30 Oct
Happy Halloween, part I.
Sadly, I couldn’t find any skull cupcake aprons that I liked (without buying an entire non-vegan cupcake kit), so these are just in a basic black. H took them to work today. I figure this is an appropriate way for a neurology office to celebrate Halloween. The flavor is red velvet with a gray cream cheese frosting.
30 Oct
As much as I love baking, I love it even more when it involves a holiday or theme. Today was the Chicago Suburban Vegetarian’s monthly vegan potluck and I made Halloween sugar cookies: pumpkins, ghosts, black cats and witches’ brooms. The ghosts look more angry than spooky.
I also brought along some scalloped potatoes with eggplant bacon.
First, I made the Eggplant bacon. It is delicious just on its own. Fortunately, I bought two eggplants, so I can make some more.
Then I made the Scalloped potatoes. This is amazing! You must make it ASAP! I’m pretty sure this will be a Thanksgiving dinner dish.
The potluck was very good. There were black beans with mango, veggie soup, lots of hummus, two kinds of scallop potatoes, and a brussels sprout dish with seaweed. Plus, a table filled with dessert!
28 Oct
I never knew I loved marshmallows so much until I found Sweet & Sara. Now I have to marshmallows in my kitchen at all times. Not only has Sweet & Sara veganized the marshmallow, but she does graham crackers (an item that frequently contains honey), holiday treats and fun flavors!
For dessert tonight, we had pumpkin s’mores! Two toasted pumpkin spice marshmallows, a piece of dark chocolate and graham cracker!
Earlier this month I enjoyed a chocolate marshmallow bat. It was delicious! I was afraid of squishing it, so I took it out of the box and into my purse. Later, I put a big heavy file on my purse and squished it, but it still tasted delicious.
I am saving the ghost marshmallow for a Halloween treat on Monday. They are both so cute!
31 Oct
Vegan Cupcakes take over Halloween
I spent most of Halloween in the kitchen. I bought Halloween cupcake liners at World Market last week and decided to put them to good use today. I made 3 dozen cupcakes- 2 for H to bring into the office and the other split between home and my office.
I experimented with gluten free baking today. Surprisingly, they came out really well. I bought tapioca flour and white rice flour, both of which were available at the local Jewel. They did not have quinoa flour, so I made that myself by grinding up quinoa in the blender. They look normal- I was concerned about the texture. They have a bit of an added crunch, but they taste just like regular cupcakes.
The chocolate gluten freedom cupcakes are on the right with orange (the color, not the flavor) buttercream and chocolate buttercream.
I also made a basic yellow cupcake and a chocolate vanilla marble cupcake. All from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World, my favorite cookbook.
Vanilla cupcakes in the front. Marble with chocolate buttercream in the back.
