I don't know about you, but I love Thanksgiving! All the wonderful food that pleases every sense: the smells of a homemade feast; the earthy fall colors spread on the table; all the different textures of the food, from creamy mashed potatoes to the crunchy onions on top of the green bean casserole; the diverse tastes, from tangy cranberry sauce to savory stuffing; and, from the kitchen, the sounds of cooks preparing. For me, the joy of this day is all in the preparation, but not this year.
My house most certainly cannot accommodate more than four people eating at a time, so for practicality's and convenience's sake, the boyfriend and I went up to Jacksonville for a dinner with his family. I was wholeheartedly disappointed that I wouldn't be able to cook, but I found a way around this. I just made a few desserts to bring with!
I usually like to make holidays as quiet and relaxing as possible. I revel in laziness and thoroughly enjoy down time. Which is why I have no idea what possessed me to try to bake two desserts before leaving for Jacksonville.To set the stage of the last few days, let me start with what led up to the actual preparation of food. Wednesday was my last day of work for the week, which I was totally pumped for. I loathe my job, and the promise of a four-day weekend looming just hours out of my grasp made the work day seem sludgy. But freedom came at last! I was done! But I had to get to an appointment to do some tattoo work a mere hour after work, and still get some lunch in the meantime. So I rushed home, got some lunch, and showed up at my tattoo artist's parlor and got some shading done on my arm, which took about an hour.
For those who have never been inclined to modify their bodies, getting tattooed is not only painful, but draining. The adrenaline rush just leaves you feeling weak and tired, and so usually when I get tattooed, I just sit around the rest of the day to recover.But not today. I had desserts to make. Silly me. I walk home from the tattoo parlor and sit for an hour with a friend who stopped by, then go to the supermarket, then shower, then clean the kitchen, and then bake. I didn't even get both of them done, but by 11:30pm, I could barely stand up any longer, so I called it quits. This meant I had to get up fairly early to finish a tart because we had to leave for Jacksonville at 11:00am. So on not very much sleep at all, I finished the tart, drove an hour and a half, had family time, drove the hour and a half back in the same day, and then finally got to crash.
So now that I'm recovered from a very hectic Thanksgiving, I took the time to just sit on my front porch with some leftover pumpkin cheesecake and some chai tea and relax in this warm, sunny Florida late November afternoon.
And I know there's no owl trinket, but the plate has birds on it, so there. Recipe below.
Ingredients:
1 package cinnamon graham crackers
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
4 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 15-oz can pumpkin
4 eggs
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp clove
1/4 tsp allspice
Directions:
You will need a 10-inch springform pan, large-sized tin foil, and a large baking dish that is wide enough to fit the springform pan into.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom and sides of the springform pan with foil to make a water-tight seal. (This is why I buy the wide tin foil instead of the normal 12-inch wide foil, because it is easier to wrap the pan in.)
In a medium-sized bowl, crush graham crackers until no large chunks remain. Mix in sugar and melted butter. Pour into bottom of springform pan and press down with your hands to create a crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until it is lightly browned. Cool on a cooling rack.
Raise the temperature of the oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, beat on high the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add in eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, allspice, clove, nutmeg and pumpkin. Beat until the mixture is very smooth.
Pour on top of crust in springform pan. Place the springform pan in the baking dish and pour water in the baking dish until the water reaches up 1 inch on the sides of the pan. Bake for one and a half to two hours, or until the sides of the cake look set and the middle shakes slightly when the pan is moved.
Remove from the baking dish and then take off the foil. Chill overnight, or at least eight hours. Serve chilled.
Hope you all had a relaxing holiday! Questions and comments always appreciated.
So I jumped the gun a teensy bit for Thanksgiving. Fall is my favorite season, mostly because it involves pumpkin desserts! As a kid, I reveled in pumpkin pie and got as much of it as I could while it was still in season, and was always heartbroken when the holidays had come to an end and pumpkins were no longer incorporated into every dessert imaginable. 
In this vein, I decided to make pumpkin cupcakes. While I love pie, it is a pain in the ass to make, especially to make photogenically. Besides, there will probably be pie on Thanksgiving, but probably not cupcakes.
