Sweet Yam and Marshmallow Casserole and Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, 2015

Before 2015 completely came to a close, ushering in 2016, I thought I'd sneak in a final post of the year, highlighting our recent holiday meals.

The family, as usual, picked the various eclectic dishes to create our Thanksgiving feast, some traditional, some not so much.  G picked a sweet potato casserole, and I hunted up a classic recipe with marshmallows that I veganized and slightly tweaked.  It came out deliciously well.  The recipe will be posted at the bottom of the page.

Here's the breakdown of our Thanksgiving celebration:

JK picked Soy Chicken and Steamed Rice
GR picked Hot and Sour Soup and Sushi
SR picked Takis and Cranberry Sauce
G picked the casserole and the Tofurky meal, which included the roast, gravy, wishbone, and brownies
I added roasted potatoes and veggies to the Tofurky and made my Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll to go with the brownies
Sparkling apple cider to drink.

See below for some yummy close-ups.



Sweet Yam and Marshmallow Casserole

My Thanksgiving plate.

 



Thanksgiving Dessert plate

Christmas was a much simpler affair this year.  I only made one type of cookies, and our breakfast was modest.  Below I show you our morning meal and the dishes I brought to the larger family gathering at dinner.

Christmas breakfast: Tofu Scramble, Fried Potatoes, and Chorizo.

The cookies I made: Chocolate Tops

I brought three things for the evening gathering.

Number One: Gardein Beefless tips, to which I added Teriyaki sauce.



Number Two: A big, beautiful salad chock full of goodies.

Number Three: I also realized I've never made my Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll, so I made that again and brought it to share.

How were your holidays?  Did you have wonderful food?  Any new dishes?

Sweet Yam and Marshmallow Casserole

Ingredients:

Five Yams (Purple skinned, with orange flesh)
Water to cover
1/4 cup vegan margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3 Tbs. orange juice
1 Tbs. Cinnamon
Non-stick spray
2 and 1/2 - 10oz. bags of Dandies large marshmallows

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Peel the yams, chop into large chunks and place in a large pot.  Cover with water and turn heat on high.  Bring to a boil, and boil for fifteen minutes.  Drain the water and leave yams in the pot.  Add the margarine, brown sugar, orange juice, and cinnamon.  Use an electric hand mixer to completely blend ingredients.  Spray a 9x13 inch dish with non-stick spray.  Spread the yam mixture evenly in the pan.  Top with the marshmallows.  Bake for 30 minutes. The marshmallows will brown and be super soft, and the yams are sweetly delicious.  This was definitely a hit.  The only challenge was when eating the leftovers, finding that several smaller hands had picked parts of the casserole bare of the marshmallows.  Feeds five hungry vegans for a few days.

Holiday Classics...Mostly - 2014

Hello, Everyone!  It is so good to be back on here.  I will not bore you all with what's been going on - it's been a lot, and I've been challenged in my personal life in more ways than I ever thought I would.  The challenges continue on, but it has been on my mind for so long to put up a post that I'm making a point now to do so.  This blog is a way for me to express myself with just the pleasures of my life, a bit of me that I get to share and to make friends in the process.  I will never abandon this blog without informing you first.  I don't know how many have or will stick around, but for those who are reading this, thank you.  I can't promise you timely posts in the new year, but it is my hope to be consistent.  I have posts that I still want to write from this year, so even though they will be out of date, I hope that I can still put them up.  Anyhoooowww, on with the food.

I am combining Thanksgiving and Christmas into one post, so this will have food galore.  I hope everyone's holidays have been good and that this new year brings you blessings.  I pray that 2015 brings peace and harmony into my life, as well.  And good eats!

Okay, I'm just going to show the pics, provide links, and tell you what we ate.  What did you guys eat this year for the holidays?

My Thanksgiving dinner plate.  The bowl is holding hot and sour soup, and on the plate clockwise is: roasted asparagus, soy chicken and tofu, tofurky and roasted veggies with gravy.  

Dessert: SR picked vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce, GR picked Black Tie Cheesecake, and JK picked chocolate chip cookies.  I'll get a recipe out for those cookies.

Christmas breakfast included: Breakfast Potato Skillet ...

 Tofu Scramble...

