A Vegan Birthday Party: Yellow Cupcakes

The most important part of any birthday party isn’t the dinner, though. It’s the cake! Or cupcakes in this case. My friend Jessica often says that the best test of any cupcakery is their simplest offering: yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It’s always the first thing she orders.

For a while now, yellow cake has been something of an Achilles Heel in my cupcake repertoire. My first attempt was culled from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s The Joy of Vegan Baking. While the taste was fine, the texture was too sticky and dense. When feeding non-vegans I never like to serve something imperfect. I want them to walk away exclaiming about how delicious everything was! So, the first batch was a wash, but I didn’t exactly have time for a lot of yellow cake experimentation.

Recently my mom and I have been watching the Food Network show “Cupcake Wars.” We had heard about the show after Chloe Coscarelli won her competition with a vegan cupcake. This was not a vegan cupcake competition, just a cupcake competition, and her light, fluffy, vegan cupcakes won! We looked her up and found this delightfully simple coconut cupcake recipe. Already having all the ingredients, we whipped up a quick batch, and waited.

They turned out absolutely perfectly. Light, soft, tender on the inside with a crisp, sugary edge. They are everything I look for in these individually-sized treats. Topped with rich chocolate frosting, they were the perfect end to a teenage vegan’s birthday party.

Yellow Birthday Cupcakes
adapted from Chef Chloe

1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup unsweetened non dairy milk
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Prepare two 6-cup cupcake pans with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Whisk until thoroughly mixed. In a small bowl, combine the oil, milk, vanilla, and vinegar. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix completely. Fill each cupcake cup 2/3 full. Place the pans in the oven, and bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack, and allow to cool completely before frosting. 

A Vegan Birthday Party: Cold Peanut Noodles

My sister Summer recently celebrated her 14th birthday! Summer has been kind enough to share her vegan experience with me and my readers, and was happy to extend that privilege to this year’s birthday party.

It’s a bit of a challenge to feed 10 14 year old girls vegan food that is friendly and satisfying. Events like this give my family and me an opportunity to show how delicious and approachable the vegan lifestyle is. It doesn’t have to be scary and unfamiliar. People are often amazed by how much of the food they already love just happens to be vegan, like hummus and pita chips. When creating the menu for Summer’s party, we tried to consider what would be most appealing to teenage girls, what would be easy to prepare in a large quantity, and what would best represent the joyful vegan lifestyle.

We decided on Cold Peanut Noodles, one of Summer’s favorite dishes, for the main dish. Pita and hummus, fresh vegetables and fruit rounded out the dinner menu. And the girls loved it! Several asked for seconds and thirds, and all the vegetables and fruit disappeared. So, I’m counting this one as a win for Team Vegan!

 

Cold Peanut Noodles
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup warm water
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons sesame chile oil
1 tablespoon agave nectar
Juice of 1 lime
1 pound whole wheat noodles (spaghetti or linguine)
4 green onions, sliced in 1/4” pieces
1 red bell pepper, sliced in 1/4” strips
1 carrot, julienned
1 cucumber, seeded and julienned
1/2 cup snow peas, sliced in strips
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

In a blender, combine the peanut butter, soy sauce, warm water, ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, sesame oil, agave nectar, and lime juice. Blend until smooth.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the noodles according to the package direction. Combine the noodles, chopped vegetables, and peanut sauce, and toss until all ingredients are coated. Top with sesame seeds. Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

One Year and 33 Pounds!

Guess what today is? It’s the one year anniversary of my adventure toward health and happiness! Obviously something this important deserves an honest and thorough look back. Thank goodness I have this blog and all my faithful readers to entertain my musings!

So, one year later, and I am down exactly 33 pounds and six inches off my waist (and hips). I am literally inhabiting a whole new body. When I started this experiment, my goal was to get to a healthy BMI. At 5’7” and 173.4 pounds, my BMI was 27.2, and technically overweight. That label definitely made me uncomfortable, and turned my weight into a constant source of shame and necessary justification. I am not a big fan of the BMI. Never taking body type, distribution of mass, or even gender into account seems like a ludicrous way to relate weight and height. But, it is a commonly accepted measurement of health and wellness, and one I’d rather be on the right side of. Bringing that number down to 24.9, technically healthy, meant losing 15 pounds. I set my goal weight at 159 pounds, created a spreadsheet to track my servings of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and waited. It amazed me to discover how effortless it was to start losing weight, and how rewarding it became to get on the scale every week. Where I had felt out of control of my weight the last few years, I immediately felt better. I had discovered the secret to losing weight easily!

