Raspberry Beer Cocktail

I know it's been a bit since my last post, but I've been having so much fun playing with my new grill that I haven't had time to do much else.

This is the time of year that it's too hot to do much cooking indoors and it's so glorious outside that all you want to do is sit outside - near a grill - with a nice cold drink while enjoying the hot weather.

I made this cocktail over the weekend for our Independence Day celebration and it was a total hit. (Sorry, no photo - we drank it so fast there wasn't time to take a picture.)

You will need:

4 beers of your choice

(I used a light-colored beer, which seemed to work well)

1/2 cup of vodka

(I used raspberry vodka but you could use regular)

One 12 oz container of frozen  raspberry or pink lemonade concentrate, thawed

1 cup of raspberries 

(either frozen or fresh are fine)

Mix all of the ingredients together in a large punch bowl and serve chilled or in frosted glasses. 

It makes 6 servings and goes fast!

Let me know how you like it.

Fun with Bok Choy

I'm still wading through my CSA box and have miraculously used up most of the lettuce, spinach, garlic scapes, and rhubarb. But today is Thurday - which is almost Friday - which means another CSA box to tackle!

Tonight (and lunch and dinner tomorrow) I'm endeavoring to use up all of the bok choy.

Of course I will be making a stir fry (typical and unimaginative, I know, but I really like stir fry for using up lots of veggies) and I'll also be making Spicy Thai Soup.

I wish I could give credit to whoever came up with the soup recipe, but it's one of those photo copies that has been lying around the house for eons. It may well have come from Alice (my step-mom, kinda) or it may have come from a Jane Brody or Moosewood cookbook. I really have no way of knowing.

In any case, I've had a summer cold that will not go away and soup sounds like a wonderful idea to me - even though it has been in the high 80s this week.

If you're looking to use up a little bok choy like I am or if you are in the mood for Thai, I hope you'll give this a try.

You will need:
1 TBSP finely chopped fresh ginger
(I just use a micro-plane because I'm too lazy to chop it)
4 cups vegetable broth
2 tsp minced garlic
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
(you could use just half if you don't like the heat)
1 cup sliced mushrooms of your choice
1 cup broccoli florets
(cut into bite-sized pieces...you don't want a knife with your soup)
1 cup finely chopped bok choy
1 green onion, finely chopped
1 TBSP finely chopped fresh cilantro

Place broth, ginger, garlic, and jalapeno in a pot and bring to a boil.

Add mushrooms and simmer for 2 minutes.

Add broccoli and bok choy. simmer until the broccoli is tender but still bright green and crisp - about 3 to 4 minutes. Do not overcook!

Stir in green onion and cilantro and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Light, Bright, Citrus Dressing

Remember that CSA I talked about in my last post? 

Well, it has blessed me with an overabundance of lettuce.

Seriously, there is only so much you can do with lettuce!

I've tried pawning it off onto unsuspecting guests, I've made filling for numerous lettuce wraps, and I'm wading my way through troughs of salad.

The good news here is that having a truck load of salad greens means that I'm getting to try our a bunch of salad dressing recipes that I've been meaning to get around to.

Now I know that salad is the LAST thing you want to see on a vegan blog but I promise that I wouldn't share any salad with you if it weren't absolutely amazing...and this dressing truly is!

It's light and refreshing. It's bright and citrus-y. It's dressing but it blends in so well with your salad that it doesn't taste like you've covered it in dressing!

Because I have so much salad I made a giant amount of this dressing, stuck it in a canning jar, and popped it into the fridge for future use. Please feel free to half the recipe for smaller mountains of lettuce.

You will need:

1/2 cup orange marmalade

(I used organic orange preserves - my market didn't have orange marmalade)

1/4 cup lemon juice or 2 lemons, juiced

4 tsp Dijon mustard

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

(I used about 1 1/2 tsp salt and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper)

Whisk all of your ingredients together using a fork and voila! Your dressing is ready.

I will warn you that if you use orange preserves like I did, the dressing looks completely unappetizing - it's lumpy and clumpy and kind of gross looking. Trust me - you want to get past this initial gross-out factor because it tastes marvelous!

Name That Produce

I am so stinkin' excited!

Friday was the first pick-up day of this year's CSA box.

WOO HOO!

For those of you who are new to the lingo, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You buy a share of crops from a local farm and all throughout the summer and into the fall you get a giant box of produce every week.  

Price-wise, it's incredibly reasonable. I'm taking part in the CSA from Red Manse Farm this year and I'd highly recommend you check out their web site for info on joining in next year (or join your local CSA, if you're not in the area).

