Puppy Dog Cake, Superhero Transformation Cake and JK's 7th Birthday!

Hello!  I thought before too much more time has passed I should put up the cakes for JK's birthday that was over the summer.  Since JK's actual birthday was on a Friday, I asked him what kind of cake he would want, and he asked for a puppy cake.  His party was the next day on Saturday, so I made him a cake that is supposed to represent the moment of transformation from an ordinary man to a superhero.  People thought I either just went crazy with the frosting and ended up with an abstract design, or politely nodded when I tried to explain what I did and that it was on purpose.  I think it looks good!  What do you think?  :-)

Both of these cakes use my White Cake with White Butter Cream Frosting  as their base, and then built from there.  They are easy and fun to make, and taste good too!

 Puppy Cake

 

  Side view of Puppy Cake - notice how the ears go down to the bottom layer

 Slice of that cute puppy!

 Superhero Transformation Cake - you see it, right?

 A slice of that transformation

Both cakes start with the batter for my...

White Cake:

Ingredients:

2 and 1/2 cups cake flour
1 and 1/2 cups vegan or raw sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups soy milk 
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
4 Tbs. water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two round cake pans with an oil spray, and lightly flour their bottoms. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, cream the shortening to soften it completely. In a small bowl or mug, whisk together the Egg Replacer and water. Alternate the flour mixture and the milk into the shortening, beating with a mixer on medium speed. With the last addition of milk, add the Egg Replacer mixture and the vanilla extract. Beat for three minutes, until completely smooth. Divide between the two cake pans, and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for fifteen minutes in their pans on a cooling rack. Then carefully invert the cakes out onto the rack to finish cooling.

The Frosting for both starts out as my White Butter Cream Frosting and is tweaked for each cake.  Here's the basic frosting recipe:

Frosting:

1/2 cup vegan margarine, room temperature
1/8 tsp. salt
3 and 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbs. soy milk

Directions:

When the cakes have completely cooled, prepare the frosting. In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine and salt. Starting on low speed and working up to medium, beat in the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and the soy milk, and beat on medium speed for three to five minutes, until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Makes enough frosting for one double layer cake. 

For the Puppy Cake:

Extra Ingredients:

2 Tbs. cocoa
2 vegan chocolate chips
1 freeze-dried raspberry or fresh berry

Extra Directions:

Divide the frosting in half.  Mix in cocoa in one of the halves.  Spread about half the chocolate frosting onto the top of what will be the bottom layer of cake.  Add the top half.  Spread the vanilla frosting on the sides of the cake and the top, leaving space for the puppy's ears.  Spread the chocolate into two large floppy ears that extend down to the bottom layer of the cake.  Add a couple of cute eyebrows and a little dot nose.  Place the two chocolate chips as eyes and the raspberry as a tongue.  Now, you've got an adorable puppy cake!

For the Superhero Transformation Cake:

Extra Ingredients:  NOTE:  I've misplaced my actual recipe, where I noted precise measurements.  I'll guesstimate here and update when I've found the recipe, but this is pretty close.

1/4 cup freshly pureed blueberries
1 Tbs. turmeric

Extra Directions:

Divide the frosting into 2/3 and 1/3.  Leave the 2/3 vanilla, and spread the cakes as normal.  Divide the remaining third into another 2/3 and 1/3.  Mix the blueberry puree in with the smaller amount and the turmeric in with the larger.  Spread the turmeric-based frosting in creative angles and segments to represent the explosion of a person becoming a superhero; don't forget the center of the blast.  Flick the blueberry-based frosting on the cake with a fork to add to the sheer excitement of the transformation.  Behold, the blinding blast of man to hero!  Eat up.

Both cakes feed five hungry vegans for a couple of days or several babbling children at a birthday party.  Yummers!