Loaded Cinnamon Rolls ...

  and this year's Christmas cookies and Happy Birthday, Jesus Cake, which was a Costco apple pie.  The cookies are Gingerbread Bears, Tiger Stripes, and Pecan Pie Cookie Cups.  Recipes for the first two cookies will be forthcoming, if you are interested.

JK delivered our annual Christmas cookies to the firemen.

For Christmas dinner, I brought Tofu, Brussels Sprouts and Peanut Stir-fry to share and

Buttermilk Chocolate Chips Chocolate Cupcakes for dessert.

A lot of my family provided vegan dishes for us this year.  On my plate clockwise is: fried cabbage, cold green bean salad, a Gardein roast with gravy that I bought for my family, my mom's rendition of Aunt Versey's baked beans (an annual offering), my stir-fry, fruit salad and olives.  This was the fullest plate we've ever had at a family gathering.

The fun carried through dessert.  My aunt made my grandma's recipe for boysenberry cobbler.  See the yellow triangle in the corner?  Read in the pic below what it says.

A vegan corner just for us.  The glaze had butter in it; other than that, the whole cobbler was vegan.

My dessert plate: the cupcakes I brought, my mom's pineapple dump cake and her fruitcake, and my aunt's/grandma's boysenberry cobbler.

It was an awesome food season.  I hope yours was just as tasty.  Hopefully, I'll put up a post by next week and start to catch up.  Until then, Happy New Year.

Maple-Pecan Baked Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash and Christmas, 2013

I was feeling guilty about blogging about Christmas so far after the date and was prepared to lament about all the sicknesses I've either endured personally or as a motherly nurse.  But, then as I was catching up on reading the blogs, I discovered that lots of people are posting belatedly.  So, I feel better.  Although, I do really wish I had my Christmas post in the same year that I ate the dish.  Ah, well.

I wanted to come up with something seasonal and savory to bring to the family potluck, and I came up with this baked dish (that took longer to bake than anticipated), consisting basically of all the ingredients listed in the title.  Makes it easy, doesn't it? It turned out very well, and if I end up tweaking it in the future, I'll edit this post, but it's pretty darn good for now!  Buuuuuuttt, because we were all sick, we ended up staying home and not joining the big family for dinner.  Aaaand, my parents didn't come over for my traditional breakfast spread.  It was a very different Christmas indeed, but I still tried to make it as special as I could.  I made some of my breakfast dishes anyways, and we had a nice dinner, albeit simpler. 

Here's what we had for breakfast:

GR and JK made the Gingerbread house again
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Tiger Balls
SR made the Soft Ginger Cookies
Loaded Cinnamon Rolls 
Breakfast Links
Orange Juice
Hot Apple Cider
Coffee

For dinner all I could muster was:

Maple-Pecan Baked Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash
A kid-friendly spaghetti dish

Our "scant" breakfast table

We also managed to drag ourselves to the fire station again to deliver our annual Christmas treats.  They remember us every year now.  GR was too sick to come, so it was just SR, JK and me.

SR and JK are sicker than they look.  But, we just love this tradition!

Maple-Pecan Baked Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash

(taken with my new camera as of that morning; not sure if I like the posted date on the pic, but you can see I took it on Christmas!)

Maple-Pecan Baked Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash

Ingredients:

4 cups Brussels sprouts that have been halved
5 cups butternut squash that have been diced into half inch to an inch cubes
1 and 1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 cup 100% maple syrup

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Toss all the ingredients together in a large casserole dish.  Bake uncovered for one hour, stirring at the halfway mark.  That's it!  So easy.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Double Creamy Fruit Salad and Christmas, 2012!

Yes, I know, I'm barely squeezing my Christmas post in before the end of the year!  But, I'm just glad to be doing it.  I have been disgustingly sick for three weeks, and am carving out a spot of energy to do this post.  Actually, without GR and G, Christmas wouldn't have been the same.  GR baked all of our cookies and the Happy Birthday, Jesus, cake, set up the tree and its lights, and decorated inside and out.  She is my Christmas-loving girl - remember her bedroom?  And, G somehow made our tired out carpets look new with his obsessive vacuuming.  Thank you, both!  As usual, my parents came over for breakfast, and we also had two extra guests this year, so it was really nice to get that extra help.

