Emma is having a valentine exchange at school today, and I have visions of her bringing home oodles and oodles of candy made from HFCS, artificial colors and probably some type of animal product. I’m not so much of a hard ass that I would forbid her from eating a few of these candies, but I wanted to think outside the box and send her to school with some useful treats and gifts to give to her friends.

Part of the fun of Valentine’s Day is picking out your valentines at the store. Since I knew Emma wouldn’t be into handmaking 24 Valentine cards, I let her pick out some from the store. We ended up with Disney princesses and Scooby Doo. Then, I ended up finding these fun Valentine bags at Target for cheap and I filled them with all kinds of goodies.

Each bag had a (homemade) CD of some of Emma’s favorite songs, a bag of cookies– chocolate chip using this awesome recipe, and heart shaped sugar cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking, and an organic lollipop… not that organic makes candy any healthier, but at least I know it’s made with real sugar and doesn’t have any weird colors in it.

I hope her friends like them!

I actually did some cooking last week, but failed to blog about any of it.  Well, here it is…

While everyone else is probably sick of Thanksgiving leftovers, I felt like we didn’t get our fair share.  All 3 of us were sick on Thanksgiving, which meant (for me, anyway) no appetite.  Any Thanksgiving dishes that were suitable for us just didn’t taste right, or I only ate a little bit.  Anyway, last Monday when I asked Emma what we should have for dinner, she said we should have “Friendsgiving.”  I had to go to the store anyway, so I picked up a pack of organic stuffing mix (basically some croutons and spices), a field roast, some cranberry sauce and some potatoes.  Normally, I would be more inclined to make everything from scratch, but sometimes there’s nothing wrong with taking a little help from the store (especially since I was still getting over my cold).

The only interesting topic of conversation from our Friendsgiving meal was the field roast.  I’ve never had one before, but the size of it seemed more suitable for 3 people than an entire Tofurkey.  I’ve never had Tofurkey (aside from the lunch “meat” which I like), but I didn’t want anything that big or that expensive– even on sale it was $20!  Anyway, I opted for the lentil sage flavor of the field roast.  It has a very chewy texture and I’m not sure I would buy it again.  It just didn’t appeal to me, but don’t let my opinion keep you from trying it.  It was only around $5.

Whenever I find Dandies marshmallows, I like to stock up.  At $6 a bag, they are pretty pricey, but they are probably the best vegetarian marshmallows I’ve tried.  They are pretty close to the real thing.  Anyway, if you live in or near San Francisco, you can find Dandies at Rainbow Grocery and if you live in or near Sacramento, you can find them at the Natural Foods Co-op.  The problem with Dandies is that once you open the package and there’s no air to pad the marshmallows, they tend to squish into each other forming a gigantic blob.  Once they are in this blob form, it is impossible to pull them apart, which makes them perfect for treat making.  I picked up a box of Brown Rice Krispies (they taste the same as the other ones, but are a little bit healthier).

Vegan Rice Krispies Treats

10 oz. vegetarian marshmallows (1 bag of Dandies)

3 TB Earth Balance margarine

6 cups rice cereal (a 10 oz. box is 6 cups)

In a large pot, melt the marshmallows with the Earth Balance.  When completely melted, stir in the cereal.  Pour into a greased baking sheet and press the treats evenly into the sheet.  When cool, cut into squares.

Lastly, I made some Mexican quinoa (like Mexican rice,but with quinoa instead).  I have to thank my friend Jen for this cooking method because I can’t cook rice to save my life and have tried to make Mexican rice several times but usually end up with a goopy mess.  Once she explained to me how to do it properly, I figured I could do it, but use quinoa instead of rice.  It turned out pretty good!

Mexican Quinoa

1 cup quinoa, dry

1 TB canola oil

1 small onion, diced

1- 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 1/2 cups vegetable stock, or water

Pinch of S&P

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, toast the quinoa in the oil until golden brown.  Add the onion and saute until the onion is tender.  Pour in the tomato sauce and stock and add the S&P and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer, put a lid on it and cook 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and remove lid and let stand for 5 minutes.  Fluff with fork and serve!

I love Halloween.  It’s my favorite holiday.  Here are some pics of things that I’ve made this Halloween, as well as some pics of my butterfly fairy.  My edible “blood” recipe is also included below.

Creepy Halloween Cupcakes:

Edible “Blood” Recipe:

Corn Syrup

Red Food Coloring (use the gel food coloring available at cake and craft stores.  The liquid stuff from the grocery store will thin it out too much).