The fun thing about joining a CSA is that you never know exactly what you're going to get. It's exciting to know that you're getting the freshest veggies that are local and in season. You get to experience produce that you definitely will not find in the supermarket (there are no seasons in the grocery store) and it stretches your ability to cook using new ingredients. It also makes you hurry the heck up and use it all (or freeze it) since you know you'll be getting a bunch more in just a week! 

This week's CSA box included something I have never encountered and it had me playing a little game of "Name That Produce:"

A couple of Google searches for things like "long curly green vegetable" later and...

...voila! I discovered that what I had were garlic scapes. 

After several more internet searches I discovered that a LOT of people like to make pesto out of it...apparently I am not the only one with an over abundance of garlic scapes from my local CSA.

So I did what many others did and made a giant batch of Garlic Scape Pesto.

For the pesto, you will need:

2 1/2 cups roughly chopped garlic scapes

1 cup pine nuts, toasted

Zest and juice of one lemon

 1 1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup vegan Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat and toast until lightly brown and fragrant. Remove from heat and add the pine nuts and all other ingredients to a food processor.

Blend until mostly smooth. This will make a rather thick pesto, so if you want yours a little runnier, experiment by adding a little more liquid.

To see how I used the pesto, visit my friend Abby's blog, where I am the guest post today!

Cheesy Vegan Popcorn

 I have a sweet tooth like you would not believe. Even more pronounced, however, is my love for all things salty.

Since the chocolate chip cookies haven't been cutting it lately, I turned to my old standby: popcorn.

It's been kind of hectic the last few days and when that happens, I tend to snack or graze more than stop and have a full meal. 

To satisfy my grumbly belly the other day I popped up a bag of microwave popcorn (the kind with no butter).  Immediately upon finishing, I ripped open the steaming hot bag and tossed in a tablespoon of nutritional yeast. Then, shake-n-bake style I shook it all together to coat.

The result was popcorn that was cheesy and salty without any guilt, animal products, or extra fat.

I highly suggest you try this for your next snack or movie night!

Flat Chocolate Chip Crackers

Do you ever have those days where you just NEED a chocolate chip cookie? 

Silly me, of course you do.

I've been on the hunt lately for a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe lately that actually meets my approval. I've tried several overthe past few weeks to no avail -Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, Babycakes (x2), and a few versions I found online - and they all fall flat. I mean this literally, of course, as they all end up like flat, hard, crunchy chocolate chip crackers. They're all truly horrible!

Back before I went vegan I had a truly marvelous recipe for chocolate chip cookies. They were crunchy on the edges and soft and chewy in the middle without being so soft they were under cooked. They were puffy and didn't spread out and glom onto their neighborswhen you baked them.

I am jonesing for my old cookie recipe in a bad way.

I've been trying to experiment with ways to veganize the old recipe to no avail. 

Please help:  

If you know a really wonderful chocolate cookie recipe (or a recipe for a cookie base that I could use for multiple cookies - that would be fantastic) please share! 

Leave it as a comment or e-mail me at rn6productions@gmail.com.

I'm desperate!

"Chicken" Seitan Round Two

As promised in my last post, this recipe for chicken-style seitan uses nearly the same recipe but a completely different cooking method. I had been using the first version with much success for weeks when I realized that there was absolutely no way that it would hold up as "chicken"salad, which just happens to be the boyfriend's favorite.

The issue with the first method is that, for some applications, it is just too soft. If you want to make kebabs or sausages (or "chicken" salad, for that matter), then you need a much firmer seitan. In order to achieve this I followed the instructions I found online about making seitan sausages. In the most basic sense, you mix up the seitan and the broth and bake until firm. This allows you to cut it into cubes that actually retain their shape.

For the oven-baked version you will need:

1 cup vital wheat gluten

3 TBSP vegetarian chicken broth powder

2 tsp garlic granules

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1 cup water (or a little more if you need it)

Just like you did for the stove top version, mix all of the dry ingredients together first. 

Add the water and mix with your hands until your dough forms. Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead a few times - remember this is gluten you're working with so don't overdo it on the kneading.

Form the dough into a log about 8 inches long and wrap it tightly in tin foil. The log will get longer as you wrap it, so make sure you have plenty of tin foil on each end.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 15 minutes, flipping it over once about half way through.

When you remove it from the oven, let it cool completely in the tin foil. Then you can stick it in the refrigerator or freeze it until you plan to use it. 

Tip: If your seitan tends to come out a little dry, freezing it and then thawing it helps to make it moist.

Look for my "chicken" salad recipe in the next post.

"Chicken" Seitan Round One

In my last post I mentioned that I have a recipe for chicken-style seitan that I use all the time.

I should have said that it is a recipe that I used it all the time.

As many new veggies will tell you, when you decide to make the switch you spend a lot of time initially trying to recreate new, "safe" versions of your old favorites. I think this is normal, as you're still getting to know how to do things differently and learning a whole new way to cook and eat. 