Also, as usual, we had a dinner potluck with the larger, extended family, and I decided to make a salad I veganized from a gathering a long time ago.  When I was in college, I belonged to an environmental club, and at one of our potlucks, a guy brought this simple unnamed fruit salad that had this amazing dressing on top.  It was such a great group, and he was such a cool guy.  He was actually the first person to give me an article on how animals raised for food are treated: it was a one-page article with a photo of a veal calf.  That was the first meat I gave up.  I tried once in high school to become veg but didn't stick with it.  Anyhow, I have saved that weathered article all these years because it was so life-changing for me.  So, that was the guy, and that was his salad dressing, but it was dairy-based.  He didn't seem to really measure anything, I was chatting with him as he  basically just plopped stuff in a bowl, but I've gone strict and offered measurements.  I know some of this fruit isn't in its proper season, but it still tasted great.  Maybe he'll see this and rub his chin with the memory.

The rest of our day's food went like this:

Breakfast:

Our first gingerbread house
Cookies by GR:  Tiger Balls, Chocolate Chip, Holiday Cookies
Happy Birthday, Jesus, cake by GR
Chocolate hearts by GR
Loaded Cinnamon Rolls
Breakfast Potato Skillet
Sausage and Cheese Muffins
Chips
Amazing fruit platter by my mom (unpictured)
Juices, Hot Cider and Coffee

Dinner:

I brought:
Double Creamy Fruit Salad
Tofurky

We also could eat:
Green salad
Rolls
Baked Beans - recipe passed down for generations
3 types of cookies and an apple pie
No complaints here!

On with the pics and recipe.  Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!  My goal is to definitely amp up my postings.  Hopefully, all the craziness and sickness are behind us now.

Our first gingerbread house!  GR and I mainly did this with JK's little hands "helping" as he could.  GR was surprisingly bossy with this thing.  It was a blast to make it with her.

Our breakfast table.  The fruit platter didn't make the shot.  All was delicious, of course.  :-)

These didn't make the earlier shot either.  GR made these chocolate hearts for us.

Our annual trek to the fire station to deliver cookies.  I love our station and all it's crews!  GR's cookies are being held by the firefighter standing next to SR.  JK's in front with some new Christmas wrestlers, GR's wearing her new Big Bang Theory shirt, SR's wearing her new Christmas dress, and she'll be getting that cast off in a couple of weeks.

A serving of Double Creamy Fruit salad.  A white dressing, in a white bowl on my mom's white counter wasn't the greatest combination, but trust me, this is so good.

Double Creamy Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

Can be flexible here.  Use several cups of your favorite fruits.  I used:

1 pineapple, chopped
2 Fuji apples, cored and chopped
2 bananas, sliced
1 cup of blueberries

Dressing:
1 cup vegan sour cream
1 cup vegan vanilla ice cream

Directions:

Put all fruit in a large bowl.  Ten minutes before serving, take out the ice cream from the freezer and set on the counter.  After ten minutes, add the dressing ingredients to the bowl of fruit and gently fold in.  Do not stir with a hard hand.  You don't want the dressing to become liquidy.  Keep it creamy and billowy.  Serve immediately.  So good you won't believe it.  It's a nice twist on the standard fruit salad.  Feeds five hungry vegans and more!

Savory Stuffed Peppers and Christmas, 2011

We had another great Christmas this year.  I have some pretty hysterical pictures of five-year-old JK completely ecstatic over the celebration.

As usual, I made a big breakfast buffet for my family and parents and then made some dishes to bring to the family potluck for dinner.  I decided to bring stuffed peppers for dinner, and they were super tasty.  I've got the recipe below, but first we have to cover some highlights.

You'll see in one of the pics below what my buffet looked like.  I made:
Scrambled Tofu with broccoli, mushrooms and spinach
Sausage and Cheese muffins (recipe on a future post)
My mom's fruit plate
Chocolate chip cookies
Oatmeal cookies
Brownies
Lemon Sugar Loaf (recipe on a future post)
Coconut Caramel Happy Birthday, Jesus, Cake

For dinner:
Savory Stuffed Peppers
Tofurky
Dessert:
Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Glaze (recipe on a future post)

Just a note on the peppers:
I made enough for 22 people, so you can definitely halve the recipe or more for your needs.  Or, you can make the whole batch, and freeze what  you won't eat in the next few days.  I also cut my peppers in half, but you can use fewer peppers and keep them whole.  With all the food at the potluck, I thought having a whole pepper would be too much for some people.  I also used white rice to appeal to more people, but brown could be used, of course.

