Vegan MoFo 2014 – My Awesome Birthday Cake

As I mentioned in my introductory post, my 35th birthday was in August.  I’m sure most of you know what it’s like when it comes to birthdays and veganism – if you have a cake, you’ve probably made it yourself.  That’s what I’ve done almost every year I’ve been vegan (one year Mike helped).

But I decided 35 was a big enough year to warrant having someone else make my cake.  And since I was paying to have a cake made, I figured I might as well do it up big style instead of just getting a sheet cake.

As some of you know, I’m a huge nerd, and Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of my favourite shows of all time.  I’ve seen every episode and all the movies at least once and have the entire series on DVD (I had all the films but they were Region 1).  I’ve even read some of the books and follow several cast members on Twitter (which reminds me, I should be following LeVar Burton).  I have pajamas that look like a command uniform (specifically Captain – 4 pips) and a bat’leth letter opener.

I’ve been feeling especially geeky lately – maybe because of a renewed personal interest in general nerd things and specific Trek things, maybe because I discovered (new to me, not Columbused) or have been paying attention to more geek culture (e.g., The Mary Sue) – so I decided that I needed to have a geeky cake.

So I commissioned an Enterprise-D cake from Alicks Fraser of Licks Cake Design.  Check out how cool my cake was!

The saucer section and other parts were cake, but the warp nacelles were wood covered with sugar paste.  We had a lot of fun disassembling and eating the cake.  Any time someone would eat a bit of the black icing on the bottom, we’d say they were eating space!  Heh.

Everyone really liked it (even Zebby – he was all up in my biz every time I had a piece) and it looked really impressive.  If you’re in Edinburgh or nearby and need a vegan cake, you should speak to Alicks!

Vegan MoFo 2014 - Sunday Baking: Bakewell tart

I'm having an allergy attack today, so I don't have the energy to be clever, which means this will be a short post.

I'm sure I've mentioned this, but I love Bakewell tart.  It's just so good!  I don't know why I don't make it more often, other than because I'd eat too much.  I'm actually surprised at my restraint in not having had any yet.

I made pretty much the same recipe last year (Sainsbury's shortcrust pastry, seedless raspberry jam, and the cake part of the Bakewell cupcake recipe in the Ms Cupcake book), only this time I remembered the sugar before I put the cake mix on top of the jam/crust.  Below is the finished product.

badly lit slice

It was tasty, as expected.  I'm taking a bit to the office tomorrow, which marks the first time I'm taking baking to this office.  I hope they like it, and if they don't, they can suck it.

As you can see I put some chocolate drizzle (cocoa powder, icing sugar, water) on top.  I made a bit too much, and Mike came in to the kitchen while I was trying to decide what to do with it.  He decided that he'd use it to make chocolate milk.

before stirring

after stirring

It looks like regular chocolate milk, doesn't it?  It was not.  I had a couple of sips, and it was good/gross.  It almost tasted like a milkshake ... that had sugar added to it.  It was so sweet.  Maybe that's why I didn't have any tart after I made it.

Vegan MoFo 2014 - Filthy Toxic Hot Chocolate

Last night, Mike wanted to make hot chocolate. I'm not the best at remembering ratios and stuff for how I like my hot chocolate, so I looked up some recipes to jog my memory. And boy howdy did I not like what I saw. Yes, there was a how to that took 10 steps even though it called for hot chocolate mix and a microwave. But then I saw a recipe that called for cashews (with an hour+ soaking time) and dates. And then I saw some of my most hated words - paleo, no refined sugar, clean eating.

Nope.  Nope nope nope.

Friends, these are not words and ingredients to be used in connection with hot chocolate.

Hot chocolate is a treat. It should have sugar. It should not have dates. And it sure as shit wasn't around in the palaeolithic era.

Instead of my righteous rant against food policing and woo peddling, I give you a recipe for hot chocolate rich in most of the things that are freaking people out right now (I don't have any MSG so couldn't include everything).

Filthy Toxic Hot Chocolate

Serves 2

Handful of chocolate chips

1 c soy creamer

1 c soy milk (more/less depending on how you like it)

1/4 c cocoa (I used Hershey's to make it extra dirty)

1/4 c sugar (more/less to taste - probably less for most people because I like mine super sweet)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Mini marshmallows

Place the chocolate chips and a couple tablespoons of the creamer in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and stir until melted. Slowly stir in the remaining creamer. In a separate small bowl, make a paste of the cocoa powder and sugar with some of the soy milk.  When it's as lumpless as possible, add it to the pan along with the rest of the milk. Add in the salt and heat to your desired temperature. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Pour into two mugs and top with mini marshmallows.

I used the new Freedom micro mallows, which contain both carrageenan and hydrolysed soy protein! In case you're keeping track, that's non-organic processed soy, fat, sugar, salt, and carrageenan all in one delicious cup of hot chocolate. It was like drinking a melted candy bar.

Sorry about the terrible picture - it was late when I made it.

