Annual Vegan Bake Sale - Online for the second year running

 The VSI Annual Vegan Bake Sale first took place in 2010 in Dublin.  Here's a link to a blog I found about it.  

The first one I attended was in 2011 and there's an article about it in The Irish Vegetarian from that year.

It was such a great event because buying vegan sweets, treats and cakes and other bakes was nearly impossible back then. It was so lovely to be able to go to an event and buy things that were all vegan.   It was also a great opportunity to meet other people who were on the same journey at the the same time as you and to raise money for animal charities.

Last year as we went into lockdown, Grace, Sarah and I decided to host a vegan bake and donate online and we have just hosted the second online bake and donate.   We suggested vegan animal sanctuaries and rescues as beneficiaries Back Into Daylight, Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary, Heartstone Veganic Sanctuary,  Furry Friends

Vegan sanctuaries provide a safe-place for their residents to live lives without exploitation, separation and slaughter.  This is not about providing high standards of welfare for the non-human residents, it is about recognising that the residents have a right to live their lives with guardians who will protect them and not exploit them rather than owners who view them as property for exploitation and profit.

I made a Pear Upside Down Cake and a Choc Chip Cookie Cake for the event.  There were some fantastic other makes - I really liked the look of Amy V Annabel's Chocolate with fresh berries and seeds and I will definitely be trying that out. 

Here are the recipes for the cakes I made.  I used a Vegan Richa recipe for the pear cake and I adapted a recipe from another one I had for the Choc Chip Cookie Cake - here it is

2 cups of self-raising flour

3/4 cup of coconut sugar

1/2 cup of maple syrup

1/2 cup of soya milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

pinch of salt

3/4 cup of choc chips 

1/2 cup of blended raw pear

a lined 9 inch round tin

1.  Mix all the dry ingredients

2.  Mix all the wet ingredients

3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and slowly add most of the wet mixture.  You should have a thickish mix.

4.  Pour mixture into the lined tin.   I have a very old wonky gas oven and I baked it at gas mark 4 for 30 minutes.

a slice of choc chip cookie cake

Pear Upside Down Cake

The reason I chose pears as the fruit around my bakes was because pears were on offer in Lidl - so I had a punnet for 49 cents to use!