Let there be chocolate cake

My four year old was very insistent that we he had to have chocolate cake, he said it was International Chocolate Cake Day (Friday) so we had to have chocolate cake. How do you argue with that?

I whipped this cake up last minute using the chocolate cupcake and chocolate buttercream frosting recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. I split the batter evenly between 2 round cake pans and since the layers were very thin it baked in the same times the cupcakes take to bake. This was a very decadent cake that everyone was happy to enjoy (yes we shared with neighbors and friends). 

Pin It

Perry the Platypus Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a very special little birthday boy. The cupcake on the left is chocolate, the one on the right is vanilla. Both cupcakes themselves are vegan and both have vegan buttercream frosting (recipes were from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World).

The eyes are made from white candy melts with melted semi-sweet chocolate for the pupils. The duckbills and tails are made from circus peanuts (rolled out with a rolling pin and then I used a knife to cut the marks into the tail), both versions of Perry have the same tail but it is hard to see it on the version on the left. The body of Perry on the left is made using a blue AirHead candy piece and the body on the left is just buttercream frosting with teal food coloring added to get the color.

All the kids faces lit up when they saw the cupcakes. 

Pin It

Dragonfly Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes as an end of year gift for my sons teachers. They are very easy to decorate. Each cupcakes gets 4 Swedish Fish (red or orange) a 2" piece of blue Sour Punch Stick and 1 brown M&M.

The cupcakes itself is vanilla and the frosting is vanilla buttercream.

Pin It

The Birthday Bakery

Today is my son's 4th birthday party and we have lots of his friends and classmates coming over to help us celebrate so I baked up my usual storm for his birthday. This years theme is centered around a moon cake, my son's request, complete with a space shuttle and astronauts an American flag and even star shaped candles. 

  The moon cake. Pin It The cake itself is red velvet with a buttercream frosting. The cake was made using the Wilton baking pan for making a soccer ball (or baseball, basketball, etc) cake pan. 

I also made dozens of these moon cupcakes as we have too many people coming to the party to only serve the moon cake. I thought the flags were a nice, simple touch.

Pin It

Pin It I also made my first ever sugar-free cupcakes and frosting. A nice golden cake with a chocolate fudge frosting. I did taste the frosting and it is so yummy I could have eaten it till I was sick and my neighbor was my first taste tester of the cupcakes and couldn't believe these were sugar free. They absolutely were as I cleaned the mixer, stand and all, in between making the other cakes and these just to be sure there was no sugar added to these. 

I will say there are so many good Vegan recipes out there that I really don't miss the milk products much and these cupcakes (well the frosting at least) has convinced me that I could give up sugar if I needed too as well. Part of the trick to not missing out on all the stuff you think you will miss is really just learning to cook and bake, that way you have more control over what you eat and know that you aren't getting added things. 

The red velvet and buttercream recipes are from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. The sugar-free cupcakes and frosting are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, there are also gluten-free recipes in there.

Moon Birthday Cake - Trial Run

As a pair of geeks I think my husband and I are pretty lucky to have a child going on 4 years old who is so completely obsessed with all things space and NASA so of course I wasn't surprised that he really wants an astronaut birthday party and wanted a moon cake complete with a space shuttle and astronauts on the surface of his moon cake. For the trial run I did not decorate it with the space shuttle and astronauts as I knew I would never be able to retrieve the toys from him once he saw them.

The trick to making the craters in the frosting was to let the cake sit for a while so the frosting would harden a bit and then I took a flat bottomed measuring spoon and dug it into the frosting until when I pulled it out of the frosting I got a nice crater, I used a tablespoon for all of the craters and wasn't too particular about how the craters came out as I know they don't need to look perfect to really look perfect as things that happen in nature never appear as perfect as we assume they would appear.

I used the Wilton cake pan for making soccer balls, baseballs, basketballs, etc and made a double batch of vegan red velvet cupcake mix and a single batch of the vegan buttercream frosting recipe from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. We did dig into the cake after dinner tonight and I will say that this pan leaves a bit of a tough area around the rim of the cake, but nothing I see a bunch of 4 year olds complaining about as my own almost 4 year old said he liked the cake and later asked for more of the cake.

Pin It

Lemon Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce (vegan)

This morning I made one of my favorite breakfasts, lemon pancakes with raspberry sauce. This vegan version of a dish I had at a restaurant once is so nice and light and refreshing and yet satisfying. I first found this particular recipe when our lemon tree had so much fruit on it that I had to go theme for a week or two and make everything I could to use up all of those nice lemons. I made lemonade, learned to make lemon Italian soda and found a bunch of other fun recipes like the lemon drop cookies that I posted earlier.

Pin It

Lemon Drop Cookies (vegan) and Mexican Mocha Brownies (gluten-free)

Pin It The other week we hosted a little Mexican food party at our house so I made these lovely vegan Lemon Drop Cookies (found in The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes), my husband's favorite cookies these days. They are like a little tea cookie coated in powdered sugar, the powdered sugar makes a nice contrast with the tartness of the lemon cookie. The cookies are quite tart without being coated in the powdered sugar, at least my lemon drop cookies are quite tart without the powdered sugar but that may just be because I have quite tart lemons on my lemon tree.


Pin It I also made these gluten-free Mexican Mocha Brownies for the party as a friend of ours is gluten-free so the cookies my husband wanted me to make would not be appropriate for her to eat, as someone with a food allergy myself I try to accommodate others with food allergies and dietary concerns as I want to enjoy the food and want everyone else to be able to enjoy the food as well. These brownies were quite nice although the coffee in the brownies meant they were not really for kids or those who are pregnant. This was only my second gluten-free dairy-free recipe and I thoroughly  enjoyed these brownies, but look forward to trying them again when I can make the raspberry sauce to go along with them (maybe I will try the main recipe as opposed to the Mexican Mocha variation) and maybe I will open that bottle of chocolate raspberry mead to go with the brownies, it was something my husband picked up on a business trip.