If this didn't happen, I honestly have no idea what I would have eaten in the first few weeks.

This recipe is one I used all the time in the early days - so much so that I got really sick of seitan.  For a while I had three separate posts in the pipeline all about seitan and every time I went to edit them I just couldn't hit "publish." 

Now, after literally months seitan-free, I am ready to once again delve into the archives and pull out my chicken-style seitan recipe. (I know I make this sound really terrible and I swear it isn't - I just Oh-Dee'd on seitan for a while.)

I make this one of two ways, depending on what I plan to use it for. If I'm looking for something that resembles cutlets or tenders, I will make it the first way, on the stove top. When I want to make the boyfriend's favorite "chicken" salad, I make it the second way, in the oven. Today's post is all about the first way. The next post will teach you how to do the second version.

For the stove top version you will need:

1 cup vital wheat gluten

2 TBSP vegetarian chicken broth powder

1 tsp garlic granules

1 cup water

To start, mix together your dry ingredients until the spices are evenly distributed.

Add the water and stir with your hands. The dough will form almost instantly - gluten is desperate to get to some water and make dough; it just can't even wait it's so excited. When the dough is pretty much mixed together, turn it out of your bowl and onto the counter. 

The dough will be very wet. Don't worry, this is totally normal. You will notice that it's definitely springy and spongy but it doesn't hold together terribly well. Knead it a few times until it starts to hold together a little better but stop before it starts to get tough! 

Remember Baking 101 - DO NOT OVER MIX. Bear in mind that when you bake and you mix your dough/batter/whatever, you're basically activating the gluten to hold everything together. Over mixing your dough/batter/whatever will make your baked goods tough and elastic-y. Now think for a second about what you're working with - GLUTEN. VWG is just flour with all of the starch removed so be really careful that you don't mix it too much. The results are unappetizing, believe me! The best thing to do is just try it a couple of times until you get a consistency you can live with.

Next, form your gluten into four cutlets that are roughly the same size. Making them the same size will help them to cook evenly. Last you're going to add the cutlets to a broth to simmer them.

For the broth you will need:

4 cups of water

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1 TBSP vegetarian chicken broth powder

Mix the broth together in the biggest skillet you have. Trust me when I tell you this - the seitan grows when you cook it and will take over your skillet. If you don't have a huge skillet, I suggest splitting the broth between two skillets and cooking the seitan in two batches.

Heat the broth over medium heat and add the seitan cutlets. On my stove I put the burner on 4. Make sure you don't boil the seitan. Boiling will also make your seitan turn out tough and rubbery.

Simmer covered for about 35-40 minutes or until the broth is nearly all absorbed. You can make the seitan ahead of time and store it in the rest of the broth or you can use it right away. You can keep it refrigerated for about a week and since this recipe makes a TON of seitan, you'll definitely need to refrigerate some of it.

Some serving suggestions:

1. Instead of making cutlets, make the seitan into nuggets. Dip them into soy milk, followed by the bread crumbs of your choice, and fry in a little oil for nuggets.

2. Slice into strips and mix into your stir fry.

3. Butterfly the seitan, fill with whatever you like, and roll to keep everything inside. Secure with twine or toothpicks and bake.

4. Slice the cutlets open so you create a pocket. Fill with the mixture of your choice and suttee on both sides until golden.

5. Follow the same steps in #1 but serve with spaghetti sauce and "mozzarella" like a hurried-up version of "chicken" parm.

However you decide to use this, keep in mind that this method of cooking your seitan isn't perfect for everything, but it is super versatile in your old recipes that used chicken. The second method will allow you some additional cooking options so stay tuned!

Old Bay

I know, I know, I've been away for a while. I've been trying a ton of new recipes and, mostly, failing miserably. 

The thing is, when you try new recipes - other people's recipes - you have to take a leap of faith that they'll actually be worth eating once you've finished the dish. Lately, I've been choosing some real failures....but more on that later, I promise.

Today I discovered Old Bay Seasoning, largely thanks to this recipe for seitan chicken from Vegan Yum Yum (go buy the cookbook - the recipes and the photography are great and she does a wonderful job guiding even the novice cook through recipes to find success).

I have heard of old bay before but mostly associated with seafood. It's not the kind of thing I grew up with and I have always thought of it as a regional spice blend...you know, from the south. I grew up eating cuisine form all over the country and the world but, for whatever reason, southern food was a complete mystery to my household.

Grits were mushy and flavorful at best, everything else was fried, and it left a lot to be desired. It was not until earlier this year that I had ever purchased, let alone cooked, greens.

So, as a very recent convert to southern cooking I thought I'd give the southern fried seitan a shot.

BOY OH BOY WAS I SURPRISED!

