Happy Diwali! Celebrate the festival of light with these delicious, Indian Diwali sweets including Ladoo, Burfi, Halwa and more from different regions of India. Eat them yourself or give them as gifts! All Dairy-free Eggless Vegan. This post was published Nov 7, 2015

Diwali is the Indian festival of lights and one of the bigger Hindu festivals celebrated in many parts of India. The festival spiritually signifies the victory of good over evil and celebrates kindness, compassion, prosperity, love and sharing. Before Diwali, people clean, and decorate their homes. People dress up in festive clothes, light up diyas (lamps and candles) inside and outside their home, participate in family pooja (prayers) typically to Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. Followed by fireworks, a family get together, loads of great food ( appetizers, lots of mains and sides), including mithai (sweets).

People also visit family and friends and exchange gifts in the days before the festival, and these Diwali sweets make great gifts, as well!

Indian sweets and desserts often use milk solids – khoya, clarified butter – ghee, fresh cheese- chenna, milk, cream and other forms of dairy, but you don’t need these to make delicious desserts! I have a huge collection of vegan Indian Diwali sweets, including burfis, halwas and ladoos along with fusion desserts like my Ras Malai Tres leches cake, Carrot Halwa cheesecake and pistachio kulfi tiramisu that will please a crowd. Let’s reduce the pain and suffering of moms by choosing dairy-free options for Diwali festival!
If you try any of these sweets and desserts, do let me know how you and your family liked them!

HAPPY DIWALI!!!

If you’re looking for more Diwali recipes, don’t miss my vegan Diwali menu! It uses one base sauce to create a 3-course meal plus rice! And if you don’t do onion or garlic, I have a no onion no garlic Diwali menu, as well. Any of these Diwali sweets would be amazing with these menus!

Continue reading: 40+ Vegan Diwali Sweets Recipes

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No egg needed to make this summery peach upside down cake. Caramelized peaches crown a beautiful, moist cake that’s easy to make gluten-free, if needed. It’s also naturally soy-free and nut-free!

It’s peach season! Make the most of succulent summer peaches with this tender, moist peach upside-down cake.

This is a simple upside-down cake, adapted from my pear upside-down cake. I use fresh summer peaches with a touch of vegan butter and brown sugar to help them caramelize as they bake with the cake in the pan. If fresh peaches aren’t looking good where you are, you can use plums or use canned peaches, or other stone fruits in this cake.

Peach upside-down cake is absolutely delicious topped with a big scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream or coconut whipped cream.

Why You’ll Love Peach Upside-Down Cake

• tender vanilla cake studded with succulent summer peaches
• peaches caramelize right in the baking pan, no need to cook them on the stove
• easily made gluten-free
• naturally soy-free and nut-free

Continue reading: Peach Upside-Down Cake (soy-free, nut-free with gluten-free option)

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These super easy almond butter brownies have only 6 ingredients with no added oil and taste incredibly decadent. Packed with rich chocolate, creamy almond butter, and maple syrup for sweetness, soy-free. Options for gluten-free, and nut-free.

I mean, what’s not to like about all of this ooey, gooey, chocolatiness! These brownies with creamy almond butter are perfect just five to 10 minutes after you pull them out of the oven. If you want them to slice more cleanly, just let them cool for a bit longer.

These brownies are chewy and decadent. Almond butter gives them more texture and chewiness. The brands of almond butter might affect the texture a bit. You want to underbake these brownies for the best result.

There’s limited binding in these brownies as almond butter is gluten-free and there’s barely some flour, they will be a bit more soft and gooey. Lift the slices delicately, so they don’t fall apart on you. I like them as a scoop-and-serve warm brownie topped with vegan vanilla ice cream or with whipped coconut cream.

Store them on the counter in a closed container for up to a week. To serve, I do recommend warming them up in the microwave or the oven just a bit, because they taste the most fudgy and decadent when they’re warm. The almond butter gives them more texture than your conventional brownies, which works best when it’s warm.

The sweetness of these brownies depends on the sweetness of your almond butter (or alternative nut or seed butter) and your chocolate chips. If you like your brownies on the sweeter side, you can add a little extra sugar to the batter.

Why You’ll Love Brownies with Almond Butter

• rich, fudgy brownies with no added oil
• batter comes together in just one pan
• refined sugar free and refined oil free
• easily made gluten-free, soy-free, and/or nut-free

Continue reading: Almond Butter Brownies (6 ingredients, gluten-free option)

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An easy, vegan peanut butter cake with decadent chocolate peanut butter glaze on top is a show-stopping dessert. This is the ultimate, moist peanut butter cake! (blender cake, ready in 25 minutes, soy-free and gluten-free options). This recipe was first published on Dec 8, 2016.

This peanut butter sheet cake is super easy and moist. And you can make the batter in the blender! Using the blender method, it takes only 5 minutes to get everything together. You can make the peanut butter cake batter in a bowl, if you prefer.

