Yummy Vegan Coconut Cupcakes

Oh my gosh, these are good. Those were words from my husband and I every time we split one of these last night.  So glad I immediately popped most of them in the refrigerator.  That way they aren't in our view to pick up every time we walk in the kitchen. We really do have to give these away today because although they are vegan, they do have lots of sugar.  We shouldn't be eating all of these. My friends Christy and Les are moving today.  They have lots of help, I am sure, she has at least four children around as well as some cousins to help.  I'll drop a dozen over for a nice treat for the hard working crew, her large family.  They'll know what to do with them.

Our local vegan/vegetarian potluck is next Friday so I thought I'd practice a dessert.  There are lots of guests at our potluck who are new to plant based eating and I do like to lure them in with the sweets.  I want to let people know that eating a plant based diet doesn't mean just chewing on raw celery, carrots, and broccoli.  There are so many fun things to enjoy, but many of us in the U.S. just weren't raised with cakes and cookies made without eggs and milk.  I was surprised when I learned to bake vegan six years ago.  I had no idea I could get a beautiful, moist fluffy cake without using dairy or eggs. These are a winner and I plan on making them next week: Coconut cake with coconut creme Frosting.  The cake is rich and fluffy and the frosting creamy and full of flavor. This cake rose very nicely, a challenge for most vegan cake baking.  I've had quite a few cake attempts become 'brownies' or 'bars'.  Fresh lemon juice and zest are added to both the batter and the frosting so they have a nice citrus flavor burst.

The recipe I used is from a blog post I recently ran across called Vegan Thyme.  I bookmarked it immediately.  She makes other items, but so far I haven't gotten past her cakes yet, beautiful tasty cakes. It looks like a blog similar to my own.  The author says she created her blog to remember.  I understand that, so many things I have cooked in the past I'd like to make again, but don't remember all the ingredients because I didn't really measure and I didn't write anything down.  Keeping the blog has helped me record some of the creations I make as well as keep recipes and links I'd like to reference again.

I made cupcakes instead of a layer cake.  This recipe yielded 24 beautiful cupcakes.  I baked them for about 25 minutes at 350º.  I toasted large coconut flakes and added a little lemon zest to the top of the cupcakes. I didn't flatten the batter to make it even in the cupcake pans as the cake recipe suggests.  I just used a 3 oz. scoop and let the cake do what it does.  As you can see, it turned out just great.

Vegan Coconut Cake

*Adapted from Ina Garten

Makes two 9-inch cakes

3 sticks unsalted vegetable margarine (cut into cubes and set out at room temp. for 30 minutes)

2 cups sugar

5 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replace mixed with 1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup of water (or the egg replacer of your choice equivalent to 5 eggs)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup unsweetened non dairy milk
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
zest of half a lemon

Preheat oven to 350.

Line two 9" cake pans with parchment paper, then spray with non-stick baking spray.

In a large mixing bowl (the stand mixer works best)--add the room temperature margarine and sugar and beat on medium speed for about five minutes until the mixture is very light and very fluffy.

Prepare the dry ingredients in a separate bowl--the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk well to combine. Set aside.

Mix together the egg replacer powder with the water. Now, add this to the sugar mixture and beat on medium speed for another two minutes. Add the extracts to this and mix well. Now you add the milk and flour mixture in the following manner: first add a third of the flour and then a third of the milk to the sugar/egg mixture. Mix well after each addition--about fifteen seconds of mixing--then add another third of the flour mixture, another third of the milk and repeat this step until the flour and milk are all used. Remove the beaters from the bowl and fold in the shredded coconut and lemon zest to the batter with a spoon. Don't overmix it!

Spread the batter in the cake pans and flatten with a spatula to make sure the batter is even on top. Bake for 45 minutes. The edges of the cake should be golden brown in color and just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool in the pans for about 30 minutes. Carefully remove the cakes from the pans and allow to cool completely on cooling racks.

Vegan Coconut Butter Cream Frosting

5 tablespoons vegetable spread
5 tablespoons unsalted vegetable margarine
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
3 cups of powdered sugar--or more if needed
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract (*this is a key flavor enhancer!)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut (for sprinkling over the cake after it's frosted)

Cream together the first three ingredients then begin adding the powdered sugar one half cup at a time. Continue adding the sugar until the desired consistency of your frosting is reached. Add the extracts and lemon and zest. Mix well. If you see that you need more powdered sugar, add only about a quarter cup at a time.

