Blueberry Cheezecake

Cheesecake for DR's birthday. This is the second time I've made this recipe and I added lots more lemon - lemon zest, lemon juice. Wait, it already had lemon juice. But still, it needed more lemon to be a LEMON cheesecake.

But it was good. We ate the whole thing quicker than I want to admit.

Candy!

My friend Megan and I went on a candy making adventure. And hamz. But the post here is about candy! We are prepping up for the Egg-less Extravaganza this weekend. It will be fun. Vegan potlucks are always fun.

Anyways, the candies of the day included York-a-like Peppermint Patties, caramels, marshmallows, choco-nut clusters (Veg Times, above), and peanut butter cups (from our brains).

The choco-nut clusters were easy enough. Melt chocolate (here, semisweet). Put in cup. Insert goodies. For some I used a raw nut and fruit mix (almonds, pecans, walnuts, cranberries, etc) and the other I used candied ginger and sesame seeds. Fancy!

The other event of the day was the Peanutbutter Bac'n Candies. Megan made some "truffle style" (rolled in chocolate and then in bac'ns) but my pics of them look like crap. So, instead, I have my PB Bac'n Cup. Yup. The filling is peanutbutter with bac'n bits in it. This is coated in chocolate and topped with more bac'n. What is the world coming to? Needless to say, we made them for our boys.

Turnovers!

For Easter Weekend (not that we celebrate it; DR is more into celebrating bunnies and baskets of candy) I made some mixed berry turnover using the puff pastry that was left over from the loaf I made for Cougi's dinner. My freezer likes to burn things quickly, so this seemed like a great way to get around that issue.

The idea was very easy. Thaw dough. Open up (mine was folded in thirds) and dump berries in the middle. Fold sides over. Bake. Cool. Eat. Yum! I plated them with some soy vanilla icecream and a blueberry sauce I picked up at Trader Joes. It tastes good on everything.

Fudgey Brownie!

One of the "big" questions of the vegan world is which is better: fudgey or cakey brownies? I've never thought about it much, but I did have an interest in finding a good, fudgey brownie since it could give me some bragging rights. So when my Vegatarian Times came with a brownie recipe in it, I decided to give it a whirl. The first time, I forgot the sugar. The brownies were still good, just not too sweet. The second time I made them Cammers came over with some butter pecan soy icecream and we had a feast. The recipe has a banana in it, so they have a mild banana flavor. They were very fudgy though.

Peanut butter Banana Cupcakes

Banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. Yum. Thanks Dink for coming to the ALB and encouraging me to make these beasts. They were quite good. Next time, I'll make the green tea ones. Or whatever else you want.

White Cake!

On vegweb, the issue came up about how to make a good vegan white cake. I've never had "issue" with any (vegan) cake, but some wanted a vanilla tasting cake that was dense but light in texture (not sure how that works.... its been too long since I've had "omni cake." Regardless, several of us have made it our mission to try to figure this mess out. My attempt, seen here, is the chocolate cake that works well, subbing cornstarch for the cocoa powder. It tasted good, but I don't think it is what they were looking for. THHF thought of using icewater and got good results; this is my next plan of attack. However, the cupcakes I made this weekend had a nice "dense fluffy" to them. Perhaps the trick is to MESS THEM UP.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. They are great. Just gaze at the porn-ness of them.

On a fantastic note, I did make that powdered sugar you see on top myself. Sugar, cornstarch, and my vitamix. I feel like I have mega vegan points now: +++++++ for me.