Whip up the 5-ingredient chocolate glaze or make a peanut butter frosting while the cake bakes. When the cake is cool, you’re ready to frost and serve. 

This Moist peanut butter cake is amazing as-is or with a glaze or frosting. It’s also a versatile recipe! Use any nut butter of choice, like almond or cashew butter.

The chocolate glaze is just vegan chocolate chips, non dairy milk, coconut oil, and peanut butter. It comes together quickly in a pan on the stovetop while the cake is baking and cooling.

Add some chopped peanuts to the batter for crunch. You can also add dried fruits or chocolate chips to the cake!

Why You’ll Love Peanut Butter Cake

• moist, fluffy peanut butter cake
• rich chocolate peanut butter ganache topping
• quick and easy cake batter you make in the blender
• sub nut butter of choice, like almond or cashew butter or sun butter for nutfree
• easy to make soy-free and/or gluten-free

Continue reading: Vegan Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter Glaze

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Make the most of strawberry season with this amazing strawberry mousse cake! It is jam packed with sweet-tart strawberries with a thick layer of rich strawberry mousse and strawberry compote on top.

If you need a show-stopping dessert, this strawberry mousse cake is here for you, especially if you don’t like everything chocolate. This is a very vibrant and summery cake with berries added in 3 ways!! Fresh strawberries, strawberry compote, and a velvety strawberry mousse. Make my simple vanilla cake. Make some quick compote on a skillet. Blend up the mousse right in the blender! Layer, refrigerate, and slice!

The base is a thin layer of cake that you top with this really thick strawberry mousse layer and fresh strawberries and then you top the whole thing with this incredible strawberry compote. It just is mind-blowingly delicious. 

You can make the cake using whatever pan you have. I used a six-inch cake pan and also used a cake collar. You can just use your tall six-inch pan and pour the mousse in, if you don’t have a cake collar. You can also use a regular-sized eight-inch cake pan, and it will fill up the mousse to the top. It’ll be a thinner layer of the mousse, but it’ll still be plenty of strawberry mousse on top, because the cake layer will be thinner as well.

If you do use a regular pan instead of the cake collar, just make sure to line it with parchment before you pour in the mousse, so that it’s easy to take everything out. This cake is summery, refreshing, kind of like an ice cream mousse cake and decadent. Let me know if you try this and don’t forget to review the recipe!

Why You’ll Love Strawberry Mousse Cake

• gorgeous cake with so much strawberry flavor!
• creamy strawberry mousse made in the blender, no cooking needed
• sticky-sweet strawberry compote topping
• easy to make soy-free, nut-free, and gluten-free

Continue reading: Strawberry Mousse Cake (vegan, gluten-free option)

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There is something about the flavor combination lemon-coconut that just takes me to a happy, sunshiney place! These delectable lemon coconut bites are a perfect summer snack! And the best part? They are super easy! While many energy bites require us to grind toasted nuts, or use food processor etc we skip all that by using nut flours that already come ground finely. In our case almond flour and coconut flour. Just add everything to a bowl, mix and shape!

I love how the almond flour gives these an almost marzipan-like texture. Lemon juice and zest are added for that fresh zing while maple syrup lends these the perfect sweetness.

Why this recipe works!

• Just 6 ingredients and 1 bowl
• No food processor or blender needed
• zesty springy amazing flavor
• versatile. Change flavors to preference!
• no refined sugar or refined oil.

More small bites:

• Pumpkin Snack Bites
• Coconut Caramel Energy Balls
• Vegan Pizza Snack Bites
• Mojito Energy Balls
• Blueberry Muffin Energy Bites

Continue reading: Lemon Coconut Energy Bites 1 Bowl Grain-free

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Crisp on the outside, fudgy on the inside almond butter blondies with decadent chocolate chips are the quick and easy one-bowl dessert you’ve been looking for!Just 8 main ingredients, 15 minutes to whip them up in just 1 bowl. Serve with a dollop of your favorite vegan ice cream. This recipe was first published on feb 20, 2015. It has been updated with new pictures, write up and video.

These amazing, fudgy vegan almond butter blondies only take 15 minutes to whip up in one bowl. After mixing, you just pour them into a baking pan and bake to perfection.

This blondies recipe is lightly sweetened, fudgy, and buttery, with flavors of vanilla and cinnamon. Use other flours or gluten-free flour blend of choice. If you are using a whole grain flour to replace the white flour in this recipe, add 1 to 2 tablespoons less than the mentioned quantity, and add more only if the mixture is too wet. 

Not only are almond butter blondies delicious and easy to make, the batter is free from added refined oil! If you want to make them completely oil-free, use cacao nibs in place of the chocolate chips.

They’re also refined sugar-free, since we sweeten these blondies with coconut sugar, which gives them such a nice flavor.

