HAPPY EASTER!!

I am not so good at frosting, but you get the gist. I like the one in the middle, he's a CYCLOPS!
(I totally did that on purpose!)

ice cream cake: the tutorial

Ice cream cakes are hard to make, I discovered this when my friend Ashley made one and I watched her frustration as it melted and got all wonky and didn't stay frozen. This made me want to make my own ice cream cake, and it also helped me be prepared for all of the wonky crap I might have to deal with. I made this cake for my friend Jess's birthday and I wanted to post all the cool pictures I took to help you the reader, make your own perfect un-wonky ice cream cakes! I promise to post a cake recipe soon but until then I recommend you pick up "vegan cupcakes take over the world" which is where I get all my cake recipes from.



I used a spring form pan for the ice cream, this makes it easier to pop the ice cream out in one piece without it breaking in half of getting all melty. I coated the bottom in wax paper and actually clamped it in there so the sides wouldn't be all wrinkly ice cream looking.



Use two pints of your favorite vegan ice cream, Jess likes strawberry so I used the only strawberry ice cream I could find. You would think strawberry ice cream would be a staple in vegan ice cream world since it is so important in non vegan ice cream world but no, I never see it anywhere. Its kinda effed up.



Mash that shit down and put wax paper on it and squish it all flat through the wax paper with your fingers so it hits the sides and you know is as flat as possible. Put it in the freezer! This needs to freeze overnight for maximum strong cake mode.


Now that that's out of the way you have time to make the cake!! Dig up your favorite cake recipe and bake it, then put it in the freezer for a few hours to make sure that its cool!! Make sure the cake is completely cold before trying to combine it with the ice cream layer because a warm cake will make the ice cream melt!



I separated my cakes with a layer of wax paper for maximum freezer storage. Don't stack them without a dividing layer cause they will get stuck together. Use some plastic wrap or wax paper, aluminum will stick to the frozen cake and so will paper. Don't be a dummy!! SCIENCE!!


Ice cream layer!!!!


GIANT ICE CREAM SANDWICH!!! (if you hate frosting eat it like this!! ) This is the part where you freak out and panic and try to rush! OH GOD HURRY FROST IT BEFORE IT MELTS!!


Strawberry butter cream frosting! I made this with real strawberries, that pink is all natural. I would post the recipe but unfortunately its not a stable frosting in non ice cream cake situations and gets all separatey and I don't want to do that to you guys, it was hard to deal with it. Also it was a disgusting mess when it got warm!!


I cut up strawberries and put them on top, oohh la la only the best for my Jess. She was stoked. Life is beautiful, and so is this ice cream cake. BOO YAH! Okay now you make one and send me pictures (and save me a piece!!)

Abuelita frosting

This is a bit of a variation on a theme. I have always felt that birthdays are a day for celebrating, what better way to celebrate with a cake? Honestly, in my opinion, a birthday without cake is a piss poor birthday. Since I live my life by this celebratory kredo I always tend to be the one making the cakes. I am a big fan of a vanilla cake, but sometimes I get a little crazy with the frosting. I like trying new things. One time I made vanilla frosting with TANG drink mix in it, it was pretty awesome and had little orange flavor bursts! YUM. This time I decided to take the new cinnamon extract out for a whirl, in the fashion of my favorite regional hot chocolate "abuelita"




Ingredients:
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
3 Tbsp "milk"
approximately 3 dashes of ground cinnamon (i shook the thing thrice)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon extract.



Beat together the margarine and shortening until smooth, add cocoa powder and beat until well mixed. Add in powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time separated by dashes of "milk" to keep the party going. Once the sugar is completely mixed in and smooth add the cinnamon extract to spice things up a little and beat the heck out of that to make sure its well dispersed.



Spread this stuff all over your cakes, cupcakes or whatever you want. My roommate put my leftover frosting on some waffles this morning, it was a little weird but so is he. If you want to do it too that makes it less weird.

Yummy Banana French Toast

mmmm whippy!

Being a vegan, you gotta get pretty creative to revamp recipes that normally use eggs. I most frequently use bananas but have also used ground flax, apple sauce and this weird cool powder called ener-g egg replacer I get at my local natural foods store.

Anyway this was made for me by my (idk bff) Rich. He always makes me delicious food and I love him forever for it (along with many other valid reasons) it was kind of a "thrown together" type of deal so I re-made it today with more of a recipe feel.

Ingredients:
1 banana
1 cup "milk"
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp corn starch (for thickening!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 Slices of bread

Toppings:
Whatever you want really. I recommend confectioners sugar, margarine and agave nectar. Also the old standby maple syrup. Chocolate sauce, peanut butter, jam... I could go on for days! Yum!

Directions:
Break out that blender or food processor and mix all ingredients (minus the bread duh) together until smooth! Put the mixture in a flat bottomed bowl (big enough to lay the bread flat in!)
Get a medium sized pan and use a little margarine to coat the pan.



On medium low heat warm up your pan, I always work with an already warm pan so my food cooks evenly! Lay a slice o' bread in the batter bowl and coat both sides, don't let it sit too long, no one likes soggy toast. Put it in the pan and let it cook maybe 2 minutes on each side, I don't know how well your stove works so you better just check it. The toast is done when its a toasty light brown!

see the burnt looking one? I did that when I was taking pictures for you fine people DOH!

Top with a slab of margarine, a sprinkling of powdered sugar and some agave or maple syrup! Okay now bring me my breakfast in bed! Enjoy!!

