Vegan Coffee Crumble Cake

I had a friend from America who visited me in Tangier a while back. We were making plans with another friend of mine and while on the phone with him, I said "So are you still in the coffee?" My friend looked at me funny and said "Excuse me, what did you just say?"

"I asked if he was in the coffee- that's normal, right?"

Apparently I've forgotten how to speak english. Because here in Morocco, are you in the coffee is a perfectly acceptable way to ask if you are at a cafe.

And let me tell you- the cafe culture here is huge. Somedays, I wake up and leave my apartment around 9am and while walking past the cafe just next door, see an old man in his kandora with a glass of cafe au lait in front of him and a smoking cigarrette nestled in the ash tray. I go out, do my thing around the city, and coming back around 4 or 5pm, see the same man with what appears to be the same glass of coffee and the same cigarette, still burning at the same length.

At night, instead of overflowing bars and clubs, you'll find hundreds of chatty cafes filled with teens drinking cappuccinos, juices and hot chocolate. Sometimes on particularly social weekends, instead of bar-hopping like I would do in University, I find myself cafe-hopping to see different friends. I kind of love it.

Needless to say, I drink a lot more coffee here than I ever have in my life. And as if drinking loads of coffee wasn't enough, why not consume it in an edible form as well? This is not just coffee cake as in you-eat-it-with-a-cup-of-coffee cake. This is coffee-infused deliciousness.

Cinnamon Coffee Crumble Cake
vegan

makes 1 loaf cake

100 ml soy milk
150 ml strong coffee- cooled
60 ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
225g granulated sugar
210g flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 tbsp flour
50g brown sugar
30g cold vegan butter
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 180º C and grease a loaf pan. In a large bowl, mix together the soy milk, coffee, oil, vanilla, lemon juice and sugar. Sift in the remaining dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Don't over-stir! Pour the batter into your pan and stick in the oven- it will bake for about 30-40 minutes total or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Make the crumble topping as soon as you put the cake in, by combining all of the ingredients in a small bowl with your fingers. After the cake has been in the oven about 20 minutes, take it out, sprinkle the crumble on top and let it bake the remainder of the time. If you put the topping on right away, it will sink into the cake and, granted, still taste great, but won't look as pretty. Let the cake cool, slice, and enjoy with more coffee!

Pineapple Almond Upside-Down Bars

So I thought that making gluten-free and vegan cakes would be the death of me. But in fact, after discovering rice flour and cheap almonds at my favorite little hanut, I've discovered that it's not too bad. It's actually kind of an adventure. And this particular adventure with pineapple and dates and buttery goodness was definitely a success. Upside-down cakes have always been one of my favorite things to make, but the dense consistency of this particular dessert makes it really more bar-like than cake-y. Whatever you call it, trust me when I say you'll want to eat the whole pan down to the last crumb in one sitting.

I teamed up with the lovely Valerie from Nuance & Bubbles for this recipe, combining flavors from her tropical Puerto Rican beaches and my Tangier coastline to create a delicious international fusion. Head on over to her blog for the whole post and the recipe!

More updates on life this weekend. For now, lots to do, lots to do.
Just keep dancin'

Oh, and you can follow Nuance & Bubbles on facebook, twitter, and instagram :)

xx

(Almost) Raw Chocolate Orange Torte

Last week I finally was able to wrangle a friend into teaching me Darija (the Moroccan dialect of Arabic) on a weekly basis, and you know what? I forgot how much fun it is to learn a new language. We will put aside the fact that I'm learning it from a cute young Moroccan guy with adorable broken english and just focus on the fact that language is amazing. New sentence structures, grammar, vocabulary- man, I should have been a linguistics major. Granted, every time I try to pronounce the Kh I sound like a cat coughing on it's own fur and when I try to do that throaty R I sound like one of the Muppets, but you know, it's a process. Practice makes... well, better.

It may be difficult, but I love that I'm figuring out that I can make these sounds with my mouth that I didn't even think were possible. It's like biting into a new and delicious and totally foreign piece of fruit with each new word. 

In fact, Darija is almost as delicious as this Almost Raw Chocolate Orange Torte. 

(Did you see what I did there?)

             

But seriously. This tri-layered torte is smooth, creamy, and just raw enough to sort of trick your brain into thinking this is really more of a health food than dessert so let me just eat one more sliver. Make it two.

(Almost) Raw Chocolate Orange Torte

Crust
150g almonds (we toasted them for extra flavor, but that's definitely not raw, so it's totally optional)
3 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp tahini or other nut butter
1 tbsp sweetener (we used dark brown sugar but you could also use maple syrup or raw honey)

Filling
200g raw cashews, soaked for 2-3 hours or overnight
150g medjool dates, soaked for 1-2 hours
150g vegan dark chocolate
1 tbsp orange zest

Ganache
100g vegan dark chocolate
3 tbsp soy or almond milk

Begin with the crust: line an 8" or 9" round pan with a piece of parchment paper. Pulse almonds in a food processor until ground into a meal. Add coconut oil, tahini and sweetener and mix with your fingers until it starts to stick together. Press into the bottom of the pan and stick in the fridge while you make the rest of the layers.

To prepare the filling, melt the chocolate in a double boiler and scoop it into your food processor with the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth & mousse-like. Spread the filling evenly on top of the crust and place in the fridge to set for at least 1 hour.

In the meantime, make the ganache by melting the chocolate and soymilk together in your double boiler. Whisk until smooth and set in the fridge to cool until the rest of the torte is set. Once it's all ready, flip the torte & crust out of the pan onto a plate and pour the ganache over the top. Slice, serve & smile.

Cinnamon & Sesame Apple Cake

Okay get ready- I'm gonna get a little philosophical on you guys today. Bear with me.

I try to write every day (uh huh sure) and the other morning I ended up writing about how I tend to think of life in chapters. I blame it on excessive reading ever since I was a kid- although what is excessive, really, when it comes to reading? Some of these life chapters are longer than others, but they always open out onto a new page. Fresh ideas, plot twists. Unexpected words put into unexpected sentences.

Ugh, sorry, I'll stop with the extended metaphor.

Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes

I have been in Berlin a little bit over a month now, and to be completely honest, I still don't know what I'm doing. I keep getting all inside my head and worrying about the future and my career and silly things like that, when really, all I need to do is stop and look around.

Baking in Berlin // Blueberry Clafoutis

When you move to or just visit a foreign city it is natural (and crucial) to seek out sources of comfort and familiarity. Otherwise you are just going to feel awkward and displaced all the time and no one, not even me, Ms. Let's-see-how-far-from-my-comfort-zone-I-can-get, enjoys that.

Obviously it's important to take risks and go out of your way to see new places and things or strike up conversations with random strangers on park benches, but you also need to give yourself a break. I often have a hard time with that because I love doing everything at once, but breaks need to be taken. That's why in Berlin I have already found my favorite coffee shop with cozy corners and amazing cookies, where I can go and blend into the crowd by sticking my nose in a book and downing cappuccinos. And why I go on the same run in the same park every other day listening to my favorite music from back home. I cook myself nice dinners and every once in a while, treat myself by baking some kind of fabulous dessert. And share it only to win the affection of my flatmates. Kidding- I would share anyway... right?