Savory Stuffed Peppers

Stockings hung with care, even for the dogs and cats

Breakfast Buffet (fruit plate hadn't yet arrived)

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Glaze (for potluck dessert)

R.I.P. - Here lies the blank spot where there was a great photo of the kids, but GR was embarrassed and pleaded with me to remove it.  The caption is below.

All the kids enjoying JK's new superhero masks.  They seem to have suddenly taken on the powers themselves!

GR and JK delivering our annual Christmas cookies to the firefighters.

Now, on to more of the recipe photos:

Here are the peppers, washed and waiting for the water to boil.

The stuffing being sauteed.

Blanching the peppers.

Completed peppers, ready to go!

Savory Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

11 green bell peppers, tops trimmed, seeds and heavy pith removed, and halved lengthwise
1 cup white rice, uncooked, prepared according to package directions
2 Tbs. canola oil
1/3 cup chopped shallots
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 - 12oz. pkgs. Lightlife Smart Ground, original style
1 - 15oz. can of black beans, drained
1 Tbs. dried oregano
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 - 15oz. cans tomato sauce, divided
Non-stick spray

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Fill a very large pot about two-thirds full with water, and bring to a boil.  This will take some time, so you can prepare the rest of your dish while waiting.  Cook the rice and set aside.  In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the shallots and garlic and cook for two minutes.  Add the Smart Ground and mash with a fork or potato masher, so there are no big lumps.  Cook for two or three more minutes, stirring often, so it doesn't burn.  Add the beans and spices and cook until heated through, about three or more minutes.  Add the rice and stir well, so it's thoroughly mixed.  Add two cans of the tomato sauce and mix well.  Spray two baking dishes with the non-stick spray.  If the water is boiling now, carefully dump the peppers in it and boil for five minutes.  Drain in a colander in the sink.  Using tongs, place the pepper halves cut side up on the baking dishes.  Spoon the filling into the well of each pepper - use every last drop of it.  Spoon the last can of tomato sauce over each pepper.  Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.  So good.  Feeds five hungry vegans and seventeen close friends and family.

Trust Me Cake with Gaggy Frosting, and Christmas 2010

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year in our home, and I hope you did too! I was trying to think of which dish I made that I should post, when I realized that I had forgotten to take any pictures of the ones I brought to the family potluck dinner. So, by default, here's another cake! We all love cake, don't we? Every year I make a Happy Birthday, Jesus, Cake, but what kind of cake it is changes year by year. I call this year's cake Trust Me Cake because it doesn't have any margarine or oil in it. But, it does have a cup of Vegenaise, kind of like the old mayonnaise cakes. Now, trust me! It tasted good! I have to thank G for the inspiration for the frosting's title. I tried to make a glaze, but it came out very stiff and unforgivingly thick. However, it screamed chocolate, and you have to swallow hard to get this frosting down. So, as only a kind husband would do, that's now permanently spoiled by good vegan food, he said, "This is gaggy." The children loved it, though, and I'm not an objective judge of chocolate because it's all good to me. I think this frosting reminds me of a firm piece of fudge being forcibly spread on cake. So, depending on how that sounds to you, this will be an enormous failure, or an incredible success. So be it. Here it is, along with some other food pics, pictures of GR's room (which I'll explain below), and of some firefighters. My apologies for the absolutely terrible lighting of the food shots. They were either blue, orange or totally blinding with light. Use your imagination, please.

Here's our menu for this year:

Breakfast:

Trust Me Cake with Gaggy Frosting
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies made by ten-year-old GR!
Tiger Balls
Pecan Pie Cookie Cups
Chocolate Chip Pecan Bars
A variation on my Scrambled Tofu - this year I made it with asparagus and mushrooms
Molasses Touched Pancakes with Homemade Maple Syrup
Homemade Breakfast Links - I've come up with a mind-blowing recipe, I must say!
Fried Red Potatoes with Red Bell Peppers from my mom
A Fruit Platter from my mom
Coffee
Yum Berry Juice
Apple Cider

Dinner and Dessert with the extended family:

Manicotti Lasagna - was supposed to manicotti, but transformed into lasagna
Tofurky with gravy
Gorgeous Round Rolls, which I forgot at home
Pecan Pie Cookie Cups

Trust Me Cake. That frosting hardened so fast and so firm, I could probably have set a cup of water on it, and it wouldn't have given way. The nice thing is, I was able to make some pretty swirls. Do you like my pretty swirls???