Banana chocolate chip muffins!

I is tha muffinator

the prettiest muffins you ever did see...

So this originally called for blueberries instead of chocolate chips but who's got blueberries just lying around all the time? Not me, that's for damn sure!! I ain't no fancy pants blueberry keeper!! (no offence to any fancy pants blueberry keepers, I actually envy and commend you for your fancy pants wearing and amazing blueberry keepingness) So since I am too cheap to go buy blueberries I looked to my old fail safe, chocolate.

Chocolate, oh how I love thee.



Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup "milk"
1 large banana
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tbsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips



Preheat oven to 375 degrees (do ovens in other countries have their heat knobs marked in celcius?) Lightly oil 12 muffin tins or line with paper liners. In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients together, (except chocolate chips) set aside. In a blender or food processor mix all the wet ingredients (peel the banana first! I also recomend breaking it into chunks for easy blending) together until smooth! Slowly mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture until it looks, you know... mixed, mix in chocolate chips and spoon evenly into muffin cups.



Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean! Let cool completely before removing from tins! Makes 12 muffins! ENJOY!!

after I bake them I like to have philosophical discussions with them and bait them for compliments...

Chocolate Tofu Pie

My friend Marc made an observation yesterday that all of my recipes so far involve chocolate. Let me offer a simple explanation; chocolate is the driving force behind everything I do. Chocolate is my inspiration, chocolate is my mother, my father, my sister and my lover. Without chocolate my world would simply spin off its axis. That being said, here's some more chocolate!!



Ingredients:

12 oz silken tofu
12 oz chocolate chips (1 bag dude)
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pre made graham cracker crust or a bunch of graham crackers and margarine to make your own!

Also: a blender or food processor!




Directions: Pour chocolate chips into a glass bowl and nuke for 2 minutes (1 minute if its summer time and your house is all hot already) OR if you want to be fancy melt them in a double boiler. Personally I always microwave because its faster, there is less clean up, and my food just tastes a little better with a small amount of radiation. Make sure you stir it every 30 seconds or so to prevent burnage.



Drain water from the tofu and cut into chunks for easy blending, I put these in the blender first because they are soft and mush well. Pour the maple syrup and vanilla in there too, don't blend that shit yet! Once the chocolate is done melting, (it may still look chippy, if you have a powerful blender that's okay. If not keep melting, be careful the bowl will be very hot!) scrape the chocolate into the blender with a rubber spatula. Now we are ready to blend! Keep the spatula handy to scrape the sides inbetween blend cycles! This part takes a while so just stick with it.



Once its blended nice and smooth (like buttah) pour it into the graham crust! You can use the rubber scraper for this part too, man are these guys handy! You can smooth the chocolate mixture down with the spatula or just wiggle the crust a little to even it out.




Now comes the horrible part!! You have to wait FOREVER for this pie to be ready. Cover and put it in the fridge and leave it there, I always do overnight at least, (before its even slicable!) but it tastes better and gets firmer and "Mousier" the longer its in there! I believe it reaches its peak as a 2 day old pie. Granted the first time you make this you will want to eat it right away and might be a little dissapointed at first. I'm warning you, just be patient! Patience is a virtue, pie is also a virtue. Patience pie baby.

This is a perfect summertime pie because you don't have to use the oven, it's served cold (it starts getting mushy at room temp) and is great topped with whipped cream! Its so rich and creamy your friends won't be able to tell its tofu!

Enjoy!!

Danny's famous vegan banana chocolate chip cookies!

Not to get an ego or anything, but these cookies are kind of a big deal. I made up the recipe years ago so I could make my friend vegan cookies for her birthday, lets just say she ate so many she got sick. Ever since then these cookies have been a staple at most potlucks and parties I attend. These cookies have gotten me so much praise and esteem, and now world, its your turn.

(this picture is missing a few cookies, I can't even keep them on the plate!)

Ingredients:
2 regular sized bananas (if the bananas seem large use just one!)
1/2 cup margarine (1 stick! I saw this as a question on who wants to be a millionaire once and the lady got it WRONG!!)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
4 oz chocolate chips
1/2 cup almond meal (or really any nut meal or just nuts [i like walnuts or sliced almonds] if you don't want to get fancy... if you have some sort of nut vendetta just don't use them and put in a little more flour!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease your cookie sheet.
Cream bananas and marg together (I use a potatoe masher! if the margarine is mixed in cold it's harder to mix completely but your cookies will have delightful flavor pockets. I never bake with melted butter!) Mix in sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract!

In a seperate bowl (I know you won't use a seperate bowl cause you are stubborn like me!) mix flour, salt, nutmeal (optional) and baking powder together and slowly mix them into the butter banana concoction. If it seems too gooey (big bananas) add in a little more flour. We want it to be kind of thick so our cookies don't pancake.



Once thats all mixed together you can add in your chunky stuff like chocolate chips and nuts! stir those in real good and then place heaping tablespoons onto the cookie sheet appropriately spaced. I usually do a 3 x 4 type of deal. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are a light golden (bake magic) color!

Let cool for a few minutes so you don't burn your greedy little mouths. OR... flip some of them puppies right into a bowl and put a scoop (or two) of your favorite ice cream on top. Eat immediately, prepare for your world to explode. (this is not recommended for people who cannot handle extreme amounts of delicious.)

Another suggestion: In the summer I love to freeze the dough before its baked and eat it like, well... cookie dough.

Enjoy!!