I have a wonderful recipe for seitan "chicken" that I modified from Vegetarian Carnivore's recipe and I use it all the time but this new recipe that is built around Old Bay totally blew my mind! And here I thought I only needed ONE seitan "chicken" recipe.

I made the seitan as directed but then added my own little twist at the end.

I butterflied the seitan "cutlets" and stuffed them with a mixture of caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, parsley and goat cheese (more on that later, too, I swear).

The result was utterly fantastic. I highly suggest you try it!

Incidentally, I served it with fiddle head ferns in a lemon garlic sauce and a side of couscous. It was one of the best meals I've made in a really long time. I'll post the lemon garlic sauce recipe later and also the fantastic peach cake that I made for dessert, which is quickly becoming my favorite dessert and overtaking my beloved linzor torte.

I need summer NOW

I am jonesing for summer in a bad way.

Thanks to weeks of rainy, unseasonably cold weather, I am craving food on the grill, corn on the cob, long days spent at the beach, and hot summer nights with friends enjoying a couple of beers on the deck at our favorite local hangout.

I live in the frozen white north, so this time of year makes me crave food I don't get to eat the rest of the year....lately that's been s'mores.

Ever since my post on S'More Cupcakes, I have had my sight locked onto these sweet, gooey delights. I am dying for all of this rain to end so I can get out therewith friends and roast some of these up over a fire! 

When the day finally comes that the clouds roll away and it's dry enough to start a fire, I will be ready! I recently discovered that I don't have to kill myself making vegan marshmallows from scratch - instead I can buy Dandies Vegan Marshmallows!

They're vegan, gluten free, and gelatin free! Now I'm sure that tons of you veggies out there already know all about these little guys but I am new to the scene. I cannot tell you  how happy I was to stumble upon these when poking around online for recipes to make my own vegan marshmallows. I literally squealed with joy!

Another fun reason I'm dying to make s'mores?

I've had this post for a do-it-yourself S'Mores Bar from Birthday Girl Blog bookmarked for ages. 

Don't those combinations sound like fun? Yes, I realize that vegan-izing some of them could be a real challenge but after finding a vegan marshmallow alternative, I'm ready to tackle pretty much any of them!

Hopefully summer will arrive soon so I can have a little soiree!

Photos via Chicago Soy Dairy

Download PDFs of S'mores Bar Party here

Citrus-Cilantro Pesto

In case I have not already expressed this, I have the best job ever. Not only because I love what I do, but because I have an office full of people who love to eat and share recipes!

My boss recently gave me this recipe for citrus-cilantro pesto over pasta and vegetables and it is as delicious as it is quick and easy to make! I have absolutely no idea where this recipe came from, so I can't site any source....although I should find out because I bet whichever cookbook it came from is pretty fantastic.

My favorite thing about this recipe is that the sauce and veggies all come together in the time it takes your pasta to cook, so the whole thing is ready and on the table in under 15 minutes.

You will need:
1 lb pasta, like whole wheat spaghetti
2 small zucchini
1 bag of shredded carrots
2 seedless oranges
2 cups cilantro (leaves only!)
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup pasta water from cooking your pasta
(I actually use about 1/4 cup because I like a thicker pesto, but you can do whatever you like)
salt and pepper to taste

To start, cook the pasta according to the package directions.

While your pasta is cooking, wash your zucchini and cut into lengthwise strips, as thin as you can get them and as long or short as you like. I like mine really thin and really long so they mimic the pasta.

when the pasta has just two minutes left to cook, toss in the zucchini and carrots. This will help to cook your veggies just enough so that they're not rock solid but not total mush, either.

Once your pasta is done, turn off the heat and remove 1/2 cup of water before straining the pasta and veggies. 

As your pasta is cooking, prep your pesto!

Cut the peels off of the two seedless oranges. Try not to lose too much of the orange flesh, just trim off the peel and the white pith. Cut them into quarters and place in your blender. Add the garlic, spices and salt, and the cilantro. Next add the pasta water and oil and blend until smooth. You'll see little flecks of green from the cilantro that just won't get any smaller or incorporate into the sauce like you want. This is totally normal. 

Return the cooked pasta and veggies to the hot pot. Pour the pesto over the pasta and veggies and mix to coat the pasta evenly.

I like to serve in white bowls, sprinkled with a little freshly ground black pepper and cilantro for garnish.

I have added pea pods, asparagus, and peppers to this and they're all wonderful. I hope you'll play with the recipe a bit and make it your own.

Breakfast Sandwich

Two things you should know about me:

1. Breakfast is my favorite meal and I could eat it three times a day

2. I will eat just about anything in sandwich form.

Now that we have that out of the way, let me introduce you to a delightful little breakfast sandwich. This has become one of the boyfriend's favorites and he requests it any time he comes over before we head to church. This is the kind of breakfast that makes you feel like you've spent a lot of time on it, but it is really quick and easy to whip together. It's so easy, in fact, that I usually indulge him and throw a sandwich together before we hit the road.

