Simply Vegan Baking

As a huge bake off fan I was thrilled to see a vegan baking book by Freya released! The book is packed with absolutely delicious looking bakes that I can't wait to try. I was really intrigued by the use of milk and a souring agent instead of flax or chia egg replacements (I find they don't work great, just as Freya says!) so I'm hoping this new discovery will produce beautifully fluffy cakes once again. The gluten free pumpkin cupcakes look fab for my colleagues in the autumn months and the white chocolate and raspberry blondies are my favourite treat! A gorgeous, colourful book that will bring joy to my baking!

I don’t think I’ve ever come across a better vegan baking book in my life!

I’ve been Vegan for 8 years now and I’ve dipped my toe in and out of vegan baking for many years, trying all manner of different recipes from all sorts of different sources. But here enters this gem of a book! With all your sweet treats, baking and cake making needs wrapped up in this one epic book!

It’s so beautifully simple and effective; there’s no sun blessed blanched goji-berry seed sprouting powder juice needed to be plucked from the mountains of the Himalayas which would be impossible to find in the supermarket. They’re all easily sourced and fairly run of the mill standard store cupboard ingredients that won’t cost the earth. That was a number one tick for me.

The next came from the beautifully presented book and the ease of writing and conveying the instructions in which to make her wonderful creations. With handy little hints and tips, glorious accompanying photos (one benefit for having an ebook copy of this is that I couldn’t openly dribble onto the pages) and an amazing range of bakes you can make at home. They seriously look like something I’d be happy to see in a cafe or restaurant; some amazing showstoppers!

You definitely need this book on your shelf and in your kitchen! I’m so happy to have this as an ebook format but I’d love to have a physical copy of this as it’s just so useful and one thing you’d definitely want to keep referring back to and bringing out on every occasion possible.

A lot of love for this cookbook and one I think I’d recommend to all (Vegans and non vegans a like) as it’s just an exemplary book on all sorts of vegan bakes and one I can’t wait to get stuck into experimenting in the kitchen with!

(Whoops I wrote an essay, but it really is a great vegan cookbook!!)

I’m a self-confessed Great British Bake-Off fan and also have a vegan in the household - so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of Simply Vegan Bakery by Freya Cox.

I have tried to bake vegan cakes in the past without success and it felt like I needed to employ some sort of alchemy to achieve successful bakes. Having read this book, it turns out that I’d been doing vegan bakery all wrong!

Freya’s book is full of really useful tips. For example, in the past I just mixed soya milk and apple cider vinegar and crossed my fingers it would work, which it never did. Freya suggests warming the soya milk before mixing with apple cider vinegar - and it works! I had my first successful vegan bake following the recipe for the amazing Black Forest Gateau. I can’t wait to try more of the recipes now! This book has really made me feel confident and that I can now bake proper vegan cakes.

A special mention must be made to the photographer, Clare Winfield, and also the foot stylists Freya Cox and Joanna Jackson, who made the bakes look beautifully tempting and delicious.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Murdoch Books for making this book available to me as an ARC for a fair and honest review.

A resounding 5 stars. I remember Freya from Bake Off thinking it was a shame she didn't reach Vegan week but this book is just ideal to inspire. Having many family members and friends who are turning to a more plant based diet plus a couple of the younger children with egg allergies this book certainly gives me ideas for baking, plus regular baking for village events this book will be on my wish list. I am totally intrigued by the replacement of egg with soya milk and vinegar that I shall be giving this a go during the school holidays. There are also a few recipes for gluten free bakes, again very useful to have this book to hand for such occasions when catering for people with a wheat intolerance. Tempting photos accompany the recipes throughout making this a must have cookbook for your shelf.

Love this so much can’t wait to try so many of the gorgeous recipes , I’m a meat eater, but I’m trying more plant based baking so this book is perfect for me, clearly explained, simple instructions and appealing pictures, this is a fantastic book for the experienced baker (vegan or not) or the beginners, highly recommended

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy in return for an honest opinion

I don't think there is anything in this book that I don't want to bake. It all looks and sounds delicious and the photos are beautiful. The recipes are easy to follow and use ingredients that I have actually heard of and are easy to get hold of, unlike some vegan cookbooks. I love that Freya also adds some extra little tips to make life even easier. Definitely recommend and I will probably treat myself to the hard copy.

This is a really good vegan baking book. I can't wait to try all the receipes as they all sound really yummy. I enjoyed watching Freya on the bake off. So was very interested to see what her first book would be like.wishinh her lots of success and ith it.

