Cupcake Bouquet

Sorry about being a butt and not posting on Sunday!  I'm feeling somewhat better, but I'm really just using my blog as stress.

Anyway, I saw this post on Tumblr and was absolutely inspired.  I really wanted to do this one day, but did not have the resources.  On the day celebrating our first month together, Matt and I decided that we wanted to get crafty.  So we went to A.C. Moore, and later Wegmans, to acquire supplies with which to make a Cupcake Bouquet.  I also really wanted to make cupcakes anyway, but he took it the extra step.

Gluten-free chocolate cake mix.  More on this later.

Milk, eggs, butter, and cake mix.

Matt adding the mix to the dry ingredients.

No blog entry is complete without a picture of me eating something.  H&M beanie, AE blue tank top, pink ring that I got from Tobi

Cupcakes, cupcakes, CUPCAKES.

The cupcakes were delightful.  The cake mix had the prefect consistently.  Though, I will be honest, baking non-vegan was different for me.  I hadn't done it in a while, but thank God that this mix was so easy to use, because I would not have been able to figure out how to use eggs.  Then again, that was Matt's problem, since he was doing most of the baking.

We also bought a fancy pastry bag with tips in order to the frosting on artfully.  Matt is pretty boss at frosting, but unfortunately, we were completely winging the recipe and it got really runny and, after adding more confectioner's sugar, super tough.  You can't have all the nice things, can you?

Here we have the Matt in his natural habitat of frosting.

Close enough.  But the wrappers are cute.

Finished product and I look so happy.

Unfortunately, I got a phone call from Wegman's indicating soy lecithin in the cake mix that was not previously listed as an ingredient.  Excuse me while we bury yet another fantastic product on the long list of things I can't eat.  Lovely.

Keep it yummy,
Jo

21st Birthday: Gluten-Free Vegan Style!

Over the summer, two of my friends semi-spontaneously asked me to attend their 21st birthdays.  Me, being the derp I am, totally forgets when these events actually are to occur and do not have the foresight to look into buying a present.   But everyone loves home-made things, so of course I decided to be all kitchy and bake cakes.  I got semi-good at making letters, but not having proper lettering equipment does not help.  Never the less, here are the two creations that happened.

Raspberry-filled chocolate cake with chocolate syrup and vegan icing.

Cinnabun cake with non-vegan frosting and semi-sweet chocolate chips. (Good thing I'm not actually vegan, because then I feel like too many people would call bs).

My hair staying up after a morning of swimming.

You're wondering why there's no actual outfit attached to this.  Well, I wanted to showcase my hair.  Whenever I go to a concert, I like doing some kind of an updo because, let's face it, you don't want your hair in your face and then your bangs getting all groady because of sweating.  Plus, I swam during one of the birthdays and needed my hair to look nice for the evening.

How do I achieve this?  I use about 5-10 bobby pins (not kidding, my hair is really thick) and then Bumble and Bumble Classic Hairspray after applying copious amounts of Bumble and Bumble Tonic Spray.  I know these are pricey, but I don't style my hair too often, so it's okay to splurge a little bit.  I mean, if you're only going to do it once every so often, make it count, right?

Keep it yummy,
Jo

Last Visit to Babycakes

Cookie sandwich, choco-chip brownie, and green tea

The other day, after getting my hair chopped off and dyed (see below), I met up with Danielle to go to Babycakes once again.  I got a brownie just to see what they are supposed to taste like.  See, I make them fairly often because who doesn't like brownies, but I can never get the consistency right.  The Babycakes one was absolutely lovely and perfect, and I wish I could buy a whole box or something, but sadly, I am in Ithaca and that would be an expensive delivery.

The cookie sandwich was heaven in my mouth.  I have never had such good frosting or cream in general in all my life.  It was light and fresh and just tasted amazing.  The cookies themselves were a bit thin for my taste, but I really liked the crunchiness of them.  The green tea was a great pairing for both, since the tea does not have too much flavor, so it sedates the sweetness in your mouth a bit.