Why You’ll Love Almond Butter Blondies

• crisp, butter, and fudgy with flavors of cinnamon and vanilla
• lots of decadent chocolate chips
• one-bowl batter takes only 15 minutes to mix
• easy to make soy-free and even nut-free

Continue reading: Vegan Almond Butter Blondies with Chocolate Chips (1 bowl, soy-free, nut-free option)

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This is an absolutely delicious, moist and citrusy vegan lemon cake. A lot of the lemon flavor comes from this amazing, velvety lemon cream that you spread between the layers and all over the cake.

You guys know that I don’t really like overly sugary cakes or overly sugary frosting. So For this lemon cake, the frosting is based on my no-cook lemon pudding. It uses cashews and coconut cream and then just a bit of sugar for the sweetness and loads of lemon to give it that zingy flavor. This mousse like lemon cream frosting takes this cake to heavenly moist zesty state!

We make this simple lemon cake batter that has mild lemon flavor. Then layer it with the exquisitely lemony cream, to make this perfectly zesty Spring cake! This can easily be a birthday or event cake. Decorate with fresh lemon and zest or edible flowers!

You can bake one cake or two cakes. If you make one cake, just slice it in half, then assemble the cake with the lemon frosting and let it set. Then, you just even out the edges of the frosting and top it however you like, and then your cake is ready to serve. The lemon juice in the cake can tend to brown the cake edges , so if you’d like less browning, omit the juice and add more zest.

The lemon cake itself is moist and fluffy, and I even offer a gluten-free option, in case you need it. It’s a very simple batter that’s easy to make.

The cake batter comes together in one bowl, and you make the lemony cream in the blender, so there’s not a ton of cleanup.

If you let the lemon cream chill for a bit, it starts thickens to a frosting consistency and you can use it like one! You can also just pour the cream over the cake in a cake pan, let it chill to set for a quicker cake.

Why You’ll Love this Vegan Lemon Cake

• moist, fluffy cake with lovely lemon flavor
• fluffy, lemony mouse-like frosting
• 1 bowl batter
• you make the frosting in the blender!
• easily made nut-free, soy-free, or gluten-free

Continue reading: Vegan Lemon Cream Cake (soy-free, nut-free, gluten-free options)

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Lemon blueberry scones are crisp on the outside, flaky inside and use No butter or oil! This one-bowl spring recipe is perfect for breakfast, brunch, or snacking. Soyfree Nutfree Glutenfree option. Low fat option.

These are super refreshing scones that come together in just one bowl. We use some chilled coconut cream to add the flaky texture. They are perfectly flaky without using any butter or oil, but if you want to add some, you can go ahead and add some to the dough, for extra buttery, extra flaky scones.

To make these lower fat, see my low-fat apple cinnamon scones, which are also oil-free. Follow the process for the wet ingredients from there.

Change up the berries to use seasonal berries of choice. Make orange cranberry or other combination scone. Add in some poppyseeds for lemon poppyseed scones!

No matter what variation you choose, lemon blueberry scones are going to be a new favorite breakfast, brunch, or snack. They are so easy to make, perfect for spring or any season, and vibrant and delicious! Drizzle with your favorite icing!

Why You’ll Love Lemon Blueberry Scones

• flaky, buttery scones with no added butter or oil!
• zesty lemon and sweet blueberries in crisp, flaky scone form
• drizzle topping adds even more vibrant, lemony flavor
• one bowl, oil-free recipe
• easily made gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, and even low fat!

Continue reading: Lemon Blueberry Scones (oil-free. gluten-free option)

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After all the Baklava inspired recipes I had to make the real deal. Baklava is a decadent and  sweet treat. Traditional baklava is not vegan as it uses butter and honey. I changed it up with some vegan butter and and a sticky lemon syrup made with maple syrup!

This vegan version of baklava is made with layers of sweet filo and chopped nuts, all covered in a sweet syrup! we also add dates to the nut filling since our syrup is not very sweet. We add less sweetener than in traditional baklava recipes. This is a simple yet showstopping dessert guaranteed to impress!

Baklava has many variations and flavors. I use  a blend of nuts and some lemon zest for that decadent and refreshing flavor! If you want, add some rose water to the syrup but be careful as a little goes a long way.

The texture is flaky, soft, buttery, with some added crunch from the crisp filo and nuts. It’s sweet and with a hint of lemon and cinnamon without any flavor being overpowering.

What is phyllo pastry?

Many people are unaware that phyllo dough and filo pastry is actually vegan. There are no eggs or dairy used.

The number of Phyllo sheets needed depends on the size of your pan. I used an 8×8 inch glass pan and needed 24 sheets of that size. The phyllo bundle that  I had had 18 sheets but they were larger sheets and I could cut out of them.

More vegan desserts with nuts:

• Vegan Pistachio Cookie Recipe
• Hazelnut Brownies
• Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Vegan Almond Halwa
• Vegan Snickers Peanut Butter Cups

Baklava inspired desserts

• Baklava cheesecake 
• Baklava cookies
• baklava Lassi
• Baklava cake 

Continue reading: Vegan Baklava with Date nut filling

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