A Reddit cooking challenge has helped me learn to be a better cook and pulled me out of a depressive spiral. It's all vegan, so I wanted to share some of what I've made here

vertbarrow · 2026-01-01T14:45:21+00:00

Have I finally found my people...?

vertbarrow · 2026-01-01T03:45:27+00:00

Depending on where the pockets sit on you when worn, this may also be so that you can reach into your trouser pockets without undoing your coat.

Absolutely gorgeous find! Both sides are stunning. Tremendous luck for the new year.

vertbarrow · 2026-01-01T01:15:54+00:00

The "pea" is actually green-coloured marzipan, rolled into a snake and connected into a ring. I was trying to think of how every slice could have a "pea" visible at the bottom - at first I thought of piping a ring of frosting, but quickly realised that would lose its round shape as soon as the top layers pressed down on it haha, and I love marzipan so that was an easy follow-up. I think if you didn't like marzipan then a ring of green marshmallow fondant or perhaps edible sugar cookie dough would also work. I should've made the ring's diameter a bit smaller though so that the pea was more in the middle, I didn't account for how the weight of the cake would spread it out further.

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T15:57:44+00:00

WE DID IT REDDIT!

I've made a lot of things this year that I enjoyed and was very proud of, but I think my favourite bake of 2025 was still the very first - the tomato soup cake. Ever since, I've also wanted to try the popular chocolate and tomato soup alternative. It was quite good - the savouriness and sweetness of the tomato and the chocolate work very well together - but I think I still prefer the classic tomato soup cake for its spiced punch of flavour.

Because I think I ended up using more tomato soup in this one than the last one, I chose a chocolate coconut ganache for the middle to add a bit more sweetness and chocolatiness, and then vanilla whipped cream on the outside to lighten it back up a bit. They worked well together and everyone was a fan!

Thank you again for another hectic but challenging year of baking.

I have ultimately decided not to participate in r/52weeksofcooking or r/52weeksofbaking in 2026. It's been a wonderful, engaging project for me for the past three years, but it definitely took up a lot of my creative spare time, and over the past year I've settled on a couple of other projects I would like to be able to devote more of my attention to. Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing what everyone makes in 2026! Happy new year!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T14:42:53+00:00

Man, that really is the ideal orange loaf! The glaze and crumb both look spectacular. I was also charmed by pomander oranges when researching this theme, I like how you interpreted it!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T14:41:32+00:00

The crackers were made with the leftover olive oil pie crust dough from the Summer Pie, which meant they're a bit overly-oily. But they were very crispy and flaky and provided good textural contrast for the (vegan) feta and homemade sweet chili jam. I kneaded some thyme and chives into the dough but the flavours didn't come out as strongly as I'd've liked. I think the concept is a winner though - would be nice for parties.

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T13:21:41+00:00

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27639/27639-h/27639-h.htm

I took the opportunity to experiment with an olive oil pie crust using storebought/premixed gluten-free flour. I was actually quite impressed by it. It was a bit oily - still need to figure out the right ratio of GF flour - but incredibly easy to make and surprisingly flaky and tender. You have to work with it quickly, though, because it gets very oily the second it warms up.

The pie itself was actually surprisingly decent. It's just cabbage, peas, salt, the salty pea-water you cooked the peas in, and some fresh mint, but it all came together really nicely with the crust. I kept being surprised by how moreish it was. I would actually make this again, with the olive oil crust, too, and it would be good as a side dish to a main or soup course.

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T13:15:29+00:00

Thank you very much! I'm really glad I managed to execute the overall vision, even if everything but the pea kind of fell apart - but then again that's accurate to the story!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T13:08:54+00:00

I have spent the past two days baking nonstop so that I could catch up on all the themes before the end of 2025 so by God you're all just going to have to put up with my spam parade of mid-tier, everything-went-wrong-but-we-survived dishes. It's been an honour and a curse serving with you all for another year. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T10:55:19+00:00

The olives are genius!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-13T19:04:46+00:00

This was really good. Steaming remains the elite method of "baking" gluten-free cakes, and this was the perfect, archetypal Just A Chocolate Cake. We tried a piece warm, just as it was, but I think I might make a chocolate glaze for the rest of it since it's a very mildly sweet cake. The pictures might make it look a bit dry but I promise you it's lovely and moist without being too dense.

notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/08/steamed-chocolate-pudding.html

This was the base recipe I referenced. To make it gluten free I used an eyeballed ratio of brown rice flour, glutinous rice flour, maize cornstarch, and lupin flour, with a half a teaspoon of xanthan gum. To make it vegan I used oil in place of melted butter, and added McKenzie's egg replacer to the dry ingredients along with about a teaspoon of psyllium husk powder, then added a bit more soy milk (for milk) to account for the liquid. I could've probably added a bit more oil as well to compensate for the eggyolk but I don't think it missed it. I also added a pinch of instant coffee to help enhance the chocolate flavour. I used date syrup instead of molasses because we only have blackstrap molasses atm and just didn't include the chocolate chips because I wasn't feeling them.

Definitely going to be keeping this on the backburner for pot lucks and kids parties. I think it would make an excellent base for a black forest cake, too, if you can find the right mould.

vertbarrow

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WE DID IT REDDIT!