Strawberry Shortcake Cake

When my daughter took a shine to Strawberry Shortcake, I did a little happy dance. While the modern changes to Strawberry were really not necessary, nostalgia still floods my mind when I play with her shortcake dolls. 

Each birthday I ask my children what type of cake they want, and I was beyond thrilled when my girl said Strawberry Shortcake.

The cake house was made from three stacked layers of 8 inch rounds using my Strawberry Shortcake cupcake recipe. To support to weight I used cake round flats in between each layer with cake dowels in between them.

My only modification to the recipe was using fluffy vanilla frosting instead of whipped cream between layers, as I was concerned it would only soak into the cake and cake boards between layers. I did add a squirt of vegan whipped cream on top, as it just wouldn't be strawberry shortcake without it. I bought mine at Whole Foods.

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Fluffy Whipped Vanilla Frosting

1/2 cup Earth Balance Buttery Sticks

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

2 tsp. vanilla

4-6 Tbsp. non-dairy milk

3 1/2-4 cups powdered sugar

Cream together the margarine, vanilla and shortening. Slowly mix in powdered sugar and non-dairy milk, alternating between the two. Add more powdered sugar or soy milk to obtained desired texture. Once mixed well, beat for about ten minutes until frosting is nice and fluffy. 

Mystery Machine Birthday Cake

My kids have become smitten with old school Scooby Doo cartoons. While I'm not a huge fan of television, it is one kid's show I don't mind watching, conjuring forth nostalgic glimpses of my childhood.

For my son's birthday he requested a Mystery Machine cake. The party was only a couple days after my birthday, so it worked out nicely. The less cake I've got around here, the better.

The cake was made using the marble cupcake recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I doubled it. In cake form, it made a dense cake perfect for stacking. I love putting the new mixer I won in a VegNews contest to good use!

Decorating the cake consisted of a layer of dairy-free butter cream frosting with fondant detailing. The vegan fondant I used was Satin Ice, which says right on the front page: 0g trans fats, 0mg cholesterol. Allergen information: Gluten free, dairy free, nut free. Contains no animal derived products (vegan). Certified kosher pareve. 

To top it off, we added figurines of the whole gang standing next to the Mystery Machine. I picked them up at Toys R' Us.

My husband helped with the detailing for the cake, and printed out versions of the mystery machine from all angles. Then he cut out and used them as a template for the rolled fondant.

1. The cake was made using two 9 x 13 inch cakes. They were cut first length wise and the on the end to get the correct size. 
2. I crumb coated the bottom layer of the first large piece of cake on it's own, making sure to cut out cake board slightly smaller than the cake. (we stacked it on a sturdy construction paper wrapped book to align the wheels properly).
3. Add another onto the bottom one by piecing together the cut parts from the rest of the first cake.
4. Next I put in dowel supports to hold up the two layers on the bottom.
5. Cut the second cake and put it on its own cake board, cut to match its exact size.
6. Add crumb coat and then last layer from the leftover pieces again, add crumb coat to it too.
7. Stack the second cake on top of the first one. 
8. I pushed a dowel through all layers, to hold both layers steady.
9. Put the cake in the freezer for an hour.
10. Remove and ice with blue colored frosting.
11. Print off copies of the Mystery Machine to scale to create detailing. 
12. Using a toothpick to trace the patterns on rolled out fondant.
13. To attach fondant detailing onto the Mystery Machine, lightly wet the back of the fondant with water.
14. The wheels we made using Oreos, piped frosting, and fondant flowers. 

That is the basic jist of making it. If you are interested and have questions, feel free to leave a comment or email about it.

My son thoroughly enjoyed his cake, as you can see below. Vegans can have their fancy cakes and eat them too!

Purple Hello Kitty Birthday Cake

Think you can't have a fancy vegan birthday cake? Think again. If you have the time to create a non-vegan one, it will take no longer to do a vegan one.

My daughter LOVES hello kitty, and was thrilled to have that theme for her party. Since purple and pink are her favorite colors (in that order), the castle cake's primary colors were chosen for me.

The cake is covered with fondant. Vegan fondant does exist, and is readily available. The kind which I prefer is Satin Ice. I like that it says directly on their web page "Fondant contains no animal derived ingredients." I've also heard the Wilton version is vegan as well, but that it doesn't taste as good.

If you are still coming up short, I found a recipe over at "Live.Learn.Love.Eat" for vegan marshmallow fondant which sounds delicious. I can't wait to try it!

Don't forget to enter the Vegan Mofo contest this week for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Vegan Essentials!

Vegan Chocolate Maple Owl Birthday Cake

Somehow I forgot to share the birthday cake I made for my daughter's first birthday. It was a lot of fun, and was easy to decorate. The only challenge was piping on a the Happy Birthday message vertically. Alas, it wasn't my greatest work, but I don't think my daughter cared.

