Gluten-Free V-day

This year, we celebrated all the toddlers’ birthdays on Valentine’s Day. Given a few allergies and intolerances here and there, I decided to make VCTOTW’s gluten free cuppies – with 10 of the 12 vanilla ones topped with this sugar-free frosting (I’m getting sick of icing sugar…and it’s not especially great for the little ones anyways) and the chocolate ones topped with chocolate tofu mousse.



I also couldn’t go without also recognizing Valentines’ Day, so I teamed up the cute little valentines for Ash’s little buds with goodie bags filled with more gluten-free treats. Seeking something both nut-free and gluten-free and healthy at the same time, I came across these toddler treats. I have to admit that I was sceptical, because the uncooked dough didn’t taste all that great. But once baked, delicious! I did use mini-chocolate chips instead of raisins, thereby upping the sugar but I hope also the taste value. I don't have a pic for some reason, but they looked EXACTLY like how they turned out on the website with the recipe.

I had hoped to try sculpting those cookies into hearts to suit the theme, but it wouldn’t have cut it. And Ash and I sampled so many that we didn’t have enough for all of the goodie bags! So I broke out my copy of VCIYCJ (I hadn’t tried anything yet!) and went to make the gluten-free version of their roll-out sugar cookies. I was going to use their recipe for Gluten Frida, but it called for coconut flour which is a no-no for one of the kiddos. So I pulled out my bag of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Flour Blend and subbed it 1:1 with a ¼ tsp of xanthan gum. The dough still seemed very wet, but once chilled and rolled out with more GF flour, I had no problems. They baked up great! I just wish that I could get over that GF taste – some flours seems a little beany. But I’m hoping the kids don’t mind! When Ash sampled it, she didn’t seem to notice and told me it was yummy in her tummy.



Between writing this post and actually posting it, it looks like we're having to modify Ash's diet to not include soy, gluten, corn and sugar until we figure out what's causing her so many issues...so I'm thinking my food prep challenges are about to increase! Stay tuned...

Ashy's Second B-day!

Last year, I did cupcakes, but now that Ash is two, she has a keen understanding what birthdays are all about – cake, candles and presents. Given that I couldn’t simply grab a cake from the store since there aren’t a lot of vegan options around, and I didn’t have the extra cash to outsource the production of a vegan themed cake, I decided to make one – and a big one at that to serve almost 20 people.

I bought 2 9x13 pans, with the goal of stacking the cake so I could serve more people. I had looked at converting other recipes to suit this pan format, but decided to go with something tried and true – Vcon’s Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake. I made the recipe twice in two separate bowls (good idea from my mom, as there’s so much batter that I wouldn’t have had a bowl big enough to mix 2 batches at once!) and baked for about 40-45 minutes, as per this site’s recommendations. It turned out great! I decided to freeze the layers on two separate cookie sheets as I made it the day before the party and find it easier to ice frozen cakes anyways.

And now here’s where my history of birthday disasters begins. I’m not sure what happened. I looked for a frosting with little sugar…maybe agave? All seemed too glaze-like and not fitting my image for what the cake would look like. Again, trying to stick to my tried-and-true mantra, I thought that I would make the same chocolate mousse topping that I did for my mom’s bday, but since I didn’t want to give Ash that this time, I thought I’d use the vegan white chocolate chips I had bought from my overly-expensive Vegan Essentials order last year. I should have noted that the term ‘Decorator's Chips’ is not the same as ‘chocolate chips’ or ‘baking chocolate’. Even though the ingredient listing is only sugar and cocoa butter, these things are waaaayyy to oily to bake with. It might turn out OK in the use of cookies, but once melted, they take on a grainy feel. It was disaster when I mixed them with the silken tofu in my food processor. After Kyle suggested mixing it up better with my immersion blender, things seemed OK – until the morning of the party.

The mousse was a gloopy mess. I tried mixing half of the ‘mousse’ with icing sugar, but I would have needed about 10 lbs of icing sugar just to get the runny mess to be a firm frosting. So I scrapped that and tried to think of another plan. I could go with VCTOTW’s buttercream frosting, but I would want to cut the sweetness with a different middle layer. I then tried heating the other half of the mousse and adding a little cornstarch and coconut extract, thinking I might be able to salvage it and make a coconut cream. Again, these damn chips stayed grainy and it was an even bigger disaster than trying to make the mousse. So I scrapped that too. I then decided to make the same lemon curd I made for my cake this year, and use all Earth Balance for the buttercream frosting (two batches required!). Everything then turned out perfectly. With everything ice cold, the filling didn’t seep out, and I could ice the cake with no issues. I wish I had time to pipe something more elaborate, but Ash was happy with the simplicity of the decorations.