Three-Layer Neapolitan Cake and SR's 16th Birthday

Back on July 20th, SR celebrated her 16th birthday!  It was a great day, and I threw her a surprise birthday party.  My parents were gracious enough to let me use their home for SR and her friends.  SR thought we were just going over to Grannyma and Poppy's to drop off JK, so she could have a teen rollerskating party.  So, she was more confused than surprised when she saw her friends; she told me later she stood there wondering for a moment if we were picking them up from there to take them to the rink.  Anyways, we had a lot of fun, a lot of behind-the-scenes planning and baking, and a great, wonderful cake!  Now, this is definitely a sugar-filled cake.  I am going to dabble with other ways of sweetening, but I didn't want to practice on her cake.  So, be prepared: sugar!  I used my White Cake recipe for the white layer, and a double portion of the White Butter Cream Frosting that I made with it to frost the entire cake.  I adjusted my Big and Little Pink Strawberry Cakes, Naturally recipe for the pink layer.  I'm still working on creating the perfect natural pink color, so you'll see what I did below to achieve this pink look.  It was very good, but it's still a work in progress.  And for the chocolate layer, I used my Dark Chocolate Mini Cupcakes recipe .  I think the end result came out beautifully visually and taste-wise.  Let me know what you think!

Three-Layer Neapolitan Cake

 

The cake layers are cooling on my mom's counter.  

 

Stacked and ready for the outer layer of frosting.  The lighting here makes them look yellow, but look below to see their real colors in natural light.

 

Cake all finished and waiting to be devoured.

 Another shot of sacrificial cake.

 

I had to show a shot of one of the games I planned.  I asked each guest and SR if they wanted to either be a "thrower" or a "lander."  I gave them no other clues.  SR chose to be a lander, and her friend and teammate Brandon was the thrower.  Landers had to wear shower caps while throwers covered their heads with shaving cream then threw popcorn at the piles of cream.  The team with the most popcorn stuck won.  By the way, little JK played all the games too; he wasn't left out.  :-)  This is one of my favorite photos of the whole day.  I love the smiles!

 SR blowing out her candles.

 

SR enjoying her cake.

 A shot of the cake with vegan Neapolitan ice cream.

Three-Layer Neapolitan Cake

Ingredients:

For the White Layer:

2 and 1/2 cups flour
1 and 1/2 cups vegan sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
4 Tbs. water

For the Pink Layer:

2 and 1/2 cups flour
1 and 1/2 cups vegan sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup soy milk
Juice from one can of beets, about one cup
3 Tbs. strawberry extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
4 Tbs. water

For the Chocolate Layer:

Non-stick spray
A little flour for dusting
2 cups vegan sugar
1 and 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
4 Tbs. water
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

For the Frosting:

1 cup vegan margarine, room temperature
1/4 tsp. salt
7and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 Tbs. soy milk

Directions:

For the White Layer:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12x9 inch cake pan with an oil spray, and lightly flour its bottom. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, cream the shortening to soften it completely. In a small bowl or mug, whisk together the Egg Replacer and water. Alternate the flour mixture and the milk into the shortening, beating with a mixer on medium speed. With the last addition of milk, add the Egg Replacer mixture and the vanilla extract. Beat for three minutes, until completely smooth. Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for fifteen minutes in its pan on a cooling rack. Then carefully invert the cake out onto the rack to finish cooling.

For the Pink Layer:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12x9 inch cake pan with an oil spray, and lightly flour its bottom. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, cream the shortening to soften it completely. In a small bowl, whisk together the Egg Replacer and water. Alternate beating the flour mixture and the soy milk into the shortening, beating with a mixer on medium speed. At the end, add the beet juice, strawberry extract, Egg Replacer mixture, and vanilla extract. Beat for three minutes, until completely smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool for fifteen minutes in its pan on a cooling rack. Then carefully invert the cake out onto the rack to finish cooling.

For the Chocolate Layer:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 12x9 inch cake pan with an oil spray, and lightly flour its bottom. Set aside.  In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In a mug, whisk together the Egg Replacer and the water.  Pour that mixture and the soy milk, oil, and vanilla extract into the large bowl with the dry ingredients.  Mix with an electric blender on medium speed for two minutes.  Pour in the boiling water and mix on low, until the water is blended in.  Batter will be thinner than you might expect, but it's okay.  Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool for fifteen minutes in its pan on a cooling rack. Then carefully invert the cake out onto the rack to finish cooling.

For the Frosting: 

When the cakes have completely cooled, prepare the frosting. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and salt. Starting on low speed and working up to medium, beat in the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and the soy milk, and beat on medium speed for three to five minutes, until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Makes enough frosting for a giant triple-layered cake. Feeds lots of people, including five hungry vegans at one big party or for several regular days.  Recommend to serve with vegan Neapolitan ice cream.  So good!