Once I hit 159 pounds, I didn’t change anything. I was eating healthy, but in no way restricting myself. Anyone will tell you that I eat cookies, cupcakes, bagels and (vegan) cream cheese, pie, ice cream, truffles, and chips and guacamole whenever I want. I don’t count calories, or steps, or points, or carbs. I love nothing more than a deep, round bowl of pasta, and I will never deprive myself of that. So, without “dieting” the scale just kept dropping lower, and I kept getting smaller. My point is that 33 pounds DOES NOT mean work, effort, starvation, or lack. It means putting good things in your body, like roasted vegetable tacos, cauliflower gratin, cherry barley scones, and oatmeal raisin cookies.

This epiphany has been life-changing for me. I was never especially preoccupied with my weight, or insecure about how I looked. But, I know a lot of women who are, and I felt like I had stumbled on the solution to centuries of body image issues. Hence the openness and enthusiasm with which I discuss my own struggles and successes. If your weight is something that bothers you, or is a source of shame, dissatisfaction, or pain, know that it doesn’t have to be. The solution is cheap, easy, and sustainable, and 33 pounds later, I can tell you that it works.

Blueberry Cake

Dear readers, I hope you will forgive me, but I am having a bit of a rough week, and as such, I am going to cop out on you a little bit and recycle one of my recipes. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about this spectacular strawberry cake. I mentioned then that it was super versatile. Case in point: one slight adjustment, and we have blueberry cake! Now, imagine it as sour cherry cake, white peach cake, pineapple cake. The key is to pack in the fresh fruit as close together as possible, and bake until juicy and sticky delicious.

I have also been looking for an opportunity to use the vanilla sugar that is very prettily adorning my kitchen counter. This specialty ingredient seemed quite appropriate for this festive beach picnic dessert. Unfortunately, or not actually, California's somewhat bipolar weather patterns kept me from the beach, and this cake from leaving my kitchen.

Blueberry Cake

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup barley flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter
Slightly less than 1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup unsweetened non dairy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons vanilla sugar

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9” or 10” pie pan. I used the stunning red 9” pie dish I received for Valentine’s Day.

In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until thoroughly mixed. Beat the butter in the bowl of a mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and beat until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. In a blender, combine the flaxseed and water. Whip until thick and creamy. Add to the butter and sugar along with the milk, vanilla, and lemon zest. Beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into your pie dish, and spread evenly along the bottom. Top with the blueberries, pushing them gently into the batter. Sprinkle with the 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar.

Place in the center of the oven, and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 and bake for another 50 to 60 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean (don’t worry about a little strawberry juice though). Remove from the oven, place on a cooling rack, and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Serve warm, or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 three days.

Ginger Snaps

When I was a little girl, I used to spend my summers in Thousand Island Park, NY. It is a truly idyllic community almost out of time. I have the best childhood memories of getting a quarter every afternoon to spend at the penny candy counter, competing in sailboat races with my cousins, and lying on the dock until the sun was barely peeking over the river. As with all of my memories, food plays a very central role. Everyone would gather around the picnic tables out back which were always covered with simple, fresh ingredients, prepared deliciously: grilled tomatoes stuffed with corn, iced tea with fresh mint, and the best peach cobbler.

One of my fondest memories is of melt-in-your-mouth ginger snaps made by my cousins’ grandmother, Edna. Neither of my grandmothers left me with an illustrious culinary heritage, so naturally I turned to other people’s grandmothers. Edna’s ginger snaps were crisp on the outside from their generous sugar coating, and cakey on the inside, full of sharp ginger flavor. When we were little, my cousins and I used to sneak into her cottage and steal a few from the tin where she kept them. It’s hers I think of whenever I make these so-called “Screaming” Ginger Snaps.

Screaming Ginger Cookies
adapted from Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons non dairy butter
1/4 cup molasses (not blackstrap)
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 tablespoons water
3/4 cup crystallized ginger, 1/4” dice
1/2 cup Demerara sugar for rolling

Heat the oven to 350ºF. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and salt, and whisk until thoroughly combined.

Combine the flaxseed and water in a blend, and whip until thick and creamy. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and add the molasses, sugar, fresh ginger, and flaxseed mixture. Stir until combined. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just incorporated. The dough will be soft.

Scoop tablespoons of dough into balls and roll in the Demerara sugar. Place 2” apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating front to back and top to bottom halfway through; 10 minutes for chewier cookies, 12 for crispier ones. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Try not to eat the whole batch in one sitting!

