Chocolate Peppermint Cream Bars

Another tasty invention by Kelly and Garrick. I think these little guys will be a holiday staple in our house! These bars are rich, creamy and delicious!

Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste, Class 4

I am done with the Fondant & Gum Paste course! This course was a lot of fun, and it was nice not having to make frosting for class every week. I definitely learned a lot, and will be making fondant cakes for every occasion.
Here is my final cake. It is another blackout cake from VWAV covered in chocolate buttercream from VCTOTW. It is filled with more chocolate buttercream and strawberry jam. This cake was super moist and delicious!I again chose not to do a cake from the course book and just combined a few of the things I learned throughout the course. I am really happy with the end results!

The cake right before I covered it in fondant.

Fondant covered cake and board.

Gum paste carnations.

Daisies made out of gum paste.

BBQ Tofu with Roasted Zucchini & Carrots

This is BBQ Tofu from Vegan Cooking For Animal Lovers DVD. This was really good, but it did not have a BBQ taste at all! I would definitely make this again, but as a tomato stew with rice.

I finally made my way over to the Uwajimaya store in Beaverton, and was completely amazed with the store! We bought lots of cool marinades and a garnishing kit. The below knife came with the kit, and it is awesome! I have used it for all sorts of veggies, and even Tofurkey sausages! I love it!

My favorite part.....roasted zucchini and carrots! The garnishing knife makes these cool little grooves on the veggies that get tasty, little crispy bits when roasted....mmmmmmm, melt in your mouth goodness!

Mmmmm Soy Curls......

I came across Soy Curls about a year ago and life has not been the same since. Soy Curls are an awesome meat alternative that have a texture extremely close to chicken. They absorb any flavor and are great in curry, stir fry, pasta, vegan chicken salad or a vegan chicken noodle soup. They are really healthy and are minimally processed. Anyways.....that is my 2 cents on Soy Curls........they are the shit.

Tasty dinner with Soy Curls. Capellini pasta with marinara, Soy Curls and roasted asparagus. I think I could eat asparagus everyday for the rest of my life.

Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste, Class 3

This class was all about flowers! We made carnations, daisies and the Wilton Fantasy flower. Let's just say the Fantasy flower was no fantasy of mine. I'm not posting it because it's just not very pretty. I will try making one again soon and maybe I can make it look a bit better.

I'm not a huge fan of real carnations, but I think the gum paste one's are super pretty. These are also surprising easy to make.

I think the daisies are really cute!
The final class for this course is tonight! I will post pics of my cake tomorrow.

Whoo Hoo! Peanut Butter Fudge!

Another test recipe for Kelly and Garrick. This fudge is so freakin' good! It tastes like the center of a peanut butter cup. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm......

Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste, Class 2

This is the cake from tonight's class. The Wilton suggestions for this course are extremely boring and ugly, so I had to find something else to make. I covered the cake with fondant and made the beach towel in class tonight; everything else I made at home a couple of days ahead.

I'm really happy with the way this turned out! This was my first time making a fondant cake and working with gum paste, so I feel pretty good about it!

We were supposed to make a draping blanket for class, but I decided to make mine a beach towel and do a whole beach scene.
I made this starfish by making an outline in gum paste with a cookie cutter and sculpting it into shape. I made all of the pore bump things with the end of a piping tip.


The shells and baby starfish are also made from gum paste.

I used smashed animal crackers for the sand...

These flip flops are my favorite!

This bucket isn't exactly what I envisioned, but it still works. It is a cupcake covered in fondant. The bucket handle and shovel are both gum paste. If I do this again, I will use two cupcakes with a smaller handle.

Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste, Class 1

I have started another Wilton class at Michael's! The 1st class was pretty much just talking about the supplies and covering our cake boards with fondant. We had a choice with the colors and making a marble design or leaving it one color. I chose to do the marble design with pink and purple. This was easy to do and it looks pretty cool, but I kinda think it is a waste of fondant. I think I will only be doing this for special occasion type of things!

I start my 2nd class tonight and I am going to make a cake with a beach theme. I will post pics tomorrow!

Jam Kolaches

This is another test recipe for Kelly & Garrick. I found myself very addicted to these little cookies! They have a melt in your mouth texture with a raspberry jam filling. They were really fun to make and tasted great!

Mixing the dough.....

Sifting in flour...

Cutting the cookies...

Filling with jam...

Ready to eat....

Butterscotch No Bakes

I am lucky enough to be one of the recipe testers for Kelly and Garrick's vegan cookie book! I have never done this sort of thing before and I am super excited!
These Butterscotch No Bakes are my first test. They are buttery, caramely and just plain good!

Lazy Sunday Breakfast

This Sunday was great.......We slept in until 12 and then pigged out on breakfast. We had organic soy, flax and blueberry waffles (the frozen kind....it's a lazy Sunday remember) with real maple syrup, grapes and bananas with Tofurkey Breakfast Links. This was my first time having the breakfast links and I loved them!

Mother's Day Cupcakes

I made these for my Mom and sister on Mother's Day. They were Chocolate Mint cupcakes from VCTOTW with mint frosting. The roses were made from a veganized version of the Wilton class vanilla buttercream.

I made the roses and let them sit for an hour before adding them to the cupcake. This allowed them to crust over a bit and it made it easier to transfer to the cupcake.

Baked Tempeh Nachos

We had a nacho bar type of potluck at work last week and I have been craving nachos ever since. These hit the spot and were really easy to make.

I cubed 2 blocks of tempeh and marinated them for an hour in soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast, water and one can of Amy's Organic Medium Chili (any vegan chili would work). I removed all of the tempeh and whisked cornstarch with the marinade to get it to thicken up. I folded the tempeh back in to the marinade and baked it at 35o for about 30 minutes.

Chopped tomatoes and black olives.

I'm in love with avocados..........

I also made an awesome dip by mixing one package of Tofutti Cream Cheese (the trans fat free kind) with one can of Amy's Organic Medium Chili with Vegetables. This made a huge amount of dip and we have plenty for the next couple of days.

I will definitely be making this again soon. It was a no brainer and it tasted awesome.

Squirrels and Mountains

I just bought a new camera and now I am obsessed with taking pictures.......

This squirrel was on our porch taunting our cats. They didn't get scared or mad, they just seemed really confused, like what the hell is that?















This is Mount Hood from outside our building. We have been living here for 4 years and I am still blown away every time that I see this.

Wilton Course 1, Class 4

This was the final cake for Course 1. It is another raspberry blackout cake from VWAV filled with raspberry preserves and ganache. The roses are made from the Wilton class buttercream and the border is a chocolate buttercream. This was definitely the most challenging cake so far. I must of made about 30 practice roses, but I'm really happy with the results. I start Course 2 next week!