My mum recently made a vegan Grasmere cake. I’d never heard of such a thing but scoffed a few slices nonetheless (won’t go into detail about how many).
Mum’s numerous cookbooks are often made up of recipes cut out from newspapers and magazines that have been collected and compiled over a lifetime with the useless ones being ejected and the successful ones kept. These tomes are a treasure trove and many can easily be converted into vegan versions. Expect more of these gems in the coming months.
My tips for this recipe: I’m not keen on mixed spice so I substituted this with half a teaspoon of ground ginger and about seven ground-up whole cloves. Make sure to finely grind the cloves so you don’t get hard bits in the cake. This gives it a warming kick and the smell coming from the oven was amazing. I used Pure Sunflower Spread and soya milk (sweetened) replaced the cow juice. Regarding the fruit, I made it with 175g of sultanas and 75g of raisins (just because I had some spare in the cupboard) and it baked fine. They become very plump and succulent.
Leave the raw mixture covered for a minimum of three hours and use a big tin because this one is a heavy brute, as my mother will concur (it’s her handwriting on the recipe).
ROOTING ABOOT: Voyage to Veganism 