Vegan Products I Love: Il Pastaio

This might be my very favorite time of year. I say this for two reasons: first, it’s the beginning of summer, a time of sunshine and heat, where everything wonderful lies ahead, not behind; second, these are the very few weeks a year when Trader Joe’s has exquisitely beautiful pink peonies. They are, by far, the most beautiful flower, evolving in size, shape, and even color over their unfortunately brief life.

The best way to spend sunshiney Sunday mornings is at the farmer’s market, and my local one is especially vegan friendly. I’ve highlighted All Star Tamales here before, beloved for their veggie stuffed tamales and tangy tomatillo sauce. But my first foray into vegan products came courtesy of Il Pastaio. They have a wide variety of fresh noodles and stuffed pastas, and several vegan options. The owners are deeply committed to their product, educating every patron on the exact method for preparing perfect pasta. I am especially satisfied by the vegetable and butternut squash raviolis. They are the perfect thing to keep in the freezer and prepare some lazy Friday night with a simple tomato or pesto sauce. These tender, hearty raviolis are worth the trip to Walnut Creek!

Fettuccine with Fresh Peas and Basil

Oh. My. God. Just looking at this picture makes me hungry. Last month’s Bon Appetit, the Italy issue, is the best I’ve seen in years. The first outing from new Editor-in-Chief Adam Rapoport was vibrant, stylish, and mouthwatering, everything you would want from a leading food magazine. The latest issues have been uneven, but I’m giving the new staff a little time before issuing my judgment.

But, I keep going back to that Italy issue, picking it clean of every vaguely vegan friendly recipe. We’ve already discussed that heavenly Bucatini al Pomodoro from the cover. That recipe came from an article on cooking pasta perfectly. Every step highlights a different recipe, but the essence of the article focuses on making delicate pan sauces, and tossing almost al dente noodles with pasta water and light, fragrant toppings. This recipe pays homage to spring’s best pleasure, worth all the effort, fresh peas. Supported by savory shallots and bright basil, this light and satisfying dish will have you licking the plate clean.

Fettuccine with Peas and Basil
adapted from Bon Appétit
 
1/4 cup olive oil
1 shallot, finely minced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups fresh peas
1/4 cup fresh basil, chiffonaded
1 pound fettuccine
2 tablespoons non dairy butter
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallot and garlic and sauté until tender and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add the peas and cook until just done, another 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large pot of salted water. Cook the fettuccine until it’s almost done, about 7 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of pasta water to the pan. Simmer until it thickens slightly, 5 minutes. Add the noodles and toss them until coated in sauce, allowing them to finish cooking. Finish with butter and taste for salt and pepper. Add the basil and toss gently. Serve immediately. 

Strawberry Summer Cake

Sometimes I make dishes and it takes me a long time to write about them. It’s not that they weren’t delicious. I promise, dear readers, that I will never recommend a dish that isn’t absolutely delectable. But, rather, I have forgotten how delicious it was, how satisfying to my hungry belly, how heavenly it made my kitchen smell. I have to conjure the experience again in order to convey it to my readers. But, other dishes linger richly in my memory, calling out from my desktop for a reverent portrayal. This Strawberry Cake is one such dish.

I saw this cake first on that most excellent food blog, Smitten Kitchen. I absolutely worship everything this woman does, and when I became vegan, her blog was the first place I went. Although she is a devoted omnivore, doing things with butter, cheese, and cream that I would never dare in my kitchen, she is also quite fond of vegetables, and actually prefers to leave them be, allowing them to taste of themselves. She has introduced me to such favorites as cold peanut noodles, scalloped tomatoes, and mushroom bourguignon. The moment I saw this cake, I wanted it. This is surprising because I’m not actually that fond of yellow cake, and strawberry jam is always my last choice. But, for some reason, this juicy, fresh dessert (and probably breakfast) had me drooling. A big slice, fresh out of the oven was just as great as I had imagined.

Strawberry Summer Cake
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup barley flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter
Slightly less than 1 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup unsweetened non dairy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon
1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved (quartered if very large)

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9” or 10” pie pan. I used the stunning red 9” pie dish I received for Valentine’s Day.

In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until thoroughly mixed. Beat the butter in the bowl of a mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and beat until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. In a blender, combine the flaxseed and water. Whip until thick and creamy. Add to the butter and sugar along with the milk, vanilla, and lemon zest. Beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into your pie dish, and spread evenly along the bottom. Top with the strawberry halves, pushing them gently into the batter. Sprinkle with the 2 tablespoons sugar.

Place in the center of the oven, and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 and bake for another 50 to 60 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean (don’t worry about a little strawberry juice though). Remove from the oven, place on a cooling rack, and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Serve warm, or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 three days.