTube channel!

The dessert itself wasn't my fave, basically because there was a lot of jelly, which I'm not really fond of, but I wouldn't mind going again if someone (hubby?) really wanted to try and asked me to go again!

Visited on: December 24th, 2015

Overall Quality: 4,5* I was impressed by this molecular cuisine dessert, I must say!
Price: Improvisation set for two at HK$348 with drinks included.
Value for Money: 4*
Would I recommend it? I would! I had never seen something like this, so innovative!

ATUM Desserant

16/F, The L.Square,459-461 Lockhart Road

Causeway Bay,Hong Kong

+852 2956 1411

Chocolate Guinness Cake with Mascarpone Frosting

Liam turned 9 months on May 28th. As I mentioned on my Instagram account, I'm not one for big monthiversary celebrations, yet 9 months truly is something. As you may know, human babies are, among all mammals, the ones born more immature. According to the exterogestation theory, babies are not considered as having achieved full gestation until 9 months after birth, when their brain has doubled from birth and they start to crawl. For me it was just something sentimental, 9 months of pregnancy and 9 months since Liam was born. This makes a year and a half of my life revolving around Liam and counting! <3 Also, this may be TMI but I got my period back after a year and half when Liam was 9 months and 1 day! This means my body is ready for another baby =D  

I decided to bake a cake and celebrate Liam's 9 months with a nice lunch with my family, even though Liam didn't get to eat any cake, of course!

I baked the Chocolate Guinness Cake following the recipe I found on Nigella's blog. I made a couple small adjustments though.1. The most important one was instead of buying cream cheese I accidentally bought Mascarpone, so I used that for my frosting instead of the cream cheese. 2. For the cake, I cut down on the sugar from 400g to 300g. 

This cake turned out pretty tall and big for just 5 of us, we couldn't finish it all! I'd use half the ingredients if I ever had to bake it again. Besides this, the result was delish. Everyone absolutely loved it. It was pretty easy to bake, too! Another perfect cake to add to my sweet recipes!

Usagui Barcelona - Japanese Cafe

I just recently discovered Usagui, and it's already my favorite Japanese in Barcelona. When we think about Japanese restaurants, we tend to associate this concept to sushi, and yet Japanese cuisine is so much more than this! 

We have amazing ramen in town, like Ramen-Ya Hiro, and also, luckily, Japanese cafes, my favorite. There's currently two in Barcelona, Takashi Ochiai, a Japanese bakery and cafe I must write a review on soon, and Usagui, an absolute hidden gem. 

Usagui is run by a Japanese couple and the sister of the wife, making of this a perfect family business cafe. Not only do they serve outstanding matcha drinks and Japanese desserts such as mochis or matcha cakes, they also have some dishes available for lunch and dinner. Absolutely everything is homemade, of course. Usagui means Rabbit in Japanese, and you're bound to see little rabbits everywhere: in their business card, decorating the blackboards at the entrance, on their menus, and even their  hashioki (the chopstick rest) is a cute little rabbit. 

The first time we visited {last week}, we went for tea and absolutely adored it, so we decided to go back yesterday for dinner. We had Yakisoba Omu {Yakisoba noodles wrapped with egg}, and Oyakodon {Chicken and egg with rice}. 

Both dishes were delicious, but I liked the Yakisoba the best. We had miso soups as well. And for drinks J had cold matcha latte, and I had a hot matcha latte with soy milk. Matcha latte is my absolute favorite drink in the whole world, and I cannot understand why Starbucks has it in Hong Kong but not in Spain :'(

Visited on: May 29, 2015
Overall Quality: 5*
Price: You may find matcha latte sort of expensive at 4€ but I think it's all worth it for the quality you get. Cake slices are around 4€ as well, and main dishes around 9€. We paid 31€ for this dinner. They lunch set for 11€.

Value for Money: 5*
Would I recommend it? You simply cannot miss it. It feels like being in Japan!

Usagui - Te Japones & Cafe

Carrer dels Santjoanistes, 28 (next to Plaça Molina)

Phone: 93 200 55 41

Opening hours: 

Tue: 4:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Wed-Sat: 1:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Sun: 4:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Closed on Monday

Afternoon Tea At The Grand Hyatt - Hong Kong

I still hadn't shared the afternoon tea Chloris and I {with little Liam} enjoyed at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Hong Kong back in February. I had been looking forward to this afternoon tea for a while, I had wanted to try it lots of times while I lived in Hong Kong, but for one reason or another I never ended up going in the end. I'm glad I finally managed to during my last trip to Hong Kong, although truth be told, it was rather disappointing. We went there on the third day of the Chinese New Year, and there was an extra service charge because of it, which means we ended up forking in more than I found was reasonable! The price on weekdays is $596, and $656 on weekends and public holidays, except that this was a special public holiday and the bill turned out to be... $800 Oh-My.

