Spring is in the air...

It's 5am & I have not yet been to bed yet (well that's a lie I'm in bed now)... I LOVE my bakery gig and I'm so excited it's turned into 5 nights a week, but this recent trend of not getting to sleep until Ian wakes up for class (usually around 7am) is mighty frustrating. Sleeping in until 1 or 2pm (no matter that I'm still only getting 6-7 hours of sleep a night) makes me feel incredibly lazy!

Fitzgerald (our cat) LOVES it by the way. He can cuddle up with Dad and when he gets bored come over to Mom for a petting and stretching session. I wonder if my cat has always been an insomniac or if he's recently developed similar sleeping habits to me? Lylah (our dog) isn't bothered in the least by my new habits. She sleeps all night with Dad and all day with Mom-- pretty perfect plan in her opinion. They both sleep all day anyway (see picture, yes that's how they sleep I'm telling you they're BFF's it's so weird) so I guess my habits don't effect them much.

While browsing the aisles of a craft store today I got the (in my opinion) genius idea to try regular 'ole rubber stamps on fondant-- it works! I made some medallions to top cupcakes with-- all the beauty of fondant decoration but without the need to eat it. These little guys just fancy a cupcake up and can (but don't have to be) eaten.

I made 5 pounds of fondant when I made my batch last time-- which was silly of me of course but I wasn't sure if it would turn out right, if I'd have to cover the cake 1 million times (hey I had to do it twice since my cat sat on the first one)-- so I have LOTS left over. I decided to test out my stamp hypothesis and make a new cupcake recipe at the same time-- both were stunning successes in my humble opinion.
You may (or may not) recall a post I had here before I was a vegan about Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake. While making Ian a sandwhich today I wondered if the recipe would work with Veganaise. I was worried that the eggs in the Mayo were an important part to the recipe-- but I'm glad I finally decided to try out the substitution... it worked, and worked WELL. When I went back to the original post I noticed I didn't list sugar-- that didn't seem right, and it wasn't so here is the new, improved and animal friendly recipe:

Chocolate No-Mayo Cupcakes
2 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Veganaise
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla **Next time I make these, because there will be a next time, I will use a Tablespoon of vanilla**

Preheat Oven to 350. Sift the dry ingredients together. "Cream" The rest together, combine wet with dry. Bake for 25 minutes. Yup. It's that easy. These tend to rise a bit more then I expected so don't over fill your cupcake liners (as I tend to do because vegan cupcakes don't seem to rise as much)!

These cupcakes are moist and light but aren't super rich or flavorful. I will add more vanilla next go around and maybe some espresso powder or carmel extract!

I dolloped them with a generous heap of V.B.C. (Vegan Butter Cream) and my little fondant toppers. I think they're super cute for spring!For the toppers I rolled out some green fondant (colored with green gel food coloring) about 1/4 inch thick. I pressed in the rubber stamp with firm, even pressure. I used the lid of a spice jar to cut out the circles and then lightly dusted some edible pearl powder with a paint brush.

And just for kicks, because I'm incredibly bored:

1. Favorite non-dairy milk? EdenSoy "Spy" Milk (thanks to Melisser The Urban Housewife) though we always have at least Soy, Hemp & Hazelnut milk in the fridge at any given time.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
this week?
vegan pizza purses from VeganYumYum
mini green bean casseroles (I got the BEST little mini dishes)
bean ball subs

3. Topping of choice for popcorn? thai chili oil

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure? i followed a recipie EXACTLY from VWAV but it was WAY too salty-- i had to throw it away ):

5. Favorite pickled item? jalapenos or dill pickles

6. How do you organize your recipes? In a recipie box

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? Trash & Compost at work

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?
mashed potatoes (with LOTS of earth balance and dill)
italian marinated tofu
ginger marinated portabello caps

OH NO I FORGOT DESSERT! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE I CAN'T DO IT (thankfully I don't do island/beach/deserted things so I will never be in this cake-less situation)

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? my grandma's "church windows" (dark chocolate log peppered with mini colored marshmallows)

10. Favorite vegan ice cream? Coffee Coconut Bliss, incredible

11. Most loved kitchen appliance? my cast iron skillet

12. Spice/herb you would die without? dill

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? i have my stepmom's first copy of The Joy of Cooking-- not exactly vegan friendly but a great jumping off point.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? strawberry

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? buffalo style tofu

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh? tofu

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? i'm a big brunch person

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator? haha vegan fondant decorations (they're drying in a paper bag) and posters we need to frame (its the only place in our house our animals cant get to!)
19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking. I honestly do not have three things in my freezer-- we're big "fresh" heads here, but I do have local, organic frozen mixed berries & strawberries for making smoothies.

20. What's on your grocery list? We actually went today so nothing (for once). Today the long list included soy milk, roasted red peppers and hearts of palm

21. Favorite grocery store? First Alternative Co-Op

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet. Creme Brulee. My all time favorite desert

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
TasteSpotting
Vegan Yum Yum
How To Eat A Cupcake
The Urban Housewife

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate? (premade?) I know this is so bad to admit but Oreos : /

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? a ten dollar bottle of vanilla extract o_o

Wedding Bells are Ringing...

