pear frangipane

violet cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream

so pretty! but does anyone else think violet essence tastes a little ... soapy?

happy birthday, chris

caramel banana cream pie

Apparently in england they call this a 'banoffee pie'. S couldn't eat it - he thought it was too sweet. In other words: dessert perfection!

chili chocolate cupcakes

Yes, that is paprika and grated dark chocolate on top. Delicious!

triflin'

since the riceball's arrival has made it almost impossible for me to bake, i decided to exercise my sweet tooth muscle (teeth have muscles?) by making a trifle. Admittedly, not so much baking as assembling (although we could pretend I made it all from scratch, right?)

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i have had a hankering for red velvet cake this week, but i decided to branch out and try a slightly new variation on the theme: chocolate beetroot cake. so easy to make, delicious, and the red of the beetroot was actually brighter than you get in red velvets. plus you can (kind of) pretend it is healthy (if you ignore the sugar and the oil and the flour and.. oh well) now i just can't wait for my beetroots to grow so i can make it from our front yard.

Ingredients

Wet

five small beetroots, boiled until soft (45 mins) then peeled and pureed

2/3 cup canola oil

1/4 cup almond milk

1 egg (or egg replacer)

Dry

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup cocoa

3/4 cup sugar

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

Blend the wet ingredients together in a bowl. Sift the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Combine the two and bake in a (preheated) 170* oven for an hour.

And I iced with a basic cream cheese frosting.

preserved lemons

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raspberry friands! first thing baked in my new house.

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A cake for A's birthday. Part of my secret plan to make him as fat as I am!

cornish pasties

With seitan, carrot, potato and turnip.

barcelona gingerbread pavilion

We made our first ever gingerbread houses, loosely modeled on the Barcelona Pavilion by Mies Van der Rohe. So fun! Although decoration was a challenge, since m&ms and liquorice swirls seem out of place on a stark modernist building.

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S is supposedly FINALLY arriving tonight (fingers crossed), and since that movie Clueless taught us that you should always have something in the oven when a boy comes over, I whipped up some shortbread shooting stars. I love christmas!

The recipe was care of my mum: thanks, lady!


MOTHER’S FAMOUS SHORTBREAD RECIPE
1¼ cups flour (140 grms)
60 grams ground rice (rice flour) optional [I didn't have this so I replaced it with semolina]
3 scant tablespoons (85 grms) castor sugar
140 grms butter

One of the main things about making shortbread (like any pastry) is that it should be quite cold when you put it into the oven (rested, as they say). The ground rice gives a special kind of crunch but personal taste and not a
big difference.  I should confess that from time to time I have simply put everything in the blender and blended it (but not too much!) then turned it out on to floured board and as per the following …

Sieve flour, ground rice and castor sugar into bowl.  Add butter, knead and squeeze into the dry ingredients (using one hand only – this to reduce the heat of the hands transferring to the pastry) until mixture is combined
into a smooth, stiff dough.

Divide the dough into three or four pieces and wrap each in glad wrap and put in the fridge for half an hour.

Take out the dough and gently press out into rounds about as big as a saucer and as thick as you would like (it shouldn’t really change shape much in cooking).  Pinch the edges, slice into eighths or whatever you prefer and
prick with a fork. [I cut them into shooting stars, obviously]  Lay out on a baking tray and again return to fridge for
at least another half hour.  (Baking tray can be lightly greased).

Bake in a  slow oven for 15 – 20 minutes until light golden.  They will be extremely soft when you remove from oven.  Allow to set on the baking trays before removing to a wire cooling tray.

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Alfajores, adapted from Viva Vegan and distributed at the WIPO Standing Committee on Patents: sugar powered negotiations!

banana bread

the easiest, yummiest, breakfast (!) in the world.

Recipe for Tracey

Ingredients

2 large very ripe bananas, mashed

125 grams margarine

1 cup sugar

egg replacer for two eggs

11/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup soymilk

1/4 cup soy yoghurt

Sift the dry ingredients together. Cream margarine and sugar. Stir the bananas into the creamed margarine and sugar. Add the margarine mixture to the sifted dry ingredients, and mix in the soymilk and yoghurt. Bake in a 180 degree oven for 55 minutes. Serve immediately - or it gets even more delicious the next day.

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Normally I eschew muffins as the chicken of the baked-goods aisle - not a cake, not a bread, a non-committal inbetweenyness that is unhealthy but also insufficient to salve a sweet-craving. But inspired by urban vegan - and making the most of the super delicious giant blueberries in season now - I whipped up some blueberry-cornmeal muffins (from vegan with a vengeance). And I have to admit - totally yummy, especially when enjoyed with a side of True Blood goodness.

Do you think Eric would like muffins?

midnight waffle party

so i did it - i finally invested in a waffle iron! R and C and I celebrated (and soothed our pain from Ghana's tragic defeat) with a waffle party. Best idea ever! I just have to get better at veganizing the mix...

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banana rabanada, from isa chandra moskovitz's vegan brunch. just like french toast, but with bananas! oh my god, so tasty!

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Cinnamon rolls, fragrant and warm from the oven, perfect with a glass of milk on a rainy saturday evening. I used a Paula Deen recipe, here.

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lavendar cupcakes with cream cheese frosting