You will need:

2 slices of the bread of your choice

(I use Ezekiel 7 Sprouted Grain Bread)

1-2 TBSP Earth Balance margarine

2-3 slices of Smart Bacon

1/3 - 1/2 inch thick slice of tofu cut from 1 block of extra firm tofu

(cut it the long way and you can get 4 slices out of one block)

1 slice of dairy-free cheese

a few slices of tomato

First, melt the Earth Balance in your pan on medium heat. Salt and pepper your tofu on both sides and sautée the tofu in the Earth Balance until golden on one side. 

I know I have said before that tofu by itself has ZERO flavor, but trust me when I tell you that cooking it in Earth Balance with a little salt and pepper makes it taste so buttery and delicious that you'll think you're eating something seriously decadent and unhealthy!

In case you don't already have a mesh screen, you should really invest in one - it'll keep hot oil and margarine from splattering all over your kitchen and burning you while you tend to the pan.

After a few minutes, turn the tofu over. Add the bacon to the pan and continue to sautée until the tofu is golden on both sides and the bacon is crispy on the edges. The tofu only takes a few minutes so while your tofu and bacon cook, toast your bread so it'll be ready when the tofu is done.

Once cooked, remove the tofu and bacon from the pan and place on a plate covered with a few paper towels. Even though you're not using a ton of Earth Balance, you don't want to have slimy, greasy tofu.

Assemble your sandwich as you please, with toast, tofu, bacon, and dairy-free cheese. Sometimes I'll even spread a little hommus onto one of the slices of toast because I like the flavor and extra moisture it adds.

If you've recently decided against eating meat or are just looking for a low-cholesterol option, give this a shot. Between the bacon and the tofu smothered in Earth Balance, you won't feel for a moment like you're missing out on anything.

Happy eating!

Lasagna with Roasted Cauliflower Ricotta & Spinach

Right after deciding to try the vegan lifestyle, Betsy, a friend of mine from work, turned me on to Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

She's the chef behind Veganomicon and Appetite for Reduction.

The thing about her recipes is that they are the kinds of recipes that make you feel like you're totally not eating vegetables - they both fool and satisfy!

I've made her recipe for lasagna several times and, at this point, I now use only her recipe as a guide for the roasted cauliflower ricotta. Her recipe calls for you to layer the noodles and ricotta with black olives and spinach. I usually take out the olives and add other roasted veggies - whatever I have on hand, really.

 For this lasagna, I used roasted eggplant in place of spinach, because that's what I had on hand.

For the roasted cauliflower ricotta, you will need:

1 medium-size head cauliflower chopped into half-inch pieces

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 lb extra-firm tofu

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 TBSP freshly squeezed lemon juice

freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup roasted garlic

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. First, chop the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Bake for about 45 minutes (I like to sprinkle it with Italian spices first, but you can leave them out if you prefer). With about 10 to 15 minutes left, add the garlic to your cookie sheet. When done, the cauliflower will be soft and mushy and a beautiful golden color.

Let the cauliflower cool until you can handle it. The original recipe tell you to mix the tofu and cauliflower with your hands, but if you put them into the blender with the garlic, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, and lemon juice, you'll get a consistency more like ricotta.

You'll also need some of my Super Easy Marinara sauce or the tomato sauce of your choice.

To assemble, cover the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish with a thin layer of marinara. On top of that, place a layer of lasagna noodles. I prefer to use the whole wheat variety that you have to pre-cook, but I'm sure you could also use the kind that cook while they bake. Next, add a layer of ricotta, followed by whatever roasted veggies you like OR layer on fresh, uncooked spinach. Repeat with sauce, noodles, ricotta and veggies until you fill the pan. Top off with noodles and sauce and be sure to save a little ricotta for the very top.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes or until the top is browned. You'll want to let it cool for at least 10 minutes before serving, if you'd like to keep the roof of your mouth in tact.

Enjoy!

S'More Cake!

I hope you're not all caked-out by now because I saved the best for last...s'more cupcakes!

These were mom's special request for her birthday a few weeks ago and, because I wanted to share in the fun, I modified the recipe to make it vegan. Admittedly, some of the ingredients are difficult to come by, so it you choose to stick with the original recipe, I will totally understand, so I'm posting both for you.

Before you eat these you should know that they are VERY messy. If I were you, I'd strictly eat them with a fork, unless you have a friend to hose you down afterward.

