CAKES,CAKE,CAKES

So this weekend is EarthSave Canada's annual vegetarian food festival Taste of Health.This will be my 3rd year attending and volunteering.But this year I will have cakes for sale!Awesome,huh?only a few but hey...

Gingerbread Cake with Ginger-O's Cookies n Cream Frosting
I should say,I went to look at Hannah's blog about 30 minutes ago and she had made ginger o cookies n cream cupcakes!great minds think alike....or atleast appreciate the same amazing ginger creme sandwich cookies.really the same thing.




thanks Katie for sending the ginger o's a few weeks ago!!!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and walnuts




Heart Shaped Peanut Butter Bomb cake
the same as earlier this week,but I used the mousse and pb buttercream.special,i know!

PEANUT BUTTER BOMBED.

I made a Peanut Butter Bomb Cake for Daniel for his 18th birthday.Inspired by Vegan Treats,obviously.Which btw is amazing,but not here in Vancouver.So I made a double layer chocolate cake(with choc chips)with peanut butter mousse in the middle,on the sides,and in balls on top.It was a but hard at first to get the balls of mousse nice and ball-y on top,but it worked out.And then a crap load of ganache from the vctotw recipe.I think I made 2.5 batches of ganache.I also added some crumbled peanut butter oatmeal cookies(vwav)in a crevice on top and that was coated in ganache,too.So there was a nice crunch in a couple of spots.My grandma loved it.And so did Dan.Well,he did ask me to make this particular cake for him,so i'd expect he'd like it.Dad and Patrick both had big pieces too,which made me so happy since last year Patrick only ate the ice cream cake I made Dan when I lied and said it wasn't vegan.That was funny,Daniel only had one piece and planned on eating it the next day when he got back from Bowen Island but Sarah and Ryan had eaten all of it.ANYWAYS,this is the peanut butter bomb cake I made and i'm very proud and it's delicious.I wish that I had had Danielle Konya's genius idea to create this cake,but oh well.

money shot.





Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance.Possibly my favourite cookies ever?



Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup natural crunchy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
2 t. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease two cookies sheets.
2. Toss together the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the oil, peanut butter, sugars, soy milk, and vanilla.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix. The dough should be very difficult and moist. Pack a 1/3-cup measuring cup with dough, pop out and roll into a firm ball. Flatten just barely on a prepared cookie sheet, spacing the dough balls well apart. Lightly grease the bottom of your glass; press the cookies to flatten to a 1/2-inch thickness. Bake for 12-15 minutes till cookies have puffed a bit and we lightly browned. Allow to cool for at least two minutes before moving off the cookie sheet.

From Vegan with the Vengeance.

I had a recipe published!!!

for rrf's cinnamon rolls in a vegan newsletter in victoria,bc called the Victoria Vegan:
http://www.thevictoriavegan.com/newsletter/TVV-11-Sept07.pdf
http://www.thevictoriavegan.com/
look,it even mentions how i love bjork and strawberry jam!

speaking of cinnamon rolls...

katie's from donteatoffthesidewalk are gonna blow yr mind when her next zine comes out.they're Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls and I made a variation of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Rolls.
I made them twice this week.Daniel was in love.Even more so than me.

Peanut Butter and (STRAWEBERRY) Jam Cookies

These are really delicious,wheat free and refined sugar free.

Peanut Butter and Jam Cookies from the Real Food Daily Cookbook.

2.5 c barley flour
2.25 c oat flour
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2.5 c peanut butter
1.75 c maple syrup
.75 c canola oil
.75 c soymilk
.5 c jam/preserves
*I also added 1 t vanilla extract.

Preheat over to 325.Mix dry ingredients.In a seperate bowl with an electric mixer beat the peanut butter and other wet ingredients to blend.Add flour mixture and beat until blended well.
Scoop about 1/3 cup of dough for each cookie onto sheet,spacing 1 inch apart.Using a wooden spoon,or your finger,make a hole/indent in the middle of each cookie.Fill will jam and mound it just above the top of the cookie.
Bake 22 minutes or until cookies puff and become plae golden.For cooling I did 5-10 minutes on sheet,and then on wire rack.

1,2,3,testing,1,2,3...cookies that is

Wow,cookies are really taking over my life.
With all the Veganomicon recipes as of late,i'll post some more i've tried.

