Birthday Cakes: Chocolate, Berries, and Vegan Cream Cheese

A bunch of good friends from all over came together this last weekend to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday, which is today. For the occasion I made two cakes. They were supposed to be red velvet with a vegan cream cheese frosting, like what I made during the holidays, but I ended up having about 1/4 of the food coloring I needed, so they turned out just being chocolate cakes with vegan cream cheese frosting. Both had berry fillings, one was just raspberry, the other was strawberry and blackberry. I will post pictures of the middle of the cake along with recipes for the cake, frosting, and filling, but for now, enjoy these photos I took on Saturday!

The two cakes

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling and Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

Close up of the top of the raspberry cake

Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Blackberry Filling and Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

Close up of the strawberry blackberry cake and an orchid in the background

Happy Birthday to my wonderful boyfriend!

Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Spinach, and Basil

I spent a good portion of my weekend making cakes and cleaning up the sticky mess of the frosting. Even still I'm finding powdered sugar in various nooks in my kitchen. So by the time Sunday came around I wanted something quick, easy, and delicious because I was in no mood to make and clean a complicated meal. This pasta dish satisfied all those requirements wonderfully. I kind of just eyeballed things and made it to my liking, so feel free to make adjustments however you see fit.

Burrito Crisps

When we first became vegans there weren't any good vegan cheeses that my family knew about. In fact, I'm pretty sure there weren't any that were completely vegan at all. So going vegan meant no more quesadillas, not even fake ones, which I'm sure you can imagine was devastating for my little 10-year-old self. But being the creative people that they are, my parents came up with burrito crisps. You can argue with the name if you want and say it doesn't make sense, but that's what they were called when I was a kid, so that's what they're called now. They were basically bean burritos, but flat, and pan fried.

I've recently rediscovered this childhood favorite and have shared the deliciousness with my boyfriend and even reminded Little E about them, because apparently she forgot about all the times we bonded over our burrito crisps. Except now, I add some Daiya soy mozzarella or cheddar, tomatoes, and of course, La Victoria hot sauce. They are super fast to make and even more delicious.

Oranges to (Hopefully) Brighten Your Day

This orange was just too pretty to not take a picture.

Baked Falafel with Tahini Sauce

 

As I think some of you know, I'm a contributing writer for the food column over at Joonbug.com. I just wrote an article today about baked falafel and tahini sauce, so you should check it out!

The falafel pictured on Joonbug isn't mine, but the above picture and all the ones below are. I made them last night for dinner and had them again for lunch today, they were that good.

 

On a completely unrelated topic, I would really like to have these pants:

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A Weekend in Charlottesville

After spending four years of my life in Charlottesville, I've grown quite an affinity towards the town. I love the culture, the scenery, the weather, and the food.* I don't get to visit very often, but when I do get the opportunity, I try to make the best of it. This last weekend when I went down, it was a bit rainy on Saturday and we unfortunately had to spend most of the day indoors, but Sunday was gorgeous. We walked all around, reminiscing, seeing new additions, running into old friends, visiting favorite spots, and of course, ate a lot of delicious food. I actually spent Friday and Saturday thinking I had left my camera at home, but then on Sunday I found it in the car. So what you see here is just a sample of all the things we saw and ate, but hopefully it still shows you why I love it.

*Fun fact: Charlottesville has more restaurants per capita than New York City.

From top to bottom:
1.  Portobello mushroom salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing from Fellini's #9.
2. Free books we found on our walk to the Downtown Mall and soy chai tea from Mudhouse Coffee Shop.
3. The Lawn.
4. The South Lawn.
5. The Rotunda.
6. Wine barrels at Virginia Wineworks.

A Little Love

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Happy Valentine's Day!

P.S. Instructions in case you want to try a hand at making the above heart cake yourself.

P.P.S. My favorite vegan marshmallows from Sweet & Sara are over 50% off if you buy the coupon from Groupon. But hurry, the deal ends at midnight tonight!

White Bread

A little while ago it was my little sister's last night home before she went back to college at the end of her winter break,  so I decided I would make the trek out to my parents' house to say goodbye to her. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised with the news that my parents were getting a new Bosch mixer and I was going to be the inheritor of their old one. Immediately all these wonderful thoughts starting running through my head, mainly no more kneading bread dough by hand. I was so excited, I could hardly wait to get home and start baking. 

