PRE-DEPARTURE DISHES

Some really supremo meals were made before I left London to head home for the holidays.

My mother used to feed us this odd cabbage salad comprised of cheese and apples. Now that I have discovered this absolutely incredible cheese from a Swiss company called Vegusto, I had to recreate her salad with the stuff.

One of my favourite dishes from Planet Organic in Muswell Hill is their shepherd's pie. I've tried to make an equally delicious one at home, and finally succeeded by using tempeh AND lentils. It was so good that most of it was gone by the time I got around to photographing it!

HOLIDAY EATS!

After thrice instances of exploding cupcakes, I finally managed a successful batch. Only today did I discover it was a flour mix-up! I had too many bags of unnamed flours and accidentally used hard white bread flour. Oops. So let's recap.

First we have soy nog cupcakes with Brandy Alexander icing.

This was my Christmas dinner, which consisted of colcannon with leeks and cabbage, a sweet potato lentil salad with carmelized onions, cranberries and toasted pecans, and lastly a chestnut lentil loaf.

As per my mother's request, I made peppermint nanaimos again for dessert.

Today I whipped up some dark chocolate, raspberry cream filled cupcakes. Our measuring cup was lost somewhere (hidden in the dishwasher), and I ran out of sugar, but they managed to turn out alright!

I've been giving a lot of consideration to doing this baking thing full-time. I have begun the process of starting a business, though it's a lot of research and there isn't much information out there on the costs versus revenue, or anything related to vegan food revenues. I'm still not 100% convinced it's a smart move, despite my obvious penchant for baking. We shall see!

Cinnabuns

My lovely friend Emilia recently baked some tasty looking cinnamon buns, which incited a giant craving for some! I hadn't made any in ages, so I skipped into the kitchen this morning to prepare these bad boys. There wasn't enough cinnamon/brown sugar mix in the rolls, so I incorporated it into the cream cheese icing. Incredelicious.

Hallows Eve Baking!

If you know anything about me, you will know that I jump all over any opportunity to bake cupcakes. Tonight is hallows eve and I have been in my kitchen for two days straight. I decided to take my cupcakes to work, because I haven't shared with my fine coworkers yet. For this spooky occasion, I've made Caramel Apple with homemade caramel sauce, Pumpkin Spice and Strawberry (sauce also homemade) filled Chocolate 'dirt' cupcakes, complete with a marzipan worm. I also made sugar decorations which were NOT easy to prepare, hence why they look ridiculous. Oh well, it was a learning experience!

I had some fun experimenting with different piping tips!

Canadian treats!

Here are a couple treats I made over my thanksgiving visit to Canada. I was determined to make a pumpkin cheesecake, but as our local health food shop never got any plain tofutti cream cheese in, I had to improvise. Instead I created a pumpkin caramel swirl pie with toasted pecans and a graham crust. It was a bit soft for a pie, but definitely the best tasting pumpkin pie I've ever had!!!

My mum celebrated her birthday while I was over, so I created a cupcake in her honor. It's called "The Grand Banana," a chocolate cupcake with a boozy banana flambé center, chocolate ganache, a Grand Marnier buttercream frosting topped with another chunk of banana flambé!

My goodness, it was decadent.

SEITAN'S SECOND CHANCE

Once long ago, I purchased this sketchy looking jar of globby faux meat called seitan. It was revolting. I wish I could recall exactly how it was prepared (i'm guessing a stir fry or similar). I never looked back on my decision to ban the stuff from my diet.

A few weeks ago I acquired a cookbook from my cousin brimming with seitan dishes. My curiosity was renewed. Then a recipe idea attached itself in my head and I was compelled to create it. Nothing fancy or innovative, just seitan stew. I scavenged for an alternative package of seitan (thinking perhaps I had a bad batch) but everywhere stocked the same bloody jar I had used before. I threw caution to the wind and bought it. Suffice to say, it was marvelous. Nicely paired with these vegan cheese scones/biscuits I've made a few times!

CUPCAKE EXPERIMENTO!

Another cupcake combo became lodged in my head... blackberries and chocolate. They turned out gorgeously, especially with the cream cheese blackberry icing, oh my!