Fusion apricot cherry birthday cake

I have the feeling that I have been passed through a shredder. I thought that I least my legs would be able to take it. I go running many times a week, and I even can’t remember the last time my legs were stiff.  I was absolutely wrong. On Friday night I participated in a night volleyball tournament, from 8 PM to 3 AM. We didn’t win any prize, of course (the level was impressive), but  we won a dose of stiffness for the whole week instead. Because I can’t sleep after 6 AM (it’s an habit u_u) I only slept 2 hours. It would be not as important as all that if my friends didn’t have the brilliant idea of celebrating a party the next night. And if it was not enough, on Sunday my family and I had a very important meeting.  You should have seen me walking from the train station to the hotel where we had to meet. I was giving a grimace of pain on every step. I stopped in a café and drank a cup of very strong coffee (Blue Mountain, by the way) because it seems that the coffee I drank at home was not strong enough. Thank goodness I did it, or I would have felt asleep while talking

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Parties can be quite challenging if you are a vegan, especially if you are just beginning or if you are meeting with people who is not close to you. Fortunately, almost all those present in the party where very close friends, so I didn’t feel embarrassed when I asked for some bread, tomatoes, lettuce and oil to make a sandwich because all the others were going to eat pizza.

Today’s recipe is one that I should have posted a long time ago, but I was always postponing it for one reason or another. It’s the cake I baked for my father’s birthday, the last 21th June, just imagine! I thought that I had to post it before my mother’s birthday, which on 19th  of this month, because another birthday cake will be required. Actually, I still want to post another cake recipe, this time from Vegan Yum Yum, so I think that I am beginning to accumulate too much cake recipes.

Fusion apricot cherry birthday cake It’s curious, but it seems like in Spain people prefer cakes made with cream or ice cream cake. In any case, I have the impression that people eat less baked cakes than in Russia. At least, in all the birthdays or celebration where I assisted, there was a non-baked cake, flourless, or just with a thin layer of biscuit and lots of cream. In Russia instead, baked cakes are more popular (although the ones made with cream are very common too). This is why I have never tried yet to do a “cream” cake or tart, although I have many recipes that use tofu or avocado instead: my family just prefers cakes made from flour. And my father’s birthday was not an exception because I didn’t want to risk. Maybe for my mother’s birthday. I am not sure if I can say that this cake is my own recipe, because actually is a fusion between many recipes. I didn’t want a plain sponge cake because I thought it was too easy and not spectacular enough for a birthday, so I baked my version of the quarkstollen I found in Delicious Days and cut it in two. Then, for the filling I used the same method as Susan in her strawberry snack cake and a peanut butter coating, with some cherries on the top to give it a birthday cake Dough 25g fresh yeast **instead of the 50g of the original recipe 1/8l lukewarm non dairy milk 125g sugar 500g flour 150g margarine zest of 1 lemon, and juice of ½ of it pinch of salt 200g tofu 50g dried apricots, diced 50g raisins 50g sunflower seeds Cherries Flax seeds (optional) Fruit filling More or less 1 kg of apricots, thinly sliced 2 tablespoons cornstarch 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup water Peanut butter icing 3 Tablespoons peanut butter 1 Tablespoon soymilk 3 Tablespoons confectionary sugar Preheat the oven to 175ºC (347 Fº). Meanwhile, begin by dissolving the fresh yeast with the 4 tbspoons of the warm milk (I used soy milk) and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Let it rise for 20 min. In a bowl, mix the flour, the sugar, the salt and the lemon zest. Add the margarine and the remaining milk. Instead of curd, I used tofu: mix the tofu with the lemon juice with a fork, or if you prefer it with a blender. Cook on a saucepan for 3-4 minutes. Add it to the flour and milk mix. After kneading it very well, let it rise in a warm place for 60 min. Knead it again, adding this time the sunflower seeds, raisins and apricots (feel free to experiment with other dried fruits or nuts) Put the dough in a round pan, add the cherries on the top, sprinkle with flax seeds and bake for 50 minutes (I baked it a little bit more than an hour, and I over baked it) Let it cool. Meanwhile, prepare the fruit filling and the icing. For the filling, mix the slices apricots (you can try with other fruits), the cornstarch, the sugar and water. Put it in a saucepan and cook for 10 minutes. For the peanut butter icing, just mix all the ingredients . Slice the cake in two halves, so you can spread the filling on one of them. Do it better when the filling is still hot, because it will give more moistness to the cake. When the cake is already cool, pour the icing over it. Serve with a good cup of tea =)

In case you have ever wondered how do Spanish trains look =P We were on the second floor. When we came to Spain, the two floor trains were one of the things that surprised me the most, because I have never seen that kind of trains in Russia (actually, I think they don't exist). Are there two floor trains were you live? Ah, and that is me with my parents, on the way to Barcelona. I really look as if I haven’t had any sleep. Actually, I have almost felt asleep in the train