For the original recipe you'll need:

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

(they sell these in a box, so don't crumble up perfectly good graham crackers)

3 tsp baking powder

1 can (12oz) evaporated milk

For the vegan version you'll need:

1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan shortening

(yes, I was also amazed this existed)

1/4 cup Earth balance marganine

(I like the one that comes in sticks, like butter, because it's easy to measure)

1 cup sugar 

(I used Sun Crystals)

EnerG Egg Replacer equivalent to 3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

(Use the real stuff, the fake kind pales in comparison)

2 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

(You'll need to check the ingredients of your graham crackers to make sure they don't include honey. If you eat honey, go ahead and use the boxed crumbs. Otherwise, you'll need to get the vegan-friendly kind and whirl them through the food processor.)

3 tsp baking powder

12 oz coconut milk 

(Use the kind in the can, it is thick and will act more like evaporated milk)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare your cupcake tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, cream together the shortening, margarine, and sugar until it is light and fluffy. Add the eggs or Egg Replacerand beat well - it'll get almost frothy. Next, beat in vanilla until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the graham cracker crumbs and baking powder.

Add the graham cracker crumbs and the milk to the shortening mixture in three small batches, alternating crumbs, then milk, then crumbs, etc.

Next, distribute the batter evenly among the cupcake tins. If you don't already have a handy little scop for this, you can use a spoon or an old-fashioned ice cream scoop. I have a set of three scoops from Pampered Chef and I use them for everything. For cupcakes, I use the largest of the three.

If you do the vegan version, the batter is incredibly light and airy. When you spoon it into the cupcake tins, be aware that it isn't going to rise very much, so you can really fill up each cup...otherwise you get shrimpy little cakes.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. If you use the traditional recipe, you will take them out after about 20 minutes; if you go the vegan route, you'll want to bake them closer to 25 minutes.

After you remove them from the oven and the baking tins, let them sit out to cool on a wire rack. You'll want them to cool completely before you frost them or you'll have a big, soupy, marshmallow-y mess.

The frosting is my favorite part of these little delights, as it is basically home-made marshmallow fluff. If you're not interested in making your own fluff from scratch, you can certainly take the easy route and use the store-bought variety but I think you'll completely fall in love with the homemade version, so give it a try if you've never made it before. For my lazy vegan friends, feel free to use Ricemellow Creme - it's a vegan substitute for fluff and it's a great time saver.

For the regular fluff, you'll need:

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 egg whites

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Boil it on medium to medium-high heat, uncovered, without stirring, for about five minutes.  If you have a candy thermometer, it should reach 240 degrees. If not, look for lots of little bubbles, the syrup should be clear and thick - do not let it turn color, that means it's caramelizing.

Remove the syrup from the heat and let it sit until there are no more bubbles.

While the syrup cools, beat your egg whites until soft peaks form. The original instructions tell you to stop at soft peaks but I like to beat the egg whites until they're somewhere past soft peaks but not all the way to stiff peaks - otherwise the fluff is really runny and soupy.

While the mixer is running and you've achieved soft peaks, add the hot syrup all at once - be sure to do this as quickly as possible! If you try to do it gently you will splatter hot sugar syrup all over yourself and your kitchen. Beat on high for about ten minutes. The egg whites and syrup will combine to look like fluff almost instantly but you really need to beat in a lot of air and let the mixture cool before it's ready to use. After the beating is done, it's ready to plop in tablespoonfuls on top of your cupcakes! Top with chocolate chips (I like the minis) and enjoy!

For the vegan fluff, you'll need:

5TBSP soy protein isolate 90%

(you can find this at your friendly neighborhood health food store)

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp guar gum

3/4 cup cold water

All the above ingredients act like the egg whites from the "regular" recipe. You'll want to combine the dry ingredients in your stand mixer, mix thoroughly, and then add the water and mix until soft peaks form. If you've done this with egg whites in a past life, don't expect this mixture to get as big and fluffy as they did, because it'll just disappoint you. You will get soft peaks, though, so don't worry - it'll work out in the end.

Next you'll need:

1 1/2 cups raw sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup water

1 TBSP Genutine Vegetarian Gelatin

(I know, you went vegan and never thought you'd again get to have anything like jell-o, right?)
2 tsp vanilla extract

(use the good stuff, not the fake kind)

In case you hadn't already realized it, this next set of ingredients acts as your sugar syrup from the other recipe.  To start, combine the sugar and Genutine in a saucepan and whisk together quickly - it will get very thick. Next, add the corn syrup and heat over medium heat, stirring frequently. If you're using a candy thermometer, you want to get the mixture to 230 degrees (no, that's not a typo, since you're using different ingredients, you're looking for a different temperature than in the first recipe). If you're not using a thermometer, you want to get the sugar syrup to be really thick and gloppy. You'll know you're there when you can stir the syrup and it will separate, revealing the bottom of your saucepan. 