Unfortunately, the disaster didn’t end there. I used the bread recipe Tracy shared with me and attempted to use it for pizza dough. I thought it was pretty runny, but I then stupidly covered it to rise using a dry tea towel. Obviously when I went to bake it, I tore away about half of the dough. Tracy told me it was good, but I’m convinced that she was just being nice.

All in all, I think everyone had fun – especially the birthday girl.

Happy Birthday Mami!

To borrow the title of one of Ash's fave stories...

It’s been so long that I’ve downloaded pics off the camera that I can’t really remember this day all that well. All I know is that I made the Butternut Squash Penne with Sage Pesto and Almonds dish from Skinny B*tch (with chicken tenders, of course) and mom liked it! Tracy also brought some delicious bread – she is now tasked with being the bread baker for our family events! I did end up trying to make my own at a later date:

For her cake, I think I used the chocolate cuppie recipe from VCTOTW and doubled it to make 2 8-inch layers. I used chocolate tofu mousse topping to fill the layers and ice the top, but nearly ran out to do the sides of the cake. So with whatever I had leftover for the mousse, I added melted chocolate chips to make a thick mousse-like ganache. I ‘pasted’ it on the sides and it was good! Definitely mom (and Ashley)-approved!

Mom also revealed that she’s considering adopting a vegetarian diet. I think Tracy nearly fell off her chair. This is after she became violently ill after eating at The Keg. Now that she’s over her illness, I’ll have to follow up on the status of her potential diet change…

Treats for Kyle

Nothing says I love you like a bad leftover cake stored in the freezer, topped with leftover icing and chocolate mousse from making cuppies for a recent b-day party.

But I did well for Kyle's b-day. We started off with homemade Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns from MrsBadMouth's zine. I used canned pumpkin since we were all out of home-roasted and despite the brighter orange colour (almost neon!), I think canned pumpkin is waaayyy easier. Why have I been wasting so much time roasting my own? It's always too runny!

That night, I served up his other b-day request, for a cake that was like a Canadian Maple donut from the other major coffee shop in Canada. So here it is, based on an old Veggie Life recipe:

M"eh"ple Cream Cake

Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white potato, baked, with flesh scooped out
2 tablespoons Earth Balance
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 cup soymilk

Filling
1/4 cup raw cashews
3/4 cup cold water
3 ounces firm silken tofu (in asceptic package)
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Glaze
1 tablespoon Earth Balance

1 tablespoon maple extract
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons boiling water, or more as needed

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray and line two 8 inch round pan with parchment paper on the bottom.

2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt together.
3. In a separate large bowl, cream potato and Earth Balance. Add the sugar and beat until fully blended and mix is fluffy.
4. Add the vanilla and lemon extracts to the sugar mix and continue to beat.
5. Slowly add soy milk, beating until fully blended. Then add flour mixture, 1 cup at a time, and beat until batter is smooth.
6. Pour into pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on a rack for at least 1 hour.

7. To make filling, in a blender, grind cashews with 1/4 cup water until smooth, about 1 minute. Add remaining water, washing down sides of blender while doing so and then blend on high for 2 minutes. Add tofu, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Blend on high until mixture is completely smooth.
8. Pour mixture into a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly. Continue cooking and stirring until mixture is very thick, about 2 minutes.
9. Remove from heat then stir in oil and vanilla. Allow to cool, stir occasionally. At room temperature, cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.

10. To make glaze, stir together maple extract and Earth Balance, then add in icing sugar. Add 1 tablespoon at a time of boiling water until glaze is thick but still pourable.

11. To assemble cake, place one layer on serving surface, dump out filling in centre, then place other cake layer on top, gently pressing down, ensuring filling stays about 1/2 from the edge. Pour on a little glaze to test the consistency, allowing some to fall down the sides. If glaze is too liquidy, add a little icing sugar until right consistency is achieved, then try to pour on cake again.

Now I had doubled the filling since I love it so much and thought I could put it to good use. And I did! I made Boston Cream Cuppies using the same cake recipe, but using Isa's chocolate ganache topping from VCTOTW.

