UPlanIt celebrates #WorldVeganDay!
“It’s not just salads for dinner — say hello to vegan sausage rolls, fluffy cakes, jackfruit burgers, more!”
Veganism isn’t just a growing trend. According to The Vegan Society, the number of vegans in the UK has quadrupled in the last 5 years — from 150,000 in 2014 to 600,000 in 2019! And because veganism is becoming more popular, more restaurants and caterers are expanding their vegan selections to include things that can range from cakes and sweets to burgers and barbeque. It’s not just salads for dinner — say hello to vegan sausage rolls, fluffy cakes, jackfruit burgers, more!
So what does this mean for wedding planning? Well, customers will easily be able to find out which of their guests requires a different menu, just like they would for food allergies or intolerances, so it isn’t too difficult to see what the dinner or buffet would be like. Different dietary requirements have existed for a long time, and it’s becoming simpler to adjust with the times. You can’t really go wrong with potatoes — spiralized, fries, jackets, mashed, roasted, and even just boiled. Caterers can also offer similar meat foods with substituted ingredients, much like jackfruit burgers. Unripe jackfruit has an incredibly similar texture to pulled pork, making it a healthy and meat-free alternative to satisfy the non-vegans looking at your wedding menu.
But what wedding wouldn’t have cake I hear you cry? Of course, one of the main centrepieces of a wedding day is the cake the couple cut into, and as we all know, a cake is traditionally comprised of flour, sugar, butter, milk, and eggs. A lot of animal-based products are used, so how do we go about substituting them? Well, butter can be changed out with vegan margarine easily enough, or you could use canola oil, coconut oil, or even olive oil (but maybe only on those savoury bakes!). Milk is easily substituted as well, you could use soya milk, almond milk, or coconut milk depending on your preference. The flavour of the cake will be enhanced by adding vanilla essence (or whatever flavouring you prefer) so you don’t have to worry about the flavour of coconuts in your cakes. Eggs are the tricky part. Eggs bind the cake together, they give the cake moisture and fluffiness, and they’re difficult to replicate. There are egg replacement products, but these are expensive and hard to find in a local store, which makes it difficult if you’re a new business! Instead, why not use some applesauce? The viscosity of it will help bind your cake together and give it a tasty hint of apple. You could use mashed bananas instead, but don’t worry about an overpowering banana flavour! The taste will be drowned out by any flavouring you add to the cake, like vanilla or chocolate. A good idea for an autumn cake would be to substitute in some pumpkin puree, leftover from carving your jack o’ lanterns. When scraping the flesh from the inside of your pumpkin, keep it to one side in a bowl or container, and keep in the fridge. You can take the seeds out and roast them in the oven while you carve your pumpkin, adding different herbs to change the flavours around. Once Halloween is over, you can use the rest of your pumpkin and mash it up into a puree by boiling it like you would for mashed potatoes. The puree process goes by a lot faster if you have a food processor, but boiling and mashing still does the trick. Pumpkin puree can be an amazing egg substitute, especially if you add a little cinnamon and create pumpkin spice cupcakes! Perfect for any autumnal wedding.
In the journal Science, a study was published that noted that the “impacts of the lowest-impact animal products typically exceed those of vegetable substitutes, providing new evidence for the importance of dietary change”. The vegan lifestyle is mostly based on ethical reasoning (e.g. against animal cruelty), but also supports dietary change. By excluding animal products, this places less strain on natural resources, and with a decrease in the demand for meat, there’s more care available for the animals we eat in the farming industry. Some farms still have intensive farming conditions, often with chickens and pigs, so decreasing the demand for these products means fewer animals are needed, fewer animals needed to be bred, and therefore their living conditions can improve. A lot of people are avoiding diving into full-vegan lifestyles, and that’s okay! We’re in this together and we all want to work towards a better future. If you’re put off by the militant vegan lifestyle you’ve seen so much about, have no fear! A lot of vegans just get on their own lives and don’t feel the need to tell every non-veganabout their eating habits. They support their ideals and may invite others to support them, but don’t let that put you off trying some vegan treats. You don’t always need animal products to have a delicious meal!
Our team is always looking for new and interesting things to try out, and we just might go for some vegan cakes!
See you next week.
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Photo credit: @moniqa @ninjason
