VEGAN MOFO DAY 6
Yesterday I was having cravings for chocolate and pears. So I decided to make some sort of pear pie. Then I realized I had some SUPER ripe bananas which needed to be used, so I invented a fusion banana bread with pear chunks inside and covered it all with chocolate ganache. I can tell you, it didn’t let me down! Pear chunks are a definite YES in cakes.
Fusion Banana Bread with Pear Chunks and Chocolate Ganache - flour, sugar, bananas, pears, chocolate chips, coconut milk…
The recipe is just my usual banana bread without the spices and chocolate chips (which you COULD add for extra chocolatiness!)
Ingredients
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 pears, pealed and diced
Preheat oven at 180C (350F) and prepare your cake pan.
In a medium bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk together the wet ingredients and incorporate into the dry mixture until smooth. Gently add in the pear chunks. Pour into the cake pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the pie comes out clean (about 45mins).
Let cool and cover with Chloe Coscarelli’s chocolate ganache.
DIVE IN!
Even if this is mostly a food blog, and I try to keep it positive and keep animal issues out of it; some things really irritate me and I feel like they need to be shared in order to spread the word. I got an email today from the Animals Asia Foundation which I really love. We actually sponsor 2 little bears there, Edga and Amelie. Both which were rescued from years and years of abuse and torture in bear bile farms. If you don’t know about bear bile farming I highly recommend you read into it, it is one of the most horrific human practices in terms of animal abuse, and I think that Animals Asia are really doing a great job rescuing these bears and giving them a nice life in parks where they can actually run around and be bears, instead of being caged up in a cell so tight they cannot even turn around (without mentioning the excruciating pain they must go through every time their bile gets extracted).
Anyways, the email basically said that after all the hard work developing the sanctuary and making it the great place it is today, the foundation has now been asked to LEAVE the premises! Apparently the Ministry of Defense thinks the land will be of better use as commercial land housing tourist parks and hotels…
Here is the email:
| Dear, | |
| We’ve had some shocking news. After working so hard over so many years to build a world-class sanctuary for the bears rescued from Vietnam’s bile farms, we are being asked to leave. |
On Friday 5 October, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) informed Animals Asia that the Ministry of Defence had issued an order to evict the entire sanctuary operation and its 104 rescued bears. There is no justification for this.
It’s believed the park director, Do Dinh Tien, lobbied the Ministry of Defence to evict Animals Asia, so he can hand the land to Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock Company, of which his daughter is part-owner. The company intends to build commercial property including a tourist park and hotels.
The closure would see 104 bears that have been rescued from the bile industry evicted, 77 local Vietnamese staff made unemployed, and financial losses to Animals Asia of more than US$2 million.
After years of trauma from being locked up in small cages and milked for their bile, our bears are now enjoying dens, enclosures and friends to play with. These bears will be forced to return to cages to be relocated. This will have a major negative impact on their mental and physical well-being. It is likely to take at least two years to establish a new centre with outdoor enclosures.
What we’re doing
We’re fighting this eviction notice every step of the way, appealing directly to the Vietnamese authorities, enlisting help from the international community, the media and other NGOs. But most of all we need your help.
How ridiculous is this!?!
You can get more info on their website.
They have now started an online petition which is why I wanted to share this on here. Please help the bears keep their homes, and sign the online petition.
Thanks everyone! You might want to bake that banana bread right about now! I promise, it brightens the mood.
I don’t know why I never thought of making banana bread in a bundt pan; it looks beautiful!