These came out wonderfully moist and deliciously spiced. The "cream cheese" frosting is very rich, so use sparingly. (I didn't realize just how rich it was, so in these pictures I loaded it on!)
They were a mouth-watering predecessor to the Thanksgiving feast. Hope you all enjoy and have a good holiday!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup pumpkin
1/2 almond milk (or soy milk)
1/2 cup Earth Balance butter at room temperature
8 oz. vegan cream cheese at room temperature
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
1 pound confectioners sugar
Additional cinnamon for dusting, optional
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together the dry ingredients. (This does not include sugar.) Set aside.
Mix oil and sugar together. Add apple cider vinegar, vanilla, and pumpkin. Mix until incorporated. Mix in flour mixture until a smooth batter forms. Add the almond milk and mix until incorporated.
Pour into greased cupcake tin so that all tins are equally filled. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle of each cupcake comes out clean.
Let cool for about five to ten minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.
While they are cooling, prepare the frosting. Mix butter, cream cheese and maple syrup until smooth. Add confectioners sugar and mix until smooth. If frosting looks too soupy, add more confectioners sugar by the quarter cup until desired consistency is reached.
Frost cupcakes and sprinkle with cinnamon, if using. Devour immediately.
Questions and comments are always appreciated!
I know what you're thinking...beets in cupcakes? But trust me, it's delicious. I first came across the idea of combining beets and chocolate in an issue of Vegetarian Times. The original recipe was for chocolate beet brownies, which I made with one of my friends who is obsessed with beets, and they were delicious.
I made these yesterday, in a rush, with an already messy kitchen. I abhor cooking under these conditions, but I was making them for a greater purpose other than for the sake of the blog. One of my dear friends was celebrating a birthday by potluck last night.
As an aside, I treat pot lucks like competitions, and I always try to have the tastiest/prettiest/most unique thing there. I am fairly neurotic, I know. This contributed to the reason I chose these cupcakes for her birthday potluck.
Also, making an actual birthday cake was out of the question. Everyone's afraid to make the first move on a cake at potlucks. So cupcakes it was.
This dear friend of mine also doesn't have a very big sweet tooth, so these really were the perfect choice. The actual cupcake part is not very sweet; the beets give it a subtle earthy flavor that complements the chocolate. The icing provides most of the sweetness, and contrasts, yet complements, the flavor of the cake.
Here are the ingredients you will need. After I had already taken this picture and began the baking process, I realized I forgot to add the salt to this picture, so you will need that too. And if you're short on time, you can used canned beats instead of fresh.
So pretty!
I am a messy cupcake pan filler! The batter comes out looking like a crazy burnt sienna color because of the beets, but they look more chocolatey once they bake.
When these come out of the oven, they are extremely fragile and hard to get out of the tin. I became despondent as I was failing at getting them out of the tin and onto the cooling rack until I got a crazy idea in my head. I put the cooling rack over the tin and then flipped it over, like you would a cake from a cake pan. GENIUS. They came out easy as....pie? Then I just flipped them over by hand after they had cooled and solidified.
I had this great idea for the frosting that didn't work out at all. I saw a flourless chocolate beet cupcake on ming makes cupcakes (number 31) where I fell in love with the fuchsia streak going through the topping, so I tried to replicate this in my own frosting. Little did I realize that the yellow color of the vegan butter would make the beet juice turn into this Eastery pastel color. Oh well.
They were a hit at the potluck, and hopefully you'll like them too! Recipe below.
Ingredients:
For cupcakes:
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup pureed beets
1/2 cup almond milk (or soy milk)
For frosting: ***
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp Earth Balance vegan butter at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp beet juice
Directions:
If using fresh beets, quarter two large raw beets and drop carefully into boiling water. Let boil for about 30 minutes, or until tender. Drain, reserving two Tablespoons of the pink liquid, peel, and puree. Set aside.
If using canned beats, drain 15-ounce can of beets, reserving two Tablespoons of the pink liquid, and puree. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium-sized bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda together. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix shortening and sugar together. Add the vanilla, apple cider vinegar, and beets. Stir together.