Easter, 2013 and my Four-layered - Coffee frosted - Chocolate Chip - Chocolate Cake!

We had a busy but wonderful Easter celebration.  On Saturday, we went once again to Animal Place like last year, where JK participated in an animal-friendly egg hunt, we all went on a self-guided tour of the pigs, chickens and bunnies, and we enjoyed a lovely picnic afterwards.  The egg hunt is for children two years to seven years old, so JK has only one year left of this event.

We joined a small group for dinner at my parents' home.  I brought my Tropical Seitan Pasta Salad , and we enjoyed burgers, a fruit salad and a green salad.  We also had vegan desserts as well: chocolate chip cookies, fruit cake, and a new cake I introduced to everyone, which I call my Four-layered - Coffee frosted - Chocolate Chip - Chocolate Cake.  It's Easter right?  It has to be something special!  I kept the frosting on the thin side, much to G's utter disappointment, because I thought it was rich enough already.  I'm not a fan of coffee by itself, but I occasionally  like a slight flavor of it in ice cream, and it turned out nicely here, too.  I like the bumpiness of the end result and the bits of brown cake peeking through the frosting.  I could have evened out the tops to make them lay flatter, but I like this look.  It reminds me of old-fashioned times, for some reason, before there were specialty frosting spreaders and electric mixers. This was a  humongous cake, but it was enjoyed by all.  Hope you all had a great holiday, too.

Four-layered - Coffee frosted - Chocolate Chip - Chocolate Cake!

My Easter feast: Boca burger, Tropical Seitan Pasta Salad, Green Salad, Fruit Salad

Our dessert choices: chocolate chip cookies, fruit cake, and my cake.  The licorice that snuck in the picture is from Grandma to little JK.  Artificial flavors and colors are sometimes allowed on holidays, especially if they're from Grandma.  :-)

 

To make the four layers, place each layer on a cake stand.  With a serrated knife, cut through the cake horizontally, while slowly turning the cake stand.

Here's a slice of that tasty treat!

Four-layered - Coffee frosted - Chocolate Chip - Chocolate Cake!

Ingredients:

Cake:

4 and 1/2 cups flour
2 cups vegan sugar
1 and 1/3 cups cocoa
1 and 1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking soda
3 cups Vanilla Almond milk
3 Tbs. white vinegar
3/4 cup canola oil
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
2 cups vegan chocolate chips

Non-stick spray
Extra flour for dusting

Frosting:

1/2 cup (stick) vegan margarine, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1/3 cup brewed French Roast coffee, cooled completely

Directions:

For the cake:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two round cake pans with the non-stick spray and sprinkle with flour.  Tap out any extra flour, and set pans aside.  In a very large bowl or even a large pot, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and baking soda.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the vinegar and almond milk and set aside to curdle for about five minutes.  Add the oil and vanilla extract to the milk mixture and whisk.  Pour into the flour mixture.  With an electric mixer on low, blend until the ingredients are somewhat mixed.  Turn up the speed to medium and mix for about another minute until completely blended.  Pour into waiting pans.  Pour one cup of chocolate chips over each of the pans of batter.  Take a fork and gently press the chocolate chips down a bit into the batter.  (When baked, the tops of the cakes will be bumpy.  When sliced in half, most of the chips will be in the top half of each cake.  This will make the end result: chippy, not chippy, chippy, not chippy.)  Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool in pans on cooling rack for fifteen minutes.  Remove cakes from pans and finish cooling completely.  When cooled down, chill cakes in refrigerator for at least a half an hour, preparing them for slicing.  When cakes are chilled, place one on a cake stand.  Position a large serrated knife in the middle horizontally.  Slice a couple of inches into the cake, then turn the cake stand, repeating the process.  The cake should be sliced all the way through by the time the stand makes a complete revolution.  If not, just carefully slice through whatever little piece is hanging on in the middle.  Repeat process with second cake.

