ALQ Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale at The Green Edge

I organised a bake sale that was held yesterday, as part of the WWVBS initiative. The bake sale was to raise funds for Animal Liberation Queensland, and was held at The Green Edge. It was amazing! As well as some ALQ members helping me with the baking, The Green Edge also asked for donations of baked goods. At one point during the set up it seemed like the food would never stop coming! It was such a huge and successful day! We sold out of almost everything, and we raised over $1400 to help ALQ with their important campaigns!

So, onto the food. First up, things that I baked. I had planned on only baking a little, but then panic set in and I baked a lot. Next time I know I can relax a bit, because so many donations! Oh well, let's see what I made! Strap in, this is a long ride!

Peach Cobbler Cupcakes from Bake and Destroy by Natalie Slater: Natalie has such fun recipes, and I'd had my eye on this one for a while. Peaches were recently in season, so it seemed like the perfect chance! The recipe says to coarsely chop the peaches, but next time I'd cut them a bit smaller because the cupcakes baked a bit lumpy and uneven. It doesn't matter too much though, because they taste great and you cover them in frosting anyway. The book gives too options - wither whipped coconut cream (no thank you), or maple buttercream frosting. I obviously chose the latter, which I had made before for her banana bread french toast cupcakes, and it was a great combination.
Rating: :)



Swirly Berry Brownies from Sinfully Vegan by Lois Dieterly: I am currently trying to make recipes from some of my older cookbooks, rather than just being new ones all the time, and this was one of those. I haven't used this book much, she has a reliance on so much maple syrup that most recipes would just be too expensive to make! This one is sweetened with sugar and applesauce. It is a cakey brownie, though nice and chocolately, and the raspberry jam swirled into the top makes a nice flavour contrast.
Rating: :)



Dulce Sin Leche Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero: I had made these once before, a long time ago, but neglected to take a photo. So I tried them again! This time I decided to make them GF, by using the Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF flour blend and some xantham gum. I ended up with enough batter for 13 cases, but even then they rose a lot and were kind of messy! They are swirled and topped with Dulce Sin Leche glaze, which is based on the Brown Rice Glaze (also from the book) but with extra brown sugar added. When baking, the caramel swirled into them bubbled up a lot, also making them a bit messy. I had to cook for an extra 10 minutes as well. They are topped with more glaze, and toasted coconut. The flavour was nice, a good caramel. The texture was OK for GF, but was obviously better when I first made them with gluten. The glaze is very sticky, which was a big attraction for people.
Rating: :)



Perfect Berry Muffins from Eat Like You Give A Damn by Michelle Schwegmann and Josh Hooten: These are simple muffins to make, and are sweet and pleasant. You can use either raspberries, blueberries, or a mix, I went for straight raspberries. They were fairly soft, and the raspberries made them a little smooshy. But I liked the slight tartness of the raspberries with the sweetness of the batter.
Rating: :)



Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies from Eat Like You Give A Damn by Michelle Schwegmann and Josh Hooten: These actually have Cappuccino in the title, but coffee doesn't agree with me so I left it out. Even if you like coffee, pretty sure leaving it out is the best option anyway. These were AMAZING! The orange flavour comes from zest, but it packed such a great orange punch. With the chocolate chips, it was like eating a chocolate orange... but in an oat cookie. So fabulous!
Rating: :D



Chocolate Goji Macadamia Cripsy Squares from Let Them Eat Vegan by Dreena Burton: Another one of my gluten free offerings. These are so fast to make - melt chocolate, mix in goji, macadamia, rice cripsies, orange zest, let set! I took the option of using more rice cripsies and less goji berries,and I also subbed the coconut oil used when melting the chocolate for canola oil. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup (or 7-8 oz) of chocolate, though when I measured out the volume I only had about 6 oz. You can see they are fairly thin slices, but they pack lots of flavour and crunch. The subtle orange is a particularly nice touch. The recipe makes 12-16 squares for normal snacks, but for the bake sale I cut it into 8 big bars.
Rating: :)



