Vegan brownie

My first vegan cake since I converted a month and half ago. It isn't however the first ever vegan dessert I've made, as some traditional cookies and treats are vegan by nature, for example the ever so lovely snickers cake that I make every once in a while which I think I must share with you very soon. The brownie, on the other hand, is almost unimaginable to be good vegan version, as it is the fluffiness of the eggs and the moist and rich flavor of the butter that makes a brownie, so I am not going to try to fool myself, I sincerely doubt a vegan brownie will ever taste as good as the regular brownie does. But that doesn't hinder me from trying, right? 

To be the first ever brownie without eggs and butter that has been made by my hands, this one was pretty good. I tossed in some ripe banana too to add some more flavor, and the coconut milk and the sunflower oil made for a pretty nice fudgy texture and a crispy cover after all. I think when we reach the US, there will be even more choices when it comes to finding egg and butter substitutes so I'll continue my experiments then. This is what I used for the cake above in case you're curious to try it out:

Mix:

1/2 cup coconut milk (1 dl)
1/3 cup sunflower, coconut or canola oil  (0,75 dl)
1 ripe medium size banana - this is optional, you could exchange it for chopped walnuts, or why not both
1 teaspoon vanilla extract/powder/sugar 
3/4 cup sugar (1,5 dl)

In another bowl:

1 cup all-purpose flour (2,5 dl)
1/3 cup cocoa powder (0,75 dl)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/175 C. 

Mash the banana with a fork in a small bowl. Whisk in the coconut milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract until well incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in chocolate and banana mixture. Stir until smooth but do not overmix. Pour into a baking pan and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

I have wanted to try making a vegan carrot cheesecake for a while now but since that will require me to process cashew-nuts very finely and I only have a smaller 12 volts hand blender on board, such advance things will have to wait till we get on land. On land... it is still a tad surreal that we are actually going to spend several months living on land starting very shortly. Only the fact that I will have a large kitchen and unlimited electricity to my assistance when cooking and baking is a thought almost too great to handle.