Tea Cake Vegan

When I heard about the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale, via my friend Sarah (thanks!), I immediately wanted to do it.
 
Inbetween then and now I left my job, became self-employed and started a new contract, so I've been busy! Plus, my internet connection disappeared... I was more of a disorganiser for this event than anything else, but my friend Cathy was really helpful (providing both a venue and lots of delicious cake, as well as inviting people) and so it went ahead last Saturday, 27th June 2009.
 
It was small and very successful: 3 people, 3 hours and £50 for VEGFAM, who help people overseas with funds for self-supporting, sustainable food projects and safe drinking water.
 
We had lots of fabulous ideas for more cake-related events. Plus, Vegan Cake and Tea will have cake meets in the near future, so that's all very exciting. Hurrah!
 
You can hear about future events if you email me to join the mailing list.

I went to Saf twice last week, which felt incredibly decadent. Saf is all vegan & mostly raw, which is amazing. (It doesn't say this anywhere on the menu, so it can be disorienting to see caviar, cheese & sour cream on the menu...!)

I'm planning to return for a Cake & Cocktails Meet; let me know if you'd be interested! It will probably be in June 2009, perhaps July.

It was really absolutely fabulous. What I will say is that it's pretty hard to match what it says on the menu with what the food is like when it arrives. I think personal recommendations are your best bet for getting the tastiest dishes. So much awesomeness about Saf - immaculate service, excellent atmosphere... it really makes is such a special time.

I briefly cover non-desserts too; I tried lots. (Yes, they were so good that I'm going to write about non-cake things. Shock! Horror!) My favourites are in bold and the most unusual & exciting things are in italics.

Starters:

• Spring Dumplings: I love dumplings, these are the best dumplings I've ever tried. Taste, texture... My mouth is watering! Beautifully sweet & rich sauce with it.
  
• Pesto Au Poivre (cheese platter): Soft cheese, both rich & delicate, with pink peppercorns and tasty flax crackers.
  
• Caviar: I loved the chive pearls! The sweet potato cakes were nice too, amazing texture & unusual taste

Mains:

• Barley Risotto: Absolutely amazing, really divine. My omnivorous foodie sweetie had this too & really loved it.
  
• Pad Thai: It's basically a salad, it's a very tasty & varied salad, but it is a salad. The 'noodles' are courgettes & carrots.
  
• Laksa (spicy coconut noodle soup): Yummy spiciness. Rich coconut milk, so many different flavours and textures. Gorgeous, really great.

Dinner menu (pdf)

Cocktails, alcoholic:

• Hook Hand Lady - local organic pear juice, lavender liqueur, creme de mure, organic spanish cava: Sweet, delicious, crisp, absolutely yummy! I like sweet, girly, pretty cocktails; this was perfect for me. I felt really classy!
  
• Jasmine Pearl Martini - jasmine green tea vodka, organic peche, lemon juice, raw cane sugar syrup: I found this far too strong! Other people liked it a lot though. I was expecting it to be sweet because of the sugar, but I later discovered that the addition of sugar was to balance the strong flavours
• Lady Isabel - Albelha organic cachaca, raspberries, edible flowes, vanilla sugar, lime: I found this far too strong! The fruit was really nice & it's a very pretty, very pink drink; but it tasted mainly of alcohol.
• Trilby Cocktail - organic scotch, antica formula, parfait armour, absinthe, orange bitters, served over cracked ice: I wasn't expecting to enjoy this at all, as it smelt really strongly of scotch. I liked it though. Strong, but lots of ice, so not too strong for me. Apparently I like the taste of good quality scotch whiskey! I'd not tried absinthe before, but I'm reliably told that you can't taste the absinthe & that this drink has a very long finish.

Desserts (saved the best til last...):

• Chocolate & Orange Torte: My favourite cake ever, yes, *ever*. Rich, decadent and yet not too heavy. Beautiful blend of chocolate and orange flavours. So soft. Accompanied by sweet ginger syrup. So good that I started a new Twitter account so that I could post a mini review of it. Everyone I've met who's tried this has raved about it, including my sweetie, my co-workers and the diners at the next table.
  
• Raspberry & Blueberry Tart: Excellent quality raspberry, sweet maple taste (lovely & sweet without being sickly sugary), not too sure about the tart (too hard for my liking).

Dessert menu (pdf)

I definitely recommend reading reviews about Saf and/or trying lots of different dishes. (My preference is for the latter, but that could work out pretty expensive!) Here's another review I liked: Review of Saf Restaurant by Croydon Vegans. Oh, and I recommend dining with foodies too; it makes the experience so much better.

Next time...

• I'll be focusing more on cake & cocktails
• I'll be trying some delightful-sounding non-alcoholic cocktails.
• If there's something in particular you'd like me to try, let me know and I might!
• Want to be there? Please do get in touch!
• In the meantime, follow me on Twitter...

The Incredible Veggie Show was indeed incredible, yay!

Selfless consumption of cake for the community...

