Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale

In just a few weeks, Townsville Vegans will be participating in the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale.

I'm super excited for the chance to bake lots of things, raise awareness about veganism out in the community, and raise money for a worthy charity. I've started practicing some recipes to narrow down my baking contributions. One that is definitely settled so far is these Apple Walnut Cinnamon Scrolls. These are full of sugar, gluten, and cannot be classed as a health food by anyone's standard, which should mean they are a perfect candidate for winning over some staunch non-believers!

I'll also make these equally unhealthy chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with salted caramel drizzle, because they really impressed lots of non-vegans when I last made them.

But for the health conscious, I'm going to contribute some brownie balls. These are based on Hannah's amazing recipe, and they are really delicious. They're also gluten free, sugar free, and super easy to make!

If you're in Townsville, mark your calendars now - Willows Market on the 28th of April. If you're not in Townsville, check out the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale page to see what's happening in your area, or host your own! 

Musical activism and vegan health.

Last night Andy and I went along to the Townsville Cinema Group, which shows films at a local theatre every fortnight. The films they play are often foreign, documentaries, or otherwise unlikely to show in mainstream Townsville theatres. For the price of one ticket, you get to watch two films. Last night was 'activist musician documentary night', so we went along to watch The US vs. John Lennon, and Shut Up & Sing.

Both documentaries were very good, but my favourite of the two was the first one. Previously, I thought of John Lennon as a Beatle, of course, and then as a bit of a loopy hippy guy. But this film showed a very outspoken anti-war activist who used prefigurative means of protest. He sang about peace, love, revolution. He and his wife spent their honeymoon in a bed for a week in front of the media and talked about peace to their captive audience. He also had to fight a major battle against the Nixon administration, the FBI, and the INS--purely because he made friends with radical activists like Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale. I had goosebumps for most of the film; this is the sort of movie that I watched as an undergrad student that unleashed my inner activist (and made me want to study this stuff). I highly recommend watching this movie.

The second one was an interesting contrast. The similarities between the Vietnam era and the Iraq war are striking, but probably not quite as striking as are the differences. Shut Up & Sing is about the Dixie Chicks and their statement in England that they are "ashamed the president comes from Texas". I remember hearing about that, and hearing all the backlash--but I didn't realise quite how intense it was. Their sales plummeted, people burned their CDs and protested outside their shows, and there was even a death threat. But, while they were pretty strongly opinionated throughout the whole saga, they were a bit apologetic, I thought. Still, it was ridiculous that they were branded as traitors, 'Dixie Sluts', and un-American. I couldn't help but wonder how different things would have been if they were men...

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In other news, someone has emailed me a link to an article you may find interesting. It's called 57 Health Benefits of Going Vegan. While I think that the best reason to go vegan is ethically rather than for health, there is no denying that veganism is good for the body as well as the soul. I'll definitely be printing this out to bring to public displays of the Townsville Animals Alliance, so that when people say veganism isn't healthy I don't even have to argue with them.

Update: The Show

To everyone that asked, I didn't go to the Show so I didn't know about the winnings until I just rang today....

Drumroll....

Class 35, Madeira Cake: 2nd Prize!

Class 36, Small Cakes (Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes): 1st Prize!!!

Score one for vegan baking!

(If you don't know what I'm talking about, read my previous post.)

The Townsville Show

A few weeks ago I was talking to some other members of the Townsville Animal Alliance, and we were discussing the pros and cons of having a stall at the Townsville Show. The Show is the Australian equivalent of an American county fair—agricultural displays, demolition derbies, rides, greasy food, farm animals, and competitions for local crafts, produce, and baked goods. It’s sort of the antithesis of an animal rights group.

But wait—baked good competition? We decided that we had to enter vegan baked goods. I emailed an inquiry, and got back a very detailed list of categories, rules and conditions. There were almost 90 categories, not including the junior section, but I settled on two: Madeira Cake and Small Cakes.

After I entered the paperwork, I realised I’ve never eaten a madeira cake and all I knew about it was that it was orange-flavoured. I did some googling and discovered it’s an orangey pound cake. I’ve never made a poundcake... but I remembered reading good things about the recipe from Veganomicon. So my first task was to get ahold of that recipe. I left comments and sent emails to other bloggers, and eventually Vegan Noodle emailed me a copy—thanks!

Two weeks before the Show I modified the pound cake recipe and made some practice versions. Here are my Mexican Chocolate practice cupcakes.

I made sure to share my Madeira Cake with lots of non-vegan friends, to make sure it tasted like it was supposed to taste. I got rave reviews, so I was all set to enter the show.

So Thursday night I got to baking. I did it properly, measuring and sifting and doing steps I sometimes skip. I made the Madeira Cake first. (It had to be in a 20 cm round tin, even though madeira cake is traditionally in loaf form... weird.)

Then I made the cupcakes, which I dipped in a dark chocolate ganache. The ganache was a bit lumpy looking, so I sprinkled the cuppers with icing sugar. Unfortunately, it melted and left white puddles—so we chose the six cupcakes with the most uniform patterns and entered them.

We dropped them off at the Cooking Pavilion on Friday morning, and then they were judged and displayed for the duration of the show. The only trouble is, you had to go to find out if you won...

Madeira Cake (based on Vanilla Yogurt Poundcake from Veganomicon)

1 c. blended silken tofu
½ c. orange juice
1 c. soy milk
1 t. white vinegar
1 ¾ c. raw sugar
¾ c. vegetable oil
3 t. vanilla
1 ½ t. orange zest
3 c. flour
4 ½ T. arrowroot powder
2 ¼ t. baking powder
¾ t. bicarb soda
¾ t. salt

Preheat the oven to 170. Grease and flour two loaf pans or round cake pans (or one of each). Combine orange juice, soy milk and vinegar, set aside. In a large bowl, combine tofu, vanilla, soy milk mixture, sugar, oil, and orange zest. Using a stick blender or electric mixer, blend until smooth. In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients and then sift into wet ingredients. Fold together, and then stir vigorously for several minutes until a smooth, thick batter forms. Pour into prepared tins and smooth tops. Bake for 65 to 75 minutes—don’t open the oven for the first 45 minutes. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely. Best the day after baking.

Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes

1 ½ c. plain flour
1 c. sugar
½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. bicarb soda
¼ t. salt
1 c. cold water
¼ c. vegetable oil
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. vanilla
1/2 t. cayenne powder (optional, but I didn't think the CWA would be too keen on it so I left it out)

Preheat the oven to 180. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with liners. Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a jug, combine cold water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir until just combined. Spoon into prepared tins. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes and cool completely before icing.