Mix in flour mixture until smooth, and then add the almond milk. Mix until smooth.
Pour into a greased muffin tin until each compartment is about 2/3 full. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of each cupcake. Cool on drying rack.
To make icing, combine vegan butter, powdered sugar, and beet juice. Mix until smooth.
***For the icing, since I was in a hurry, I didn't take the time to use exact measurements on it. This was the best I could estimate. If the frosting seems soupy and doesn't hold its shape, add more powdered sugar by the quarter cup until desired consistency is reached. If it's too stiff, then add more beet juice by the teaspoon until desired consistency is reached.
Once the cakes are COMPLETELY cooled, frost each cupcake. With the above icing recipe, I had JUST enough to put one layer of frosting on each cupcake, so if you like to be liberal with your frosting, just double the recipe above.
Hope you enjoy this! Questions and comments are always appreciated.
I'm not sure I know anyone who can resist a chocolate chip cookie coming right out of the oven. There are so many variations to them, and everyone has their own tastes. There's chewy, crunchy, sparse chocolate, mostly chocolate, thin, thick, with nuts and without. The list could go on.
These cookies are of the chewy variety, and since I like a little more texture than just the chips, but am not a huge fan of nuts in cookies, I add oatmeal. This is a very adaptable recipe for all types of cookie fans, and I'll let you know where you can vary the ingredients to suit your cookie tastes.
Here's the ingredients that I used.
I like to use butter-flavored vegetable shortening rather than vegan butters because this makes the cookies stay softer over time. I also make sure the banana has a lot of brown spots so the flavor is sweeter and it's easier to mash up. When all the ingredients are mixed together, it looks a little like this:
Then line them up in a row...
And wait for the first batch to be done so you can put the other batch in...
And they come out looking gorgeous!
And as an aside, I have a slight obsession with owl trinkets. They're all over my house, and I like to show them off, so most of my baked goods will be featured alongside an owl just for kicks. The recipe for these cookies, along with variations, is below. Enjoy!
Vegan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies:
Ingredients:
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) vegetable shortening
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 very ripe banana
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chips
- 1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium-sized bowl, sift flour, salt, and baking soda together. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine shortening, brown sugar, sugar, banana and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer or a fork until smooth.
Pour half of the flour mixture into the sugar mixture. Mix until combined. Pour the remaining half of the flour mixture into the sugar mixture and mix until combined. Mix in chocolate chips and oatmeal.
Place by rounded Tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until very lightly browned. These cookies don't spread out a lot, so be sure not to overcook them waiting for them to flatten.
Variations:
If you like your cookies to be crunchy instead of chewy, then substitute a vegan butter for the shortening (such as Earth Balance) and the brown sugar with plain sugar. If you use Earth Balance, you should cut the salt down to 1/2 a teaspoon since their butter is pre-salted. When you lay them out onto the baking sheet, then press them down so they are flat. This way, they will be thinner when you take them out and eating them won't feel oppressive.
If you like less chocolate, or would like to add nuts, then either use only one cup chocolate chips, or use one cup chocolate chips and one cup nuts.
If you would like a healthier version of these cookies, you can substitute dried fruit (such as raisins or dried cranberries or dried blueberries) for the chocolate chips. Use the same amount.
I hope you enjoy this recipe! It's one i come back to over and over again. Comments and questions are always appreciated.
Hello! Welcome to my very first blog about baking. Just wanted to tell you a little about me and my kitchen. I'm Christina, and I live in an old, run-down, yet charming house, with my boyfriend, my kitten, his snake and our gerbils.
While I love looking at food blogs of all kinds, I started to realize that vegan and gluten-free desserts were scarce and that most of these chefs had wonderful kitchens and used expensive ingredients. This blog is designed to help normal people with normal kitchens create delicious vegan and/or gluten-free desserts.
So let's take a tour!
This is me and the boyfriend and the snake (Mr. Giggles). I am somewhat afraid of him. The snake, not my boyfriend :)
This is my kitchen, in which I have more spices than dishes, no dishwasher, and an oven that can only fit one baking pan in it at a time. I love it though!
And this is my kitty!So now that you've been introduced, let's start baking.
