Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a good one; I know I did. For me, Thanksgiving is one of the few days that I can eat stuffing. A staple at any Thanksgiving feast, stuffing is something that I do not get to eat often so when I do, I go all out.

Now, I need to acknowledge the fact that sometimes, my blog posts are not posted as frequent as they once were. Well, I have a lot to do now that I am in the final weeks of my first semester. With papers, projects, and exams, it's actually a lot harder than I thought it would be to post once a week. True, I should have done it earlier than today (I will post the real post later this evening) but I had a lot of stuff to do. I will say that I have become a really big fan of that vegan cupcake book that I have been using recently and have decided that I will probably be using the recipes from that book for a while. What can I say, they always come out soo good. Speaking of which, stay tuned for my post tonight; I'll be talking about my adventures baking orange cupcakes with orange pudding filling  (oh yea, fancy) and topped with chocolate ganache.

Until later,
Jill

Red Velvet recipe

 Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes with Vegan Butter-cream Frosting
Recipe by Isa Chandra Moskowtiz and Terry Hope Romero

• 1 c (237 ml) soy milk
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/4 c (156 g) flour
• 1 c (198 g) sugar
• 2 Tbls cocoa
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 c (78 ml) canola oil
• 2 Tbls red food coloring (liquid)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract

Heat oven to 350F (175C) and line a cupcake tin.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the soy milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle (this is to imitate buttermilk. It is an important step because the vinegar gives the baking soda something with which it can react!)
In another bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Add the oil, food coloring and extracts to the curdled soy milk and whisk well to combine. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet and fold to combine, mixing just until large lumps disappear.
Pour into liners and bake 18-20 minutes.

• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening
• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine
• 3 1/2 cups of confectioner's sugar, shifted
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plain soy milk

Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes. Add the vanilla and soy milk, beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.

A Velvety Surprise

I really need to stop making it a habit of falling behind in my blog posts. But then again, being a junior in college certainly complicates things. But before I get going on today's post, here are a few updates.

1. I had to write five papers for one class. Something that nearly cost me my sanity
2. I baked last week however the cupcakes didn't turn out that great. I really don't want to count them as a recipe since I think I can do far better. As of now, the count stands at 882, counting the ones from a few weeks ago, and the ones I made yesterday
3.  I am going back home this weekend to see a Goo-Goo Dolls concert with my older sister. This is something that I have been looking forward to for a while
4. Thanksgiving is coming up soon which means I can stuff myself silly with stuffing. The best dish ever created! My mother has asked me to come up with some recipes for thanksgiving to try. I am sure that you can guess how excited I am about this
5. I am taking part in NANOWRIMO National Novel Writing Month. Which means yes,. I have started typing a new story. Its in its early stages and I'll be really impressed to see if I actually finish this one. Cross your fingers for me

And yea, that's basically what's been going on these past few weeks. I should mention now that my favorite pastry recipe is red velvet. Naturally, when I decided at the beginning of this week to try my hand at making vegan red velvet cupcakes I instantly got excited. I will say now that I am one of those people that believe that red velvet cupcakes/cakes should be made with beets rather than red chemical dye. Sadly, the recipe called for the use of dye and I really didn't trust my ability to try modifying the recipe to use beet juice. On the positive end of things, these cupcakes came out tasting amazing. Without, if I may note, the taste of red chemicals. The book I used, in case you're wondering, was Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I have used this book before and totally love it. I have also used their cookie book and that too, is awesome! Speical thanks to Therese for modeling the book for me. Way to work it girl!

I doubt that I have ever mentioned this before, but, I really hate sifters. I think they are silly, since the stuff kinda falls through the mesh bottom before actually getting combined. On top of that, how am I supposed to hold the sifter, turn it, while pouring the dry ingredients? I am sure that there is a method to it. Have I found it yet? No. Instead, I have come up with my own solution to my sifter woes. I call it the colander method. Basically, have your mixing bowl, than put the colander inside. Next, place your sifter in the colander. This way, what doesn't get sifted in the sifter can still be sifted in the colander. Pour the ingredients in and sift away! No mess or hassle; just a perfectly sifted mixture!

Returning to what I said before about the red food dye, I will admit now that I have never actually used food coloring before. I guess my expectations where raised rather high. I'm not sure exactly what I thought it was going to be like but I never thought that the stuff would smell so... chemcially. The smell alone made me not want to use it, thinking that the cupcakes would smell like that too. Thankfully, they didn't. Instead, they came out looking and smelling delicious!

Soooooooo Pretty!

And red velvet would not be complete without frosting! Now I know that red velvet cupcakes should be made with cooked frosting or cream cheese. However, I lacked the time and ingredients to make either. So, I took the unconventional route and tried making them with vegan butter cream. I will say now that shortening tastes awful but this frosting tastes amazing! I swear that I feel in love after the first taste. If that's not enough of a reason to try them, the fact that they are easy to make should be more than enough of a reason!

Ok, so this would be the part where I post the recipe, but since  I am without the book at the moment, I will add it later. For this coming week, I'm thinking of something fruity. How does that sound?

Until next time,

Jill

Hello!

Just wanted everyone to know that there is a post coming, however, I have five papers due on Tuesday for my sociolgy class and need to focus my time on that. Will post soon though!

Until then,
Jill