I am SO excited to share my first ever vegan recipe with you all. To be honest this is only the second cake I’ve made in my life – but it tasted amazing – so I wanted to share it with you all. It all started by being given a marrow at the allotment, and having no idea what to do with it!
After a quick look on a search engine (Ecosia is a search engine that plants trees for searches – each search removes 1kg of Co2), I discovered a brilliant marrow cake recipe by the BBC. The only problem was that I’m vegan, but the recipe wasn’t. I decided to try making it vegan, and it worked a treat – if I do say so myself.
As I said, I’m no baker – so I didn’t have some of the equipment that I needed. Living a more zero waste lifestyle, has taught me a thing or two about using what I already have. I wanted to share a few ways, that even baking a cake can be a more eco experience.
I most of my ingredients from my local refill store. I love doing that, because then you can buy exactly what you need for a recipe without filling the cupboard with food waste that won’t get used. There are so many refill stores now, which is amazing! Check to see if you have one near you here.
‘We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly’
Anne-Marie Bonneau
I got some of the measurements wrong though, so instead of going shopping again I adapted the recipe. It actually turned out to be delicious, so I’m putting the exact recipe that I used below (including the ‘accidents’) – but I encourage you to experiment and adapt it depending on what you already have in the cupboard.
If you don’t have all the equipment – improvise! I borrowed a cake tin from my mum. I didn’t have a sieve, so I used a pot from the vegetable steamer. For a cooling rack I placed a pizza tray on top of a glass jug. It’s a cheaper and more eco friendly way of doing things, I personally find it fun trying to think about things differently.
So now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…the delicious vegan marrow and pecan cake with maple icing recipe:
Ingredients
- 250ml sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing tin
- 150g self raising flour
- 150g wholemeal self raising flour
- 3 tsp mixed spice
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 250g muscovado sugar (light brown sugar)
- 12 tbsp aquafaba (liquid from a can of chick peas)
- finely grated zest and juice, 1 orange
- 300g marrow flesh, coarsely grated and squeezed of any liquid
- 100g pecan nuts, roughly chopped ( you might want to save a couple for decoration)
- 50g walnuts, roughly chopped
For the icing
- 50g vegan butter, softened
- 200g vegan cream cheese
- 4 tbsp maple syrup
Method
Step 1
Heat oven to 160c/140c fan / gas 3. Grease a 22cm round springform cake tin. You can line it too if you like, but I didn’t because I wanted to be as zero waste as possible. Sift the flour, spice and baking powder into a bowl and crumble in the sugar.
In a separate bowl mix the aquafaba, orange juice and orange zest with a fork, then pour in the oil. Add the marrow and the nuts to the oil mixture, then beat into the flour until combined.
Tip into the cake tin and bake for 1 hr 15 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool for 30 mins in the tin before removing and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 2
While the cake is cooling, make the icing by beating all the ingredeints together. When the cake has cooled, used a spatula to spread the icing over the top. Decorate with pecans (if you saved any), and enjoy!
Store in the fridge, to keep it fresh for as long as possible. I’d love to hear what you think of the recipe.