I found this idea at Parenting, and added my personal touches to it. My daughter loved the cake, and still asks to see pictures of it. Elliott immediately announced that he wanted one for his birthday. Since he has requested construction cakes the past two years, I am not so sure he will stick with his request. Either way, it was a compliment considering his preferences.

If you are interested in the details: the beak and feet are made from runts, the eyes are Oreos with miniature Oreos for the pupils, the bow is marzipan with food coloring worked in, mini pretzels made up the nest, and the ear tufts are Oreos split in half.

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

If you've read my previous blog entries, you're aware of my not-so-secret love affair with chocolate and peanut butter. Last week, I was thinking about what to make for my son's birthday and suddenly it popped into my head, vegan chocolate peanut butter cup cupcakes.

As in chocolate peanut butter cups baked right into the cupcake. It took longer than your average cupcake to make, but it was well worth it. The vegan peanut butter cups were homemade, but you could buy them already made by Sjaak's or Allison's Gourmet if it suits your fancy.

The peanut butter cups were made using this recipe from a friend's vegan family blog. I used a peanut butter cup mold and filled it with the absolutely delicious filling.

Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

1 jar natural peanut butter

1 package of graham crackers (there are usually 3 packages per box, the Keebler original are vegan)

2 cups of powdered sugar

1 stick of softened Earth Balance Buttery Sticks margarine (not melted)

1 1/2 Boxes of Baker's Semi-Sweet chocolate

Start by melting three-quarters of the chocolate on the stove using a double broiler. I heat a small amount of water in a larger sauce pan, and melt the chocolate in a smaller pan nested in the larger one. DO NOT let water get into your chocolate, as it will seize up the chocolate. Once it is melted well, take it off of the burner and add the remaining chocolate. This tempers the chocolate, so it dries with a nice shiny finish. 

Crush the graham crackers into crumbs in a food processor or in between two pieces of wax paper, rolled over with a rolling pin. Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, softened margarine, and powdered sugar. Depending on the thickness, you may need to kneed it with your hands. 

Using a peanut butter cup mold, coat the mold to create the cup for the filling. Put it into the freezer a couple minutes. take it out once it is hardened, and fill with the peanut butter filling. Coat the top of the coat with a layer of chocolate then put in freezer a couple minutes again. Remove when it is completely hard and shake out of mold. 

Lately I've been using the crazy cake recipe that originates back to WWI, and I did for these as well. It made just over a couple dozen cupcakes. As always, I altered the recipe, but only a couple minor changes.

Crazy Cake

3 cups unbleached flour

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 heaping cup cocoa

1 Tbsp. white vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

 3/4 cup vegetable Oil

 2 cups water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add remaining wet ingredients with dry ones and mix. Do not over mix. Fill cupcake liners halfway full and add peanut butter cup to the center of the cupcake batter. Bake in oven for 11-14 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Be sure to not stab the peanut butter cup when checking with a toothpick, it should be done on the side of it. Once cooled frost with peanut butter frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup Earth Balance Buttery Sticks

1/4 plus 1 Tbsp. vegetable shortening

2/3 cup peanut butter

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

2-3 Tbsp. soy or almond milk

Cream together the margarine, shortening, and peanut butter. Slowly mix in powdered sugar and soy milk, alternating between the two. Once mixed well, beat for about five minutes until frosting is nice and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar or soy milk to obtained desired texture.

I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Vegan Blogs.

White Chocolate Frosted Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling

Last summer my husband made an adapted version of these for my birthday, his first attempt at making cupcakes, and they turned out incredible. There were rave reviews all around from these tasty treats.

Every 7 years, my husband's birthday falls on Thanksgiving. This year happens to be one of those times, so we had cupcakes alongside the pecan pie and pumpkin pie truffles I made.

If you are living in the twin cities like me, you can pick up some vegan white chocolate at Ethique Nouveau, an all vegan store in town. If not, it available at many co-ops or Whole Foods. Still no luck? Try online from Pangea, Vegan Essentials, or try making your own. My adapted recipe is below. It will not disappoint!

White Chocolate Raspberry Filled Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup granulated sugar

6 ounces white chocolate, melted

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp lemon extract

1 Tbsp vinegar

Filling:

1/2 cup melted seedless raspberry jelly

1/2 cup frosting (see recipe below)

Frosting:

1/2 cup Earth Balance Buttery Sticks or margarine, softened

1/3 cup vegetable shortening

3 to 4 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 Tbsp soy milk or coconut milk

8 ounces white chocolate, melted

1-2 Tbsp. raspberry powder

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 F

First, mix the soy milk and coconut milk (beverage, not from a can) with vinegar and set aside to curdle. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add sugar and mix. Whisk together remaining curdled milk mixture with the lemon extract, oil and vanilla. Melt the white chocolate slowly in the microwave, heating it 30 seconds at a time, then stirring, and repeat until it has a smooth texture. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill cupcake liners with 2/3 cup of batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

To make filling, combine raspberry jelly and frosting until creamy. You can fill the cupcakes using a special tip made for filling baked goods, or cut out small cones from tops of cupcakes, filling them, then replacing the tops. The holes should be approximately 1/2″ across and 1/2″ deep). If you have the filling tip, insert it into the middle of the cupcake and fill it with about a tablespoon of frosting or to your preference.