Cocoa Powder
Combine the corn syrup and the food coloring until it is the color that you want it.  Add cocoa powder, a little at a time until the desired opaque-ness and consistency is reached.

Cupcakes for the Halloween Party at Emma’s school:

My Pumpkin (Jack & Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas):

My beautiful Butterfly Fairy:

A scorpio themed birthday cake:

And a cupcake topped with some edible dice:

My Dad’s birthday was on Friday and we all headed to Sacramento to celebrate.  We left Friday evening when Matt got home from work.  He had to DJ on Saturday night, so he left Saturday afternoon, but Emma and I stayed through Sunday and took the train home.

My Dad’s favorite dessert is peach pie.  I think I only make pie about once a year (for his birthday) and every year right before I’m ready to make it, I realize that I don’t own a pie plate.  First of all, how is it possible that I want to start a baking business and I don’t even own a pie plate?!  Anyway, I now have one on my wish list and I will definitely get one before next July 17.

A cake pan did the trick this time.  Just for fun, I cut out stars in the top crust.  The peach pie recipe was from The Joy of Vegan Baking.  The only change I made was to mix the peaches with the butter/flour/sugar mixture instead of layering it as the recipe suggests.  I also threw in some very ripe apricots.  Save yourself a buck and use frozen peaches for a pie.  You can’t really tell the difference between fresh and frozen.

Since I can’t resist and opportunity to make a cake, I also made my dad a birthday cake– vanilla with raspberry buttercream.  Yummmmy!!  Sadly, the fondant that I had made to cover the cake failed me.  It was too dry and crumbled when I rolled it out.  Anyway, I had to resort to store bought fondant– eww!  The swirls on the top are made from gum paste, which I made in my stand mixer this time and it’s the best batch of gum paste ever.  The trick is to knead in some shortening, even if the recipe doesn’t necessarily call for it.

And this horrible photo is an asian noodle salad that I made to have with dinner.  It turned out really good, so I’ll blog about it despite the horrible photo.  I didn’t measure, but it’s pretty much fool proof:  Boil noodles per package directions (we used spaghetti, but you could use whatever you want).  While noodles are boiling, make dressing in bottom of large bowl (juice from 3 limes, about 2 TB rice vinegar, about 4 TB soy sauce, pinch of red pepper flakes, a drizzle of toasted sesame oil, 2-4 TB agave).  Throw in your veggies and toss to coat with dressing.  I used some cucumbers (from my Grandma’s garden!), red cabbage, red onion (would have preferred green, but didn’t have any), cilantro, edamame, and cherry tomatoes (from my Dad’s garden).  When noodles are cooked, drain and add them to the salad.  Toss and refrigerate until ready to serve.  Top with peanuts.

We celebrated my friend, Brianne’s, birthday this last weekend. She had been craving Underdog for quite some time, so she picked some up for us to make at her new place. Here’s Underdog in a nutshell:

UNDERDOG – “The Organic Sausage Joint” is exactly just that. we are a restaurant that serves grilled organic meat and vegetarian sausages on lightly toasted gourmet organic buns. you can dress your sausage anyway you like at our self-serve organic condiment stand. we also offer organic salads, desserts, sodas, juices, drinks, chips, snacks, and candies. Everything we sell is made with natural and organic ingredients. We will never sell anything that contains gmo’s, artificial preservatives, artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, transfats, or high fructose corn syrup. We conduct business in ways that make the least negative impact on our planet by trying to always use packaging, supplies, and disposables made from either recycled paper and/or biodegradable products made from renewable and sustainable resources like corn, potatoes, bamboo, or sugar cane. We recycle as much as we can and encourage you to do the same. We try to always only use non-toxic and biodegradable cleaners. We donate a portion of our profits to local charities. We are the UNDERDOG!

While I’ve never been to the shop, I can highly recommend them based on Brianne’s recommendation and based on trying them at her house this weekend.  They were awesome!  Underdog is located at :

1634 Irving Street San Francisco, CA. 94122
(Between 17th and 18th Avenue, Inner Sunset)

I tried the Veggie Italian and the Veggie-Dog.  Both were really good– so good that I can’t choose a favorite.  I would eat both again.

I made dessert (of course!) and since Brianne doesn’t like cake, she requested Mexican Wedding Cookies.  I couldn’t stop there, so I made a Birthday Dessert Platter of Mexican Wedding Cookies, low-fat Zucchini Brownies and fresh strawberries.  I’ll be offering these through my bakery… if I ever get the website up and running.  I have the domain, just not the time to actually get the website looking good.  That sort of explains my absence lately… business has really picked up and I’m a little worried that it’s taking off faster than I can keep up.  I just need a few more hours each day to get it all done!

