Cooler weather....

...means cookie baking time!

Delicious!

For our party I made two different kinds of mini cupcakes. I forgot to photograph the Chocolate Cupcake with Mocha Icing before I served them - there were none left. There were also Ginger-Vanilla Cupcakes with Rosewater Frosting. Again, I got the recipes from The Gluten-Free Goddess, Karina Allrich.

For the Mocha Icing recipe, click here.
For the Chocolate Cupcake recipe, click here.

I used Karina's recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes as the jumping off point for the Ginger-Vanilla Cupcakes... Instead of using rice milk, I used a combo of Almond milk and Coconut milk. I also added a 1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder and a good amount of ginger pulp - which I got from juicing ginger in my Breville juicer.

The recipe for the Rosewater Frosting is adapted from VCTOTW. I took the original Vanilla "Buttercream" and instead of using vanilla, I added rose water. To make the icing pink, I added about three to four drops of red food coloring.

Audrey helped me frost the cupcakes - we did it with knives instead of piping bags. Next time I'll try my hand at piping - it could be messy, good fun!

I heart Chocolate

We went to the Lake for Father's Day. It was a laid back, pot-luck affair. (Thankfully it did NOT rain!! I'm beginning to think we live in the Pacific Northwest and not NJ) My contributions were a quinoa dish and brownie bites - both vegan and gluten-free. My recipes came from THE Gluten-free Goddess herself, Karina Allrich. I have to say, her blog is one of my all-time favorite places to visit and I go there almost daily. Karina is a fount of knowledge, not to mention a hilarious and witty story teller. You're not only guaranteed great recipes but also a hearty dose of laughter.

I had to modify the brownie recipe to exclude the blueberries. Otherwise, there is no way on this green earth that M would have ingested a single one. He's not a fan of blueberries, to say the very least. This allowed me to up the chocolate chip content though, and I don't think anyone complained about that. Plus, instead of using a half-cup of water, I added some left over coffee and it was more like a half-cup of coffee water - to enhance the flavor of the chocolate.

Here's my endeavor...



I copied the recipe onto some scrap paper - but I'll be printing this out to add to my binder - it's most DEFINITELY a keeper!















Not the most beautiful photos to illustrate such a tasty treat, but I did my best. And, of course I forgot to take photos of the quinoa dish - but if you want to see how lovely it can be - please skip on over to Karina's when you're done here. You won't be sorry.

Memorial weekend baking

I made some cookies and cupcakes over the Memorial Day weekend. The cookie recipe is from Elana's Pantry. I modified it by using almond meal instead of almond flour. The cookies were good (or "not bad" according to M - and you don't even know what a HUGE compliment this is considering the past disasters that are my gluten-free cookies) - they had a distinct texture from using meal over flour. I would bake them again and try it with the almond flour. Next time they'll be better.








Then I made cupcakes for Tini's birthday... THESE were DELICIOUS!!! Tini said they were the best I've ever made. I used the Basic Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and subbed out the All-purpose flour with Gluten-free Bob's Redmill blend and added some Xanthan gum. I also used almond milk and not soy. I added a few other ingredients in the form of spices - but I'm keeping that a secret. I made ganache for the frosting but I forgot to take a photo of it and I also forgot to photograph a finished cupcake. I was traveling with them and didn't do the final assembly until much later at a party - and by that time I was drunk, so there you go.

Happy Holidays

jelly donut cupcake masacre

This is what happens when you fill the cups too high and forget to put a cookie sheet under your cupcake pan (Thankfully fixed half-way through baking when I smelled the overflow jam burning the bottom of the oven).
The recipe for these cupcakes (which I made in a mini-bundt pan & added cocoa powder) comes from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Finished product:

grilled cupcakes

I wanted to try baking on the grill. It's something I've been talking about to Stephanie for months now.
I finally decided to do it Friday night and invited Kate over to join me.
We didn't bake a whole dozen on the grill in case the experiment was a disaster. The rest of the was batter baked in the conventional oven in the house.
This is what we came up with;


I think they came out pretty good.

Our recipes came from Veganomicon (those cupcakes are not pictured) and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

i'm going backwards with my posts

Friday night, we went down to LBI for the opening of our friend Ann's new photo studio/office. We had a great time, saw some old friends and met some new people including Marley, who is pictured here, with his owner Neal standing behind him.
I also met the owners of a vegan/vegetarian restaurant on the Island called Living on the Veg. You can check out who they are & what they do here and here.

We heard at Ann's opening that there might be something going on at The Pine Surfshop & Gallery next weekend. It's possible that artist Julie Goldstein, who also happens to be one of the owners of Pine, is showing some new work.

Once I get more details, I'll post an update.

Both Ann and Julie are incredibly talented and amazing artists so please go check out the links to their work. Support local artists and their endeavors.

i love my friends!!!!

I have some of the greatest friends on the planet! This is what Stephanie (and Sadie) made me for my birthday and sent to me in a lovely box all the way from California!!

It includes: Personalized sugar cookies, Mexican Wedding Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Brownies. Plus Stephanie was thoughtful enough to include beautifully printed recipes for everything she made. AND!! It's all vegan (except the choc. chips, since all she had was milk chocolate).

This is one of the greatest gifts ever and I love it!!
Thank you Stephanie and Sadie (and Peter too!) xoxo

baking extravaganza

The day before Thanksgiving I baked four-dozen vegan cupcakes. Here are those photos I was talking about.

First, I got all my ingredients out on the counter.
Everything else I need on the table.

A'mixin' and a'stirrin'...

First batch into the oven.

Ding! First batch is done!

Next batch (mmmmmmmm, chocolate)

Three dozen down, one to go.

And finally, the full four-dozen waiting for frosting.

The photos I shot at home of the frosted cupcakes came out so poorly I chucked them away. But here's a nice shot, I took at work, of the very last two cupcakes from the entire four-dozen.

They turned out to be a big hit, so I'll definitely be baking these again.

A special shout-out MUST go to Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, who wrote Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. Without their amazing, little book these cupcakes could NOT have been made. And also special thanks to Stephanie, my baking inspiration.