These are Pistachio Rosewater Cookies.A very elegant and "grown up" taste.A subtle sweetness and a wave of rosewater that comes after the initial taste,and a nice hint of lime.


Rumnog Pecan Cookies.Festive,eh?Specially in September.I've only ever had vegan nogs,but i've liked em all,and in cookie form is perfect.The rumnog frosting is really nice and rummy,and the sprinkles are just cute.

And besides Veganomicon recipes,there is some super-secret cookie baking happening for the upcoming cookie cookbook.Isa and Terry and nuts.


NYC Black and White Cookies(Seinfeld cookies?)





Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.Daniel thought these were the best ever.He even said something about christ when talking about them.Just sayin'.

Peanut Butter Mousse filled Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Peanut Butter Mousse filled Banana Oatmeal Cookies.
I think i've got this peanut butter mousse recipe down now.And it doens't have anything lame like tofutti in it.The Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies are a Martha Stewart recipe that I veganized really easily by substituting a scant 1/2 cup canola oil for 3/4 cup butter and leaving out the egg and adding flax,which i don't think was necessary because of the banana.Whatvever,they're awesome,and fancy.






sammich?

Terry's Favourite Almond Cookies/Green Tea Ice Cream Sammiches

Terry's Favourite Almond Cookies/Green Tea Ice Cream Sammiches.
From Veganomicon.I think the pictures say enough.I love vegan Chinatown.

Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake

Today was my dad's birthday.So there was a little party at his house of his girlfriend,her daughters,their boyfriends,some of my dad's friends,and then me Daniel,Sarah and Ryan.
I made Seitan Piccata from Veganomicon for dinner which was well recieved by the omnivorous boyfriends who cooked their own 6 course meal.
But what really took the cake(heh!)was the Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake with Lemon Ginger Cookies and Cream Frosting.
The cake is another new recipe that will be in Isa and Terry's new book Veganomicon
The cake was delicious.Very lemon-y and not overly sweet though pretty rich.I will definitely make this again.It's not a typical birthday cake,and I wouldn't even normally frost it,but the cookies were dying to be used and who cares if it's a typical birthday cake when it's so yummy?

Veganomicon COOKIES!

Isa and Terry's new cookbook VEGANOMICON is coming out soon.And it's gonna be really amazing.and these cookies are all from it:



these are Hazelnut Cushions.The only thing cuter than them is their name.They're delicious,too.Hazelnuts and chocolate...




Peanut Ginger Sesame Cookies.Inventive,eh?I liked these more than the hazelnut cushions,but only because i'm addicted to peanut-y things.And I love ginger.And the black sesame seeds are pretty awesome.


These were my favourite.Koala Noses.Or Fig Smooshed Anise Almond Cookies.Also cute,and so delicious.I have a new appreciation for anise that I wouldn't even know was anise if Isa hadn't talked about how great she thought anise was(at the moment).

as these cookies show,this is gonna be an incredible cookbook.you should pre-order it!
but it's not like I have to tell you.

from amazon

Book Description
• The essential guide to mastering the art of vegan cooking: It's easy to live vegan 24/7 with this collection: 250 recipes, menus, and color photos for dishes that taste even better than their non-vegan counterparts. Every recipe in Veganomicon has been kitchen-tested a minimum of seven times by the authors and their intensely engaged fans to ensure user-friendliness, quick preparation, and amazing results. In addition to featuring the authors' signature attitude and experimental, DIY philosophy, Veganomicon has been specifically tailored to what you want most in a cookbook. No other vegan cookbook offers such innovative recipes for all occasions, convenience, easy-to-find ingredients, and gluten-free and tofu-free options.

New York

So August 18th I took the bus across the US to NYC.I stayed with my friend Isa and did a lot of fun stuff.It was an amazing experience and an all around amazing time and I wish I lived there and it was just great.
here's a link to my flickr account of pics from the trip and some stories.

Wedding Cakes

So on August 11th this couple Yoalnda and Chris were getting married,so they asked Alan who I make Chi Cakes for/help out with baking and stuff if he could make them a wedding cake.Alan doesn't do regular cakes,only cheesecakes,so he asked me and of course I was up to it.So They're chocolate cakes with vanilla buttercream in the center and all around them.I also made 24 mini mini cakes(but not cupcakes,through close) but Alan forgot those at the bakery.This was my first wedding cake and I hope they liked it.It's a very tried and true recipe that i've made a ton of times,so I hope so.