Pumpkin and Cat Halloween Cake Pops

Recently I heard a rumor about preparing "accidentally" vegan cake mixes using pumpkin puree in lieu of oil and eggs. Since it sounded interesting, I gave it a whirl. It worked pretty well, and I decided to make Halloween cake pops using the cake.

It was an extremely moist cake and the result is rather tasty and fun to decorate. Next time I would probably make the crazy cake recipe for cake pops and save the pumpkin recipe for cake or cupcakes. My sister came over and we came up with a couple design ideas and below is the result.

Pretty cute huh?

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake Pops

1 package of vegan chocolate cake mix
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree
amount of water called for in recipe
 3/4 to 1 1/4 cup chocolate frosting (see below for recipe) or use vegan Duncan Hines Chocolate Frosting

Preheat oven to recommended temperature on box. I used the Duncan Hines Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix. Combine water and can of pumpkin puree to cake mix. Follow instructions on box for preparation.

Once baked, allow to cool and flip cake into a mixing bowl. Break apart cake into crumbs, and add chocolate frosting (see recipe below). Mix until it looks like the picture below. Start with less frosting first since you can't go back once it is added.

Roll it into balls, and add paper sticks. Place in freezer for 3-4 hours. Start to prepare the chocolate coating (see instructions below), add the ears onto the cake pop by dabbing a bit of melted chocolate onto a chocolate chip to make the ears stick. Put them back into the freezer until you are ready to coat them.

It is important to lay out your decorating materials before starting the coating, because the chocolate will dry pretty quickly. Once ready, roll pop in melted chocolate, decorate, and stick into a Styrofoam base to allow it to harden.

Chocolate Coating 


1 package of E. Guittard semi-sweet wafers
2 Tbsp. Earth Balance
1 Tbsp. Coconut oil

Melting the chocolate, margarine, and coconut oil in a double broiler. You could experiment and probably eliminate the margarine by adjusting the amount of coconut oil.

Here is the chocolate I used, which I found at Williams Sonoma:

Chocolate Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 - 1/3 cup coconut milk beverage
1/4 cup Earth Balance Buttery Sticks
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup powdered cocoa

First cream together the shortening and margarine, and then add in the vanilla and cocoa powder. Next add the powdered sugar and coconut milk by alternating between the two and mixing in between additions. Do this until it is all added.

Then beat the frosting for 10 minutes, it will give it the light fluffiness. Don't skimp on the time, trust me on this one. If it doesn't seem creamy enough after everything is added, you can put in a little extra coconut milk beverage.

Happy Halloween!

In the meantime, don't forget to go enter the giveaway this week for a chance to win vegan butterscotch chips or a copy of The 30 Day Vegan Challenge.

Liebster Awards: Feeling the Love

Liebster Award!


What? Huh? I tried to track down the origin of this Liebster Award, but alas tired quickly. It appears to be the blog form of a "chain letter." Regardless, I think it is an excellent opportunity to share my new favorite blogs.

Thanks to Dawn from VeganAm and Kelly fromThree and a Half Vegans for each awarding me a Liebster award. It really made my day to have that acknowledgement! Below is the spiel that is circulating about it.

“Liebster” is German and means ‘dearest’ or ‘beloved’ but it can also mean ‘favorite’. The idea behind this award is to bring attention to bloggers who have less than 200 followers and show your support during Vegan Mofo!

The rules of winning this award are as follows:

1. Show your thanks to those who gave you the award by linking back to them.

2. Reveal 5 of your top picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Post the award on your blog.

4. Enjoy the love and support of some wonderful people on the www!

My top five new blogs I've been so lucky to find, thanks to Vegan Mofo are:

1) Chubby Vegan Mom

2) Cooking Vegan Food Up North

3) Vegan and So Forth

4) Fork and Beans

5) Lita's World

How about you? Have any new favorites?

Pecan Butter Truffle Pumpkins

Lately I can't seem to get enough pecan butter, so these delectable chocolate confections were born. It is coated in white chocolate colored orange. Since pecan butter has a thinner consistency, it was necessary to freeze them to keep the filling from melting into the chocolate.

The recipe still requires a little tweaking, but they are definitely worth making. Once I get it perfected, I'll post the revisions. I wish these weren't still in my kitchen tempting me to snack way too late at night.

Pecan Butter Truffles "Pumpkins"

1 bag of vegan white chocolate chips
2 Tbsp. canola oil
orange food coloring

1 cup pecan butter
1 1/2 cups of graham cracker or cookie crumbs
1/4 cup softened Earth Balance Buttery Sticks
2-3 cups powdered sugar

In mix together the pecan butter, graham cracker/cookie crumbs, softened margarine (not melted), and powdered sugar. Start with 2 cups of powdered sugar and add more if it is hard to roll into balls. I made it in the food processor, but you don't need to. Roll into balls and store in freezer overnight.

Prepare coating by melting white chocolate chips in a double broiler. Add in the food coloring and oil to thin out the chocolate. You could try using margarine too. Once chocolate is melted, remove pecan balls from the freezer and roll in chocolate until coated well. Place them on wax paper to harden. Add a pretzel rod split into  thirds for the pumpkin stem.

Vegan Camping!

Recently we took the plunge and went on our first family camping trip. In order to test the waters, we stuck close to home in case the whole thing blew up in our face. Luckily it didn't and fun was had by all.

Any vegan camping trip would not be complete without veggie dogs and roasted veggies. As evidenced by the photo above and below, they REALLY enjoyed roasting the veggie dogs. To prevent them from blistering, lightly spray with canola oil before roasting. We used baskets to roast the veggies, and it worked best when they were wrapped in foil.