I made LOTS of fondant yesterday (seriously, I used about 6 pounds of sugar!) and experimented  a bit:

I’ve always used agar agar flakes to make it, but I was somewhat annoyed with how long it took for them to fully dissolve.  This one step often took more than 15 minutes and for something that I don’t necessarily enjoy doing, this was entirely too long.  Making fondant, to me, is somewhat of a pain– first you have to sift all that powdered sugar and then you have to wait for the flakes to dissolve.  Don’t get me wrong– homemade fondant is so far superior to storebought that it’s worth the effort.  But yesterday, I needed to make a batch of white and a few batches of chocolate.  That’s potentially 45 minutes or more of just waiting for the agar flakes too dissolve!

Enter agar powder.  I’ve tried this before and I think I used too much powder for the amount of water in the recipe.  When using powdered agar, generally the ration is 1 tsp of powder to 1 TB of flakes.  And in a recipe, you can generally substitute 1:1 agar flakes for gelatin.  So I used powder and it did indeed cut down on “dissolve time.”

If you use my fondant recipe, follow as directed, except use about 1 1/2 tsp of agar powder for the agar flakes.  You may need to add a little bit more water if it becomes too pasty.  The brand of powder I used (pictured left) even has vanilla flavoring in it, so you can get that vanilla taste into your fondant without using vanilla extract, which will give your fondant an off-white color.

Side Note:  I found this brand of agar at the Asian market.  Be careful when you buy it because it also comes in red and green (as in it has red and green coloring added to it) and all three packages are identical.  Read the ingredients list before throwing it into your cart.

The difference between using powder over flakes:

1. Once dissolved, the water will become gelatinous, but you are left with more liquid than if you use flakes.  This means that you will need much more sugar to get the right consistency.  Plan on using more like 9 cups per recipe (which will produce more fondant per batch).
2. The consistency of the finished product is near perfect once all of the sugar gets kneaded in.  The problem I find when using flakes is that the fondant reaches a perfect consistency after it has been allowed to sit for several days.  On the day it’s made, I find it to be a little too soft to use right away.
3. You won’t have to worry about having bits of undissolved flakes floating around your fondant.

The verdict for me is that powder is better than flakes here.  It dissolves faster and produces a better finished product.  My next fondant experiment will be to see if I can use my stand mixer with the dough hook attachment to knead in the sugar, rather than by doing it by hand.  The process of kneading in the sugar is very similar to kneading bread dough so it stands to reason that it should work.  Stay tuned!

The only picture we mananged to get of her smiling. Thanks, Kendal.

Yesterday was Emma’s birthday party and man, was it hot!  Perfect weather, actually, since there was a bit of a breeze.  She seemed to enjoy herself; although, every time I ask her if she had fun, she tells me that it was too tiring.  I agree.  Next year, she seems down for a trip somewhere in lieu of a big party.  The theme was garden/spring/bugs.

I bet you’re all wondering what was on the menu so without further delay, here you go:

Fruit:  pineapple, watermelon, grapes, strawberries, cantaloupe and blueberries (and a special thanks to Nana Sally for contributing the best tasting blueberries I’ve had all year– blueberries are one of Emma’s favorite foods).  I used the top half of a pineapple as the centerpiece of the fruit tray.  Then I cut some melon flowers and put them on skewers into the pineapple.  I used green leaf lettuce around the edge for a little something extra.  Turned out cute.

Snack Tray #1:  cherry tomatoes, edamame, spring rolls with Quick Peanut Sauce from Vegan Lunch Box.

Snack Tray #2:  mini pitas, crackers, baby carrots, bell pepper slices, cucumber slices and falafel.

For the kiddos:  PB&J flowers.  Centers are strawberry and grape halves secured with a toothpick.

Cake:

A cupcake tower of strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, chocolate mint, lemon and coconut.  The cupcakes were topped with fondant ladybugs, butterflies, caterpillars, and flowers.  On top of the tower was a “cake” with a candle for Emma to blow out.  I didn’t have time to make an actual cake, so I used styrofoam and covered it with homemade chocolate fondant.  The decor at the top is all made from gum paste and fondant.  Extra embellishments– i.e. the ladybug spots, etc.– are all done with a vegan royal icing (sub Ener-G Egg Replacer for egg white).