With still even more filling left over in my pastry bag, I decided to pipe it onto some tofu chocolate mousse that was hanging around in the fridge! I even had a little ganache leftover that I did a little decorative touch.

So with all of these sweets, Kyle suggested that we cut down a little. Probably a good idea. Despite our dessert strike, I did negotiate making Dream Bars from Skinny B*tch in the Kitch since they sound so heavenly. I hope to make those this week to cheer us up from our dessert drought!

Ashley Turns One!

More cupcakes! I baked these up during the week and froze them, made the frostings the day before and iced the day of - it was super easy...especially with a little ankle biter yanking on my pants to be picked up all the time! And I know the photo is not totally stylized...we had to hurry to grab a pic since we had 20+ hungry onlookers and a little girl that needed to be served!


For Ash's 1st b-day bash, I made S'mores Cupcakes from VCTOTW that my dad really enjoyed (although he kept calling them Smurf Cupcakes...I guess he never heard of a s'more before?).


Looking for something with more natural sugar for the b-day girl to eat, I made the Vanilla Agave Nectar Cupcakes (half frosted with Vanilla Buttercream and the other half with Not-Too-Sweet Blueberry Mousse...all from VCTOTW too). I was a little scared to use agar, but it seemed to turn out! When I tried the mousse on its own I was worried, since like the title says, it's really not too sweet. But teamed with a cuppie, it was super tasty! For some reason, I also expected a pale blue colour. After the final mixing, I felt relieved to re-read the description that went along with the recipes as it says it's bright purple! I'm going to make these ones again this weekend for the big b-day bash for all the babies in our playgroup. Ash really liked it.




I also made those avocado cuppies I blogged about before, but instead topped with the chocolate tofu mousse from VCTOTW. OMG. My new fave cuppie. The mousse was so thick and really creamy. Yummy!

Vegetables...They're Not Just for Dinner Anymore

They're for dessert too!


I made up VCTOTW Cookies n' Cream Cupcakes, but used this recipe instead. Nothing against the original recipe or anything, but I loved how these turned out when I made them before. Something about the avocado in them that just did something wonderful to the texture. And I had tried freezing them before, with great results. It's my new thing to do - bake up cupcakes a week in advance, make the icing the day before, and ice them the day of the big event. Easy.



For our mom's b-day, I made Boston Cream Cake again. The secret veggie ingredient in this one? Potato! It makes the layer cake so fluffy. Who knew?



Kyle has requested a twist on the BC cake for his upcoming b-day. Same cake, same filling, but with a maple-y glaze similar to a Canadian Maple donut from Tim Horton's. He's also requesting this pie too. I have no idea why I need to make two things, but whatever...can't argue with the birthday boy!

Happy B-day to Me!

I make my own cake for my b-day. I was going to order more cupcakes for my big day this year (after having tried 5 different kinds from Ash's baptism), but I would only order a dozen this time and they were all so good that I couldn't pick just one kind. So I thought I would try and make a ginger cake with lemon icing based on one of the varieties of those cupcakes.


So I doubled the Gingerbread Cupcakes from VCTOTW, and made 2 layer cakes. Similar to other carrot cake disasters, the damn center caved in.



I posted my issue to the PPK and later figured that the batter must have been too moist and there wasn't enough dry ingredients to soak it all up. I wasn't able to serve that up, especially once iced, since I'm sure it would have turned into a sogfest. So after doubling the recipe, I decided to try the recipe again and use 3/4 cup oil instead of 1 cup, omitted the maple syrup, used 3/4 cup sucanat and used about 1 cup of soymilk, while keeping all of the other ingredients and quantities the same. It turned out great! A tasty cake makes being 30-something not so bad :)




PS - I still haven't forgotten about posting the Turtles recipe...I'm lucky that the baby has stayed asleep this long to allow me to create this post ;)

Sunshine and Mud

Luckily, there are a few days of forecast sun on the horizon, bringing hope that spring and green grass aren't far behind. Right now, our lawn consists of dead grass, mud and little mountains of bunny poop.

I've been making really simple and mundane meals lately, but here are a couple of new things. Leek and Bean Cassoulet from Vcon. It was actually really tasty as I wasn't expecting too much. Princess liked it.



I tried Tofu Marsala from What the Hell does a Vegan Eat Anyway. Mmmm, divine. I didn't have the right kinda wine and my cooking in general would probably make a gourmet cringe, but it was tasty.