To make frosting, beat margarine and shortening until fluffy. Slowly add confectioners sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until creamy. Melt white chocolate as before, and add to frosting and mix well. Add vanilla extract and soy milk, and beat until fluffy (add more sugar and/or soymilk if you need it, until you get the right texture). Generously pipe or spread onto filled cupcakes. Top each cupcakes by sprinkling with raspberry powder, a raspberry, or a gumdrop. I often use fruit powders to flavor and/or color cupcakes, frostings, and other desserts.

Cupcake

Vegan Cupcake Cuties

While I enjoy making tasty cupcakes, it is fun to find simple ways to decorate them. I conjured up this monkey and lion design, because Evie loves animals. It made them all the more special at birthday parties where the cake wasn't vegan.

The best part is they are easy to make and take no time at all!

To make the monkey, I used peanut butter Oreos, but haven't been able to find them in stores anymore. Luckily, Newman's makes an organic vegan version of them. All I did for the monkey's face, was shape some marzipan to make the snout, and chocolate chips for the ears. The rest is just piped chocolate and vanilla icing.

The lion is made from Anna's cookies with marzipan to make the face and ears. The features are piped chocolate icing and pink tinted vanilla frosting. Next time around, I'll probably cut up a fruit leather or gun drop to make the nose. 

Simple Animal Cupcakes: Pigs and Chicks

I made these cupcakes to bring to a friend's birthday party. You don't need to be an expert to make these, they are simple to execute. Here is how: bake up your favorite cupcake recipe, and vegan buttercream frosting. If you are looking for a recipe check past posts for a good one. For the chick, color 1-2 cups of coconut with yellow food coloring, sprinkle a thick layer on top of a frosted cupcake. Use two semi-sweet chocolate chops for eyes, a split orange gum drop for a beak, and a gum drop rolled out into a wing shape (or check the store for some already shaped that way). For the pigs, color the frosting pick, use semi-sweet chocolate chips for eyes, pressed pink gumdrops for ears, and pink dyed marzipan for the nose. Use a frosting tip to add dots for the pig's nostrils.

End of the Sabbatical

Sorry for disappearing for so long. It had been a busy summer, and we've had a continuous string of things happen. It started with our 1 year old in a cast two weeks, a death in the family, a visit to Children's ER, and then two weeks of high fevers. It seems we have a break for now, and I'm hoping it lasts.
I've missed sharing some things, so I'll spend this week catching up on our summer shenanigans. We celebrated our son's 3rd birthday in June and here is a picture of him enjoying the cake we made for him.

Last year he had a digger cake, and this year he was still very much into construction machines. He wanted a construction site cake. We were able re-use decorations from last year it worked out well. Here is a closer picture of the cake.

It was a combination of two types of cake. One side is marble with vanilla frosting in between, and the second half is white chocolate cake with raspberry filling.

Vegan Birthday Party

At the beginning of this month my baby girl turned one. After losing our first son to a stillbirth, first birthdays are a big deal at our house. When we threw our first vegan birthday party for my son Elliott I was overwhelmed with determining what to serve for food. 


I baked three practice cakes to find a recipe I felt was delicious enough to represent vegan food. Prior to that my cake baking experience comprised of veganizing the cake recipe on the back of Hershey's Cocoa Powder.

Below is more detail on what food we served for the various birthday parties we've hosted if you are looking for ideas. We chose simple food since we have two little ones to keep up with while cooking.

Food

PB & J sandwiches shaped like dinosaurs

Hummus & pita chips

Veggie tray with onion dip

Fruit Salad

Vegan potato salad (recipe from here)

Chips & Salsa or Guacamole

Pretzels

Spring rolls

Veggie Nuggets

Sloppy Joes

Warm 3 Bean Dip

Drinks

Lemonade

Tea

Juice Boxes

Favor Boxes

Ritz Mini Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Annie's Fruit Snacks

Skittles (check for gelatin free there are still ones with gelatin out there)

Temporary Tattoos

Stickers

Birthday Cakes & Cupcakes

Classic Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

Vanilla Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting, topped with chocolate fondant -and-

Almond Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting, topped with vanilla fondant

Until my kids came along, I never really decorated cakes other than the simple frosting and adding the obligatory "Happy Birthday" writing. At the parties there were a lot of people who thought the cakes were store bought. Personally I think they were just being kind, but for a novice I think they turned out pretty good. My ideas were gleaned from a birthday cake site, where people submit their homemade cakes with instruction on how to do them. The ladybug and digger cake were a combination of ideas, but it is a great place to get inspiration.