"Karly-Friendly" recipes! (Vegan raspberry mocha cake and pumpkin bread)

Hello readers! Sorry it's been awhile...my creativity in the kitchen has been sub-par lately. But I'm back on a roll!

Now you may be thinking "What the heck is a Karly-Friendly recipe?!" Well, foodies, I'll tell you. My friend Karly is doing The China Study diet. This basically entails cutting out all animal proteins except fish, and replacing it with plant protein, on the basis that Americans get too much of their protein from animal products. In other words, she's gone vegan.

Well, Miss Karly recently had a birthday, and her hubs, Brad, threw her a party. A SURPRISE party. To be nice (and because I love to cook), I asked him if he wanted me to make her birthday cake--that way, he wasn't trying to hide one. I then decided to make a VEGAN cake, so she wouldn't have to cheat on her diet. I found the recipe for Vegan Raspberry Mocha Cake, and it was a SMASH HIT! The term "Karly-friendly" was coined because she is also in our bible-study group, so if I bring snack (last night was a vegan pumpkin bread, even though Karly wasn't there--also a smash hit, and nothing feels like autumn like pumpkin bread!), I always have to tell her if it's "karly-friendly!"

So from now on, if a recipe is marked "Karly-Friendly" on my blog, it is 100% vegan :)

On to the recipes!

Vegan Raspberry Mocha Cake with Chocolate Ganache

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4c. water
2tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups original flavor almond milk
3-4Tbsp double-strong coffee (or one shot espresso)
raspberry jam
fresh raspberries (for garnish)

Chocolate Ganache
1 cup Ghiradelhi chocolate chips (or other vegan chocolate chips)
1 Tbsp almond milk
3 Tbsp strong coffee

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9inch cake pans with canola oil or vegetable shortening.
2. In a bowl, combine sugar, applesauce, and oil. Stir in water. Stir in vanilla.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa.
4. Measure out almond milk, stir in coffee.
5. Alternate adding flour mixture and almond milk mixture to sugar mixture.
6. Pour into prepared pans, bake for 40 mins. When done, cool on a wire rack.
7. Once cool, place bottom layer of cake on a plate. Spread with raspberry jam. Place top layer of cake. Glaze with ganache, let it drip down the sides. Garnish with fresh berries.

Chocolate Ganache

1. In a bowl over simmering water, melt chocolate chips mixed with almond milk. Remove from heat; add coffee.
2. Let cool slightly, to set up. Glaze cake.
**if ganache is too thin, put in the fridge until it reaches the consistency you like.


Super-Moist pumpkin bread (from Allrecipes)
*for me, this made one 9x5 loaf, and a few muffins. For the muffins, bake at 350 for about 25mins.*

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups pumpkin puree (one 15oz can)
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2/3 cup coconut milk (I used lite coconut milk)
1/2 cup walnuts
1/3 cup raisins (optional--I used them)
2/3 cup shredded coconut (optional, I didn't use it)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
3. In another bowl, combine pumpkin, oil, applesauce, and coconut milk.
4. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture, stir until combined. Fold in walnuts, raisins (if using) and coconut (if using). Pour into prepared pan (NO MORE than 3/4 full or it will overflow!). Use extra batter to make muffins.
5. Bake 1 hour 15 mins. Check periodically--if it is browning too quickly, cover with foil--it will reflect the heat off the top to keep it from browning too much, but still cook the inside. (I had to do it with about 25 mins left, when I put in the muffins!).
6. Cool on a wire rack.


Eat and be merry!