For the frosting:  In a medium bowl, beat the margarine on low speed until creamed.  Add the powdered sugar and continue to beat on low speed until combined.  Add the vanilla and coffee.  Starting on low speed, mix until blended, then work up to medium speed and mix for another four minutes to thicken.  Place the first bottom layer on the cake stand.  Take about four tablespoons of frosting and put a dollop in the center of the layer.  Spread out the frosting, kind of like spider legs, then smooth out over the layer.  Top with the first top layer of cake and repeat process until you reach the last layer.  Use the same method with the top of the cake.  Frost the sides as usual, just trying to cover as much as you can.  If there's any frosting left over, take turns with the sides and top, frosting away and smoothing out, until there is just enough in the bowl to justify finishing it off yourself.  Because this is so large, it can be sliced rather thinly to serve a lot of people.  Feeds five hungry vegans and family and friends for a few days!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake and Thanksgiving, 2012

I'm finally getting my Thanksgiving post up!  At least it's in the same month.  :-)  As usual, I let each member of my family pick out what they want for dinner and dessert and truly make it a meal for which we are thankful.  See below for our menu and for a new recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake.  This cake was super moist and delicious.  I veganized one of several recipes easily found on the web.  When I followed the directions, I found I had to make adjustments and corrections to the recipe along the way.  One thing I will probably adjust in the future is the amount of brown sugar used; I kept the original measurement in the recipe, but I will probably halve it next time I make the cake.  It was a huge hit with the fambly, though!

Menu:

Tofurky with roasted potatoes - picked by me
Tofurky gravy - picked by me
Hot and Sour soup from one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants - picked by SR
Steamed rice by same restaurant - picked by JK
Jerky in several flavors - picked by GR
Purple sweet potatoes fried with facon - picked by G
Sauteed kale - picked by me
Cranberry sauce, both kinds - picked by SR
Soy nog - picked by me

Pineapple Upside Down cake - picked by G
Black Tie Cheesecake  - picked by GR

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

My thanksgiving feast sans the rice.  I could not finish this meal!  So full.

Here are this year's Thanksgiving desserts.  Sorry the coloring is so orange in these pics.

I was going to put my slices on a fancy plate, but SR didn't want to wash any more dishes, so green paper plates it was!  Couldn't finish these either.  But, they were so yummy.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegan margarine (could probably use less)
1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar ( could probably use less)
1 - 20 oz. can of sliced pineapple rings in natural juice
Maraschino cherries (you can find naturally colored ones at Sprouts or Whole Foods)
1 box of Dr. Oetker Organics cake mix in vanilla
1 and 1/2 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
6 Tbs. water
2/3 cup almond milk
1/2 cup canola oil

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat margarine over medium heat in a cast iron skillet.  When completely melted, remove from the heat.  Sprinkle the brown sugar over the margarine, patting down to cover it up to the edges of the pan.  Lay the pineapple rings in a circle around the edge of the pan and one in the center.  Add a cherry to center of each pineapple ring.  Set aside.  In a medium bowl,  add the remaining ingredients, and beat for two minutes or until completely mixed.  Pour over the pineapple slices,  making sure the batter goes to edges of the pan.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Let cool for ten minutes, then flip over onto a serving platter.  You can finish cooling on a rack.  Very moist and tasty.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Savannah Cake, Watermelon Cake, Hulk Cake and Birthday Dinners!

Some of my regular readers may remember that every July I have a few days where I am on birthday overload.  SR's and JK's b-days are six days apart; my dad's is a week earlier, and my mom's is a week later.  For the kids, I have a long day where we have two birthday parties back to back.  It's fun, but we always take a deep breath when it's done.  I always let the Blessings pick what kind of cake they want and what they want for the birthday dinners.  Since we eliminated artificial colors and flavors and preservatives, along with the already eliminated msg and corn syrup, a couple of years ago, they only get to have the "bad" stuff on their birthdays.  They can pick anything they want to eat at their parties.  With that in mind, two of the cakes below have colors in them, but one is all natural, and I'll share what I did with that. Enjoy the birthday tour!

