Peanut butter "cheese" cake

Let's go back to the main topic of this blog: vegan food. If you're stopping here for the fist time I have to warn you that I am not a chef or a genius in the kitchen, but I love cooking and decided to create this blog do share my experiences about cooking and living as a vegan.

For the Christmas evening I baked a vegan peanut butter "cheese" cake. To make the "frosting", or last layer, I used the "crema pasticcera" mix that I had at home, bought in Italy. It's creamy custard filling very popular there. I would say that for the next time I do this cheese cake I would go with a chocolate layer, makes more sense.

Peanut butter "cheese" cake

Crust:
1 1/2 cups vegan cracker crumbs
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegan margarine

"Cheese" cake
1/2 package extra-firm silken tofu
1 package vegan "cream cheese"
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 175°C.

For the crust, stir together the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar in a medium bowl. Melt the margarine and incorporate it into the dry ingredients, forming a crumbly mixture. Use your hands to press this mixture into the bottom of a 7 inch round springform pan (all the recipes use the 9 inch pan but this recipe is for a smaller cake). Make it further up in the sides to form a lip at the edge of the crust. Set aside.

For the filling, drain the tofu of any excess water and blend it in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add in the vegan "cream cheese" and blend it again. Add the peanut butter, the sugar and vanilla and blend it again for 2 or 3 minutes (or until it achieve a very smooth and homogeneous consistency). Add the mixture over the crust and spread it.

Bake it for 35 to 40 minutes.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 8 hours before serving. You can serve it with soy cream too.

First blog giveaway and recipe!

I can't believe it took me so long but I am finally doing the first giveaway of this blog! In August I will celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the blog (and I missed the 1st one, still can't believe that). Time is really flying and it's cool to see that I'm still enjoying writing here. Cause of the blog I got in touch with amazing people and could met personally some of them. I decided to cook more and I'm writing more in English too. I won't write anymore about it today cause I have too much to share: the giveaway and a vegan raspberry "cheese cake" recipe.

First, the recipe! I finally got back into my kitchen last Saturday to bake and I decided to make a fruit vegan "cheese cake". Matteo loves chocolate (also do I) and most of the time I end up making everything with it. He wasn't here last week, my sister-in-law can't eat chocolate, so it was a perfect occasion to try this new experience. I ended up making a mix of two recipes I had and it worked very well.

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Vegan Raspberry "Cheese Cake"
Crust:
1 1/2 cups vegan graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar (or regular granulated sugar or brown sugar)
1/4 margarine

"Cheese" Cake
200 g extra-firm silken tofu
1 package vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti Creamy Smooth)
250g fresh raspberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 tablespon salt

Preheat your oven to 175°C.

For the crust, stir together the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar in a medium bowl. Melt the margarine and incorporate it into the dry ingredients, forming a crumbly mixture. Use your hands to press this mixture into the bottom of a 7 inch round springform pan (all the recipes use the 9 inch pan but this recipe is for a smaller cake). Make it further up in the sides to form a lip at the edge of the crust. Set aside.

For the filling, drain the tofu of any excess water and blend it in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add in the vegan "cream cheese" and blend it again. Add the sugar, vanilla and salt and blend it again for 30 seconds. Add the fresh raspberries and blend it for more 2 or 3 minutes (or until it achieve a very smooth and homogeneous consistency. Add the mixture over the crust and spread it.

Bake it for 35 to 40 minutes.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 8 hours before serving. Add 3 tablespoons of raspberry jelly over it. You can serve it with soya cream too.

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A big inspiration!

I have to say that since I decided to start baking (and also cooking more), some people had a HUGE influence in my life, being great inspiration. One of those incredible people is Hannah Kaminsky, author of the amazing My Sweet Vegan cookbook. I got in touch with her many times, for different reasons, and she have always been amazing. I love the recipes of her book and I love her blog, Bitter Sweet.

And about two months ago I did an interview with her to prepare a profile article for the German magazine I'm writing for. You can see the page here and I'll post the article in English in the near future. It was a pleasure to write this article and I have much to thank this girl.

Besides all this, she (and her publisher) gave me the permission to give to my lovely readers one copy of one of her new e-books: Mission: Impossible Pies that you can buy on-line. I already have it and I loved all the recipes and wanted to share the book with you!

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The giveaway

The Prize: 1 copy of the e-book Mission: Impossible Pies, by Hannah Kaminsky.

Who can enter the giveaway? It's open to everybody in the world!

How to enter: just leave a comment saying what kind of vegan food do you prefer to cook: salty or sweet and the reason.

Dates: the entries will be accept from today (July 26th) until August 4th. The winner will be announced on August 6th. If the winner is not a blogger user, please come back here to check the blog post of August 6th and get in touch with me because I will need the winner's email :)

Increase your chances! You can do one or more of the following things, return here and leave a comment saying which one you did (leave a comment for each extra entry so you can have more chances):

a. Tweet about the giveaway and mention @GlaucexVx and @bittersweet__
You an use this text: "All about... (vegan) food (@GlaucexVx) is giving away a copy of Mission: Impossible Pies, by @bittersweet__ http://TwitPWR.com/MGB/"

b. Join the All about... (vegan) food Facebook page and "like" our wall post about the giveaway.

c. Write about the giveaway in your blog and leave a comment here with the link.

PS. AOS LEITORES BRASILEIROS: mesmo nao traduzindo o post todo, o sorteio do ebook "Mission: Impossible Pies" vale tambem para o Brasil e para respostas em portugues! Basta responder a pergunta com um comentario. Para aumentar as chances, basta divulgar no Twiter ou no seu blog (e postar um comentario aqui com os links) e se clicar em "Like" (ou "curtir") na pagina do blog no Facebook e tambem no post (e sempre voltar aqui e deixar outro comentario dizendo que fez isso tambem!).