January 15, 2024
Since I made baked mooncakes last Lunar New Year, I have wanted to try making “snowskin” mooncakes. Traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, these Chinese no-bake treats are also called Crystal Mooncakes or Snowy mooncakes. With the recent snow, they were on my mind… even though it is not Mid-Autumn. Read more…
January 3, 2024
Being a lover of vintage dessert cookbooks, the Baked Alaska always appealed to me. The beautiful pastel layers, the encasement of torched meringue… the cohabitation of ice cream, cake and marshmallowy meringue. So with the new year, I’d start with checking it off my to-make Bucket List. It was partly Read more…
December 24, 2023
With the motivation of making a showstopper for the big day, I embarked upon the annual challenge of assembling a vegan Bûche De Noël. And though the end result is always spectacular to look at, I have accepted that, thus far, the texture of a vegan cake rolled and compressed Read more…
December 23, 2023
Using this fantastic recipe for cookies and their accompanying icing, the kids had a blast making their own cookie creations. It was a lot of work making and then supervising the process, but it was well worth it! I know I will soon forget the stress of this day long Read more…
December 20, 2023
Usually my treat holiday treat boxes go to my colleagues in teaching… ones that help add a little fun to the dysfunction. But not being in the classroom anymore, these boxes would go to my guy’s children’s teachers (Boy, I really hate double-possessives). First, the very much loved pumpkin chocolate Read more…
December 15, 2023
Well we are half way through the last month of 2023. As time continues to fly, some mid-month outtakes. First, the tremendous pumpkin that the teenager picked out for Halloween, preserved nicely in the cold Western New York temperatures on the porch, would need to be processed. I needed the Read more…
December 5, 2023
This recipe for ooey-gooey fudgey brownie-like cookies was a real crowd pleaser in my household. I snipped up some Dandies vegan marshmallows for the batter and used crunchy almond butter. The result had it all… A very thick batter Ah, they’re out! Time for all to devour… after taking a Read more…
November 30, 2023
Well, somehow it’s December. To follow, November’s outtakes. Trips to the playground which will likely not be a often in the winter… An amazing calzone from Create-A-Pizza… vegan ricotta, some vegan cheese and some mushroom bacon So happy to have found an amazing Indian lunch buffet: Tandoor of India Another Read more…
November 23, 2023
The big food holiday was here and I planned to make a 6-course all-vegan spread in my new kitchen! And I was surprised and pleased how easy it all went down… I even had time to do batches of dishes between prep tasks. With planning, this can be even more Read more…
November 22, 2023
Life Day is a holiday in the Star Wars galaxy. Detailed in the absolutely cringe-inducing Star Wars Holiday Special, a made-for-tv special made in 1978, the holiday is traditionally celebrated on November 17. Since we would not be celebrating Thanksgiving with the kids, we decided to utilize the cookbook we Read more…
November 20, 2023
Worrying I hadn’t utilized the pumpkin purée enough, I made a unique soft, cake-like babka by making some substitutions to this recipe. First, I used all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, resulting in less gluten in the dough. I also used coconut oil instead of vegan block butter because I Read more…
November 12, 2023
Ok, so I never made anyone 3 baked goods for their birthday, but after the school celebration and the family celebration, it was time for the kid party. So I was on cake duty again! Though the cake looks cute, it was not how I intended it to look. A Read more…
November 8, 2023
Out with the apple and in with the pumpkin! It is that time of autumn when the pumpkins have served their decorative purpose and can now finish out their lives as sweet and savory treats. The first pumpkin I processed was the yellow one, so that orange hue is not Read more…
November 5, 2023
So when she sketched a picture of the cake she wanted for her birthday, I got to work. It would need brightly colored layers; it would need to be a unicorn. And it would need to be done without having to hit the grocery store. A big 1.5 batch of Read more…
November 2, 2023
It was time to bake a batch of cupcakes for a special girl’s 7th birthday. And because class sizes are so large, they had to be little itty bitties. So the perfection of VCTOTW‘s basic chocolate cupcake would do the trick. All done Just a small piping of vanilla buttercream Read more…
November 1, 2023
Even though I no longer teach, I would still follow the tradition I have grown so accustom to… setting up my ofrenda and honoring the lives of dearly departed. This year, a Calavera cake after I came across this pan. I imagined it decorated to the nine’s. This was a Read more…
October 28, 2023
You looking at me? I made some Halloween treats for a party… which means the eyeballs came out of the pantry once again. So let me talk about candy eyeballs for a bit. In the past, every time I looked at a package of candy eyeballs I saw that they Read more…
October 18, 2023
With a bunch of black cocoa to use and Halloween around the corner, I tried a batch of brownies in my heart-shaped pan. I used Rainbow Plant Life‘s recipe but, though gorgeous, they were way too wet. However, I will give them a try again as the rivaled crackled top Read more…
October 17, 2023
Since we have deep fryer capabilities, I thought I’d whip up a deep-fried recipe for my next apple endeavor. Using Make It Dairy Free’s recipe, I prepped an easy dough then waited for the oil to come to temperature. Once the oil was ready, the greasy fun began! Ah, glistening Read more…
October 12, 2023
Using the last of the store-bought puff pastry, these very easy apple pop tarts. The apple stash is dwindling! I do believe I will meet my goal of using all the apples we picked. Many recipes have these made with honey, but I just used maple syrup. The pastry dough Read more…
October 10, 2023
Now back to apples! This recipe was the reason I wanted to make apple butter… Cinnamon buns made with apple butter both in the dough and the filling. After a huge mess up with the recipe the day before, day two I was back for the attack. [If you must Read more…
October 8, 2023
Yes, I coated a perfectly sweet and wholesome apple with a sticky candy coating. I am guilty. And once they were made, I basked in their candy apple red but had no desire to eat ’em. So let’s just look and save ourselves a trip to the dentist.
October 3, 2023
These Apple Rose tarts might be the easiest and prettiest of apple baking. All you need are some strips of pastry dough. You can purchase premade for an extremely easy endeavor or make your own! Pepperidge Farms puff pastry dough is vegan, though pumped with garbagey stuff. I would use Read more…
September 29, 2023
For my second usage of our haul of apples, a shockingly easy vegan apple strudel! The recipe from Connoisseurus Veg utilizes store-bought puff pastry dough and a delicious filling mixture of apples, sugar, raisins, pecans, rum, cinnamon, vanilla and lemon juice. I sliced them thin on the mandoline, though you Read more…
September 25, 2023
Now that I have a slew of apples to use, my first undertaking would be from Rainbow Nourishment, one of my favorite vegan blogs to hunt for recipes. It starts with a quick crust in the food processor. I made two tarts. This is the first, the circle. As a Read more…
September 22, 2023
After ordering some black cocoa, I’m excited to make some dark cocoa delights. With some old bananas waiting for me to return home, I quickly hopped to making one of my faves: Chocolate marble banana bread from Post Punk Kitchen. Ah, such a stark contrast Each slice is a unique Read more…