If you're even remotely familiar with me, you know that I'm all about comfort and convenience foods, so this ramping up of food shaming (which, let's be realistic, is mostly aimed at and hurts women, and disproportionately restricts non-animal foods) is really pissing me off.  Luckily I'm not the only one.  PPKer MissMuffcake's theme is about vegan finds at Target and was spurred by a series of posts about food shaming.  And really, the PPK is great for calling out food policing and woo.  Because veganism is about the animals, first and foremost, and restricting yourself until you have almost nothing to eat doesn't help the animals (especially when you decide that veganism is the problem and go back to eating them).

So, fuck food shaming.  Eat what you want and do the least harm possible.

Vegan MoFo 2014 - Review: Saramago

I'm doing double duty because of my lack of posts over the last couple of days.  This is the post that was meant to happen today anyway.

As I mentioned in my last post, I met up with a friend (interrobang?! from the PPK) for dinner, and we went to Saramago at the CCA.  I've been there a few times now, and I'm glad that I gave it another shot after my first, rather dismal, visit (wherein I got a sausage sandwich that contained a single, pre-packaged sausage).

They do a pre-theatre offer of 2 courses for £10.95 and 3 for £12.95, so I went for the three courses.  I should've done 2 and skipped the starter, but I'm a glutton.

I got the red pepper hummus for a starter.  It was a bit thick, but at least it came with actual flatbread.  It was really tasty - I'm pretty sure they use smoked paprika in it because it had a lovely smokey flavour.

My main was the haggis fritters (made with lentils and seeds, not nuts, woot!):

For some reason, they serve these like fried fish, with lemon and tartar sauce.  I'm not complaining, though, because they're freaking delicious.  They have a really similar feel to haggis (from what I remember), which I guess can be off-putting to some.  But they're just kinda soft, and the seeds add some nice texture.  I got some aioli to go with the chips, which were quite good, but I couldn't eat very many because I'd eaten too much and had to save room for dessert.

This is, according to their menu, chocolate cake.  The cake is a lie.  I'm not saying it's not good, because it is, but don't go in expecting cake.  This is a brownie - crusty on the outside, dense and fudgy on the inside, no layers, no frosting.  I know from cake, and I know from brownies, and this is a brownie.  Delicious, but a brownie.

Anyway, yeah, you should totally go to Saramago.  The food is excellent (I can also recommend the paella and the gelato affogatto), and they have a good booze selection.  It's a nice space too, though a bit out of the way if you're otherwise in the centre of town.  But it's worth the walk - I'm starting to think this might be the best vegan food in Glasgow.

Vegan MoFo 2014 - MoFail and a review of Mono

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted for a couple of days.  Here's what happened:

Wednesday, I expected to go out to dinner, but I came home to find out that wasn't happening.  I was exhausted (I did a lot of traveling for work and slept badly the night before), so once I bothered to cook, I couldn't be bothered to get my laptop out and write a blog post (if I could've even figured out what to write).  And yesterday, I was out all day, got home later than I expected, and again couldn't be bothered getting out my laptop and writing.  I should mention that my laptop is on its last legs, so I've been using an iPad for general internetting, and I don't like using it for blogging.

So, there you go.  On to the review.

Yesterday was supposed to be a day out in Glasgow.  We were supposed to have lunch around 12, do some stuff, and then I was meeting up with a friend for dinner at 5.30 (after Mike got the last pre-rush hour train home).  We ended up not even getting to Glasgow until 2.30, which meant just the eating (and checking out one cute new shop called GeekABoo).

We had lunch at Mono.  I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Mono - well, maybe not hate, more like frustration.  Sometimes the food is just outstanding, and sometimes it's a bit poo.  We go there a couple of times a year, and it seems to go in waves where every other year is poo, and every other year is great.  Well, unfortunately, it was great last year.

I had the same stuff I always order - hummus to start, and the seitan burger for my main.  Normally I would get the sundae for dessert, but knowing how little time I had between meals, I skipped dessert this time.

The hummus itself was alright - it's pretty hard to mess up hummus.  But I realised after a few minutes that the "flatbread" was a flour tortilla.  Yes, technically a tortilla is a flat bread (of a sort), but it's not flatbread the way most sensible people understand flatbread.

Then the burgers came out, and I had a sad.  They didn't even look as good as usual.  They were at least 1/3 smaller than last time (last time they filled the bun, this time, nowhere near).  They were also overcooked, dark and crunchy on the outside.  It was really disappointing.  But at least the chips were good (though where they got their concept of skinny fries I don't know, because they were proper chips).

I'm not gonna stop going to Mono (which might be part of the problem - complacency), but I'll probably give them some time to sort themselves out.  There are other places to eat that have equally good or better food, and some places I've not been to before, so I'll give them a shot before going back to Mono.

Newsday Tuesday – Waitrose soffritto passata

It’s Newsday Tuesday, where I make/have food that’s new to me!  For a minute I thought I’d failed at it – I forgot that I actually have made the recipe I was gonna talk about.  But then I realised that one of the components is new to me, so it worked out!