The thing I had been looking forward to the most was the Croquembouche, a majestic French dessert consisting of a pyramid of cream puffs, cemented together with toffee. It looks absolutely stunning. I heard this was available on weekends and public holidays only, hence the reason why I never even thought about going there on a weekday. Well, what was my disappointment when there was no Croquembouche whatsoever on my visit to Tiffin {where afternoon tea is served at the Grand Hyatt}! I know for a fact they did have it before because my friend Marie went a couple years ago and she told me. Maybe I should have asked the waiters whatever happened to it :( This is a picture of a croquembouche, a.k.a. pièce montée I found on Pinterest:

Breathtaking or not!?

The high tea at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong is not only about the tiered stand, though. There's a huge dessert buffet that includes yummy waffles, 4 different kinds of delicious ice-cream, 2 sorbets, popcakes, candy and cakes. Seeing this you may think the price is totally worth it. Maybe it is. The point is you can only eat that much food right? So I never really enjoyed buffets, specially for afternoon tea. If you've ever had the traditional English afternoon tea, you'll know you get full only with what's on the three-tiered stand, so for me there's no need for more.

There's life music (piano, violin and cello) during the high tea, which makes it really nice. We couldn't see them from our table though :(

As you can see from the tea stand, it was a good idea for this tea set to have a buffet, because there wasn't much stuff on the stand. I didn't particularly like the food on the tea stand, to be frank. The waffle with ice-cream from the buffet was remarkable though. But then, that's not what I go looking for in an afternoon tea, hence my disappointment. I remember the tea selection being rather poor, too. I can't recall it exactly, so if I'm wrong please correct me, but I remember me not being the least excited about the tea.

Visited on: February, 2015
Overall Quality: 3.5*
Price: A bit over HK$800 on the day we visited! Check above for a better price detail explanation 
Value for Money: 2*
Would I recommend it? Quite frankly, I wouldn't. There's so many better choices out there!

Food Styling & Photography Course - Final Project

If you follow me either on Instagram or on Snapchat @oliviaschoice, you'll know I've recently completed Aiala Hernando's Food Styling and Photography course. It is no secret I'm nuts for afternoon tea, and I love to blog about it and take pictures of all the cute yummy treats. As soon as I found out about this course {for which I was on waiting list for several months!}, I knew it was made for me. Now that it's come to an end, I look back and realise that, with two projects per week, it was way more demanding than I thought it would be, and the level was pretty tough. Some of my classmates were professional photographers, so I definitely was on another level, but that was perfectly fine to me. I learned more than I ever thought I would, and I couldn't recommend this course enough for all the foodies out there!

Today I wanted to share my final project. The aim was to recreate a kind of story through pictures. Mine intended to be the story of a simple juice recipe {orange, lemon, cinnamon}, to be sipped on warm afternoon in a coutryside house. I hope you like it!

Afternoon tea at Seasons by Olivier E. - Hong Kong

Seasons by Olivier E. is another of the new teas in town I knew I wanted to try as soon as I saw it. Little did I know Olivier Elzer was a 3-Michelin star starred chef, and that Seasons, which is not even a year old, had already been awarded with 1 Michelin star. 

We went to this tea with lovely Rach from Through the Looking Glass, another blogger and high tea enthusiast I was just beyond happy to finally get to meet, a friend of hers and one of J's friends :)

Just like with Shelter's golden bird cage, I was attracted to Season's boxes as a way to presenting the tea treats. Also, just like Shelter was an Italian fusion tea, this was a very French fusion one, with delicious treats like foie gras creme brulee, eclairs and a Mont Blanc tart. But this one did come with scones, just like it's supposed to be :) 

Somehow my absolute fave sweet was the strawberry jelly with white chocolate creme, which surprised myself since I'm not usually into jelly! Regarding the tea selection, brace yourselves for a list of around 10 teas with exotic names like Sweet memories, or Lychee paradise. I forgot how they went exactly, all I know is there is no way to know what you're ordering. At least I got lucky and liked mine :D

Both the indoor and the outdoor area were gorgeous, a really nice venue indeed!

Visited on: February 2015
Overall Quality: 4* Service is to be improved for a Michelin-starred restaurant
Price: 430$ + 10% service charge for a tea set for two (or 230$ for one)
Value for Money: 4*
Would I recommend it? If you're into high tea and into French food, this might just be your kind of paradise!

Seasons by Olivier E.

Lee Gardens Tower 2

2-38 Yun Ping Road

3/F, Shop 308

+852 2505 6228