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| Mini-chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting tinted with natural food coloring by Watkins brand Lieber's Kosher sprinkles which are vegan |
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| Vegan has hit the big time, Watkins natural vegan food coloring is in Winn Dixie! Vegan sprinkles from a Kosher market |
There is NO shame in working from cookbooks. The quality of the recipes coming forth from today's vegan chefs very often blends well with much of the world's lifestyle of "fast & easy" when it comes to food, there's no compromise on quality when you look to the right authors. There's so many vegan baking books on the market it can be confusing for a new vegan to decide which ones to take the plunge on. Pro tip: I have a few baking books that I've sworn by for years including The Joy of Vegan Baking and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. What I love about these books is that they explain how to bake vegan with proper technique and pantry items, are both budget friendly, both are still in print, and they make me look good in a jiffy (jiffy?)
My friend's daughter had a birthday recently, but I didn't know it ahead of time. I adore her daughter which says a lot since I am not really big on humans in general. Fact is, I don't look at her as a "kid" I look at her as a contemporary which is almost unbelievable considering there is about 40 years difference in our ages. So, on a day when she and her mom were swinging by to pick something up, while we were on the phone mom offhandedly remarked it was Kassie's birthday. I had VERY little time to come up with something. Kassie is doing her best to go vegan, and I so want to support her in this endeavor. It's hard when there's peer pressure and at times conflict about this from those closest to us. Simply put, she NEEDED vegan cake in her life that day for sure! The chocolate cake recipe I used is from The Joy of Vegan Baking, and the frosting was from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Pro tip: I almost always use coffee in my chocolate cakes, it brings out a fuller and richer flavor. If you want the best flavor for icings, you have to skip the shortening, which means losing some stability in the heat. But remember now... I did tell you when all this started that my specialty this month was going to be "melting cakes, sliding cakes, broken cakes" and so forth. Baking smaller cakes is one way to get around this problem, baking cupcakes is even better, baking mini cupcakes is the best solution! I used Miyoko's Vegan Butter for the frosting, also (incredibly!) available in all the supermarkets down here, I got it at Winn Dixie. It's hands down the best butter out there. It does produce a softer frosting, but it is superior in flavor. Another plus is there's no palm oil in there for those who seek to avoid. Earth Balance buttery sticks are available in the markets here too, they produce a superb flavor (also not as stable as shortening), however it does contain palm oil, again if you seek to avoid, stick with Miyoko's. Ethical note: Miyoko's products are superior, the company is superior and so is Miyoko herself. She's an ethical vegan, an advocate, and her company isn't seeking just to produce superior plant foods, she and her company seek to shift how we think about food and change the world by doing so. I respect her so much.
I know vegan has hit the big time when I can go into my local Winn Dixie on the tiny island of Big Pine Key, find the natural foods section (which also did not exist when I moved here) and pick up a box of that food coloring shown above, which is what I used for Kassie's mini cupcakes. All natural coloring in a box, instead of me dragging out the juicer, juicing beets for pink frosting. See what I mean, things have changed so much, easy peasy! Last of all, do not forget the sprinkles, it's not a party without sprinkles. What DOES bring a party down faster than anything is something non-vegan. Most sprinkles are either colored with dead bugs (pinks & red) as well as being covered in confectioner's glaze (also dead bugs). Totally NOT my jam! It's imperative to read labels. If you cannot find them in your local market, you can order them online. Those Lieber's sprinkles are Kosher, you can clearly see they have no confectioner's glaze it says so on the front. A friend of mine who passed away last year kept Kosher. She sent me an entire box of those rainbow sprinkles. I have a lot of sprinkles in my collection, but those are my most important, she is always with me when I use them. I only use them for really special people, it might not seem important to anyone else, but it's very important to me. I miss Carin terribly, using her sprinkles always makes me smile. I kept the note she wrote when she shipped them to me, but Irma ate it. Thankfully the sprinkles made it through.
One last thing; as a tip to the "prompt" for today (kitchen tour), I offer one Pro Tip: ORGANIZATION! Even post Irma, I still have my bins for baking That first one is a giant NSF roll out bin that will hold over 100 pounds of raw material depending on what I fill it with. I used to store my rolled oats in there, once we reopen I'm shifting that storage unit to be my flour. The bins below it are NSF stacking models which will hold up to about 25 pounds of stored raw material, depending on how they're filled. Right now I have 2 dedicated to sugar, one for Sucanat, 1 for chick peas (empty), another for black beans, one for my chocolate chips, 2 for flour and one for shredded unsweetened coconut. You can do mini versions of all this kind of storage if you don't need such large volumes of ingredients. They're invaluable both for the food safety protection they offer, as well as function and organization. That's my contribution to kitchen tour.
Vegan love to you all! xo
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