Here's a slice of that cake. Again, I didn't trust the amount of my frosting. I had way too much on top and barely anything in the middle. I was actually going to call it Trust Me Frosting, as well, until G said it was gaggy. Then it was a no brainer; I had to use that. Anyhow, feel free to put way more in the middle than I did. G said he would prefer much more in the middle and would even sacrifice the frosting on the sides of the cake to ensure he would have enough in the middle. He's very helpful like that. Did I ever tell you that before he met me, he only lived on peanut butter sandwiches and oatmeal? Now, he's full of very helpful suggestions - I can't thank him enough. Do you have helpful husbands, as well, that offer advice but never pick up a spatula?

Our Christmas Cookies: GR made the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip ones all by herself, on top are Tiger Balls, and the Chocolate Chip Pecan Bars and Pecan Pie Cookie Cups are on the bottom.

Christmas Breakfast Table: Cookies and Trust Me Cake with Gaggy Frosting, Scrambled Tofu, Homemade Breakfast Links, Molasses Touched Pancakes, Homemade Maple Syrup (in blue pitcher), my mom's Fried Red Potatoes with Red Bell Peppers, a Fruit Platter, we had Yum Berry Juice, Coffee, and my mom brought Apple Cider. It was good!

I couldn't fit everything on my plate, so I had the fruit, fried potatoes, my homemade breakfast links and tofu scramble.

Now, for GR. My girl loves Christmas v e r y m u c h !! She allowed me to take pictures of her bedroom, which is decorated for Christmas all year round. Except for a Patrick Starfish picture and her soccer trophies, these are her only decorations. All year round. Did I tell you she likes Christmas? I didn't even take a picture of everything, there is so much more! Welcome to her room... Here she is on her bed with her snowman and her penguin friend next to her. And, of course, she's wearing her Christmas peace symbol necklace. Various strings of lights surround her room. By the way, her room is painted shades of Christmas colors. Her windowsill is decorated with fluff, presents, there's a Grinch there and a snowman. On her little lamp table is a reindeer. She has a snowman rug on the floor, stockings and wreaths are on all the walls, and snowflakes line every wall and hang from the ceiling. You can see the new icicle lights that we bought her for Christmas to add to her decorations.


This is the top of her dresser. I like how she mixes religious items in her decorations, as well, because in our home we remember the spiritual aspect of the holiday. Just to the right of this, is a small, decorative sleigh hanging on the wall.

Here's a decorated wall, with candy canes lining the floor. You can barely see the Christmas tree night light. To the left of this shot, she has decorated her closet doors with the message "Merry Christmas" with hand-made snowflakes falling into a waiting snowdrift below.


I tried and tried to turn this picture, but it wouldn't cooperate for me. GR has hung massive amounts of garland from her doorway that you have to walk through before you can even enter her room. It's Christmas all the time in there, and you can't help but cheer up when you go in! Thank you, GR, for sharing!


We also deliver Christmas cookies every year to the firefighters on Christmas Day. SR stayed home to watch a new video, but GR and JK came along. They both got helmets afterwards.

Trust Me Cake with Gaggy Frosting

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 cups of flour
2/3 cup of cocoa
1 and 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 and 2/3 cups of vegan or raw sugar
1 and 1/2 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
6 Tbs. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup Vegenaise
1 and 1/3 cups of water

Frosting:

2 - 4 oz. pkgs. of Baker's German Sweet Chocolate
2 Tbs. vegan margarine
6 Tbs. water
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two round cake pans with non-stick spray and flour the bottom and sides, shaking away the excess flour. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder. In a large bowl, mix with an electric mixer on medium speed the sugar, Egg Replacer, the six tablespoons of water and vanilla extract. Beat until well creamed together, perhaps three minutes. Add the Vegenaise and mix on medium-low speed, until there are no lumps. Alternately add the flour mixture and the one and one-third cups of water and continue to mix on medium speed, until well blended. Divide batter between the two pans and bake for 30 minutes, until a skewer or toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pans on cooling rack for fifteen minutes, then invert cakes onto rack to finish cooling.