This book is a sweet-toothed vegan's delight, it's brimming with well thought out and clearly well practiced recipes. A clear understanding of what flavours goes together is evident, as is Cox's sheer enthusiasm and love of baking.

I have made the coffee cake with Russian buttercream - which was amazing - in taste and simplicity, with clear and concise instructions. This book will be used often in our house; and I will be gifting copies to friends and family. I absolutely recommend this baking book to novices and experienced bakers alike, there is something to suit all capabilities and tastes, without having to spend a fortune on ingredients.

It’s amazing how good these recipes look and I can only imagine they taste better. I was impressed by some of the sets in these recipes and will be sure to try lots of tasty baking. I’m planning on baking the chocolate brownie and the triple chocolate cookies soon!

I tried veganuary this year and loved it. I have stuck at 100% vegan since however I have stopped eating dairy so this book is amazing for me to get back into baking.

I would recommend this recipe book to everyone. I really liked watching Freya on bake-off and she is one of the reasons I tried going vegan. I may have failed at fully going vegan at the time books like this will make it easier for everyone to go plant based in the future.

As a massive bake off fan i was excited to get a copy of this from netgalley. My niece is dairy intolerant so I'm always looking for a good recipe book, this was a fabulous collection. Really wide range of delicious looking recipes I can't wait to try. Freya had some good tips and I'm looking forward to trying some of these out.

Bakewell Tart, Fondant Fancies, Tiramisu, and more - all suitable for sweet-toothed vegans! I liked the premise of this book, which has recipes for plant-based versions of favourite bakes and desserts with no weird ingredients and no pretence of being healthy. There is a definite Yorkshire flavour to the content. Freya Cox was on The Great British Bake-Off, a show I have never watched, but I really got a sense of her personality in this book. There are a lot of lovely photographs too.

The oven temperatures in the recipes don't include gas marks but it's easy to convert them. The ingredients were all supposed to be available from one's local supermarket, which I decided was true for most of them but some may only be found at the largest supermarkets or possibly health food shops. I suppose if you get your groceries online there might be more choice.

I tried three recipes from the book, but not any of the cakes as I don't have the correct sized tins. Although there are a few gluten-free recipes included, I tried ones that weren't, using gluten-free flour. It wouldn't work for everything but there is no harm in trying. There is a reliance on 'vegan butter', which I'd never used before. It worked well, however I'm not used to eating things with a buttery flavour any more so I don't think I'd want to make things where that flavour dominates.

Jam Tarts: These were cheap and cheerful to make. The recipe was simple to follow and surprisingly easy, as I'd never made pastry before. I didn't have the specified sizes of tray or cutter so I used smaller ones. I was worried they would get stuck to the tin but they came out easily. I had a bit of pastry left over for making lattices but they were too fiddly to do. I would make these again, with different jam flavours. It's a long time since I even ate jam tarts, as I've never seen vegan ones in the shops.

Millionaires' Shortbread: I left the peanuts and peanut butter out of the recipe. The recipe worked OK but the base was too crumbly (either because of the gluten-free flour or forgetting to chill the tin in the fridge before baking). I'm not sure I'd make these again, as they generated so much washing-up, the ingredients were a bit pricey and they weren't as nice as some other things I bake. If I did make them again, I'd reduce the quantity of the caramel and of the white chocolate, as there was too much.

Triple Chocolate Cookies: These were easy to make, except that the dough was quite sticky so perhaps I would chill it in the fridge before baking next time. I couldn't find vegan chocolate chunks at all, so I used a bag of dark chocolate chips and chopped up a small bar of dairy-free white chocolate. I would make the cookies smaller next time and bake them in more than the specified two batches, so they don't end up too big and running into each other. They were rich-tasting and soft like the ones you get from a bakery.

In summary, a wonderful recipe book, ideal for vegans who don't want to miss out on delicious bakes, or those who wish to bake for vegan friends and family.

[Note - review will be on my blog 24th September including photos of what I baked]

What I especially liked about this book is that you are not spending time hunting down ingredients that you would not normally have at home. If you have soya milk ✓ and Apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice) ✓ and your usual vegan spread ✓ you are good to go. My only concerns are for my waistline !

Freya has done a wonderful job of making vegan baking accessible to people who want to enjoy traditional bakes without the eggs, butter and milk normally used. She also wanted to make sure the ingredients were easily available, and did not need special trips to health food stores.

The book contains a wide variety of things to bake, all of which she made herself numerous times to ensure they would work. This seems to me to be the key to a really good book. Recipes that can be replicated easily and work properly.

These may have been inspired by her granny’s baking but they should inspire people from all ages to bake vegan.