With creative endeavours, it’s sometimes difficult to ascribe where inspiration came from. We all draw motivation from so many sources throughout our lives that pin-pointing the exact origin of a creative decision is sometimes impossible, or even unhelpful! But for me, I have two very clear points of inspiration and they come in the form of Lauren Toyota from Hot for Food and Timothy Pakron, AKA the Mississippi Vegan.
Since the start of my vegan journey Lauren and Timmy have been such guiding forces in what I want my food to look and taste like. They both have such unique and exciting approaches to plant-based cooking and I have zero doubt that School Night Vegan wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for them.
That’s why it was such a MINDBLOWING SHOCK when they turned up in Atlanta for a book signing on my LAST weekend in town! I was so excited to meet them but wanted to thank them for all they’ve done – so I did what I do kinda well – I baked! These cakes were made and given to Lauren and Timmy yesterday and shall hereby be dedicated to them forever!
You’ll either need a mini bundt tin to bake the cakes or perhaps a donut tin will do too! If not, a cupcake tin with cupcake cases will do nicely! I made some candied blood orange slices to decorate the cakes – you can either buy some or you can follow this recipe to make your own!
Blood Orange Crumb Cakes
Ingredients
For Dusting
- 2 tbsp vegan butter or vegan butter
- 2 tbsp flour
For the Cakes
- 1.5 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 4 tbsp water
- zest 1 blood orange (unwaxed)
- zest 1/2 lemon (unwaxed)
- 125 ml oat milk
- 125 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 160 g light brown sugar
- 175 g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
For the Glaze
- Juice 1 blood orange
- Juice 1/2 lemon
- 25 g caster sugar
- 50 ml water
For the Drizzle
- 50 g icing sugar
- 1 tbsp blood orange juice
Instructions
To Make the Cakes
- Preheat oven to 170c. If using a mini bundt tray, grease each well and sprinkle the flour into the tin and shake around, patting the sides to ensure an even coverage. Set aside. If you don’t have a mini bundt tray, you can use cupcake cases in a cupcake tray – they’ll be just as tasty.
- In a small bowl whisk together the ground flax seeds and the water. Set aside to thicken into your “flax egg”.
- In a medium bowl mix together, the zest, oat milk and olive oil. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, place the brown sugar, plain flour, baking powder and salt. Add the oat milk mixture followed by the flax egg and mix until just combined (you can also do this in a stand mixer but don’t overwork the batter). Divide the mixture between 10 mini bundt “wells” in your mini bundt tin or divide between 12 cupcake cases. Bake for 35 minutes. While the cakes are baking make the glaze and the drizzle.
To Make the Glaze
- Place all the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for around 3 minutes or until the volume of the liquid has halved.
To Make the Drizzle
- In a small measuring jug mix the icing sugar with the blood orange juice. The glaze should be thick but runny.
To Finish the Cakes
- Once the cakes are baked, remove from the oven and leave to rest somewhere cool in the tin for 15 minutes. Once cooled slightly, carefully turn the cakes out onto a metal wire rack (if using cupcake cases then there’s no need to turn them out, just gently lift one by one). If the cakes seem stuck to the bundt tin, you can tap the tin down onto the rack quite firmly which should loosen them. Allow to cool for another 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, using a pastry brush, apply the glaze evenly to the cakes (it should be very runny and will soak in nicely). Leave to cool completely for at least 30 mins.
- Once completely cool, pour the drizzle over each cake. Leave to set for 10 minutes and then place a halved slice of candied blood orange on each cake. Serve and enjoy!
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