SR turned 15 on July 20th, which was the same day as her acting class.  I made these cookies 'n' cream cupcakes for her to share, which we have at least once a year.  They are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

SR wanted to go out for her dinner and picked one of our family's most favorite restaurants: Andy Nguyen's II.  Do not mistake this for Andy Nguyen's, which my mom took me to on my birthday; this is No. 2, and although it is not a vegan restaurant, the veg choices there are excellent.  It is so unfortunate that this shot came out blurry because their Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup is outstanding.  We always ask for extra tofu to be added.  Some of the fam likes to add steamed rice to their bowl with the soup.

These are their Vegetarian Rolls - so good.

These are their Crispy Noodles with Tofu - awesome.

This is their Vegetable Fried Rice without egg - yums.  Andy's is located at 10145 Folsom Blvd. in Rancho Cordova, CA.  Their phone is (916) 362-2270.  They know us so well that when I call them up, Vinny the co-owner, says my name before I can say who I am.  A nice touch.

 

The next day was the birthday parties. JK turned 6 on the 26th and said he wanted a Savannah cake for his party.  Savannah cake, hmm?  Well, I first tried to find a little bag of toy animals that were Savannah-like to decorate the cake, but no luck. So, GR and I made the animals from play dough.  GR made the giraffe, crocodile and snake, and I made the tiger, elephant and lion.

 For the cake I used my recipe for my White Cake with White Buttercream Frosting .  I baked it in a 9x12 pan.  I made the frosting as usual - I took about 1/4 of it out and stirred in 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. of turmeric into it.  I divided the rest in half; to one half I blended in 2 Tbs. of cocoa.  I spread the white sky on first, then added the hilly brown, then used a fork to spread on the Savannah grass.  I thought this came out pretty cute.  JK got to keep his little animals.

SR remembered GR's 10th Birthday Cake  and wanted that again but wanted it to be deliberately made to look like a watermelon cake.  So, I made the cake the same way, but I put in 2 cups of chocolate chips in the batter and skipped the sprinkles on top.  This is such a moist cake. To avoid artificial coloring, you could use sweetened and reduced asparagus water for the frosting and pureed strawberries for the batter.

We actually left for camping on JK's birthday, and we had a blast celebrating it in the woods.  For his dinner, he picked tofu fried his favorite way: plain.  He likes to dip fried tofu in ketchup and raw tofu in soy sauce.  :-)  He wanted a banana and strawberry salad and Kids Love It! Potato Salad . 

He wanted a Hulk cake, so Mommy did her best with a butter knife and fork.  I made the White Cake with White Buttercream Frosting again in two cake rounds but added 1/2 cup of cocoa to the batter.  I saved a a small portion of the frosting and kept it white and added various amounts of green coloring to get his hair and skin.  I tried to make him grimace - what do you think?  I brushed his hair very nicely, though.  :-)  Normally I would have used asparagus or artichoke water to make the coloring, but with my energy levels lately, I copped out... But he only got colors on his birthday!

I had the clever idea of putting the candles in Hulk's eyes and teeth.  Creepy!  Hulk on fire!

Here's what a slice of Hulk looks like.

We had a great time camping and celebrating little ones' birthdays!  Thanks for sharing the memories with us.

Walnut Cake with Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this cake for Mother's Day for my mom.  She doesn't really have a sweet tooth, so I knew I had to create something that wasn't overpowering.  This turned out really well.  It is moist and has a texture that was appealing to everyone.  I used ingredients I had on hand (meaning I didn't have an inordinate amount of powdered sugar), so the frosting came out differently than my normal ones, but I really like it.  It comes off as seemingly too thin at first, but it sets up well, especially if you chill it for about ten minutes after spreading.  I also forgot to cream the sugar and margarine together, as is normally the custom - I whisked the sugar in with the dry ingredients instead.  Realizing my goof, I just added a bit of oil to the wet, and all turned out well.  In fact, I kept this "mistake" in my directions.  (I also used Trader Joe's vegan cream cheese instead of Tofutti, so the frosting isn't very white.)  Hope you and yours enjoy this, my latest original recipe.  