I loved volunteering. I was on the info desk with a lovely person, Julie from Viva! Met some other fab people too, including Andy & John from Veggie Vision (they filmed me!) and Craig from Newcastle. We had lots of silly fun on the stall; it was awesome.

I've been wanting to volunteer more for a while; I definitely will now - I still can't believe how much fun it was! Plus, it's a really good way to talk to lots of nice people. Hurrah!

I had some yummy savoury foods (mmm, Sheese...) & the catering by the venue was excellent (although expensive).

Recognition: I'm part of the Twitterati don't you know...

@bluelotuscakes recognised me from Twitter! I'm really surprised; they follow 1739 people and 777 people follow them - how on earth did they pick me out?!

I tried the Lemon Cake from Blue Lotus Products. Yummy icing, I think the cake would have been lovelier more lemony though.

I had Lemon & Pumpkin Seed Cake from The Heavenly Cake Company.

Can you tell I love lemony cakes?! Hee hee hee.

Which reminds me, I never did get round to letting you know which was my second favourite Pop My Cherry cake, did I? Can you guess which it was now?

Yes, it was the lemon cake! Victoria sponge was my favourite...

Cake activism! Do fab things through the medium of cake...

Incidentally, I'm doing more stuff with this cake group. If you want to bake/devour, write/read about vegan-friendly tea & cake, do let me know your email address & I'll ping you about it so you can get involved!

Until the next time, *some virtual cakeness*...

I promised cakey reviews, so here's the first.

I showed you a photo of the gorgeous Victoria Sponge last time. It was my favourite of the cakes I sampled at the Brighton Vegan Fayre for a few reasons:

• It's so beautiful!
• Four layers of cakey goodness, with jam betwixt each one (Elsa's made it with five layers before!)
• Decadent, sweet butercream
• Strawberries & blackberries on top!
• I got to see Elsa cut it for me :D

Oh, and it was absolutely delicious too, obviously.

Stay tuned to find out which is my second favourite!

"Maybe it's... barley-sugar and such things that make children sweet-tempered. I only wish people knew that: then they wouldn't be so stingy about it, you know."
- Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I had to consult photographic evidence to accurately recall my cake
consumption this weekend...

Heavenly Cakes:

• Cupcake

Pop My Cherry:

• Chocolate brownie (free!)
• Apple jam tart
• Raspberry jam tart
• Victoria sponge
• Chocolate chilli cake (spicy!)
• Gingerbread person
• Iced shortbread biscuit
• Lime & courgette cake (half)
• Lemon cake (half)

Seven slices of cake, including six cakes on the Saturday - that's the most cake I've ever had in one day; I even beat my Birthday Cake Crawl record (of four)... :)

The real winners for me were the Pop My Cherry cakey delights upstairs - cleverly positioned near to the Vegan Cake and Chocolate Appreciation Society. Did you try those?

Reviews to follow; so do return this week for more vegan cake! In the meantime, you can look at my photos of cakes by the absolutely lovely Elsa. What a star!

Psst... Brighton's first was fabulous, hurrah! I'm looking forward to the next vegan fayre now: Bristol Vegan Fayre 2008 was awesome; I bet Bristol Vegan Fayre 2009 will be awesome too!

     

Click here to download:

Brighton_Vegan_Fayre_2009_a_mi.zip (419 KB)

I went to Pogo Cafe today, for a meet with another vegan group.
 
It was focused on a book, but being of a cakey disposition (and with the encouragement of a fellow cake enthusiast) there was much squeeing over cake.
 
I had the Mango Cake, which was heavenly. Covered in gooey & syrupy orange, filled with a thick buttercream and moist, this was gorgeous sponge cake.
 
I got the Chocolate Cheesecake (picture 1) to take away. Less of a cake and more of a thin layer of biscuit covered in loads of liquid chocolate - definitely one for serious chocoholics! I've just eaten this with a mug of my specialty hot chocolate. Decadence!
 
I'm now consuming a Cinnamon Bun (picture 2), another take away (I got to choose the biggest one, which also had the most icing, WIN!) How delightfully moreish!
 
Oh, the things I go through for Tea Cake Vegan...! :)
 
PS Next weekend it's the Brighton Vegan Fayre; see you there!

   

Click here to download:

Review_Mmm_chocolate_Plus_mang.zip (161 KB)

Tea Cake Vegan is a real-life social group that focuses around vegan cake. Plus, tea.
 
I'm Kathleen & I'm slightly obsessed with cake, as those who've heard me chant CAKE! CAKE! CAKE! or consume three slices in one sitting already know...
 
I live in London, so that's where the Tea Cake Vegan HQ is, but I like travelling outside of London, so do suggest other places within the UK too. (Further afield suggestions also welcome).
 
Anyone who's curious about how vegan cake is possible should come along; I can introduce you to this wonderful world. I have a fair few friends & accomplices who'd be happy to help too.
 
If you're already a vegan cake devotee, then yes yes yes, come join! Not that I need to tell you. :)
 
Oh, and if you have any suggestions for places we should visit, do let me know!
 
I'm currently compiling a list of vegan cake & tea recommendations and I'd love contributors; please email me.
 
Happy caking!