Marriage. I guess it's what happens when you enter your mid-twenties, but it's still pretty weird. I was one of the first in my group of friends to do it, but it still weirds me out. We're dropping like flies! I got married at the end of last year (yes thats us in the picture to the left, yes we took professional picture with beer cans in our hands haha), a had two of my very favorite people in the world get married a few months before. My wonderful Jen got married a few months ago (On the Starship Enterprise!!!), I have a wedding in 20 days, I have a wedding in August, and I have another set of friends who got engaged on New Years Eve. Sheesh!

I think I have more wedding fever now then I ever did planing my own wedding! All these weddings have got me thinking about my favorite part of the wedding... cake. I won't be able to eat the cakes at most of these weddings-- eggs, butter, milk... yuck. Before I became a vegan most wedding cakes were still a no-no because of fondant (gelatin and glycerin were always on my "no" list). So you can imagine my joy when I found a vegan fondant recipe (PPK message boards for the win!)!

According to Wilton's personnel their glycerin is completely corn derived and their pre-made fondant is completely animal ingredient free! I wanted to try my hand at making my own fondant, but was so glad to hear the pre-made stuff is safe for animals of all shapes and sizes!

Following the advice of the PPK message bored I used Wilton's fondant recipe and replaced the gelatin with agar-agar powder. Worked like a charm! I've never worked with fondant before so I decided to do a small cake and make it like the top of a wedding cake. I kept my friend Jen (the Starship Enterprise) in mind while designing the cake. I wanted it to be simple but dramatic. I was planning out something pretty elaborate-- it wasn't really working on my average sized cake, so I wasn't too upset when my cat sat on it and I had to start over (okay thats a lie, I was pretty pissed, but whatever my cat is awesome)

I used the same cake recipe as I did for Ian's birthday cake. Instead of adding food coloring I added 1/4 cup mini carob chips to one batch of batter and 1/4 cup colored sprinkles to another batch. I ended up with 5 layers (we ate the 6th layer while watching a movie haha). I prepared the cake with a light layer of butter cream frosting (the same recipe I always use) before draping it in the fondant.
(As you can probably see from the picture, I forgot to layer the cakes in any sort of order so there are two chocolate chip layers on top of each other. Oh well!)

Here are the results. For my first time I'm pretty proud of it. It can only get better from here, right?
I marbled the fondant on the side by just patting the cake with a wet paper towel dipped in black food coloring (I use the gel type that comes in jars). Some of the shades came out a bit green-ish for some reason.

I made the marbled fondant roses by mixing in black food coloring in the white fondant-- but not fully mixing it in. The roses needed 24 hours to dry, so I made these the day before making the whole cake. The mini flowers were made with a small fondant color and lots of black dye fully mixed into fondant (also dried 24 hours). I used a small icing tip to put the white middles in the day I made the cake. The flowers were "glued" to the cake using vegan butter cream.

While it wasn't exactly as I had imagined it in my head, I think my first time playing with fondant was a success. I feel my original idea would have worked better with a taller, thinner cake-- so I may invest in some specialty sized pans soon.

A note, we had some friends over for pizza (made with Teese) and cake last night-- they enjoyed eating the fondant (I think it tastes disgusting) so maybe vegan fondant tastes better then regular? I've never heard of people actually enjoying the flavor of fondant!

Here's the fondant recipe in case you don't want to search around the Wilton site:

1 tablespoon (+2 teaspoons) agar agar
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup glucose
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening (I used Earth Balance shortening sticks)
1 tablespoon glycerin (I used Wilton)
4-6 cups powdered sugar

Combine agar and cold water; let stand until thickened. Boil 5 minutes or until agar has dissolved. Remove from stove, add glucose and shortening, mix until dissolved. Add glycerin. Cool until lukewarm. Make a well in 4 cups of powdered sugar, pour the agar mixture into the well and stir with a wooden spoon, mixing in sugar. Add more sugar little by little until mixture is no longer sticky. Knead in remaining sugar until fondant is smooth, pliable and does not stick. If fondant is too soft/sticky add more sugar; if too stiff add water one small drop at a time.

When ready to use, knead fondant until soft and workable.

This is the newest edition to my kitchen. Thanks to Jessie over at Cakespy! I'm just totally in love, I think it's fantastic! I messaged her about a wedding themed piece as a gift for my kitchen and this is what we came up with.

The line is from an ee cummings poem, one of which was very important in the beginning of my relationship with my husband. Falling in love is SCARY and this poem spoke to me due to my husband's work with birds of prey. I actually have a ridiculous phobia of birds, but they interest me (from afar... truly, hearing a bird "sing" makes me nauseas [yea, I'm crazy]). Eventually I began to refer to my husband as bird and it stuck!

I am just so thrilled with my new picture, so I thought I'd share!

I'm well on my way to making my own little photography studio for food, my EGO lights should make it here next week, so expect some stellar looking food in the next coming weeks!