Tag: baking

Recipe: “Cherry Garcia” Pound Cake

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

Sometime during the week I left myself a note on my phone: Cherries vanilla almonds chocolate – yogurt Cherry Garcia cake???

I’m not sure where the idea came from aside from the fact that I LOVE cherry vanilla, I love chocolate with cherries, & I love Cherry Garcia ice cream (unfortunately I don’t really like the nondairy version, as almond milk ice cream is too watery-tasting to me).

After a search on Pinterest for vegan loaf cakes I decided to improvise, or rather to start with a prewritten recipe and alter it. I found a lemon blueberry pound cake from Vegan Richa and used it as a base (since I know her recipes are excellent), adding and tweaking various ingredients to get the flavors I wanted.

The result, dear reader, is glorious. Super moist, not cloyingly sweet, studded with big juicy cherries and chocolate chips. Next time I may swap out the vanilla for almond extract, as I also love cherry almond anything (my shampoo is cherry almond and I want to eat it every time I wash my hair). If I do that I’ll probably scatter some sliced almonds on top of the glaze.

I posted a pic on Instagram and Facebook and got hit with lots of requests for the recipe, so, here you go!

Recipe: "Cherry Garcia" Pound Cake
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Recipe: “Cherry Garcia” Pound Cake

Recipe by Dianne Sylvan
Servings

6-8

servings
Prep time

10

minutes
Baking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

  • Wet Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup nondairy yogurt (I used Silk vanilla soy)

  • 1 c nondairy milk (I used Oatly)

  • 3/4 c sugar

  • 2 tsp vanilla (or almond) extract

  • 3 tablespoons canola or other oil

  • Dry Ingredients

  • 2 c all-purpose flour

  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

  • 1/4 tsp baking soda

  • 1/4 tsp salt

  • 3/4 to 1 cup frozen or other pitted cherries tossed in 1 tablespoon flour (the vague measurements here are because you might want a higher ratio of cherry to chocolate, or vice versa, but FYI I used 1 cup of the former and 3/4 cup of the latter)

  • 1/2 to 3/4 c chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate)

  • Vanilla Glaze

  • 1 c powdered sugar

  • 2 tablespoons nondairy milk

  • 1 tsp vanilla (or almond) extract

  • 2-3 tablespoons cherry jam or preserves (optional, but adds an extra punch of cherry flavor)

Let’s get it on

  • Preheat your oven to 350F. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick or line it with parchment paper.
  • Whisk all the wet ingredients together in a large bowl.
  • Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add the dry (except the cherries and chips) to the wet and whisk until well combined.
  • Fold in the cherries and the chocolate chips. Scrape the whole mess into the loaf pan and top with a few extra cherries and chips if you like. Bake for 55-60 minutes until it doesn’t jiggle and is golden brown.
  • Let the cake rest in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool for at least an hour before glazing so you don’t make a big damn mess.
  • Once the cake is cool, put a pan or platter under the cooling rack. Spread the jam (if using) over the top of the cake more or less evenly. Whisk the glaze ingredients together then pour over the top of the cake. (The pan/platter is there to catch the dribbles.)
  • Slice and serve to a grateful world.

Recipe: “Joy of” Banana Nut Bread

Posted on by Dianne Sylvan

This is an odd quick bread recipe because it uses the creaming method instead of the muffin method, but I doubt you care about that; what you care about is that it’s delicious, easy, and doesn’t take a lot of weird ingredients. Pretty much every megamart has vegan yogurt and butter, even during this weird COVID era; I use Earth Balance, and the store had Silk soy yogurt this time round but almond, oat, or coconut would work. (I tend to stay away from coconut milk based things in baking because to me the coconut flavor is far too bossy.)

The recipe originally came from the 1997 edition of Joy of Cooking, which as you can see in the picture is a battered, splattered old friend of mine. I veganized the recipe and altered a few things to suit my own particular style of baking which requires vanilla and spice in everything. It’s especially tasty served warm and slathered with butter.

"Joy of" Banana Nut Bread
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“Joy of” Banana Nut Bread

Recipe by Dianne Sylvan
Servings

8

servings
Prep time

20

minutes
Cooking time

45

minutes

A cakey and soft loaf studded with nuts, this recipe made me realize I love banana bread after years of firmly believing I hated it.

Ingredients

  • The Dry:

  • 1 1/3 c flour

  • 1/2 tsp salt

  • 1/2 tsp baking soda

  • 1/4 tsp baking powder

  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon or 1/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp cardamom

  • The Creamy:

  • 5 1/2 tablespoons vegan butter

  • 2/3 c sugar

  • 1 container nondairy vanilla yogurt (whatever sort you like)

  • 2 mashed very ripe bananas

  • 1 tsp vanilla

  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions

  • Preheat your oven to 350F and spray a 9″ loaf pan with no-stick.
  • Whisk together all of The Dry in a bowl.
  • With an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar for 2 minutes or until fluffy and lightened in color. Beat in the dry ingredients until the mixture looks kind of sandy.
  • Add in the yogurt and beat again until combined; then add the bananas and vanilla and beat briefly to distribute the banana. If you like chunky banana bread, and why on EARTH would you do that, fold the banana in instead of beating it.
  • Add the nuts and fold in gently. You can up the nuts if you like, I just eyeball the amount.
  • Scrape into a loaf pan and bake 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. Cool sitting on a rack in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto the rack and cool the rest of the way.