You can see my son eating his without a bun, and man does he ever have a tight grip on it. This vegan kiddo loves himself a veggie dog.

While on our trip we made scrumptious vegan s'mores. We even bastardized them a bit, by using candy  bars on a couple instead of chocolate. Unfortunately, they didn't last long enough to photograph, but I made some s'mores with peanut butter cups at home later.

We couldn't leave our "dooger" Polly behind, our affectionate nickname for the sweetest Beagle in the whole wide world. She loved being outside and snuggling up in the tent.

If we didn't have little kids, I probably would've tried a more challenging breakfast, but for our first time bagels worked quite nicely.

All in all, we had a super time, and the kids are already asking to go again. Mission camping with two small children was a success!

Vegan Vegkins Halloween Party Part Deux

The second annual vegan Vegkins Halloween party was a success. Twin cities represent! To keep it simple for food, we did a potluck again. I can't think of a more perfect way to learn new family friendly recipes, than having parents make their favorites at a potluck. If you are looking for other party ideas, check out my previous posts on Easy Vegan Halloween Food, White Chocolate Ghosts, and Homemade Halloween Candy.

There were a few Halloween themed goodies I just have to share with you. The first was a mom's first time baking vegan, and boy did it turn out delicious and festive! She told me that the recipe came from Veg News, which was linked up to Chef Chloe's recipe for Witches Fingers, you know the one that won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. Yep, a vegan cupcake took the cake so to speak!

The next thematic dish was spaghetti worms with veggie meat eyeballs. Not only was it eye-catching (get it, eye catching), but it was a festive dish for our event. This was made by Betsy, who also shared her technique for peanut butter blossoms. She has some mad talent!

Not only did she make the kid-friendly spaghetti dish, she also carved this awesome brain watermelon. It looked fabulous!

I could go on and on about the other food, but lets get on to the fun had all around, with a craft, games, and a costume contest. Here is Anna from These Little Piggies have Tofu working on a Halloween mobile.

Between meal time and games, the kids all created a kid "mosh pit" type of game inside at folded up gymnastic floor mat. Kids really can have fun with just about anything!

Al and his wife Jen from These Little Piggies Had Tofu, planned the games for the party. They did not disappoint! The first was a musical shapes game. The kid's danced to music, when it stopped they needed to find an animal to stand on. Everyone played until they all had a chance to win.

The kid's loved Pin the Tail on the Cat, and some wanted multiple turns. Look how cute the kitty cat blind fold glasses were for the game!

At the end, we announced winners of the costume contest and then everyone got a treat bag full of vegan goodies to take home.

Do you attend or throw a vegan Halloween party for your kiddos? If not, you can always start up your own group. A fine place to start is Meetup.com online. There are vegan meet up groups all over the country on there, a perfect place to meet other parents. Our group is linked in with the Animal Rights Coalition, which send prospective families our way as well. Happy Party Planning

Don't forget to enter the contest to win either some butterscotch chips or a copy of 30 Day Vegan Challenge.

Vegan Mofo Giveaway Number 4: 30 Day Vegan Challenge, Butterscotch Chips

For newbie vegans or those of you are interested in trying it out, The 30 Day Vegan Challenge, is the perfect book. If you haven't looked out any of Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's books, please do. I use The Joy of Vegan Baking frequently. The gingerbread scones are my favorite holiday treat. For a chance to win this book, or some delicious butterscotch chips from Vegan Essentials, please see details below. 

The two winners will be chosen next Saturday, October the 29th. One for the 30 Day Vegan Challenge and one for butterscotch chips.

The winners are: Kala (Vegan Craftastic) won butterscotch chips and Ashley F. won a copy of 30 Day Vegan Challenge. Congratulations!

Here is how you enter:

1) First subscribe to my blog. If you are already a follower, skip to step 2
2) Write in the comments what you would make with vegan butterscotch chips
3) For extra entries into the contest, like Growing Up Veg on FB, follow me on tumblr (http://veganmomma.tumblr.com), and twitter (@Vegan_Momma).
4) You can get an extra entry for tweeting or reblogging this contest too!

Please note shipping to domestic addressees only.

Easy Vegan Halloween Party Food

Halloween themed food need not be complicated. As parents of young children, it is more of a challenge to get things done while trying to keep an eye on your kids. Some of these options are fun for them to help out preparing, which is a double win - getting stuff done and the kids are involved.

Above is a simple plate with crackers and pumpkin cheese using your favorite vegan cheese. The other crackers have cream cheese on them with veggie ham bats. The kids liked to help cut out the shapes, as well as eating the scraps.

These are Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Maple Frosting, hands down my favorite Halloween treat. If you want to use a boxed cake mix, follow the instructions on the mix substituting 1/3 apple sauce for each egg, and add a Tablespoon of vinegar. I've done that with a Duncan Hines spice cake, and it worked perfectly.

Not into spice cake (really?) or maybe you just prefer chocolate. You really can't go wrong with chocolate, can't argue with that. Make some owl cupcakes using vegan creme filled cookies for the owl eyes, a runt for beaks, and chocolate chops for pupils.

If you'd rather use a pre-made mix to save time, I've got instructions on how to veganize this Pumpkin Spice Cookie Mix. You could try rolling them out and cutting them into shapes.

These white chocolate ghost pops are a cute treat to serve. If you need help getting started with home candy making, check out my post on homemade Halloween chocolates.

Don't feel like baking? Trader Joe's Halloween Joes Joes have got you covered. They are chocolate pumpkin cookies with vanilla creme filling. There are a variety of pumpkin faces, which are really cute.

I hope this helps get your party rocking. More Halloween themed posts coming up too!


In the meantime, don't forget to go enter the giveaway this week for a chance to win Go Max Go candy bars or a copy of Appetite for Reduction.