Once this happens, take it off the heat immediately! Lastly, stir in the vanilla. Be aware, this is the sticky-est, gloppy-est, messy-est thing you may ever make, so be careful not to get it on you or your kitchen.

Just like in the "normal" version, add this to the "egg" white mixture as fast as you can and mix on high speed. Let it run on high for ten minutes, until very fluffy and cool. This is now ready to use!  Plop by tablespoonfuls onto your vegan cupcakes, top with chocolate chips or carob chips and enjoy!

 

 

The recipe for vegan fluff came from a blog called "Vegan Marshmallows" but I think he got it from somewhere else. It's step one of making your own vegan marshmallows, so if you want real vegan s'mores and want to make your marshmallows from scratch instead of buying them, follow the rest of the recipe on his blog - they are wonderful! (The store-bought kind aren't bad, either.)

 

Of course, you could skip both recipes for homemade fluff, like we talked about earlier, and just top your cupcakes with regular marshmallow fluff OR Ricemellow Creme and they'd still be pretty good.

Any Fruit Coffee Cake

As I have mentioned, Amanda and Mark had this fabulous idea to have a dessert bar instead of just a wedding cake. They accomplished this with a little help from friends and loved ones!

Because we adore them, many of us agreed to pitch in and make a couple of the tried-and-true family recipes that they had chosen for the day. I love that they wanted their families and friends represented in their desserts!

Aside from their wedding cake and the German Chocolate cake, I also made a delightful blueberry coffee cake. As the name of the recipe suggests, this can be made with any fruit (although the recipe does give some suggestions).

You will need:

4 cups of fruit

(chopped apples, apricots, peaches, blackberries, blueberries)

1 cup water

2 TBSP lemon juice

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

3 cups flour

(I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose flour)

1 cup sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground mace

1 cup butter or margarine

(I used Earth Balance)

2 slightly beaten eggs

(I used EnerG Egg Replacer)

1 cup milk

(I used almond milk, because that's what I had on hand)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

In a saucepan, combine your fruit and the water. Simmer it, covered, for about 5 minutes or until the fruit is tender. Stir in the lemon juice. 

Mix together the cornstarch and sugar and stir into the fruit mixture. Cook and stir until thinckened and bubbly. Remove from the heat and let cool.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and mace. Cut in the 1 cup of Earth Balance until it gets crumbly and is fully incorporated. 

In a separate bowl, combine Egg Replacer, milk and vanilla. Add it to the flour mixture and mix until blended.

Spread half of the batter into a greased 9x13" pan. Spoon the cooled fruit mixture over the batter and spread it out to the edges. Spoon the remaining batter into small mounds over the fruit mixture and spread out as much as possible. 

Combine the 1/2 cup of sugar and the 1/2 cup of flour and cut in the 1/4 cup of Earth Balance until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the nuts (if using), and sprinkle the mixture over the batter in the pan.

Place the pan on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until the cake tests done. You'll want to use the cookie sheet so you don't get fruit goo all over your oven when this bakes and bubbles over...trust me on this one.

As I said, I made this with blueberries but this time of year it would be wonderful with rhubarb and strawberries.

Gluten-Free, Vegan German Chocolate Cake

 What was left of the cake after Amanda and Mark's reception.

I made this cake recently for Miss Amanda's wedding. She had this fantastic dessert bar made of two 8-foot banquet tables with the wedding cake as the centerpiece. The tables were packed full of brownies, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, cheesecake, homemade truffles, mini muffins, coffee cake and so much more! The idea was that the desserts would act as the wedding favors for guests and boy-o-boy were there plenty of yummy things for take home.

One challenge in all of this, of course, is that there are typically few (or no) options for us vegan kids. The same is true for several of my very good friends who do the gluten-free thing. We feel generally left out of the party because we can't enjoy the same things everyone else is having. Harumph!

Even though Miss Amanda specifically asked me to make things "the normal way," I took matters into my own hands and directly disobeyed her request. Sorry, my friend, but I wanted to have a slice of something yummy for all of my efforts - and I wanted our gluten-free pals to have options, too!

If you follow me on Twitter, you should know by now that I have a serious cook book habit...but when I stumbled upon a recipe for Babycakes' German Chocolate Cake, I knew I had to buy yet another cook book. Their recipes are, "Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free" and fan-fricken-tastic!

The cake part of the recipe is all Babycakes but the frosting is mine. I like their frosting recipes but they melt really quickly if not refrigerated and, since these had to sit out for much of the day while I got ready, attended the wedding, and then partied until it was time for dessert, the Babycakes frosting simply would not do.

I have no idea why German Chocolate Cake has coconut (as far as I know, coconuts don't come from Germany and never have) but it's delicious, if geographically incorrect.