Gingerbread from Easy Vegan Cooking by Leah Leneman: Another dip into an older cookbook, I had made this recipe before and loved it. But I hadn't photographed it, so it seemed like a good one to make. I still loved it, all these years later. It is dense, syrupy goodness, and the batter itself is so yummy! The recipe calls for molasses, black treacle, golden syrup, or a mixture. I used treacle, because I have some and hardly anything calls for it. This gave it a perfect sweetness.
Rating: :D



Blondies from The New Vegan by Janet Hudson: Another older cookbook, not to be confused by Aine Carlin's cookbook of the same name. I made a half batch of these to fit into an 8x8 pan, and got 8 bars. They have macadamias and butterscotch chips in them, and are sweet and pleasant, and very moist. They liquid used in them is water, and I wonder if using a non-dairy milk would have a better flavoury, they just needed a bit more something for me. But other people really liked them!
Rating: :)



White Chocolate Lime Cookies from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman: I had some white chocolate baking buttons to use up from a mystery box, so a bake sale seemed like a good place for them. I don't like white chocolate myself. These were more like a vanilla cookie to me, the lime flavour was very subtle. The recipe makes 20 cookies regularly, but I used my ice cream scoop and got 11 big bake sale cookies, which I baked for 25 minutes.
Rating: :| (for me, other people liked them a lot with the white chocolate)



Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman: I made these to use up some canned pumpkin I had kicking around, but oh my gosh they are amazing! The cupcakes themselves are like eating a little slice of pumpkin heaven, they are packed full of amazing spices. I could eat the batter, or the cupcakes, forever. The cream cheese frosting was very nice tasting, but was really more of a glaze. It was way to runny to do anything else with. So I ended up with a bunch left over, which is in my freezer. But I wouldn't mind making these again to help use it up. ;)
Rating: :D



I also made a batch of my regulars, the gluten free soulhaus cookies from Great Gluten Free Vegan Eats. This time they had chocolate chips and crushed peanuts in them. And now, for the food that was donated!

These beautiful cupcakes were donated by local bakery Baked by K. They also donated some super cute little sugar cookies with Friends Not Food icing, that I didn't get a chance to take a photo of.



Someone donated these gorgeous vanilla cupcakes - look at the details on those roses!



My friend Mandy donated some gorgeous Mandarin Cupcakes, as well as some delicious Mini Baked New York Cheesecakes. Mandy also makes full sized cheesecakes, which you can get by the slice at The Green Edge!





Mandy's friends also donated some Lemon Cupcakes, Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes, and Chocolate Jam Drop Freckle Cookies.







Fellow ALQ volunteer Cameron made some Ginger Pear Muffins, and some Pizza Muffins.





Speaking of savouries, check out these amazing Mini Creamy Potato Pies that someone donated!



Bec, ALQ member and graduate of vegan culinary school, brought some of her famous Cinnamon Rolls.



Katie, who used to run Cloverly Cupcakes, donated some amazing looking muffins - Blueberry, and Orange Poppyseed!





I didn't even get a chance to take photos of everything! Also donated were:

• Chocolate Chip Cupcakes that were so beautiful and I am sorry I didn't get the name of their baker!
• Anzac Cookies donated by Samantha, The Green Edge's event organiser and general amazing employee
• Salmon Bechamel Filo Pastries, Spankopita, and Cherry Tomato Pesto Tarts donated by Lisa and Paul, ALQ members, amazing cooks, and vegan advocates extraordinaire
• Raw Peanut Butter Cups and Raw Walnut Brownies donated by Bliss & Co., whose peanut butter cups don't make me sick from coconut oil and are the best raw treats ever!
• Savoury Gluten Free Chickpea Muffins, from the lovely baker of the potato pies, and I am sorry I didn't get her name either!
• Snickerdoodle cookies donated by ALQ volunteer Michelle
• Some super cute doughnuts for doggies, which were enjoyed by the many glorious puppers who visited throughout the day

As you can see, the sheer amount of food donated was staggering! And we sold almost all of it in 4 hours!!! Huge thanks as always to The Green Edge, and to everyone who donated, and came and bought food, to support ALQ!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I was exhausted after I got home yesterday, and was very glad to go to sleep nice and early with this sleepy little girl.

