VeganMoFo 2011 #20: 'Vegan Indulgence'

Vegan Indulgence
Leigh Drew, Aduki Independent Press, 2008



Vegan Indulgence is a great little dessert book written by Australia's very own Leigh Drew. As well as being an amazing vegan cook and recipe creator, Leigh is also an awesome sci-fi geek, a lover of kitties and also is one of my friends - yay! I was lucky enough to be able to test for this book. I also did a teeny bit of testing for Leigh's upcoming book about pastry - it is going to be a good one! Leigh's recipe for pastry has revolutionised my life.

Back to the book at hand. There are no chapters in this book, it is a lovely collection of 20 dessert recipes. As a bonus, each recipe also has a beautiful colour photograph to go with it. My own photographs from things that I have made were taken early on in my food photo life so are quite pathetic, but the photos in the book are stunning. Here we go!

Beesting


I loved beesting cakes in my preegan days. A delicious almondy cake filled with thick custard and topped with candied almonds. So delicious. Leigh has veganised this recipe and it is outstanding. I took this cake to work and people raved about it. Some said it was the best cake they'd ever had!

Choc Cherry Squares


This is amazing. I am sure people are tired of me talking about chocolate and cherries and how wonderful they are, but it's just that that is the truth. I certainly don't get tired of eating it. I love the chocolate cream cheese frosting as well.

Chocolate Melting Moments


This photo doesn't do these morsels justice. The melting moment is an Australian classic, for those not familiar it is a rich shortbread biscuit with icing in the middle, and it comes in all sorts of flavours. Here it is chocolate on chocolate! I found had some chocolate icing left over.

Coconut and Raspberry Sandwiches


The Monte Carlo biscuit goes vegan and homemade! These are way tastier than the ones you get out of a packet (does everywhere get Monte Carlo biscuits or is it regional?). Coconut biscuits are filled with coconut icing and raspberry jam. I accidentally made the biscuits here too big - they are meant to be a bit smaller.

Orange and Fig Slice


I am not a figgy fan, so I used dried dates here in place of the figs and it worked great. It is topped with a cream cheese icing. This recipe uses quite a lot of orange zest, more than you will get from the orange to get the juice required. I zest lemons, limes and oranges everytime I have to juice one and keep the zest in the freezer, and if you do this too it will be no problem having the required amount of zest.

Passionfruit Melting Moments


You can see here that this was back when my biscuit shaping skillz were not so mad. Leigh's passionfruit melting moments are my favourite flavour. For those curious, I have also tried lemon and ginger versions of her melting moments, and passionfruit rules them all).

Raspberry Choc Mud Cake


Chocolate and raspberry is a great combination. Not quite as good as chocolate and cherry, but pretty amazing as far as combinations go. This is a delicious mudcake. Leigh recommends leaving the cake to chill overnight if possible, which allows time for the raspberries to make their own coulis.

I don't have a photo of this little number:
Frozen Banana Split - We all know about keeping frozen bananas on hand. This uses partially defrosted bananas mixed up into an ice-cream, then drizzled with a very quick and easy chocolate sauce and topped with broken nuts and biscuits. Should you wish to add cream or a cherry, go ahead!

Have eaten (these are recipes that I haven't made myself, but have eaten):
Black Forest Cake - This is amazing! Black Forest Cake is my favourite cake. Nom, nom, nom, nom. I could eat this forever!
Cherry Pie - This is so good! I do love me some cherries.
Poached Pears with Chocolate Sauce - Classic and classy

Yet to make:
Baklava
Banana Cheezcake
Creamy Fruit Sorbet
Creme Brulee (can make now that I bought a little blowtorch on Wednesday - yay!)
Fruit Skewers with Blueberry Sauce
Gluten Free Almond Citrus Syrup Bundt Cake
Peach and Coconut Tart
Spiced Sweet Potato Pie with Candied Pecans
Tiramisu

Here is a bonus picture of a chocolate mousse that I tested that didn't end up in the final book.



You can visit Leigh's blog here.

Have you ever tested for a cookbook?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

A special treat today - three kitty photos!




I mentioned Leigh was a lover of kitties. Here she is with my Sahara, who Leigh is quite taken with. Sahara is standing on our friend Diana's back.


Here is Leigh with Gizmo, who demands love from everyone in her path.


I don't have any photos of Leigh and Dim Sim, because Dim Sim has this thing where she is suspicious and hides. But so she is not left out of this post, here is a photo of Dim Sim and myself.