Walnut Cake with Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting

(unfortunately on a plain cake carrier for traveling)

Slice of that wonderful cake

(on a nice plate :-) )

Walnut Cake with Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

Cake:

Non-stick spray
Flour for dusting
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup vegan or raw sugar
3 cups almond milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts, that have been chopped small

Frosting:

1 - 8oz. pkg. vegan cream cheese, room temperature
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 and 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup finely ground walnuts

 Directions:

 For the cake:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two round cake pans with non-stick spray and lightly dust them with flour.  Set aside.  Whisk together in a large bowl the flour through the sugar.  Add the almond milk through the vanilla extract.  Blend with a hand mixer on medium low speed until well mixed, about three minutes or so. Stir in the walnuts.  Divide batter between the two cake pans.  Bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Set on cooling racks for fifteen minutes.  Remove cakes from pans, and continue cooling on racks until completely cooled.

For the frosting:  In a medium bowl, cream the cream cheese and vanilla extract with a hand mixer on low speed.  Add the powdered sugar and continue blending.  When well blended fold in the walnuts with a spatula.  Spread a generous amount of frosting on the top of one cake.  Add the second cake on top, and finish frosting.  It's easiest if you frost the top first, then take a non-serrated butter knife or a narrow spatula to spread the sides.  This frosting seem a tad runny at first, but chilling the cake for a few minutes after the frosting has been spread will help it set up.  This is very good and different.  Feeds five hungry vegans and a couple of grandparents with leftovers to boot.

GR's 12th Birthday and Cookies 'n' Cream Cake

GR's birthday was a few weeks ago, but for various reasons, we didn't have her party until this last Saturday.  What is fun about this birthday is she turned 12 on February 12th of 2012.  Pretty cool, huh?  So, following tradition we have the food with which we celebrated on display below.  The recipe for the cake is at the bottom.  Basically, I used the cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and doubled it.  I also used special dark cocoa, instead of regular, and I upped the amount of vinegar.  I doubled the amount of cookie crumbs in the frosting, and I used whole cookies as garnish, instead of halfsies.  I changed the wording slightly to match my personal style.  We've made the cupcakes many times, but she wanted to try them as a cake.  It was so good, perfect for my girl.

Cookies 'n' Cream Cake partying down

On her actual birthday, GR picked Jimboy's Tacos for lunch.  So, here's my veggie burrito sans cheese along with their fries.  Since her birthday fell on a Sunday, she also brought in cupcakes I made for her Sunday school class.

We went out to dinner at that great Thai place that we all love but apparently whose name I got wrong the last time I wrote about them.  So, I put in a call to Mom, and when she calls me back, I'll update this properly.  This is our deep fried bean curd with dipping sauce.

My delicious bowl of Tom Kha: coconut milk soup

My Yum Tow Hu: tofu salad with medium spice - outstanding!

Hot tea, of course.  This took me at least five tries to upload this.  Does anyone hate Blogger as much as I do?

GR wanted to make her own birthday dessert on her actual birthday, so she made these creative, unique chocolaty cookies!  She loves being in the kitchen.

Here are the cakes cooling.  I actually forgot to mix in the cookies with the batter, so I kind of squished them on it before baking.  They still turned out great.

Here's a close-up of that yummy cake

GR blowing out her candles with JK looking on.  This was her first ever party at a park.  As a Winter baby, she's always had them indoors, except for the one time we celebrated a half-birthday just so she could have one outside.  The weather has been so dry, we decided to risk it this year, and it worked out great.  JK is wearing two of the prizes earned in a scavenger hunt I made for the kids: his hat and his bubble necklace.

Yes, 99 Cent store didn't have black decorations like GR wanted, so she went with green instead.  Here's a slice of cake.

What the cake looked like after it was mercilessly hacked into.

