Reaching the third round vegan style

I was all mentally ready for the second round of the cake competition! I had decided to make a hazelnut cake, and I already had tried out a vegan recipe. Not much could go wrong.

I was still on a mission to do vegan baking for the competition; if you have a platform you might as well use it! I could show the entire school that vegan baking doesn't have to be any less than non-vegan baking. Maybe some people will follow suit, and the whole competition would get a smaller carbon footprint. And, of course, maybe any baking people might do for other occasions. And it's kind to the vegan to set a good example; it's great if they can try the cake too.

When the day approached, I looked for the recipe I wanted to use again. And you know where this is going! It was nowhere to be found. Oh dear! But it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt a similar recipe. I found a walnut mocha cake recipe on the same website, and I figured I could just adapt that. 

The day before I got an idea of who I was up against. Over lunch, one of my colleagues noticed that another colleague had "baking" written on his hand. That is a bit of a dead giveaway! So I figured it was him. I thought he would be an interesting opponent; he quite enjoys railing against "hippie shit" and I think anything vegan neatly falls into that category. Would I be able to beat him with that?

The day I would have to bake I was home a bit late. I first saw Jenny in the pub, and we are supposed to only stay there for 45 minutes, but we had overrun by almost half an hour. By the time I got home and had fed the cat and myself, basically it was baking time until it was bedtime.

I set to work. I left the coffee out and replaced it with oat milk, and replaced the walnuts with hazelnuts. The recipe also required ground walnuts, and I didn't have any ground hazelnuts, so I just used a bit more flour.

Making the batter wasn't much work. And then I could put the whole thing into the oven. And that gave me the opportunity to make some buttercream. I never make it for myself, but for a cake competition it can be a good idea. It was just some vegan butter, a lot of icing sugar and some hazelnut spread. Quite simple!

The undecorated cake

I was out of cake myself, and I wanted to enjoy a bit more than a tiny bit to taste in the competition, so I had decided to make the double amount of batter. My baking tin actually swallowed all of it! So I just made an extra batch while I was at it, this time the normal amount, so I baked a half-sized cake for myself.

The next morning I did the decoration; I put the buttercream on top. I tried to give that a marble effect but that failed. But at least the buttercream was a good glue to put roast hazelnuts and chopped nuts on the top. And then I was ready!

How it entered the competition

Susan had offered to drive it to work, so she came to my door with her cake tupperware. And then I could just switch into anonymous mode! Just show up for the competition, not telling anyone I was one of the bakers, and see how it went. It was also the first time I actually got to try my own creation!

I was up against chocolate cake, and legend has it chocolate cakes never win. (Mine didn't.) I personally liked my cake better than the other one. I wouldn't vote, but it did give me confidence. And an interesting detail was that my new colleague Claire joined me at the table, and she turns out to be vegan. She didn't know I was the baker, of course, but it was good to see her eat a piece of my cake, because she could.

I eagerly awaited the email with the result. And I had won! I am through to the third round, which I have never managed before! It does mean I now have to think of another recipe to make. But there should be plenty of time; the second round has only recently started. I always hoped to be booted out in the first round; I would have shown my good intentions, but I wouldn't have to repeatedly bake. But since lockdown I am a much more confident baker, and I think I am getting a bit competitive now. Bring on the third round! I have no idea how many rounds there are. But I will find out!