September family brunch and vegan blondies ♥ Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. Caramelly flavor with vegan white chocolate chunks. And some white beans hidden inside too, which you can’t taste at all. These easy-to-make treats are gluten-free, vegan and ready in about 25 minutes.
This was our second forest brunch and it was a very special one because we celebrated my son’s 6th birthday. He was super excited about this special event and all the delicious gluten-free vegan treats I baked for the occasion.
Vegan gluten-free birthday treats
When making several treats for a special occasion I like to make one of each: cookies (or cookie like treat), a pie (or pie like treat), little tarts and a cake. The flavors should be different, but still a good match. I like to have at least one berry treat and one chocolate treat. I prefer baked goods I can make a day before or then very easy-to-make treats, which I can bake while making a zillion other things on the day of the event.
Most of these treats are from my vegan baking book Herkkuja, which was published in Finland last year.
Carrot layer cake
I made the cake a day before the event. This cake actually gets better when stored in the fridge for a day, so this was the perfect choice as a birthday cake. I shared the a recipe a while ago on the blog, just click here to see it. It’s one of my son’s favorite cakes and with all the cozy warm spices it’s a really delicious cake for fall.
Vegan blondies
These blondies have the perfect crispy crust, and a gooey soft center which melts in your mouth. If you store them in the fridge, they become chewy yummy cookie-like bites. Either way, they’re a hit with both kids and adults. See the recipe below!
Tosca cake
This is a classic Nordic cake with caramelly almond flakes on top. I’m going to share this traditional recipe as a veganized and gluten-free version next Sunday!
Cloudberry caramel tarts
Berries and caramel, especially cloudberries and caramel, are a classic Finnish flavor combination. These tarts are cute and delicious and also very simple to make. I will share the recipe later, because this is a treat I would like everyone to enjoy! If cloudberries aren’t available where you live, you can use cloudberry jam (from IKEA) or any berry you like.
Birthday party decorations
All decorations we used were a gift from nature. If you have a brunch or party coming up, I recommend having a big platter with a colorful variety of fruits and berries of the season. You can arrange the fruits however you wish and they’ll always look amazing.
We also used branches from berry bushes and trees to add a bit of green to the mix too. No extra decoration is needed when you have lovely earthy and natural elements on the table.
If you want to see how we decorated our forest brunch table and what we ate in August, here’s the link to the first post of the series and here’s the second part.
Happy brunching! ♥
Vegan blondies
Ingredients
- 50 g / 1,7 oz vegan white chocolate
- 50 ml / 0,2 cups (25 g) melted coconut oil
- 100 g / 3,5 oz ready to use (cooked) white beans or cannellini beans
- 100 g / 3,5 oz cashew butter Almond butter works too, but I prefer the flavor of cashew butter
- 0,6 cups (75 g) coconut sugar
- 0,4 cups (45 g) gluten-free oat flour
- 0,5 tsp baking powder
- a heaped 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom Totally optional, adds a delicious touch to these blondies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 C / 392 F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
- Chop white chocolate.
- Blend beans, nut butter, oil and sugar in a food processor until you have a smooth sticky batter.
- Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and spices. Add chocolate pieces and mix well.
- Press batter on the bottom of the baking pan. If the batter is too sticky, wet fingers / spoon and press it.
- Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes (depending on the oven). Blondies are supposed to be sticky, they become less sticky and cookie-like the longer you bake them.
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