Recipe Round-Up: Easy Vegan Cooking

Easy Vegan Cooking by Leah Leneman was one of my earliest vegan cookbooks. In the early days I actually made a whole lot of recipes out of this, though I wasn't taking photos of my food at that point. Then my cookbook collection took flight. I have cooked from it a little bit since then, but it really isn't something that I reach for anymore.

Kedgeree with Tomato and Sweetcorn Savoury: I am always interested by kedgeree recipes, plus I really like the word. I used cold cooked rice, and the rice got nice and crunchy. Nori and smoked tofu round this out to a nice meal. The tomato and sweetcorn was quite plain, I would suggest using stock instead of water in the recipe for more flavour. This is definitely a side dish, it is not substantial.
Rating: Kedgeree :), Tomato and Sweetcorn :|



Hummus: Vegans love hummus. For this recipe I got 4 Tbs of juice from my large lemon, and I used cumin powder instead of whole seeds.
Rating: :)



Haricot Bean and Olive Dip: This makes a large quantity. It was a little bland and a little runny, I would have liked more olives.
Rating: :)



Tagliatelle All' Alfredo: A satisfying pasta dish, I made a half quantity of this. It uses vegan cream (I can't remember the brand I used), so is quite rich. I also added in some mushrooms and some stir-fried Fry's strips and some peas.
Rating: :)



Lentil Curry: This curry is a bit unusual, as it has apple, baked beans and cucumber in it. Odd. Despite its slightly odd flavour, there is something about it that makes you want more. I used SPC baked beans in rich tomato sauce.
Rating: :)



Quick and Easy Chilli: This is quick, using bulgur instead of mince. I actually really enjoy bulgur in chilli, so this was good. It made very large servings. You can see some cornbread peaking out from underneath, which is from Veganomicon.
Rating: :)



Scrambled Tofu and Mushrooms: I love tofu scramble, and while this is a simple recipe it does hit the spot. I added some nooch to it because I love adding nooch to everything.
Rating: :)



Tofu and Pea Curry: This uses tofu that has been frozen and thawed, so it soaks up the curry flavour well. I did pan fry the crumbled tofy for about 5 minutes before adding for better texture, and I used stock instead of water (and slightly less than called for).
Rating: :)



Special Rhubarb Crumble: I am not sure why this is 'special'. It also amuses me that it says to serve after a very light meal, or to people with large appetites. I know which category I fall into. The rhubarb is all nice and sweet/tart, but the crumble part is the star here. It has ground ginger in it for a little spicy lift.
Rating: :)



Avocado and Gooseberry Fool: I stumbled across some fresh gooseberries one time at the supermarked, something that has never happened again, so decided to make this dessert. It is quite tart. I am not always sold on avocado in desserts, but this worked. It called for grated chocolate to be sprinkled on top, but I used some chocolate sprinkles instead.
Rating: :)



Carob and Date Ice Cream: For some reason I had carob powder (I am not the biggest carob fan), so I made this dessert. The sweetness of the dates overcame the strange dirt taste I often find with carob to make a lovely sweet frozen dessert. It is recommended to soak the dates in water, and then use the water for blending so you get to keep all the date flavour. This also uses soy cream as the creamy base, and I am pretty sure I used Soyatoo.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



My friend Sarah planted a cat seed, watered it carefully and waited. Look what grew!!

Vegan MoFo 2011 #3: 'Easy Vegan Cooking'

Easy Vegan Cooking
Leah Leneman, Thorsons, 1998



Another of my early cookbooks. Easy Vegan Cooking appealed to my young vegan self because the picture on the front cover is a slice of gorgeous looking chocolate cake complete with icing and a strawberry. How could I resist? I actually have cooked heaps and heaps out of this book, but sadly most of it was before I had a digital camera or before I learned the joys of food photography once I had a digital camera, so even though I have cooked through entire chapters of this book, I have very few photos. I am working on remaking the best of it!

