Lemon is great for desserts

I'll be honest, I've never liked cheesecake. I only started eating cheesecake when I became vegan because it's one of the most common vegan desserts around oddly enough. So I have grown to like it over the years, but quite often there is something a little off about vegan cheesecake. That is not to say I haven't had a few that have been quite delicious. In any case, I decided to try my hand at it. I have to say the results were fantastic. I combined a couple recipes I found to come up with a lemon cheesecake that was light and fluffy with just a hint of lemon. I will admit that I used a store-bought crust. Next time I'll try my own. 

I want to be posting a picture of the lemon bars I made this week but they were so good they were eaten immediately. So good. You would have no idea that they were vegan. This is not something I would usually say about my desserts since it makes vegan sound like a bad thing. In this instance though, the crust was just so flakey and the consistency of the lemon filling was just unlike anything I've had. Let me just say again...so good. It was possibly the best dessert I've made so far. 

Instead here is a simple chai tea cupcake. This batch came out okay, but I desperately need a new oven! I'm also not as big a fan of cupcakes that use soy yogurt in the recipe. Perhaps it was just the uneven baking of the cupcakes this time though. 

Girls can use power tools too.

Well I've been making a lot of tasty treats but I haven't had a lot of other fun projects to show off. It's been busy over here though. In honor of the fact that I'll be moving this weekend and this sweet coffee table that I made will be going into storage, I though it deserved it's own post, even though this isn't the best photo. I made this following (loosely) instructions from Readymade magazine, which I love. I found the reel to reel in the garage of the house I used to live in and it came along before the place was demolished. I'd like to get a glass top for this piece but that will have to wait for my next residence. Anyway I bought myself a drill to make this and I'm not sure how I lived without one before. Back to packing for me!

Mini cupcakes

Went on a little shopping excursion this weekend and got some new baking supplies. Desperately needed a cooling rack and finally got a mini-cupcake pan that I'm really excited about. I tend to bring my treats in to work with me but often the recipe doesn't make enough for the the whole office so I have to make two batches, which kind of defeats the point of bringing them into work to get rid of them in the first place.

Tested out a bunch of new stuff on Sunday when I made these mini gingerbread cupcakes. I still need practice on my frosting skills for sure but sprinkles help. Everyone seemed to love these even though they were a little crispy on top.

Also made some strawberry filled vanilla cupcakes this morning that I haven't tried yet...

Mini Lemon Bundts

Here are some mini lemon bundt cakes I made just a few weeks ago. I veganized a recipe that I've attempted many times in the past but pretty much gave up on until this time. They've never come out looking so good. They were a lot more cakey than I expected but delicious with such a sweet lemon icing on top. I bought this mini bundt cake pan specifically to make these guys but I find it makes a lot of regular recipes more fun. Like banana bread. Somehow things are just more exciting when they're in single servings.

I've actually been baking up a storm lately. Trying to get in some good practice although this sweltering weather is probably not the best for hanging out in the hot kitchen. Of course I don't have photos of all the treats I've made lately. Tonight's project was oatmeal cookies. So yummy.

Hopefully I'll get some brownies in this week and come up with some other ideas. Also really looking forward to making some vegan ice cream since it's so hot. Even after the disaster that was my last attempt (okay it wasn't a disaster, it was just um, crunchy).

Went to a vegan baking class on Sunday hosted Spork Foods which was really exciting and inspiring. There will definitely be some yummy surprises in the future...

Breakfast of champions

Although I'm partial to making desserts, my other specialty is breakfast. This is the a sort of benedict-like tofu dish, but mostly just in looks. English muffins topped with seasoned, grilled tofu and tomatoes. Instead of hollandaise sauce, they're covered in a creamy polenta cooked with onions and lots of garlic. I'm still going to have to experiment with some vegan hollandaise recipes but this was delicious in a whole different way. I got the Veganomicon for Christmas and I can't wait to break into it.

Happy Holidays

For this holiday season I made my specialty: Vegan Cupcakes! For the past few years I've been using store bought icing on my cake and cupcakes because I haven't found a recipe that has been quite wonderful enough. This year I got my hands on a cake decorating bag and felt it was absolutely necessary to make towers of frosting on my cupcakes. I made one batch of of what would have been dulce de leche cupcakes (had I used the icing I was supposed to instead of the vanilla frosting) for work and another batch of plain chocolate, also with vanilla frosting, for my family Christmas party. Ok, to be perfectly honest, I have never had such amazing frosting in my life. So good. Other good news is that my new oven (and when I say new, I mean seventy years old, just new to me) bakes quite well which is really a lovely thing since an off-temperature oven can ruin everything. In any case, I'll try and keep up with my postings more than I have (oops!) .

All things green

I realize August is not really the ideal time to be making scarves, but sometimes it's just nice to not have to follow a pattern. I bought this yarn a little while ago from Knit Cafe in West Hollywood. It is a organic dyed cotton from blue sky alpacas and it is amazingly soft and easy to work with. I absolutely adore it and will definitely use it again despite it's price. It was only $10 a skein but I have a habit of buying inexpensive yarn. I went with a simple moss stitch in alternating greens.

And because I cannot seem to stay out of the kitchen recently, I had quite a few different food experiments this weekend. Most of them, while edible, did not go as well as expected. In the end though, all my mistakes were completely overtaken by the fact that I made the best vegan pizza I've ever had. Now that is really saying a lot because I have a mild addiction to the pizza dough from Trader Joe's and have made countless variations from tons of fake meat to vegetable overload to barbecue and most things in between. This pizza was a simple pesto, tomato and vegan mozzarella on wheat crust. I'm usually not a fan of the wheat crust as it tends to come out a bit dry, but all the oil in the pesto seemed to counteract that. This thing was definitely greasy, but well worth it. The cheese even melted! This alone would excite any vegan. In any case, I ate almost the whole thing. I attempted to make this last weekend but had a minor disaster with the pesto. The adapted version of the recipe is as follows.

Vegan pesto

1 bunch fresh basil (about 2 cups)
3/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp lemon
2 cloves chopped garlic

Throw it all in a food processor and blend.