Yesterday was birthday and I made, for the first time, a vegan carrot cake! It turned out delish! It seems to be more of a quick bread texture but I think with a few more tweaks it could be perfect. I used vegan cream cheese in the frosting and toasted pecans and coconut for the sides and top- YUMMO!

Yesterday I baked my first loaf of yeast-rising bread. I always thought it was this huge deal; somehow more chemistry-like than it really is. It was incredibly easy and made even more simple with my mixer. It is just a plain ol’ loaf of white bread but it was very satsisfying to make. I am going to experiment more and try and make whole wheat bread, etc. To not have to buy bread would be flippin’ sweet! And to know that it is healthy and made with natural ingredients instead of added preservatives to make it shelf stable is a major bonus. There is too much junk in processed foods! I wanted to post pics but my bread was not exactly good looking enough to post pics of. I think it would be like D-rated food porn. Eeeewww. I might want to get a better digital camera so I can take nicer pics as well. I could reinstall Gimp on my pc to edit pics. Or learn Photoshop. As soon as I bake bread again I plan to post pics and directions.

Happy Birthday Lola!! We love you!!

My garden is depressing right now. I had taken pics a month ago but I lost them when my laptop had to be reconfigured. Between last month and the present my garden has gone to hell. It is like I live in the desert or something . I am pulling out my zucchini plants and starting from seed. I should hopefully get a good harvest from them in the fall. I am pulling out the chinese cabbage as well and possibly the lettuce as it is struggling. The cilantro is biting it hard. I just assumed cilantro would grow well here. Apparently I assume wrong . I am going to buy more sunflowers and see if that will help too. The basil is doing very well as are the green beans and various herbs.

I just started reading The 4-hour Work Week. So far it is an excellent read and I look forward to reviewing it here soon.

So I wrote awhile back about making vegan oatmeal cookies and thought it is long overdue to finally post the recipe with pictures. I am an improviser, not a visionary, and this is always apparent when I bake and cook. Thus, this is an original recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Better Homes and Gardens, and the recipe has been adapted to be vegan. The original recipe is very good and makes a crispy cookie on the outside and chewy on the inside. This adapted and vegan version produces a cake-like cookie and very moist. I would recommend these cookies as a snack, dessert, and even for breakfast as they are quite healthy. The next time I make these I would like to fashion them into breakfast bars. Maybe take the batter and spread it onto a jelly roll pan and cut when they are cool.

Vegan Ranger Cookies

350 degrees- Makes at least 2 dozen cookies

1/2 cup vegan margarine (**Note: most margarines are vegan; however, it is best to look for one that is heart healthy with no hydrogenated oils)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1-1/2 tsp. EnerG Egg Replacer + 2 T warm water, mixed well

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (If you do not have WW flour, use the same amount of AP flour.)

1/2 cup AP flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup raisins

1/4 – 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (mix in to make batter moist, if needed)

Beat butter 30 seconds. Add sugars, baking powder and soda. Beat in egg replacer mixture and vanilla. Mix in flour. Mix in additional applesauce at this point, if needed, to make mixture moist and not crumbly. (I find 1/4 cup applesauce is plenty). Mix in oats, coconut, and raisins. Using teaspoon size amounts of dough, roll into balls and place on to ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes. Cool on sheets 1 minute before removing and cool completely on wire rack. Store in a covered container. Freezes well.

I thought I would post a link to this great website: Passions Gourmandes. It is written completely in French but one can get the gist of it without reading or understanding French. The pictures of the desserts are amazing, beautiful, and encourages my desire to one day visit France. I would love to own a Patisserie on the level with ones shown on this site.

Here is a pic of the annual Red Velvet Cake. Not the prettiest of cakes but for what it lacks in looks it sure makes up for in taste! The cake is a deep red (should’ve taken pics! Dang it!) and is enhanced with cocoa. The frosting is milk and flour based with walnuts and coconut. The flavors of the cake and the frosting balance and accentuate each other so well. Absolutely Divine!

I used cranberries dipped in egg whites and rolled in sugar to decorate.

Whenever I make this cake I think of Steel Magnolias hahahaha. My mom used to make this cake every Christmas Eve but now I carry on the tradition.

Here is a photo of the cake I made for Peanut’s birthday party. It is the character Super Why from the show on PBS. The cake is chocolate with a cookies and cream filling. Normally, you can copy the shape of what you would like on the cake with tracing paper and piping gel; then transfer the pattern to the cake. I printed the character outline from the PBS kids website. It did not work out this time at all. I think the top of the cake was too cold (?). I had to draw the character on the cake as the transfer outline did not work well at all. I then outlined the character in black icing and piped in stars for the character’s body, cape, shoes, etc. I also used a Tip #5 for the hair. As usual, the most time consuming process is mixing all the colors for the cake.

Update:

Jen commented on this post and was so kind to send a fabulous link to a great website called CakeCental. To make her awesome Super Why cake, she used a really cool technique called frozen buttercream transfer and you can view the directions here. Her cake turned out awesome! Thanx Jen for the great website and your great ideas for Super Why party decorations!

I made this 1/2 sheet cake using a butter cream frosting and I used piping gel for the Transformer insignia. The cake itself was chocolate. A special Thanks to Shauna for the referral .

I made a sheet cake for a birthday party this weekend. It is a marble cake with pink butter cream frosting. A BIG THANK YOU to Liz for the business and handing out my cards!!

Have you ever made or eaten No-Bake Cookies a.k.a. icebox cookies? They are a super easy recipe that makes very good tasting cookies that are pretty wholesome considering they are, well, cookies. They are not exactly pretty to look at but they do work in a pinch for a chocolate fix and/or if you have little munchkins climbing up your leg begging for a snack I adapted the recipe and made it vegan.

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup vegan margarine

1/2 cup soy milk

1/4 cup cocoa

Bring all of the above ingredients to a boil and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add: 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 31/2 cups of oatmeal. Stir until combined and drop onto wax paper with a rounded tablespoon. Chill in the refrigerator and then eat!! YUMMO!

I used vegan whipped margarine and fat-free soy milk. I was worried that the cookies might not set well due to the thin nature of the soy milk and whipped margarine has more air than regular. Water content is also higher in any margarine as compared to butter. However, they turned out very well and super delicious! When I was a kid, I remember my mom adding peanut butter (1/2 cup) to the non-vegan recipe. That is a really good variation and an additional source of protein as well. And, of course, the higher quality cocoa, the more pronounced the chocolate will be. Try them out and tell me what you think!

I made this cake over the weekend for a baby shower. The cake is chocolate with a chocolate butter cream frosting. I piped the grass and leaves onto the cake with a butter cream frosting as well. I used royal icing to make the flowers. I make several (as in a few hundred) flowers in advance as they keep and do not degrade as long as they are not exposed to moisture or light. The mother and carriage is made from color flow icing, which is similar to royal icing but also produces a nice sheen. These were fragile and do not hold up well in humidity or any vibration. I had made an extra mom and carriage in case anything were to happen. Sure enough, one of the mom figurines neck snapped before I even put them in the car! Needless to say, I was quite relieved that one did make it and got on the cake in one piece. Phew! The place where the baby shower was held had a swamp cooler and as soon as I went to remove the mom figurine she became a double amputee. I am still learning so I hope to figure out a way to better reinforce the more fragile areas of a piece when working with this type of sugar art. All in all, I think the cake was a hit!