Aside from the beautiful cover photo, there are no other photos in this book. It is paperback, and the size of it mean that I generally have to weigh down the page I want to make it stay open. This book allowed me to explore whole new concepts and ingredients. Chapters include The Vegan'Dairy', American Breakfast and British Afternoon Tea, Soups, Salads, Starters, Spreads and Snacks, Rice and Other Grains, Pasta, Beans, Vegetables, Nuts, Tofu and Other Soya Foods, Ready-Made Health Food Products, Sea Vegetables, Vegetable Side Dishes, Fresh Fruit-Based Desserts, Miscellaneous Desserts, and Cakes and Biscuits. Recipes are normally one to two to a page, in side-by-side columns.

Here are some of my favourite recipes from this book that I have photographed.

Waffles



This is a simple little waffle recipe, but they are amazing. They crisped up really nicely in my waffle maker (not always a given in my maker) and they are not too sweet, making them ideal for any topping.

Macaroni 'Cheese'



This was the very first mac and cheese recipes I made, and it is still one that I love. The only alteration I made is to decrease the amount of dried macaroni from 3-3 1/2 cups to 2 cups. It is a nooch based sauce, probably fairly standard but it is my first memory of mac and cheese, something that I love, so it is pretty special to me. Here I have served it with some white bean, sage and garlic cutlets. Nom nom!

Spaghetti with Tahini Sauce



Back in the days when I wasn't a big tahini fan, this sauce made a believer of me. Tahini, tomato puree, yeast extract and water blend together to make an amazing, rich sauce that is ridiculously fast to make. You can add in beans and vegetables to the pasta (here I have added peas), or you can serve them on the side, depending on your preferences.

Italian Macaroni and Beans



This is super fast, super simple and super delicious. I use 2 cups of macaroni instead of 3 cups, which gives about three servings. The other change I made it to up the garlic by at least double. Serve with lots of nooch to sprinkle on top!

Smoked Tofu, Courgette and Sweetcorn Risotto



You know this is going to be delicious just from the title. It's not a true risotto, but uses cooked brown rice as the base, making it quick and easy to cook. This makes a large amount! Here I have served it with some asparagus and potatoes (both recipes from another cookbook).

Tempeh Burgers



Juicy, tasty tempeh burgers. These are essentially tempeh steaks, simmered in a delicious sauce (think lots of tomato ketchup). The recipe calls for 450g of tempeh cut into 4 pieces, but here my blocks of tempeh are 300g. I still cut it into four pieces, but I only used half the quantity of ingredients for the sauce.

Vegetable Gratin



This is some pretty delicious comfort food. The recipe calls for vegan cheese spread, and I used Sheese Cheddar Cream Cheese here with great results. Served with Fry's schnitzels and baked potato wedges.

Lemon and Chocolate Treats



These are some super cute little banana dessert treats. Banana's are halved lengthwise and sandwiched with a lemon buttercream, then drizzled with melted chocolate and sprinkled with coconut. Yummo!

Here is a list of those five-star recipes from this book that I don't have photos of.

Vegetable Soup
Grilled Garlic Mushrooms
Chick Pea Spread
Tempeh Spread
Barley and Cashew Casserole
Baked Tahini Pasta (uses the same sauce as Spaghetti with Tahini Sauce)
Chick Pea Stroganoff
Lentil Pastichio
Cabbage and Potato Casserole
Smoked Tofu Stew
Arame and Tofu Pancakes
Gingerbread

Just to elaborate on my rating system, five star is the absolute most awesome. There are many four star recipes in all my books, but they would make too many to put in the one post! I use sticky notes to write my thoughts and comments and ratings, and then stick one in for each recipe (I don't like to permanently mark a book, though I will use pencil to link up recipes for menus).

Do you keep notes and ratings for recipes that you make? How do you record it?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Sahara is staring at you. What is she saying? I believe it is hello. Hello and give me some oatmilk!