THIS CAKE WILL DESTROY YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!!!


When I say that this cake is heavenly, I mean THIS CAKE IS TO DIE FOR.

Lets imagine now... three layers of a coffee and chocolate avocado cake
***(use one cup espresso to replace one of the two cups water and only 3 tbs of cocoa)

AND...
Layers of Almond frosting

TOPPED WITH
A most fabulous layer of Chocolate Ganache
CAUTION:
This product may increase your appreciation for chocolate and cake and result in serious over indulgence. Women who are nursing, pregnant, or just on their menstrual cycle should keep this away from men. They might like chocolate, but they will not appreciate this cake as much as you absolutely need it. Immediately contact your physician (Danae Lagoy) if your chocolate cake prescription runs out , she will be happy to fill your order.

This product is extremely seductive and addictive.

GIVE IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Golden Birthday Cupcakes With Banana Rum Frosting and a Chocolate Chip Center

Made these babies for my brothers 19th birthday. The recipe is from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook, but the frosting is all mine...


1 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract or some more vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin pan with paper liners.

Whisk the soy milk and the vinegar together and let sit a few minutes until curdled.

Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl and mix.

In a separate large bowl,use a handheld mixer at medium speed to cream the margarine and sugar for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy, but don't beat past 2 minutes.

Beat in the vanilla and other extract, if using, alternate beating in the soy milk mixture and the dry ingredients, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times.

Put equal amounts of batter into the cupcake pan liners and stuff 5-10 chips in the middle of each cupcake, pushing it under the batter.

Cook for about 25 minutes.

Frost it with my Banana Rum Frosting and top it with some banana slices or what floats your fancy.

All Good Things I ate today!

This chocolate is really delicious! I got this Icelandic Chocolate delight at Whole Foods the other day and its almost gone! The company, Noi Sirius is based out of Reykjavik and has been making this chocolate since 1933. I normally like darker chocolate than this, but its about as close to "milk chocolate" that I can manage. It is sweet and creamy and has a really rich vanilla flavor and would also be really good for baking!



I wanted to introduce BIG MAMMA. She has been continuous supplying Mike and I with a delicious Kombucha brew for months and she is getting HUGE!!!! She might be 4" thick! AWESOME. We are using Puerh, a really earthy tea, and it tastes amazing.



See what I mean!?



Oh and breakfast! Todays recipe, though totally simple, is really delicious and nutritious!

Gallo Pinto

-1 yellow onion
-6 cloves garlic
-1 jalapeno pepper
1-2 Tbs olive oil
-1 can of black beans
-1-2 Tbs Chili Powder
-1 cup Brown Rice
-Salt and Pepper

Start by boiling 2 cups of water with 1 cup of rice and a pinch of salt. In a pan, caramelize 1 yellow onion chopped in some olive oil, 5-10 minutes. Add 6 minced cloves of garlic and 1 minced jalapeno pepper and let cook for another 5 minutes or until the garlic starts to brown. Add 1 can of black beans, salt and pepper to taste and 1-2 tablespoons of Chili powder. Let this cook until the beans are hot! When the rice is done (about 20 minutes) add them to the beans and eat up.

Cocao V: Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, and some more chocolate

For easter, instead of going home and have a huge decadent brunch with the family, I had to stay in NYC and do lots of homework, yuck. The weather is so nice and all I wanted to do was go outside and indulge in a leisurely weekend. That couldn't happen, but I did have a very leisurely and decadent lunch with friends at Cocoa V a vegan chocolatier in Chelsea, right near Blossom. Though they are mostly dedicated to there absolutely beautiful chocolates, they also serve desserts like cake, cupcakes, and brownie sundaes which is what I had. They also have a lunch menu, I sampled some vegan quiche, what they call "the whimsical Quiche of the day" and a Chickpea Tuna melt. The lunch was ok, the quiche was pretty good, but I would stick to the chocolates myself.

So The brownie sundae was super delicious, with vanilla soy dream and chocolate and marshmallow sauces.

We also sampled chocolates, and it was a real treat! And had coffee, I believe the Roaster is Stumptown.

This is my vote for the Best:

1. That beautiful green chocolate contains an amazing fruit goo, a really interesting mix of Pistachios and Apple, The Pistapple
2. The one with pink swirls, though not as pretty as the Pistapple, had a very interesting gooey filling, sweet and rich, and full of burnt sugar grain! yum.
3. The Pretzel cluster, everyone likes crunchy, sweet, salt, its a scientific fact!