My Magic Boots ~ They Cause Smiling

Christmas is all put away, and I start out the new year slow and comfortable.  We spent a quiet warm New Year's weekend at home together. Most the cooking is done for the week and it's a peaceful day. My big plans are to make a salad, finish a crocheted hat, and maybe make it out to take some winter photos in the woods a bit.  My last Christmas ornament, my blog picture, needs to be changed, but I have one more holiday story to tell.

This has been a blessed Christmas having our son home.  I haven't felt like participating in the whole season's traditions and spirit with a whole heart for three years.  It still took awhile for me to pull it out this year, but I got there.  I had a lot of help from some colorful boots I purchased recently. Not out of the ordinary for me, I like art, bright colors, and I like hand made, but pretty wild for some.  My jackets, hats, and scarves are always bright and cheery, especially around the holidays. I put on these warm colorful boots and went around doing my business.  I noticed very quickly that my day changes when I wear these boots. These wild boots make people smile.  I mean smile out loud.  I've had people walk across the room and ask where to get these boots and want to talk about the Mola prints.

I've found that Quilters know these fabrics.  Many women stop me and ask if my shoes are Molas.  Pretty fun, "Yes, they are."  I'm calling them my magic boots.  I cannot go out with these boots on and NOT smile throughout the day.  I have left the house in a normal mood and come home just about laughing while thinking about all the fun I just had going to the post office or grocery store.

The best day was two days before Christmas.  In the process of making sure there were gifts mailed on time, cookies made, and all the things I wanted done for the holidays, I had forgotten to plan our own Christmas dinner.  This meant I had to go to the grocery store two days before Christmas, Yikes!  I had a long list of errands this day and set out to get it all done.  I wasn't thrilled about so much to do on an afternoon 'off work.' I had already heard stressful horror stories about angry people in the local market.

When I got there the parking lot was completely full. So many people were circling, it was like rush hour in a big city. It was hard to stop and scope out an area.  I found a place pretty close after circling only about ten minutes and went inside to find it bumper to bumper shopping carts.  I am lucky that the whole food ingredients I use for cooking are considered the 'health food' section and that's right near the produce, I'm not going to be long.

You could feel the stress in the air. I could tell if I stopped the cart in the isle for any length of time someone might offer some cross words.  As I was shopping a very old gentlemen came up to me and hugged me and told me how much he loved my boots.  Soon after I had another inquiry about my colorful shoes from a lady who said she walked across the room to check them out. Her seven year old daughter was very giggly over them.  They introduced themselves and we exchanged Christmas hugs.  How awesome was that?!? This followed suit throughout my day.  Each place I stopped someone asked about the boots and admired the colors, the animals, and many asked to feel them.  I was laughing out loud by the time I got home. I loved this feeling, I was laughing for a change and feeling that Christmas fun and love in my heart.

I'm not a fashion queen, I consider myself a modest dresser and thrifty shopper.  I'll cruise the discount and thrift stores for deals. I live in jeans most the time, but I love adding lots and lots of color and fun shoes. I love art and I do love wearing art.  I will spend a little more to wear someone's original art. I do like to be comfortable and colorful, very colorful. 

In an effort to live a more vegan life, I've decided not to purchase leather items.  My purses are made from recycled material and so are some of my shoes now.  Last year I came across a website for some really colorful shoes while reading a Veg News.  Kuna Prints has a fun variety of handmade, colorful shoes. I couldn't resist, I purchased a pair of their moccasins right away.   I love art and I love hand made, these are made from hand made Mola fabrics. I saw the fabrics on The Amazing Race when they went to Panama this last season.  I watched for the fabrics on the locals.  I saw them, mostly as those tiny, tight wrap around shorts or sarong things worn by the local native men. Made me wonder wear my Molas had been before I had them. Oh my! They are made with recycled materials. **giggling**
 
I've had some fun wearing these shoes, but not half as much as when I wear their boots.  People have stopped, asked where to get them and even taken photos, but I make a new friend EVERY time I where the boots. They are magic, they cause Smiling. Some are laughing at the wild clothes I wear, I do border circus clown sometimes, I know it, but either way, they are smiling.

Santa saw fit to put another pair under the tree this year.  These showed their magic the first day.  My husband broke his arm a month ago and I'm sitting and crocheting while waiting in the doctor's office during his check up, a woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked where I got my boots.  I handed her one of the business cards I found in the package and she said, with a big smile:  "I'm getting some today!"