I was at Waitrose the other day stocking up on frozen stuff (I got garlic and ice cream, but they didn’t have shallots) and happened upon a new item – jarred soffritto.  I quickly scanned the ingredients for anything non-vegan, not bothering to note the bizarre stuff some British person decided was supposed to go into sofrito, and, seeing that it was safe, bought a jar.

It wasn’t until I got home and had a good look at it in comparison to a recipe in Viva Vegan! that I realised that this is some kind of Euro-sofrito.  Sorry, soffritto.  It contains carrots and celery instead of peppers*.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  Regardless, I used it in a couple of recipes, and it was actually pretty good.

I made the Viva Vegan! Latin Baked Tofu with it, but due to the lack of Latinness, I added a bit of cumin to it before I poured it over the tofu.  I also made the Cuban black bean soup, which saved me a ton of time standing at the stove (but not much in the actual cooking process, which took FOREVAH).

Mike and I really liked it over the tofu, and we really liked the soup, so I can’t really say it’s a terrible product.  It just wasn’t what I expected.  But I guess I should’ve known, since I got it at Waitrose and not Lupe Pinto’s.  Still, I would give it the seal of approval – even though it was different, it was still tasty!

And since I don't have a picture of any food, here's a kitty tongue:

*A quick search tells me that this is Tuscan-style soffritto.  So I guess my Latin baked tofu was actually Italian baked tofu.

Vegan MoFo 2014 - Intro and NYC Trip

Welcome to Vegan MoFo 2014!  If you’re new to the joint, Vegan MoFo is the Vegan Month of Food, when vegan bloggers from around the world blog about vegan food for a solid month.  I think this is my 5th year to participate, but I could be wrong.

I have a few things planned for this month, but it’s not quite as plotted out as last year.  I’ll be doing Sunday baking, which I think I did two years ago, as well as Newsday Tuesday, where I’ll be making something new to me every Tuesday.  I’ll also continue my quest to cook through Cookin’ Crunk.

There are a couple of big deal things happening this month, namely the Scottish Independence Referendum followed two days later by Mike’s 30th birthday!  So I’ll be doing something to mark both of these occasions.

Speaking of occasions, my 35th birthday was in August, and I treated myself to a trip to NY in July to celebrate.  Well, the July part wasn’t exactly a treat because it was hotter than the devil’s balls.  But the timing was a concession to my family – my grandmother’s 80th birthday was in July!  I spent a weekend upstate with my family.  We had a BBQ at my uncle’s house, and since my cousins are GF and dairy-free, we had a vegan cake to go with the non-vegan cake!  Woot!

After that, I was in NYC for almost a week.  I ate so much, but I don’t think I photographed everything (for which you’ll thank me).

My first stop in NYC was Yonah Schimmel Knishery, which was right next to my hotel (though I only ate there once – sadness).  I got a spinach knish and a root beer.

I had Groupons for Vegetarian Paradise 2, so I ate there thrice (the only Groupon option was 3x $20 for $10, and I wanted to get my money’s worth).  But I must have gotten tired of taking pictures of all my food because I only have one meal’s worth of photos plus one starter (you’re welcome).

Collard green rolls

Spinach “crab” dumplings

Texas fried “chicken” and tots

Death by Chocolate Cake

Portobello pub fritters

I also hit up V-Note, mostly because I had a Groupon for there as well.  The big draw there was the tiramisu, which didn’t disappoint.  Actually, it was one of the best tiramisus I’ve ever had (including pregan).

Black-eyed pea cake

Seitan cordon bleu (or possibly Seitan Piccata)

Tiramisu

I hit up John’s of 12^th Street, which has a really impressive vegan menu, and had the seitan parmigiana.

I also had cannoli, but I didn’t take a picture of that.

The only other photo I have is of the vegan soft serve I got at The Ice Cream House (the Williamsburg location, I think), which is a kosher ice cream parlour with loads of vegan options.  Seriously, if I’d had a freezer while I was in NYC, I would’ve spent half my money there.

Vanilla soft serve in cookie crumb-coated cone

To round things off, as if this post wasn’t pic-heavy enough, here are some gratuitous tourist photos:

The Seinfeld café

Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park

One of the lions outside the NY Public Library (no free-floating vaporous apparitions, though)

Pavement art outside 8 Hook and Ladder

8 Hook and Ladder with the Ghostbusters 2 sign

Despite the heat, I absolutely loved NYC; I wanted to go back almost as soon as I got home.  I went to several museums and still missed out on a ton of stuff.  There were loads of restaurants that I didn’t get to just because I had to be so selective due to both time and monetary constraints.  NYC is HUGE, but it’s somehow still comfortable for me where other big cities (I’m looking at you, London) aren’t.  Maybe it’s because people in NYC are generally as uninterested in dicking about as I am.  I wish I could go back next year, but unfortunately/luckily I’m going to TX instead (for Vida Vegan Con, woot!).  Maybe I’ll go back for my 40th birthday but spend the full two weeks (instead of just 8 days) there and upstate (and maybe finally get to Lagusta’s!).