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well, I just about have my kitchen remodeled and my baking center is awesome. The only bummer is that my doctor wants me to do a gluten free elimination diet to see if gluten is the cause of all my woes. How unfair to now have to give up [baking] one of my passions. The first week was tough as not only did I go through baking withdrawals, but gluten withdrawals too; and my first attempt at baking pizza from scratch was a disaster. I tried it again last night and had somewhat better results, but still, not very good. I did however, come across a flourless chocolate chip cookie cookie recipe in "The Bon Appetit Cookbook" as I was making regular cookies for my son to take to college. What a surprise to see it! I decided to give them a try and made some this morning. Well, I think these may be the best damn Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER! Flour or no flour. And, they're super easy too.

Recipe:

1 Cup of super-chunky peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned or freshly ground)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of chocolate chips (Ghiradelli bittersweet are my fav)
(I also added 1/2 cup of chopped pecans)

Mix until well combined. Roll a tablespoonful of cookie dough or so in WET hands (to prevent sticking) and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until done (ha ha, my favorite saying) about 12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the center is still soft. I am not sure how well they will keep...they won't make it through the day here, I'm sure, so does it matter?? Yummy. Well, "Bon Appetite", Thanks!

Sharon's Cookies: A Vegan Cookie review

Sharon's Kitchen is responsible for outputting bulk amounts of fantastic vegan cookies on a regular basis. On our last visit, she supplied a few of her favorite (and Mine!) for our enjoyment.
YUM!

In the picture... from the Top of the picture to the bottom:

Chewy Chocolate Raspberry Cookies!
Little dense chocolate cookies with raspberry preserves mixed in the batter! This is a recipe from Veganomicon.

Recipe:
1/2 cup raspberry preserves
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened ccoa powder (sifted if clumpy)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Time: 35 Minutes Makes 2 Dozen Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the raspberry preserves, sugar, canola oil, vanilla, and almond extract. In a separate mixing bowl, sift together the other ingredients. Add the dry to the wet in three batches, mixing well with a fork after each addition. When you get to the last batch, you may need to use your hands to work the batter into a soft, pliable dough. Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and then flatten them with your hands into 2 1/2-inch diameter disks. Place on a cookie sheet (they need to only be 1/2-inch apart because they don't spread out when baking). Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Sesame Ginger Peanut Butter Cookies! Such a good cookie! Like everything you could want all together in one cookie. Is like a yummy Thai dessert cookie. Yeah! Cookies! Also found in Veganomicon! My friend Evan made these cookies with BLACK sesame! Check them out! Straight UP Peanut Butter Goober Nut Cookies! These cookies are a crispy and a little bit chewy, also unexpectedly sweet! I love goober nuts! THANKS SHARON!!!!!!

Vegan AVOCADO CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!!

Hello!!!????? Why haven't I thought of this before?!

I discovered this recipe from the JoytheBaker Blog this morning. As my mother pulled out a pie crust that she made a day ago and mentioned her famous apple pie was on tonight's menu, I decided to bake too! I was craving something chocolate, but eying those avocados, hoping I could use them before they got too soft and brown. This was right after I came home with my pops from the Restore where we picked up a beautiful 8"x8"x8.5' hand-hewn beam to hold up our kitchen ceiling!

So without any further hesitation I made this delicious and moist Vegan Avocado Chocolate Cake
and I was a little bit skeptical of green Avocado Frosting so I concocted a Coconut Mocha (Vegan)Butter Cream Frosting:

YUUUUUMMMMMMM.

The CAKE:

3 cups all-purpose flour

6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (or 3 oz Baker's Vegan Baker's Chocolate Melted)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 medium avocado mushed

2 cups water

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8 or 9-inch rounds. Set aside. Sift together all of the dry ingredients except the sugar. Set that aside too. Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl, including the super mushed avocado. Add sugar (and melted chocolate if you used the Baker's chocolate) into the wet mix and stir. Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and beat until smooth. Pour batter into a greased cake tins. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cakes cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting.

The FROSTING:

3 cups confectionery sugar

1/3 cup margerine

4 TBS espresso

4-8 TBS Coconut milk

2-4 TBS Cocoa Powder

Whip it.

I want to add another variation for a fucking bomb ass frosting:

lets see....
3-4 cups of confectionery sugar, 1 stick vegan margarine, some vanilla, some BANANA RUM and a touch or so of non-dairy milk (I always try and use almond milk, its the best)

Whip it!!!!!

Frost and cut long thin slices of banana to place with frosting between layers and on the top of the cake.

This will get you a cheers with a fork in the air for sure!