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. 

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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!!! 

Life Cafe - Vegetarian Lifestyle in Soho

Life Cafe is a two-storey vegetarian restaurant in Soho, where all the ingredients used to prepare the food are organic. The restaurant is pricey, but given the location and the quality of the food, I’d say is worth it. You can also buy organic products and ingredients as if it was a store. I don’t usually go to vegetarian restaurants because J is a meat lover, so vegetarians treats are reserved for my girlfriends. This time I went with Juliana, who loves vegetarian food. 

You might remember I reviewed another vegetarian restaurant a while ago, The Herbivores, at less than 2 minutes walking distance from Life Cafe. I liked the food at Life Cafe way better, specially their “Life Shake”.  The shake is made out of homemade soy yogurt, banana, papaya and spirulina. As you can see from the picture, the shake is totally green, so you can imagine how much spirulina is in there! For those of you who don’t know, Spirulina is a dietary supplement that gives you all the vitamins you can find in green vegetables and fruit. I try to take spirulina every day, because I feel I never eat enough green vegetables! Now that you know the main properties of spirulina, you can imagine how healthy Life Cafe’s “Life Shake” is and, here's the comes the best part, it’s even yummier! This got me thinking I should buy a milkshake machine and start making my own shakes at home. I’m drooling just at the thought of it.

I had the mushroom pizza, which was the most acclaimed dish according to my previous research, and Juliana had the stir fry quinoa. Our mains were a bit expensive, at around HK$120, so a better option might be the lunch set, which comes with a drink, a soup/salad, a main dish and a cookie, all for HK$118 + 10% service charge. The only bad thing about the lunch set is you don’t get to choose the main course, which is fixed and changes every day.

Visited on: July 22, 2013

Overall Quality: 4*

Price: HK$120 for a main dish and HK$50 for a shake. Pricey, pricey…

Value for Money: 4*

Would I recommend it? Yes, definitely. You’re gonna love this place if you enjoy vegetarian cuisine.

Life Cafe

10 Shelley Street, Soho

I was wearing the mini roses ivory skater skirt from my shop Frill Me!