By now, everyone knows of my great obsession with Paul, Mary and the Great British Bake Off! I've decided that I need an impetus to blog regularly, so every week (probably on a Tuesday) I am going to set myself a Bake Off Challenge that I must complete and blog about at the weekend.
Please feel free to join in - suggest challenges, and participate in challenges and post your entry!
My first challenge is linked to an important change I'm making in my life that I've been thinking about for a long time - I am becoming a supermarket vegan!
I've been a vegetarian since I was 16, and, over the last few months, I'd been thinking about cutting down cheese because I am a self-confessed cheese junkie! I could literally eat it at every meal and every snack every day, and I know that's not healthy!
Another factor in my decision is that I have always used free range eggs in my baking, and always assumed free range meant free range. I found out recently that that is a complete fallacy. Sky News recently did an undercover investigation into the Happy Egg company and found that conditions were definitely NOT happy. I always assumed free range meant on a nice farm with lots of grass. It does not. It means in a large cage in a barn with stinted access to the outdoors.
So I've now decided I am not going to eat eggs or dairy products unless I know 100% where I come from. Mum stop panicking, I'll still eat dairy and eggs from the farms in Cambridgeshire becuase I can see how the animals are treated! Unfortunately this is a luxury I cannot afford in London. I've found a lovely farm that supplies Twickenham Farmers Market, so I can use their eggs in all my baking. It's called Lee House Farm, please check out their webpage and gallery, you can see the beautiful outside spaces for the chickens and how much they are clearly loved and well cared for.
Until I find a dairy farm I can trust (please email/comment/tweet if you know one) I am going dairy free. So far it's going surprisingly well, and I can eat most of the stuff I'm used to as long as I check the label carefully.
Vegan Changes I've made:
- Pure olive spread instead of butter
- oil in cakes instead of butter
- soya yoghurt instead of dairy yoghurt
- dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate (still check the label carefully!)
- Linda Mccartney sausages and mince instead of Quorn
- Vegan cheese!
- Tofu (I don't normally like it)
- Olive tapenade and vegan pesto for pasta sauces instead of cheesy sauces
- vegan jacket potato toppings (I love me a jacket potato)
So my first Vegan Bake Off challenge is...
To make a vegan carrot cake!
Carrot cake is my ultimate favourite cake - and has the plus side of it shouldn't be TOO hard to convert it for my first challenge as it is usually made with oil instead of butter. The big challenge is the cream cheese icing - which is the best part! I'll let you know how I get on.
Please let me know if you are vegan, thinking of going vegan, or know some good vegan websites or ethical farms.
Firstly, olive tapenade is awesome, I've never thought to use it with pasta! I'll give it a try, it sounds yummy! Secondly, I once made a vegan cheesecake using that vegan cream cheese in the round pot that all the health food stores sell (I can't remember the brand atm!) and to be honest I couldn't taste the difference! Good luck, hope it goes well!
ReplyDeleteI've only just recently discovered olive tapenade at ASK on their pizzas - yum! Do you know anywhere that's good to buy it? I need to check out health food shops, so far I've only looked in supermarkets for vegan food. I was very impressed by the range that is available. Thank you for your comment! :)
DeleteI buy it from Morrison's, its not a very big pot unfortunately though. You get a bit of green olive tapenade, a bit of black olive tapenade and a bit of sun dried tomato stuff! But it is yummy!
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