Apple Thursday and Manchester Cake Liberation Front

Wow! This week I  actually managed to make something for Apple Thursday!

Yesterday I went to a Cake Liberation Front meet up hosted by the lovely Caroline from Tea and Sympatico, basically it’s like a vegan baking pot luck event where everyone brings something they've baked (either sweet and savoury) and you all get to dig in and try everyone else’s creations.  This is the third time I've been and when I first went in January, I ended up eating my way through three platefuls of vegan cakes! Through this meet up I got to hear about all the other vegan events in the city and made a load of new vegan friends. Without these meet ups I would be a very lonely vegan!

I made apple cake with a chocolate ganache made using this recipe (I made option 1). I didn't have enough oranges for the full amount of fresh orange juice, so I topped it up with some juice we had in the fridge.  However I'm sure if you were maybe 50mls short you could just use water. 

The idea is that the ganache soaks into the cake, but that didn’t seem to happen and I just ended up with a delicious thick layer of ganache on top- I’m not complaining! The cake is dreamy but rich and heavy so small pieces are a way to go.

 I didn't manage to take pictures o everything, but here are some of the bakes:

Gluten free almond biscuits

Peanut butter and maple cookies- the maple favour was wonderfully subtle.

Snap bars from the Ms Cupcake book. These are nearly all gone for a reason! I will definitely giving this recipe a go.

Mint chocolate chip cupcakes (sorry for the rubbish picture). I LOVED these, and would have taken the last one home but it would have been squished in my tin :-(

The good thing about these events is that you get to take home leftovers. I left with half a peanut butter and maple cookie, snap bar, courgette cake and some cake with chilli in that the baker insisted I take! I'm a bit apprehensive about that one, but I bet you wouldn't find it anywhere else!

The event is always held at V Revolution, an amazing vegan junk food cafe and shop in Manchester city centre.  I like to use the opportunity to pick up some goodies as well:

This orange chocolate mylk from Rebel Kitchen, I've seen these everywhere but never had one. I love the awesome packaging.

I had it after my lunch today, it was almost like drinking a Terry Chocolate Orange. I loved the extendable straw, and the fact that on the top it said "Shake me Punk"! It also made me laugh that on the side it said "drink within two days of opening", like anyone would just not drink it all in one go!

I was wel-jel of Jojo's of Vegan in Brighton's post about having THREE choices of vegan pizza places in Brighton.  So I decided to treat myself to Violife's pizza cheese for Pizza Saturday.  I LOVE violife, I was never a huge cheese fan but I used to like dutch cheeses which violife cheese reminds me of (although I don't think they are suppose to). Also cheese on pizzas are one thing I miss, purely for its ability to hold toppings on pizzas!

I've never tried jerky, but I was very intrigued by these, plus I needed make my bill more that £5 to be able to pay by card.

As well as the lovely food, as usual I got to meet lovely people, some who I met at previous meet ups but there are always new faces. This time I talked to the lovely Helen and Lucy and got introduced to Hasta La Vegan- I'm loving her MoFo theme, and giggled out loud like a crazed lady on the train reading about her recreating all the dodgy recipes in old cookbooks.