Our meals have consisted of a lot of salads. I think fresh greens, beans and veggies are so photogenic. If you haven't tried the dressings in Vcon yet, check them out. I highly recommend Spicy Citrus Vinagrette.



Finally we marked Tay's 17th with Jelly Donut Cupcakes. A few of them looked a little x-rated, hopefully this one is PG enough to post.

In search of Genie's ass

I realize I'm the last person on Earth to receive Veganomicon. Well, second last, because Sarah's book will arrive along with mine (someday) in my mailbox, so technically she'll be the last one. I want it. Bad. I thought my VwaV challenge would distract me from how painstakingly slowly anything arrives in the mail, but alas, no. Other Chapters customers who pre-ordered received their copies, but not us. My challenge is kinda anti-climactic at this point, but I'll post the new recipes I've tried anyway. Actually, the hardest part of the challenge isn't making new recipes, but not making the ones I really really love over and over. And I did - Marinated Tofu, The Best Pumpkin Muffins, Big Gigantoid PB Cookies and Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies to name a few.

I'm not a huge breakfast eater, but had to try Banana-Pecan Pancakes, topped with Blueberry Sauce.



Whoever first combined bananas and pecans together was a genius. Or genie-ass, as we like to say around these parts.

Although I've made a lotta chili in my day, I never followed the Chili Sin Carne al Mole recipe to the letter. I didn't this time either, subbing Yves ground round for the seitan and kidney beans and chickpeas for the pinto beans. I loved the flavour though, and this was the first time I had ever added molasses to chili. Genie-ass.



I had to cheat and try a Veganomicon recipe. I've wanted to make the Panko Stuffed Mushrooms ever since I saw the v'con sneak peek. This was taken pre-bake.


On the plate.

Using panko for the breadcrumbs - genie-ass. These were so good - crunchy/salty/soft/savoury. I'm not a big eat-a-mushroom-whole fan and I loved them. The mushrooms were baby portabellas, since I have never seen a "stuffing mushroom" so labelled here.

Last week was my birthday, an event I love to share with family but not the whole world. Pete slaved over a wonderful feast of roasted butternut squash soup, strawberry spinach salad, garlic bread and Tofu Ricotta-stuffed shells. It was so deliciously good that I hardly had room for dessert. But Sarah had made Isa's Sm'love Pie again.



That's the lightnin' fast slice'n'serve gettin' my piece. I wasn't wastin' no time. Of course, they both should realize they've set the bar so high for next year. I'm spoiled. Thanks guys!

From Sarah and my mom and Gord, I received a waffle iron! Of course I had to knock off another VwaV recipe - Pumpkin Waffles (pumpkin has been a recurring theme here, I know). I used whole wheat flour (strangely enough, the same weekend Isa posted about them) so they were pretty hefty and filling. I still need to master the feng shui of the waffle iron. This photo doesn't really do my inexperience justice.



That's really all I've been up to while waiting....patiently...for my veganomicon to ship.

Hawaii Five Oh!

Our littlest Princess hit the big number five over the weekend, and selected a tropical theme for her party. While having six other princesses over for the afternoon seemed like a mistake at the time, the day turned out to be a success, complete with fashion show, limbo competition and gift-opening brawl. Special thanks go out to the parents of the kids who kindly gifted Princess with real makeup and Bratz dolls.

For lunch, we started with a main course of vegetarian Hawaiian pizza with fresh pineapple and veggie bacon, but it turns out that kids really just want plain pizza.

For the family affair in the evening, we had salads, starting with Vegan Hot German Potato Salad.



This recipe is an old family fav from Betty Crocker's Cookbook, made with Yves Veggie Bacon. I always boil the potatoes in cubed form because I'm lazy, but Mom made this so I don't know what she did.

Next up was Spinach-Mushroom Salad with a french-type dressing.



Not-so-Tropical Spinach Salad Dressing

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup organic ketchup
1/4 cup organic sugar
2 tblsp red wine vinegar
1/4 onion
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp vegan worchestershire sauce

Blend all ingredients together in a blender.

I found the spinach really absorbed the dressing, so don't add the dressing until immediately before serving. Unfortunately I didn't think to take pics until the folks had dug into the buffet.

Our final salad was Sarah's marinated edamame salad that she blogged about. I love bean salads.