A few weeks went by and I still hadn't gotten around to making any bread. It's a good 3 hour process, so not exactly an after work activity. I had used the mixer for other things, such as pie crusts and poppy seed muffins, but just hadn't had the time for bread. Day after day there was my new-to-me mixer and yet not a loaf of bread in sight. Finally though I found some time so finally we have bread, well, half a loaf anyway. It's hard to control yourself with bread fresh out of the oven.

Not Your Average Valentine's Day Dessert

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After seeing these mini cakes by Sweetapolita, I don't think the typical pink cupcake is going to do anymore. They're not vegan (I'd have already bought out her entire supply if they were), so I think my next life goal, now that I've conquered granola, is to figure out how to make the hearts covered in edible 24 karat gold luster dust.

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Granola Bars

I heard rumors that granola was not too difficult to make, but I just never got around to seeing if there was any validity to that claim. I think it was one of those things where everyone was saying how easy it was, but since it's so delicious, in my opinion, I didn't really believe it could be all that easy and was afraid I'd be the one person in the world that couldn't make it. But the price of granola in stores and the overwhelming amount of things that I had around the house that were just begging to be part of granola made me cave in. And what do you know?! It is easy to make! This is a huge breakthrough for me. I've thoroughly enjoyed having these granola bars to snack on all week as opposed to picking at the cookie dough that was sitting in the fridge. The downside is that I've eaten way to much of them way to fast. Guess it's time to make some more!

And now a note about this recipe. You may notice that there are two ingredient lists. No, this was not an accident. The first is the exact ingredient list for "Kitchen Sink Granola Bars." But I didn't have all the exact ingredients to make them, so I improvised here and there and I thought I'd share with you what I used so that you could make the same bars I did. I mean, that is, if you want to. But really, don't feel obligated to use what I used, or even what the original recipe instructs. There's a lot of freedom to be had. If you don't like nuts, don't put them in. If you don't have agave, use maple syrup. If you hate oats, well, you probably shouldn't be making granola bars...sorry. But go crazy, let your imagination run wild and please let me know if you come across a super winning combination.

Charlottesville Bound

the Rotunda by Charles Dunlevy

Off to my old stomping grounds of Charlottesville for the weekend! I'm looking forward to some Mudhouse tea, Splendora's gelato, Thai '99 pad thai and mango sticky rice, and Lee's Grille tofu and broccoli. So excited! 

Have a good weekend everyone!

Easy Poppy Seed Muffins

Like many of the recipes that are frequently used at my house, this was taken from a "normal" non-vegan cookbook (Better Homes is a staple) and tweaked until it was perfected without all the "normal" non-vegan products. This particular recipe I borrowed (stole) from my little sister's book of recipes. They're pretty sweet, kind of like mini cakes. So maybe these are more cupcakes? But they were called muffins in little E's recipe book and that's how they'll stay. Besides, this way you can eat them for breakfast without anyone judging you.

Happy Groundhog Day

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Happy Groundhog Day everyone!

Since Phil was kind enough not see his shadow (yay spring!) we should all probably make these cupcakes in his honor:

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Also, while we're on the subject, is anyone else disappointed that Google doesn't have anything fancy on their search page for today? I mean is a little animated groundhog popping out of one of the "o"s really too much to ask for?

Fettuccine in a Creamy White Sauce

I have a confession. I actually made this for dinner quite some time ago. I'm talking weeks. I've had the picture uploaded and all ready to go just as soon as I wrote the recipe out, but I've been lazy. There's no other excuse. Well, the time has come for me to not be lazy anymore! Finally you can all go and make some amazing vegan white sauce for your pasta.

Other things to look forward to now that I'm not going to be lazy: my sister's coconut with raspberry preserves and a lemon butter cream frosting birthday cake*, granola bars, and lemon poppyseed muffins. Get excited.

*Yes, I'm aware it has basically been a month now since I first mentioned posting about her birthday cake, I'm just trying to build suspense.**

**I'm actually just waiting to get the pictures from my mom's camera, but I haven't been home since my sister's birthday festivities.