I know all of this looks like it took a long time to prepare, and it did, but the great thing about it is that a lot of it can be done ahead of time.  The faux “cake” I made about two weeks ahead of time.  The fondant decorations for the cupcakes were done about a month ago, as with the decorations for the faux “cake.”  All of the cupcakes have been leftovers from the various batches I’ve made over the last month, except for the chocolate and vanilla ones.  I cut up and arranged all the fruit the day before.  The falafel was cooked the day before and reheated the day of.  Yes, it was a lot of work, but breaking it up into more manageable parts made it much easier.

This past weekend, I was in Sacramento for my 10-year high school reunion and a friend’s baby shower.  I had offered to make cupcakes for the shower and the mama-to-be requested chocolate mint, mocha, lemon and coconut.  I’ve never made coconut cake before, but I figured I could alter my lemon cake recipe slightly to make it coconut.  Guess what?!  It worked!  To make the coconut cake, follow the lemon cake recipe exactly, but sub coconut milk (either light or full fat) for the soy milk and coconut extract for the lemon extract.  You could even add an extra teaspoon of coconut extract to the cake batter, if you wanted to kick the coconut up a notch.  For the buttercream, follow the lemon buttercream recipe exactly, but sub coconut extract for the lemon.  I’ve made this one more time since I made it for this batch of cupcakes, and I think it’s better with an extra 1/2 to full teaspoon of coconut extract.  After frosting, roll in flaked coconut.  All cupcakes were topped with fondant flowers that matched the theme.

I made the cupcake stand following these instructions and covered it in paper that matched the theme of the shower.  The one thing I did not do was glue the paper to the cake boards– I used double stick tape instead to make it less permanent.  To buy all the materials for this project is pretty pricy, but by making it reusable, I’ll get more life out of it.

Emma’s birthday was on Monday.  Lots of birthdays around here– hers Monday, mine today.  She turned 3 which, to me, means she’s not a baby anymore.  3 means almost ready for kindergarten.  Makes me sad.

Anyway, we threw her a little surprise party on Sunday because she had been staying with my parents for the weekend and they were bringing her back home.  We had my Nutburgers (which everyone LOVED– my Dad even asked for the recipe even though he claims that most of my vegan recipes are “too labor intensive”), along with some broccoli, watermelon, and store bought potato chips and popcorn.  Emma loves popcorn.

For dessert, I made some strawberry cupcakes!  I have never in my life had strawberry cake before, but I think it is now one of my favorites.  I may even try the same recipe with peaches this summer when fresh peaches are so abundant.  The recipe is in the The Joy of Vegan Baking.  I frosted them with a Strawberry Buttercream, which was a modification of the Raspberry Buttercream recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  Since it’s not exactly the same recipe, it’s probably safe to post it here.  I found the cake to be delicious, but the frosting to be insanely sweet when combined with the cake.  Tips for improving the sweetness level at the bottom of the recipe.

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

(click here for a printer-friendly version)

1/4 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
1/4 cup non-hydrogenated, non-dairy margarine
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
4 TB strawberry flavored syrup (the kind for making Italian sodas, not for waffles)

Cream together the shortening and margarine. Add the powdered sugar and syrup. If frosting is too thin, add more sugar.

As you can see, this recipe is pure sugar (and fat).  Next time, I will order some strawberry extract from the internet somewhere (impossible to find in the stores) and use a teaspoon of that.  Then cut back the syrup by half and add a splash of soymilk if it is too thick.  That would probably be the best way to achieve a strong strawberry flavor without it being overwhelmingly sweet.

My birthday is coming up (tomorrow, actually) and to celebrate, my friends and hubby treated me to a delicious dinner at Basil, then dancing at Bootie this past Saturday.  Matt was a guest DJ at Bootie and I try to go see him play when I can.  He didn’t disappoint– it was an awesome fun time!  Bootie is a mashup club in San Francisco run by some of my hubby’s good friends and it’s always a good time.  If you’re curious about mashups, here’s my favorite (made by my husband, of course):

dj-matt-hite-everybody-is-right

I made my own cake because I can’t resist any opportunity to make cake.  It’s something I find enjoyable and it’s good practice.  I will be good at making cakes one day!  Since we were partying it up at Bootie, I went with a pink pirate themed cake.  Get it– bootie, like pirates treasure booty.  Aargh!

The only problem is that my pirate that was supposed to go on top didn’t turn out.  Vegan white chocolate, while hard to find, doesn’t melt as well as non-vegan white chocolate.  That, and the fact that somebody’s little fingers kept messing with it (Emma!!), caused my pirate to fall apart when I went to put her on my cake.  I’ll give the technique another try later.  Anyway, so my pirate fell apart and I didn’t have the time/motivation to attempt another.  I ran off to the party supply store only to find a very small selection of pirate-themed party supplies, none of them pink, so I went with Hello Kitty instead.  Then I made her an eye patch out of chocolate fondant and that was my pirate cake!