For the cake, you will need:

2 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup potato starch

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (the darker the better)

1/4 cup arrowroot

1 1/2 TBSP baking  powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp xantham gum

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups agave nectar

1 cup melted refined coconut oil, plus more to brush onto your baking pans

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/3 cup vanilla extract

1/2 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 325. Brush two 9-inch round cake pans with melted coconut oil and set aside (you only have to do the bottom of the pans).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, potato starch, cocoa powder, arrowroot, baking powder, baking soda, xantham gum, and salt. Add the agave nectar, coconut oil, applesauce, and vanilla and mix with a rubber spatula until fully incorporated (It's going to look more like cookie dough than cake batter - just go with it). Add the hot water and mix until a loose batter forms.

Divide the batter evenly between the two baking pans. Bake for 15 minutes and rotate. Continue baking 15 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pans for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, turn the cakes out onto a cake plate or wire rack and let cool one more hour (at least) before frosting. Remember, I like to let my cakes chill over night. This is definitely one of the fridge-only kinds of cakes.

For the frosting, you will need:

12 TBSP Earth Balance, softened

1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp coconut extract

2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

3 TBSP non-dairy milk

Just like when we made the plain buttercream frosting, you'll want to beat the Earth Balance until it is soft and fluffy. Next you'll add both extracts and beat again until combined. Add the milk and powdered sugar a little at a time and beat until combined. Once this tastes like the best buttercream frosting you've ever had, add in the coconut at the very end and mix until fully incorporated.

Frost using the techniques you learned in my last post and garnish with more shredded coconut and some pecans.

In addition to making this cake, the blueberry coffee cake, and the wedding cake, I also helped coordinate the desserts and set up the dessert bar. In all of that, the best compliment I got the whole day was from my friend Jack who, after sampling the German Chocolate Cake and the Gluten-Free, Vegan Blueberry Coffee Cake, gave me a giant hug and exclaimed, "I feel like a real boy!"

How to frost a cake

There are, I am sure, several ways to frost a cake. This is my way, however, and has a few tips and tricks included that really do make it easier.

In my last post I gave you the recipe for Amanda and Mark's super fudgy mocha wedding cake with buttercream frosting. YUM-O. In m next several posts there will be other cakes to try...so you're going to thank me for these helpful little time-savers.

First, once you've baked and cooled your cakes, do yourself a favor and chill them overnight. If your cake is light and fluffy, pop it in the freezer overnight; if your cake is dense or fudgy (like pound cake or the mocha cake I mentioned) then sticking it in the fridge will be better. 

Why? 

Really dense cakes are firmer to begin with. They don't need as much help getting to a solid state. Also, they'll take longer to thaw, so freezing them is like shooting yourself in the foot from the start.

OK, now fast forward to the next morning when you're going to frost the cake.

You're going to need a few things.

First, you'll want the cake board or plate or whatever you plan to serve the cake on. Get it handy.

Next, you'll want:

an offset spatula

a pastry bag...if you don't have one, get a big Ziploc bag

wax paper or parchment paper

To start, you'll want to prep your pastry bag. I think the easiest way (with the least clean up) is to fill a plastic bag with frosting and cut off the tip. No, this doesn't work for flowers and such BUT it does work to get the majority of the icing onto the cake!

I think the easiest way (without a helper) is to prop up your bag in a large container.

I like to fold the sides down so that I get the frosting inside the bag and not all over the outside of the bag...it's easier to frost the cake that way. ;)

My mom always taught me to put a little blob of frosting down on the cake plate/board before you lay the first layer down. It keeps the cake from sliding all over the place while you frost it....and it also gives you the tiniest little gap between the cake and the plate so that you can slide strips of parchment under the cake. 

 Maybe it seems obvious to you but the parchment paper keeps your cake plate clean and saves you from having to wipe gobs of frosting off of the plate before you present it to your guests or hungry family. I don't know about you but I'm not all that careful when I frost - I can use all the help there is to keep that plate clean.

Now, once you've plated the first layer and placed your parchment, you'll want to make a ring of icing around the edge. 

This helps to do two things: first, it helps to fill in the edges between the layers (which will save you a headache later if you didn't evenly trim your layers to be perfectly level); second, if you plan to use some kind of fruit filling of a filling other than the main frosting, this will help keep it in between the layers instead of squishing out the sides and ruining the rest of the frosting. 

I like to pipe the frosting generously all over the top of the cake, since that will help you frost the sides of the cake.

You'll also want to pipe some frosting around the sides of the cake, since the frosting you put on top won't  make it all the way to the bottom.

Using your offset spatula (that's the thing in the picture), spread out the frosting, starting from the top.

Once you're finished, gently and carefully pull the parchment out from under the cake and voilá, your cake is finished and ready for presentation.