Vegan Cake. Should it be nice?

[Arch]

A question mainly for Satnav...

We went to a little party today, at which the catering was done by a local 'pop up' vegetarian/vegan cafe company.

The sandwiches and wraps were nice, as were the fresh juice mocktails, but the cake was.. Well, there was no joy in it. There was coffee and walnut, which was heavy on the walnut and light on the coffee, and a lemon drizzle, both of which were quite stodgy, and bland, and a carrot cake which was a bit lighter, but also quite bland, hardly sweet at all.

Later on some guests turned up with various 'normal' cakes and the difference was huge. Was it all down to the egg? Were the vegan ones just not very good vegan cakes or are they all a bit heavy?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

The vegan cakes i make are often nicer than the normal ones but I have learnt what margarine (Pure soya for baking) is best to use. It makes for a much lighter cake than using Stork solid block margarine or worse still Trex.

But it all comes down to what the person who mage them was trying to do... Often they try to combine vegan with gluten free as well and that can be a disaster frankly!

There is no reason at all that a lemon drizzle cake should be stodgy... And certainly sweetness levels in any cake should not be affected. Avoiding white cane sugar (not vegan) in this country is not difficult.

Do you make scones? If you do, just omit the egg next time and as more milk ( dairy free replacement) and see if you notice the difference... Or get @Night Train to make one of his lemon deluge cakes without the egg. I'll be surprised if you find a major difference!

 

[Arch]

Cheers. I did think that they were just poor examples, I'm sure i've had lovely vegan cakes before. It's the first time I've had food from these people, so I don't know if it's normal for them or perhaps just a bad batch. They also had a bit of a problem when they forgot the turn their hot water boiler on, so they filled it with boiling water but it just cooled down, which doesn't make for making good tea. Still, the wraps an juice were nice.

It's a shame that veggie and vegan foods are often made to try and emulate 'normal' food, when they can make perfectly delicious food in their own right - like making vegetarian meat substitutes. I'd rather just enjoy the veg and pulses used well, than stuff made to pretend to be something else and not quite managing it.

I think NT's normal cake mix doesn't contain any milk, just fat, flour and egg. Can the egg just be replaced with milk?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I think NT's normal cake mix doesn't contain any milk, just fat, flour and egg. Can the egg just be replaced with milk?

Egg is just used as a binding agent normally. It does have a slight impact on raising but nothing that a touch extra ¼ tsp baking powder can't deal with. It would just be the fat that would need to be checked but given his lactose intolerance it may well already be vegan anyhow.

 

[Arch]

Egg is just used as a binding agent normally. It does have a slight impact on raising but nothing that a touch extra ¼ tsp baking powder can't deal with. It would just be the fat that would need to be checked but given his lactose intolerance it may well already be vegan anyhow.

Apparently, I'm mistaken, the recipe does have milk in it.

We use Lactofree milk and NT is ok with butter anyway, it's just milk and cream that affect him.

 

[Night Train]

It's a shame that veggie and vegan foods are often made to try and emulate 'normal' food, when they can make perfectly delicious food in their own right - like making vegetarian meat substitutes. I'd rather just enjoy the veg and pulses used well, than stuff made to pretend to be something else and not quite managing it.

I much prefer a meal of nicely cooked veg then a meal of 'stuff that looks like chicken and tastes like ham'.
A veg burger is better as a coated veg pattie instead of a grey mush.

 

[winterybella]

I don't know a whole lot about vegan, but I had some vegan stuff recently, one of which was a box cookie mix and it was quite tasty. I also did a microwave mug cake and again it was tasty in my opinion. I worry about vegan being bland but I can't say I have had anything to support the bland theory.