The cake itself was the chocolate cake recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking with a few teaspoons of coffee extract added to the batter.  I baked it (2 separate batches) in two 6-inch cake pans, for a total of 4 layers.  The buttercream in between the layers was a Kahlua Mocha Buttercream and it was so boozily delicious.

Kahlua Mocha  Buttercream Frosting

(click here for a printer-friendly version)

1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening

1/2 cup non-hydrogenated, non-dairy margarine

5 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup (2 oz) good, dark chocolate, melted and cooled (or more cocoa powder)

8 TB Kahlua

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 tsp coffee extract

Cream together the shortening and margarine.  Gradually add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and melted chocolate (your chocolate MUST be cooled, or it will melt the shortening and margarine and you will have a big mess on your hands).  Add the Kahlua and extracts.  If your frosting is too thin, add more sugar.  If too thick, add a splash more of Kahlua.

A few things first:  Good-tasting vegan fondant is hard to come by, unless you make it yourself.  After much research and experimentation, I have come up with a yummy chocolate rolled fondant recipe with an option to leave it a white rolled fondant.  Since I used chocolate fondant for my pirate cake, here’s how I made it:

Vegan Rolled Fondant

(click here for a printer-friendly version)

Makes enough to cover a 10″ x 4″ high cake

¼ cup cold water

1 TB agar-agar flakes*

2 pounds (8 cups) powdered sugar, sifted

½ cup cocoa powder (omit if you want white fondant)

½ cup light corn syrup

1 ½ TB glycerin

2 TB non-hydrogenated shortening

1 tsp vanilla extract (omit if you want white fondant)

1.      Do not attempt to make this unless you can devote a solid, uninterrupted hour to it.  It probably won’t take you that long, but it’s not something that you can leave and come back to.

2.      Put the cold water into a small sauce pan.  Sprinkle the agar-agar flakes on top and set aside.

3.      Divide the powdered sugar between two large bowls.  In one of the bowls, add the cocoa powder to the 4 cups of powdered sugar.  Make a well in the center.  Set aside.

4.      Now that the agar-agar flakes have had a chance to soften in the water, turn the heat to medium to cook them.  Do not attempt to cook on high heat.  Low and slow is the rule here!  This is the most important step in the process of making fondant because you need to be completely sure that all of the agar flakes are dissolved before proceeding.

Notice all of the “speckles” at the bottom of the pan-those are the still undissolved agar flakes.  As the water begins to dissolve the agar, the mixture at the bottom will become gelatinous.  Add more water slowly (a tablespoon at a time), let it dissolve more agar, then add more until there are no more speckles of flakes visible in the pan.  You may end up adding more than cup of water to fully dissolve the flakes, but you need to do so gradually so as not to add too much.  The process of dissolving the agar takes probably 15 minutes.

Getting closer, but still not there!

Finally done!

And that’s what it should look like– gelatinous goo at the bottom of the pan.

5.      Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and stir to combine.  Pour this mixture into the well inside the bowl of powdered sugar and cocoa.  Begin stirring, incorporating a little more powdered sugar from the outside of the well at a time.

6.      When all of the sugar from this bowl has been incorporated, start adding scoops of sugar that have been reserved in the other bowl.  When the mixture becomes too stiff to stir with a spoon, knead it with your hands.

7.      Knead in more sugar until the mixture doesn’t stick to your hands or the bowl anymore.  You will probably only use about 6 cups of sugar total.

8.      Shape the fondant into a ball, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature overnight before using.

9.      To make white fondant, follow this same recipe and process, but omit the cocoa powder and vanilla extract.

* I have only used agar-agar flakes for this recipe.  I have not tried powder.  If you do intend to use agar powder, use 2 tsp max.  EDIT:  If you find this recipe by a random web search, check out this post for more information on using agar-agar powder instead of flakes.  I find that powder produces a better finished product than flakes do.

So let’s revisit the boob cake:

I made up a batch of vanilla cake, but baked it in a small stainless steel bowl.  It took a long time, probably 40 minutes, for the center to be completely done.  Once cooled, I carved them to be roughly the same sized domes then covered them in a thin layer of chocolate buttercream, and then covered them with fondant (the same fondant recipe above).  I made white fondant (omitting the cocoa powder and vanilla) then tinted it with a few drops of yellow and red food coloring paste.  To achieve a true skin tone, I kneaded in several tablespoons of cocoa powder (a little at a time).  A few more drops of red added to the skin-tone fondant makes the nips.