I noticed lots of magic this season.  We bought our son a nice used bicycle for Christmas.  Not too expensive, but nicer than the one of mine he's been using for his only transportation.  It was stolen while he was working three days later.  Two days after that someone brought a men's ten speed to work for him that they hadn't been using.  We grabbed the same bow and re-created Christmas.  Life is good.

Happy New Year!

This is just a story about my experience, no one paid me to write about these shoes. 

Happy Holidays ~ Home Made

The last gift is wrapped, all the cookies are done, plated, and on their way to friends and family.  I just got word the kids in California got their Christmas from grandma, I can stop worrying about that. I have a four day weekend coming up, and I'm ready.  I think we'll spend Christmas morning watching the sunrise from a nice hilltop playing with our camera. I think we may have done that last year.  That's one of the benefits of keeping pictures in this blog and Facebook, I can look back and find out what we did last year.

This year most all the presents I gave are hand made by myself, a local artist, or thrift store items headed for a new life.  I made some U-Bake Cookies and Lentil soup mix in jars, a great idea I got from Care2 make a difference.  Marty, who I am thrilled is home this year, helped me bake cookies so he could gift some to his friends.  He made the oatmeal cookies, which was a great way to spend some time with him.  I also got some practice instructing instead of doing the baking. I kind of like being on that side of the recipe.  That was fun.  We tie dyed the cardamon sugar cookies too.  I started with one just to see how it would work and then the fun was on.  I called my husband into the kitchen and told him to try it, we had a great time tie dying our cookies and using different techniques to get the patterns flowing.

 Vegan Cookies for Christmas

Cardamon Sugar Cookies with Meyer Lemon Glaze
Raw Almond Butter Cookies
Almond Crescents
Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Carrot Ginger Oat Cookies
Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip with Buckwheat Flour
Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Dried Asian Pears with Cinnamon and Nutmeg

One More Day to Vote ~ Help me win the Blendtec Blender

I wrote this blog post last month, Kitchen Tips for Raw Foods, for a blog competition.  The prize is a Blendtec Blender. It's sponsored by the Raw Food Divas and can be found at Tera Warner.  Who's Tera Waner?

From her own profile on the website:

"Tera Warner is the frisky founder of the world's largest online resource of raw food cleansing and detoxification programs for women. Through her programs and events she invites a community of over 100,000 women around the world to pick up their parsley sprigs, and march, dance, sing, jump or fly along path to vibrant living.

She's not got a string of acronyms after her name and fancy credentials, so don't bother looking for them. She's a monkey-lovin' mama doing her best to remind you that your self-worth is not measure by the size of your thighs or the width of your hips, but by the breadth of your dreams and the depth of your love."

"Tera spent most of her days in university studying monkeys, and now she's simply trying to teach the world to eat like one."

The blog was to introduce three kitchen tips aimed at helping someone new to raw foods organize their kitchen and simplify the transition to raw foods.  Before I jumped in to vegan and raw cooking, I used to take meat out to thaw for dinner, now I soak beans, nuts, and dried fruits in preparation for our meals.  Since so many of our meals depend on the dehydrator now, planning ahead is very important. There's a few things that took awhile to get the hang of.  I sure would have liked some hints when I got started.

I'm pretty exited about to making it to the top four finalists.  Now, it's left up to the readers to vote.  I sure would appreciate your vote.  There's only about 24 hours left, the voting ends on Oct. 30 at 11:59 p.m, Eastern time.  If you have a few minutes, please go to this website and cast your vote. Just follow the link below and follow the voting instructions. It's pretty simple and only takes a couple minutes after reading the blog posts. They're all awesome posts and there's some pretty great kitchen tips.  I'd love to win the Blendtec Blender so I can use it in my adventures teaching others to cook great raw and vegan food.  Thank you!

 Who Will Win the Blendtec Wildside? It's up to You.

Photo Class at the Zoo

Attended a pretty intense photo class yesterday.  Half the day was at the Zoo learning how to capture the right light, motion, and effect.  We basically learned all the features of our camera and how to stay out of the auto button.  I can now do some things I didn't know how to do before.  I can actually shoot what I want to shoot.  I can zoom in on a subject and make the background fade out.  It's going to take some practice, a little daily studying, and some note taking for a bit to get comfortable with the things I learned yesterday. I am pretty excited to do the practicing though.  Hope you see some improvement in the photos posted. I am especially happy with the semi truck photo I took on the way home.  The truck is in clear view while the scenery around him is in motion. I can't believe I achieved that effect on purpose. To demonstrate capturing motion and stopping motion, we all lined up in two long lines and the instructors ran up and down between us letting us know what to do before they started running.  It was a really fun day.