Vegan Decadence

Chocolate, a lot of chocolate

Vanilla Salted Caramel

I tried a new chocolate recipe tonight, I think everyone should use it. Vegan or not. It's rich and chocolatey and moist and no animals have gone into it.

The vanilla recipe is the same old with the normal tweaks. Earth Balance Buttery Sticks instead of butter, SoDelicious Coconut Milk in place of milk and Bob's Mill Egg Replacer instead of eggs. The icing is also the old standard. Icing sugar, Earth Balance, Coconut milk and vanilla. The Caramel I made. Sugar in pan patiently on med-low heat until it's melted and turned brown, then a smidge of Earth Balance. Don't rush this. Be patient otherwise you'll never get the burned sugar smell out of the house for a couple of days, I speak from experience. 

Here's the Chocolate recipe. Give it a go. 

Preheat the hot box to 375 degrees, get your cupcake liners in the tin (will make 12) or spray/ butter a 9 x 13 pan.

1 1/2 Cups of unbleached flour

1/3 Cup Cocoa

1 tsp baking SODA

1/2 tsp salt

1 Cup sugar

1/2 Cup vegetable/ canola oil

1 Cup water

2 tsp Vanilla

2 TB White Vinegar (yes, vinegar. The window cleaning kind)

Mix all the dry into your main mixing bowl (I use a KitchenAid mixer, everyone does right?). Mix all the wet into another bowl or a large measuring cup.

Combine and beat the hell out of it for a few minutes, scrape the bowl and mix a bit more. Scoop (you use a standard ice cream scoop, I know you do...) the mix into each cup. The batter will create 12 perfectly peaked beauties.

Bake for 22 minutes. Check at 20, maybe your oven is an over achiever.

Take out and let sit in the pan to cool for 10 minutes, take out of pan and let cool completely on a wire rack before you ice. COMPLETELY.

For the icing I used:

1/2 cup Earth Balance, melted

1/3 cup Cocoa

3 cups of icing sugar

a pinch of instant coffee power

Put it all in the mixer AFTER YOU'VE CLEANED IT, and beat it for about 5 minutes. Scrape, Beat, Ice.

This is a crazy easy recipe and I hope it becomes your standby, it's officially mine.

Luv u



The Blog- she's a changing...

Because You're not blind I know you see this. I'll still be making pretty, yummy things. I just won't be using animal anything to do it with. I won't get into the whys of it all with you but let's just say morals and ethics got the better of me. And after a year of contemplating I finally watched Earthlings . There's a reason it's called "The Vegan Maker". Maybe just watch the trailer if you're curious. And if you really want to see where meat comes from and what happens to animals at the hands of henious humans for other reasons, watch the full length movie. Have tissue handy, and maybe a barf bag. And definately don't be eating. Or be eating... a steak.



Vegan Miso Cleaning out the Fridge Soup





Make your favourite Miso base.





YUMMY!!





Vegan Basil Vinaigrette



2 Cups of EVO, 1/2 Cup red wine vinegar, 3 TBS Dijon, 3 TBS Balsamic, 1/4 Cup Maple Syrup, 2 Cups Packed Fresh Basil and Salt and Pepper. Pop it all into a blender or process. Blend or process.





Makes about 4 cups, enough for sharing with someone you like. Or keeping all to yourself and eating with your finger.



FREAK!!

The cat was watching me in the kitchen yesterday so I thought I'd get a picture of her cute face. Until she CHARGED at me!! This is what was in the frame when I looked at it.

Olive

Vanilla Bean Paste

I finally found this in a store locally. I know I could have ordered it online but it just wasn't THAT important.

Until of course I tried it. Love it. Will spend the $20 for the bottle until I find something better. This is thick and rich and a little goes a long way. If you feel a splurge coming on or have something special to make give this a whirl. 

School District 61

... is getting these tomorrow for a fund raiser. I hope they make the grade (get it? School... grade... never mind. I'm tired :)

Salted Caramel

Vanilla Bean

Chocolate Ganache



Lord Love a Duck!

Three months is way too long to be away from here! Where has the time gone? I'll tell you, Christmas sucked the life right out of me and I needed 3 months to recover!! Then my office decided to move and who was tasked with that? That's correct- Moi. And I was just tired and needed lounging. Apparently a lot of lounging.

I'm back. I'm blogging. I'll do something this weekend, I promise. Something pretty and St. Patrick's Day like. And ass friendly because I'm also doing Weight Watchers (which frigging works by the way), or not ass friendly and I'll get everyone around me to eat it and I'll just laugh and laugh and laugh...

Not me, but not far from what I've been doing.

Peek a Boo

Those crazy Chihuahuas

A cold day, a hot lunch

Merci Bon Rouge Merci