Let Them Eat Cake

And/but/so baking to cater for a love of sweet things does NOT have to be hindered by avoiding animal products. In most cases, simply substituting milk with soy and butter with Nuttelex or oil and eggs with egg replacer or some mashed vegetable or fruit works like a charm. But you already know this. What you need most of all for successful vegan cooking is imagination and persistence.

For my best friend's birthday I decided to play to her love of novelty cupcakes, and cook cupcake ice creams. Since store-bought ice-cream cones are in fact vegan, i decided to use a vegan cake recipe and icing so I could enjoy them too!

It took a few goes playing around with different icing (and in the picture you can see a combination of marzipan and butter cream decorated cakes) to get the best effect (comparing look, taste, and time/effort required, of course), but in the end they turned out beautifully!

Ice-cream Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 3/4 C plain flour
- 2/3 C hot water
- 3/4 C sugar
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 1/4 t baking powder
- 1/4 t salt
- 2 T butter (Nuttelex)
- 2 T oil
- 1 egg (No Egg prepared as per packet instructions)
- 2 t vanilla essence
- flat-bottomed ice-cream cones
Method
- in a bowl combine all dry ingredients
- prepare egg replacer, then combine all wet ingredients with dry ingredients
- now for the part where imagination and persistence come in. After various attempts I found that filling ice-cream cones around 2/3 full and microwaving for 35 seconds worked perfectly, but i cannot guarantee the same for any other microwaves or mixtures. have a play with one at a time before you go crazy and cook the whole batch. 
- after the cupcakes cool, go crazy decorating with your icing of choice. I use butter cream, which is creamed butter, icing sugar, vanilla and milk, and can be piped or spread on, but use whatever you like best. 
Enjoy!

I Choo Choo Choose You!

It's Funny because it's a train!

So, who says that birthday vegans CAN'T have birthday cakes like everyone else? Not me!
Last year, for my (23rd) birthday, I made myself a birthday cake. It has always been a "thing" in our family, to make fun cakes for everyone on their birthday, I guess mum just likes going to work with colourful-food-dyed fingers on Mondays, because we have been doing it since I was born (and that's a LOT of Mondays with rainbow hands!), but we are getting to the point where, despite owning several party cake books, we are running out of cake ideas! So, since I was sharing my birthday with my Dad (who happens to be a bit of a train buff), we made a train cake.
It was constructed out of lamingtons (an altered plain cake recipe, which cocoa powder icing and coconut toppings) and various lollies, and was completely vegan (with the exception of course being the driver..).

And the best part? It looked so good that everyone tried some and (wait for it..) enjoyed it! And birthday traditions live on!

A Rainbow A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

It is well known (at least amongst those of us that are well versed in the rules of eating healthy) that every colour on your plate represents a different combination of vitamins and minerals, so the more colourful your plate is, the healthier your meal.
At our local farmer's market recently, we stumbled across purple carrots! These are an old line, not GM, and teamed with roast capsicum, carrot, and pumpkin, and steamed beans and asparagus, the perfect roast winter rainbow is so easy! And did i mention beautiful?

Procrastination Is Key

Well, with so much uni work just waiting for me to do, what better to do than spend a night in than pizza and a movie! So many people doubt the tastiness of vegan pizza, but if only they were at my house right now! (On a side note, the movie of choice to accompany the amazing pizza was Year Of The Dog. Chosen because of a)the beagle on the front and b)Peter Sarsgaard, boy was it a sad one! I dare anyone who feels they lack compassion to sit through this without crying!)

Pretty Nibbles For Picky Party Guests

At my birthday party on the weekend, we were catering for gluten free, pregnant, vegetarian and vegan peeps, and so we came up with these delightful little treats - just a mouthful, and good for everyone!
Bruschetta Canapes
Ingredients
- 3 punnets (approx 40) cherry tomatoes
- 1 green apple, diced finely (2-3mm cubes)
- 1/2 red onion, diced finely (2-3mm cubes)
- 2 cloves garlic (or more if you are that way inclined), crushed
- juice 1 lemon
- handful of basil, thinly chopped (alternatively, continental parsley works well here too)
- sea salt & cracked pepper
Method
- Halve all of the cherry tomatoes, remove the insides and set casings aside. (Don't throw the insides out! We don't need them for this recipe, but they are great to chuck in pasta sauce next time your making some)
- Combine apple, onion and garlic in small mixing bowl. Finely chop some of the tomatoes (i usually do around 5, ie 10 halves) and add to mixture.
- Add lemon juice and basil and mix well.
- Add a ton of salt and pepper to your taste. Usually around 1-2 tsp of each works well. It is best to way over-season this mix, as the seasoning is somewhat diluted by the tomato casing.
- Leave to sit for ~an hour to let the flavours combine, then fill each casing with approx. 1 tsp of the mixture, et voila - we're done!
- These are best assembled just before eating, but the mixture can be made up to 24 hours in advance.
Enjoy!

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!

Who doesn't like cupcakes?
I thought, to start, we could check out some cakes i made for a birthday party. Seeing as i don't like to assume people cater for vegan needs, and i don't like to bestow that responsibility on other people, i like to take food with me everywhere i go. This way, no one feels uncomfortable at my lack of dinner, and everyone gets to taste first hand that, just because i don't eat dairy or eggs or other "fun" things, i don't miss out!

Dilectable Delights For Those Low On options

After drooling over many a Donna Hay, and being sad at not being able to partake in the eating as well as the looking at food, I have lofty plans of filling a page with pictures to enjoy, and maybe a recipe or two, for those of us who steer away from the animal based ingredients used by the majority of the population.

Bon Appetite.