Custard Powder Snack Cake

By now you may have figured out that I have quite a sweet tooth. I also have a huge can of Bird’s Custard Powder in my pantry, and when I spotted the recipe for Eggless Custard Powder Snack Cake over at Easy Cooking: Divya’s Cookbook Blog, I knew I had found the perfect thing to do with it. Divya, by the way, found the recipe at Aparna’s Blog, My Diverse Kitchen. This cake is making the rounds.

Now, I tend to think that custard powder is a very under-utilised ingredient in North American baking. And perhaps it is with good reason; all it is is a mixture of cornstarch, salt, food colouring, and perhaps some artificial flavouring. It might not sound very exciting and perhaps you could just add those ingredients separately to your baked goods, but I find the flavour to be unique and I am in love with the colour-change magic that happens when you use custard powder; you take the white powder, stir in some liquid, and boom! Sunny bright yellow happiness.

In fact, I wish I had better lighting and a better camera, or at least some better photoshop skills, so that I could share with you just how vibrant this cake really is.

Imagine this is bright yellow. And in focus.

Anyhow, if the thought of using custard powder squicks you out (or if you simply can’t find it, wherever you are), simply replace it with cornstarch and add a dash more vanilla. You’ll have a white cake, but I suppose you could dump in some food colouring if you really wanted to.

I cut the recipe in half to make a petit little 6-inch round by 2 inch high cake, which is the perfect size for two or three people who just want a snack. I also tweaked it a little bit for my vegan sweet tooth tastes. Check out the full size recipe at the other blogs if you’d rather feed more people and/or have leftovers.

Custard Powder Snack Cake

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp of custard powder (vanilla or “original” flavour)
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
75 grams of Earth Balance or another hard vegan margarine (or I guess butter, if you swing that way), melted
1 cup of soymilk, with 1/2 tsp vinegar mixed in to thicken it
1/2 cup of sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 6 inch wide cake pan.
Mix all of the dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix the wet igredients in another. Combine the two and stir until just mixed, then pour into the cake pan and bake until a toothpick or skewer poked into the cake comes out clean. This took 30 minutes for me, but may take longer if you use the full-size recipe.

Cool on a rack. Serve. Be happy.

Doughnuts and tiny bundt cakes

Howdy! I’m Kayleen, and this is my brand spankin’ new food blog. I’m awkward at introductions, so I’m just gonna go ahead and put this out there:

Oh yes.

So, last year, I found this handy dandy doughnut pan  at a thrift store, and immediately put it to use trying out all sorts of recipes for vegan doughnuts. The ones pictured above are ones I packaged up to sell at a bake sale.

Despite the doughnuts being deliciously awesome, my poor little doughnut pan stayed untouched in my cupboard until the other day, when a doughnut craving hit me so badly I knew I just HAD to dust off my pan and get baking.

That’s where this blog comes in. It’s the very thing I was reading that touched off this doughnut craving.

Now, the blog author does mention that her doughnuts turn out pretty much like cake, but I think I’m okay with that. Sometimes a little cake doughnut is all a girl needs.

Actually, sometimes three large cake doughnuts is all a girl needs.

I made her recipe almost as directed (well I HAD to add a splash of vanilla), and had just enough batter for 6 doughnuts. Oh, and these:

 

Two teeny, tiny bundt cakes.

I bought these tiny bundt cake pans recently and have been dying to try them out. Look at how small they are next to my regular bundt cake pans:

(yes, I'm aware I have an unhealthy obsession with bundt cake.)

Anyhoo, the doughnuts (and miniature bundt cakes) were delicious. My girlfriend gave one to her classmate and she said it was the best doughnut she ever ate. I love omnivore praise….

And doughnuts.