Cookies 'n' Cream Cake
Ingredients:
For the cake:
Non-stick spray
Flour for dusting
2 cups soy milk
1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
2 cups flour2/3 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 cups of vegan sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. chocolate extract
2 cups of coarsely chopped Newman O's with white cream centers
For the frosting:
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup vegan margarine, room temperature
3 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
1 cup cookie crumbs, Newman O's processed in food processor
11 cookies for garnish
Directions:
For the cake:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two round cake pans with non-stick spray.  Shake around a tablespoon of flour or so in each pan to coat the spray.  Shake out the excess flour.   Set aside.   In a large bowl, whisk together the soy milk and vinegar.  Set aside as well - this is your "buttermilk."  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour through salt ingredients.  To the buttermilk, add the rest of the ingredients, except the cookies - sugar through chocolate extract.  Whisk until well blended.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix with an electric blender until well mixed, starting on low speed and working up to medium speed.  Stir in the chopped cookies.  Divide batter between the two pans.  Bake for 40 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pans on cooling rack for fifteen minutes, then remove from pans to finish cooling.
For the frosting:  When the cakes have completely cooled, make the frosting.  In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening and margarine.  Add the powdered sugar and mix on low speed until well blended.  Add the vanilla extract and the soy milk and blend on medium speed for three to five minutes, until thoroughly mixed and fluffy.  Stir in the cookie crumbs.  Frost the top of one cake with a nice spread of frosting.  Then add the other cake on top.  Frost the sides first, smoothing with your knife or spatula as you go along.  You'll want enough frosting for the top to create a secure foundation for the cookie garnish.  As you frost the top, spread some extra frosting out to the edge of the cake.  When the cake has been frosted and before the frosting has set, line up your cookies around the edge.  Use the extra frosting to secure the front and back of each cookie, just slightly packing them in.  You don't want the frosting to go up the cookie; keep it subtle.  A fun recipe and delicious to boot.  Feeds five hungry vegans and some friends and family.

Winnie the Pooh Cake with Natural Colors

I recently went to my first sobriety-celebration party for a relative, a first for me, and it was so fabulous.  It was wonderful cheering someone on who was proudly saying they were alcohol-dependent-free.  Of course, I had to make a cake for my gang, as it was a full-on potluck with desserts.  I've been going through a craze lately (the last few years) of collecting various cake pans, so I thought this was as good a time as any to pull out one of my Winnie the Pooh pans and practice with my homemade colors.  I simply used my  White Cake with White Butter Cream Frosting  recipes for the cake and frosting.  I've been stowing away liquids in the freezer from colorful foods I've been cooking for this purpose, such as artichoke water, asparagus water, beet water, etc.  If it's got vibrant color, I freeze it.

So, this was my first attempt at making these colors, and I've already learned a few things.  In the future I'm going to reduce the liquids in a pot, before freezing, to concentrate and deepen the colors.  I noticed this time that if I added much more, the frosting would have been too thin.  Also, be careful of colorings that already have flavor, like turmeric.  It added a nice color, but too much more, and the flavor of the spice would have dominated the sweetness of the cake.  As it was, it tasted like a spice cake, which was just fine.  You'll also notice that poor Pooh's left eye, eyebrow and his nose are hard to distinguish from each other.  I had planned to outline his shirt, facial features, and his arms in a dark brown, but we were running late and the frosting hadn't dried, so Pooh had to come as he was.  Take this as a starter cake, and build on it.  As I improve my methods, I'll share them with you.

Winnie the Pooh Cake with Natural Colors

Ingredients:

White cake batter- you can use my recipe White Cake   
1/2 cup soy milk
Non-stick spray
All-purpose flour

White butter cream frosting - you can use my recipe White Butter Cream Frosting
2 Tbs. leftover liquid from boiling red and orange beets, divided
1 tsp. chocolate pudding mix or cocoa
1 tsp. turmeric

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Make White Cake as usual, following my directions, but adding in the extra 1/2 cup of soy milk.  Spray your cake pan with non-stick spray and lightly flour, tapping out the extra.  Pour in cake batter, and bake for 40 minutes.  Cool in pan on cooling rack for fifteen minutes.  Invert onto cake platter, then invert back onto cooling rack to finish cooling.

When the cake is completely cool, make frosting according to my directions.  Place two dollops of frosting on cake platter to hold cake in place, and put cake on platter.  Pull out 1/2 cup of frosting and put in a small bowl.  Mix with 1 Tbs. of the beet liquid, until well incorporated.  Using a butter knife or a small paint brush, frost the area that is Pooh's shirt and tongue.  Pull out 1 Tbs. of frosting and put in an even smaller bowl.  Mix well with the pudding mix or cocoa, and paint on the facial features.  Use the rest of the frosting to make Pooh's fur.  Mix with the other half of the beet liquid, along with the turmeric, and frost Pooh's body.  This ends up having a hint of the turmeric flavor, which I thought was tasty.  Feeds five hungry vegans for a couple of days.