For dessert, Princess pre-selected Pineapple Right-Side Up Cupcakes from VCTOTW, topped with Vegan Buttercream Frosting tinted pink and orange.



These were really good, but I suspect even better with the pineapple-cherry topping as written in the book.

The evening ended with a rousing Hawaiian-Irish-Yogic harmonica solo by Princess that defies description.

Sweet 16

The youngest of our two cool teens turned 16 on Tuesday, and the five of us celebrated the big event last night, complete with VCTOTW's basic chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. The liners featured Strawberry Shortcake, as per Princess's request.



It was worth the indulgence. Of course, we sent the birthday girl packing with a few cupcake leftovers so we wouldn't eat them.

As the book suggests, I added 1 tsp of rosewater to the icing for a sweet sixteen scent.

Aahh, to be young again.

Happy B-day Tracy!

Tonight was Tracy's b-day party! Pete made a delicious Multi-Vegetable Couscous from 150 Vegan Favourites by Jay Solomon. It was yummy! I wish I had used the flash, but I just wanted to take the pic and sit down to eat!!!

We had the pie for dessert! I know the readers of this blog have been on the edge of their seats since Monday, waiting in anticipation to see how the pie would actually look once it emerged from the pie plate:

Next time, I think I will bake my crust instead of putting it in the fridge to firm up.

The pie was SOOO good...as Tracy said, it tasted like silk. I especially liked the consistency of the ganache. I'm a little annoyed with myself for leaving the last piece with the b-day girl ;)

This is a pic of me serving the pie. No, I'm not shielding my face from the camera, but rather trying to control my sneezing due to allergies to Tracy's and Pete's furkids :( I didn't realize that Tracy took this pic, but I thought it was funny. I hate serving up dessert from pie plates (I always seem to destroy the presentation value), so hopefully a little phlegm will persuade someone else to take hold of the slice n' serve next time...hee hee...

The Birthday Curse

For the last few years, I have been asked to bake b-day treats for everyone in my family. I’m not sure if it’s because they like my cooking, or if they’d feel bad because I wouldn’t be able to share in the traditional non-vegan fare that would otherwise be served…hmm.

It’s bad enough that poor Tracy has to turn another year older, but I have to add insult to injury when I’m asked to make her a b-day cake. One year, Tracy asked me to make a carrot cake with cream cheeze icing. My creation? The cake was totally soggy, and the icing soaked into the cake (I swear I iced the cake when it was cooled). It was so sickly sweet and despite their best efforts, no one could eat it. I felt awful. Since then, I have gathered about a million carrot cake recipes and will one day perfect a recipe to give Tracy the perfect carrot birthday cake with a hope to break the curse.

Until she trusts me again with carrot cakes, Tracy has submitted requests for non-carrot related fare. This year, she asked for the same peanut butter-chocolate-maple syrup mousse pie that I had made for Princess’s b-day earlier this year. Perfect, I thought – I had already made this, and it turned out great. I’m safe! Then, Tracy managed to snag a copy of Vegan with a Vengeance from the library. She changed her mind, and instead wanted the No-Bake Black-Bottomed Chocolate Silk-Peanut Butter Pie. No sweat, I thought casually. That was until I read the ingredient that is known as my nemesis: Agar. No matter what I do, the agar just never works. I don’t even know what it’s supposed to do. So I became nervous, and as the days went by and Tracy’s b-day crept closer and closer, I began to dread the creation. And it didn’t help that I read about an unsuccessful venture on the PPK’s forums.

So I set out to make the pie tonight, so that in case my agar didn’t gel, I’d have time tomorrow night in between trick-or-treaters to make something else instead. I made the graham crust, spread the ganache, whipped the peanut butter-tofu mixture…then came the agar part. I whisked the boiling agar for a good 13 minutes (just to be sure it cooked or dissolved, or whatever), and then measured it in the measuring cup. ½ cup!!! The recipe said that it should have boiled down to 1/3 cup!!! I decided to take my chances, and added the remaining ½ cup liquid to the peanut butter mixture. I was so nervous about the whole agar thing, that I had inadvertently used the last choice (soymilk) instead of the planned second choice (soy creamer). Despite that slight mishap, it looks like everything turned out OK:

Tracy – I know that you will see this before Wednesday night…but I purposely wanted to post this pic in advance just in case my house blows up before then, and you would know that your b-day treat seemed OK at one point in time :) Now I just hope that each slice comes out nicely…stay tuned.