For the frosting:

When the cakes are completely cool, put the chocolate, margarine and water in a small pot and heat over medium heat, until all is melted. Stir frequently. In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and salt. Add the chocolate mixture little by little, whisking after each addition. Add the vanilla, and whisk thoroughly. Makes enough frosting for a two-layer cake. Feeds five hungry vegans for a few days.

Candy Cane Coffee Cakes

Every year my parents come over to my home for Christmas breakfast, and then for dinner we all potluck with extended family. I've decided to show you what we had for breakfast and what I brought for dinner and dessert. Following the photos, I'll have my recipe for my Candy Cane Coffee Cakes, my dessert contribution. I veganized a recipe several years ago from a newspaper clipping. They are labor intensive but worth the work and time. By the way, any glaze that happened to drip onto the platter, or even threatened to, was quickly scooped up by my three blessings!

For the breakfast we had:
Tofu Scramble with broccoli and red bell pepper
Waffles with boysenberry and homemade maple syrups
Fried Potatoes with red onions
Fruit Plate (courtesy of my mom)
Mixed nuts in their shells
Turkish Delights
Eight kinds of homemade Christmas cookies
Happy Birthday, Jesus, Cake
Coffee
Hot Apple Cider with cinnamon sticks
Hot cocoa

For dinner I brought:
Tropical Seitan Pasta Salad

For dessert I brought:
Candy Cane Coffee Cakes


Candy Cane Coffee Cakes


Christmas Breakfast

Tropical Seitan Pasta Salad (I will post this recipe at a later date.)

Candy Cane Coffee Cakes

Ingredients:

Filling:
1/2 cup vegan sugar
3 Tbs. water
1 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbs. water
2 cups fresh cranberries
1 tsp. dried grated orange peel

Bread:
5 to 6 cups flour
1/2 cup vegan sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 envelopes RapidRise yeast
2 tsp. salt
1 and 1/4 cup soy milk
1 Tbs. vinegar
3/4 cup vegan sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1 Tbs. egg replacer mixed with 4 Tbs. water
Pam

Glaze:
1 and 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 and 1/2 Tbs. soy milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
maraschino cherries

Directions:

Make the filling first, so it has time to chill. In a medium pot, stir together the sugar and water over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. And the dissolved cornstarch and stir. Add in the cranberries and cook until they begin to pop, about three minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the orange peel. Chill in refrigerator. For the dough, first mix together the soy milk and vinegar in a medium pot with no heat under it. Let it set until it thickens into a vegan buttermilk, about five minutes. While that is setting, in a large bowl combine with a whisk 1 and 1/2 cups of the flour, sugar, baking powder, yeast and salt. Set aside. Heat the pot with the vegan buttermilk on medium, and add in the sour cream, 1/2 cup water, and margarine until all is mixed in well and very warm. I touch the liquid with my fingertip, and if it's too hot, it's ready. Don't get it to the boiling point. Mix in the warm buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture on medium speed with an electric mixer for two minutes. Add the egg replacer mixture and another cup of flour and beat two more minutes on high speed. If your beaters start to overheat, turn it down to medium. The consistency of the dough will begin to change into a stretchy appearance. Using your hands or a large spoon, add enough of the remaining flour, a 1/2 cup or so at a time, to make a soft but not sticky dough. Turn it out onto a lightly floured board, sprinkle the top with a bit more flour and knead for ten minutes. Dust with additional flour as necessary, if it gets sticky while it is being kneaded. Cover with a dish towel for ten minutes. Take your filling mixture out of the refrigerator. Divide the dough into three equal parts, and roll each into an approximate 6x15 rectangle. Transfer each one to its own cookie sheet that's been sprayed with Pam. Spread 1/3 of the filling down the center of each rectangle. With a sharp knife, make cuts from the filling to the edge on both sides about one inch apart all the way from top to bottom. Now, fold each of these strips over the center at a downward angle, starting at the top, alternating back and forth, all the way to the bottom. Shape each rectangle into a candy cane. Cover with dish towels and let rise for 45 more minutes. Heat oven to 375 degrees and bake each coffee cake for 20 minutes. Cool completely on cake racks. When cool, mix together the first three ingredients for the glaze, and drizzle on the coffee cakes, following the pattern down the center. Where each pair of strips meets in the center, nestle in a maraschino cherry. Lots of work, but it makes three - one to eat, one to give away, and one to freeze. Feeds more than five hungry vegans.