key lime pie with pretzel crust

i made this pie for my friend's birthday. i've never actually had key lime pie, and i didn't get to eat this. so i hope it was good. looked delicious..

julia child butter cake

for my brother's birthday i decided to try something challenging (and fun) and make a cake from my new julia childs cookbook. i decided on her basic vanilla cake, with buttercream frosting. however, i had some bananas laying around to i decided to throw those in there, and add some rum to the buttercream - voila, banana fosters cake!

the buttercream though, being a traditional french buttercream, was 90% butter. so putting the cake in the fridge did not work. eating the cake was pretty much like eating a stick of butter. but after letting it sit out and come to room temp, it was pretty darn good.

christmas party treats

every year around the holidays my parents throw an amazing party - with lots of food, drink, a piano player and carolers, lots of christmas decorations, a golf cart (long story), and amazing party outfits. my mom has some great christmas cookie recipes, but she asked me to make a few things this year. she namely wanted "individual" desserts, since a lot of people bring cakes and cheesecakes that need to be sliced and don't usually get eaten because people just want to pick up something and eat it.

so of course i knew i'd make cupcakes. but i wanted to make special christmas-y cupcakes. i found a recipe for white chocolate cupcakes (vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate frosting and white chocolate curls on top). so i made those, but added crushed candy canes to the top as well. over time the candy cane soaked into the frosting and gave it a stronger peppermint flavor, which was nice. i also used a real vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract for the frosting, because i absolutely love the look of those little vanilla specks in any kind of baked good.


for my second dessert, i thought about making individual fruit tarts. i recently got a hold of some mini tart pans, so i figured this would be perfect. first i made the pastry cream, since that takes some time. you have to heat the cream and then add it to egg yolks and then heat it again and stir it constantly and then strain it and let it cool then refrigerate for a while..gaah. but i must say..IT WAS DELICIOUS. oh my goodness. let's just say this ended with "extra" pastry cream and a spoon in my hand. while the pastry cream was cooling, i made the pastry dough and stuffed it inside the tart pans. i was reading a recipe that said to roll it out and lay it into the pan, but i was working with little 2 inch pans. i didn't bother rolling it out (plus it was so buttery that it kept sticking to everything). i just ripped off little pieces of dough and pressed it into the pan. much easier.


i waited until the next day, hours before the party, to assemble these little guys. i had some mint leaves, so i candied them by rubbing them with an egg replacer (i didn't want to waste a whole egg for a few mint leaves) and then covering them in super fine sugar, letting them dry and get crunchy. the tarts came out really pretty, i was proud. i should have put them back in the refrigerator, because by the time i got to the party and put them on a serving platter, the cream soaked into the crust and they got all soft. eh, whatever. they were still delicious and people ate them all.


i will definitely make the tarts again. maybe next time i'll make one big one and wow everyone with my skillz.

happy holidays!!

holiday pies

hi! i'm back. i had to take a week off because of the swine flu, and then i wasn't too keen on baking and getting my germs into cupcakes and such. but i am better now, and more than making up for it with pies.

on sunday night scott asked if i would make him an apple pie. i ran out to store and bought some apples and soy milk, then came home stoked to make my first pie of the season. so i get home, make the crust, put it in the fridge to chill, then get out my vegetable peeler to start the apples. on my first apple, on the third stroke, i nicked my ring finger. i don't cut myself when cooking, i'm usually really careful. so of course i saw blood and FREAKED. i ran screaming to the bathroom, luckily scott was there to dress my wound. i almost passed out...

scott was nice enough to finish peeling and slicing the apples, and once my finger stopped throbbing i continued to make the pie. i used the pie crust recipe from veganomicon (love that pie crust, its so easy and always turns out amazing) and then adapted the apple pie recipe from my better homes and gardens special edition new cook book. it was easy to veganize, apple pie is pretty standard..

it came out pretty darn nice, i was pleased.
i couldn't wait for it to cool, we had to eat it within a few hours of coming out of the oven. probably should have let it sit so the liquid could gel up a bit. oh well. it was still delicious.
soy vanilla ice cream for scott

tonight i decided to make a pumpkin pie for my boss who just moved into a new house. pie is her favorite baked good, so what better way to say "welcome to your new home" than with pie! my boss is not vegan, so i just did a plain ol' pumpkin pie. i used my better homes and gardens cookbook again, only because this recipe seemed so easy (pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, sugar, egg, half and half).
yumyum
i'm proud of my crust. i'm a fan of crust.

i know i said i wanted to test drive some of the recipes i chose for thanksgiving dessert, but instead i've been making these. oh well! i guess it will be a surprise on thanksgiving.

vegan apple coffee cake

i bought a big bag of apples from the store, and the first one i bit into was mealy. i HATE mealy apples. i did some research online and found out that cooking the apples will sort of disregard the mealiness. so i sliced up the apples and cooked them down with some brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. THEN i thought about adding this apple mixture to a coffee cake.

i made this coffee cake as a combination of like, four other recipes, so i can't link you to one recipe (sorry). but that should be all the more motivation for you to make up recipes on your own! i wasn't 100% pleased with my results - it was really delicious, but i was missing the light, fluffy texture that usually comes with coffee cake. since i did a vegan version, i'm sure i lost something along the way that would have helped it rise. but it's ok, better luck next time.