Look at my hair!

No more delicious vegan cooking that isn't made by me for a while.  But I cannot wait to go again in the summer.

BabyCakes Donuts

The other day I was hanging out with my friend Aaron and we wandered around the whole city.  Since we were in the area, we decided to stop by BabyCakes.  I usually buy two things there: something I've made and something new.  So I bought a ginger cookie and one of their donuts.

Source: The BabyCakes NYC Blog

BabyCakes is Disney for kids with allergies.  Everything is delicious and sweet and contains very few allergens.  I have a mild dairy allergy, everything is vegan.  I can't eat gluten, everything is gluten-free.  I can't eat soy, it is soy-free.  Everything is wonderful and low-glycemic and nothing hurts.

The first of my deserts I bit into was the ginger cookie.  It was super ginger-y and almost spicy.  The cookie was also a lot crunchier and thinner than when I made them, but it definitely fit the taste, so I didn't mind too much.

Dear Lord, I look so awkward, but yep, there's the half-eaten cookie still in my hand

And then I tried the doughnut.  Consuming gluten-free bagels and such, I did not have high hopes for the taste and consistency of the doughnut, but boy was I proven wrong.  It was perfect, as in not too dry, not overly sugary, and not too clumpy either.  I got it with chocolate and caramel topping, which was beyond amazing.  Definitely going back sometime and getting these again.

Look at this amazingness

The best surprise was the milk chocolate in the middle of the doughnut hole.  Definitely my favorite part, but I should probably try other flavors.

So, that's been my first of (hopefully) many entries on BabyCakes NYC because it is the happiest place on Earth.

Modified Babycakes NYC Brownies

I have been in love with Babycakes since I bought the bake-book in summer 2011.  One of my favorite recipes is the brownie recipe, featured in Shape magazine.  The brownies come out moist but not gooey and fudgy, the way, in my opinion, brownies should be.  While ingredient shopping, however, I couldn't find garbanzo-fava bean flour, arrowroot, or potato starch.  So, replacing them with oat flour and tapioca starch was an interesting change.

Picture of all the ingredients for the brownies
Not featured: vanilla extract and canola oil

Well I decided to make the dry and wet mixes in two different bowls because I was not aware of the fact that we had larger bowls in my house.  Also, many of them were high-jacked for my mom's massive Christmas preparation.

Wet ingredients to the left, dry to the right.

But then, voila!  I found a bigger bowl and combined the two.  I added a bit more flour than recommended because it was super watery.  In my house, my mom makes either loaves or round cakes so finding something appropriate for a brownie tin was a miracle.  (Seriously, the woman won't even buy a cupcake pan because "I'll never use it." Please, I make brownies at least once every time I'm home!)

Batter still fresh before baking

Oh, I also made another modification: adding in some crushed almonds.  I think nuts go with most things and since I am in the mood for almonds, they are going in everything!  The next important step is to taste the batter clean the bowl so that you have space in your kitchen for lunch.  The trap to fall into with gluten-free, vegan baking is that the batter, for the most part, won't give you salmonella.  I remember baking a cake with Andrea once and she was eating it with a spoon.

Mmm...cake batter.

So after about half an hour (because old oven is old), my brownies were ready!  They tasted great but they were flat.  My mother thinks it's because I didn't use enough baking powder, but I honestly think it was because of the lack of either potato starch or arrowroot.  Actually, I think it's mostly potato starch.  Angel food cake made from it rises quite nicely so I don't know what went wrong.  I've made the brownies from the recipe before and well, they are bigger and fluffier.  Better luck next time!

Slightly failed brownies =[

Well, even though they failed a bit, I still have something yummy to eat for Christmas desert.  And then after the holidays, I am on a hunt to Whole Foods to see if they have all the ingredients I will ever need for future baking.

Happy holidays everyone :D