Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes

For valentine's day I thought I would be nice and make some cupcakes for my husband's coworkers. Yesterday I baked 3 dozen red velvet cupcakes from scratch. Today I frosted them and added some heart shaped sprinkles to them. I used a buttercream frosting and tinted it a light pink.

I was so excited that I finally got around to trying out my new decorating tips when I frosted these yummy red velvet cupcakes. I started to get the hang of the decorating bag and tip after a few cupcakes. I discovered that a slightly stiffer consistency is desirable when you are piping the frosting onto the cupcakes with a bag and tip.

Both the cupcake and frosting recipe are from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes by Kris Holechek. 

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Dairy-free Challah bread

Sadly this is supposed to be a light, fluffy type of bread not a really dense bread. I guess we can say my first attempt at making bread didn't go so well. Maybe I'll work up the courage to try making bread again, but I don't know. This was very time consuming and the results aren't good.

Update: the bread is actually edible. Far too dense to be challah but edible none the less. I'm not sure what this bread is good for but it is edible. Maybe that is a good start for my first attempt at making bread from scratch. 

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Vegan Snickerdoodles

I decided to try my hand at Snickerdoodle cookies today. I am thinking my cookies were maybe a bit drier than I would have liked. I would probably add a bit more applesauce next time and be careful when measuring the flour so I don't risk ending up with a little extra flour on accident. The cookies are still tasty though. I do have another cookbook with a different version of the Sickerdoodle cookie in it and I may even try that one next time as I wasn't thrilled with the outcome of these particular cookies.




Snickerdoodles (from The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes)

2 1/2 cups Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 3/4 cups Sugar, divided
1/2 cup Margarine, softened
1/4 cup Applesauce
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
2 tablespoons cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together margarine and 1 1/2 cups sugar.
Add applesauce and vanilla and mix until well blended.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in batches and mix until well-combined.
On a plate, combine cinnamon and remaining 1/4 cup sugar.
Scoop out tablespoon-sized balls of dough and roll them in cinnamon-sugar mixture and place on baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.
Bake cookies for about 8 to 10 minutes, until they have cracked and spread and the edges are set.
If you are baking more than one sheet at a time, rotate their sheets halfway through the baking time.
Let cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. 

A heart-shaped cake

I found this great set of instructions for making a heart-shaped cake without actually using a heart-shaped pan. I love it thanks to it's simplicity.

You need a square and a circle cake pan, the same diameter.
You bake your two cakes.
You cut the circle in half down the center.
You put each half of the circle on a side of the square cake, putting the two half-circles next to each other.
Now you have a heart-shaped cake that is ready to frost and eat. 

Banana French Toast

This morning a very good friend of mine came over and we made this yummy French toast together. The recipe is from Disney's The Princess and the Frog Tiana's Cookbook Recipes for Kids.






Banana French Toast

1 pound loaf French or Italian bread, cut into thick slices
1 to 2 bananas

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk (I used soy milk due to lactose issues)

1 to 2 tablespoons butter

1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

First, cut a wide, deep slit down through the top crust of each bread slice. (I actually just cut the slits as I was cutting my loaf up. I would alternate cutting a slit and then cut the piece all the way through.)

Stuff each pocket with 3 to 4 banana slices. (I like to get as much as reasonably fits in the pocket of the bread)

In a shallow dish or pie plate, whisk together the eggs and milk. 

Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. 

Dip each bread slice in the egg mixture, turning it to coat both sides, and place it in the skillet.

Cook the French toast for 2 to 3 minutes on the first side until golden brown. 

Then use a spatula to flip the slices, and cook them for another 2 to 3 minutes. 

Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Froggy-in-the-Water Cupcakes

These cupcakes were something I found in The Princess and the Frog: Tiana's Cookbook: Recipes for Kids and they are called Froggy-in-the-Water Cupcakes. You can find the directions at Disney Dreaming for how to make these cupcakes.

I made these this evening for my 3 year old. We have yet to eat any of them as we had a big dinner tonight, but I'm sure we will dig into them tomorrow. I used a vanilla cake and then made a buttercream frosting, this buttercream frosting was a lot stiffer than the ones I've made in the past so it was a little hard to work with. 

French Toast Muffins

I made these this afternoon for my hubby to bring in for a morning meeting. I figured some yummy homemade muffins might make a morning meeting more palatable for those who aren't really morning people.

I made these once before for my son's teachers when we had a parent teacher meeting last academic year. I really love the idea of French Toast muffins for a group of people that I don't know a whole lot about, after all French Toast is a pretty common and beloved breakfast food and muffins are easy to bring with you. These muffins are sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon.