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.

VeganMoFo 2015 #10: Blue Books

10. Something blue.

Something blue, something blue, something blue... food wise all I could think of was blueberries, and it isn't really blueberry season right now. Blue things in my kitchen? I have a couple, but really my tastes run more to marshmallow pink. What is the greatest resource in my kitchen? My cookbooks of course! In this post I will be sharing a photo of a favourite recipe from each of my blue cookbooks. To qualify they had to have both a blue spine AND a blue base to the cover. In just over 100 books I had eight that fit the criteria.





BIG VEGAN by Robin Asbell was the subject of my last post before MoFo. Thankfully I still had a couple of recipes left to share!
Simple Rice and Veggie Curry One Pot: This simple recipe is made in a rice cooker, and includes sweet potatoes, green beans and cabbage. I used medium grain brown rice instead of short, which worked fine. I had to decrease the curry powder to fit my mild tastes.
Rating: :)



BLISSFUL BITES by Christy Morgan is a great cookbook, full of yummy seasonal recipes.
Lemony Roasted Beets, Brussels, and Yams: This dish is absolutely beautiful to look at! It tastes sweet and lemony, and was great served as a component of a bowl (with a grain, chickpeas and tahini miso dressing). I used sweet potato instead of yams. I had to spread the vegetables across two baking sheets as they wouldn't fit only on one.
Rating: :)



BUT I COULD NEVER GO VEGAN by Kristy Turner is one of my new cookbooks. It is super fun, with lots of clever and inventive recipes grouped under all the different excuses people give for why they could not go vegan.
Jackfruit Nacho Supreme: This was the first recipe I made from here (well, technically second because I had to make the sour cream recipe first). Seasoned jackfruit is piled on top of tortilla chips and then topped with a refreshing bean and corn salsa and assorted nacho toppings, the most important of which is the cashew-based nacho cheese sauce. I found the sauce became very thick, so you may need to thin it a little. I left out the capsicums and chiles because that is how I roll.
Rating: :)



LA DOLCE VEGAN by Sarah Kramer is not a book I tend to use a great deal, however when I needed to find a miso gravy for my Veggie Grill-inspired harvest bowl for day 6 of MoFo, this book delivered.
Merciful Miso Gravy: This gravy is really yummy, my mum particularly loved it (and she knows her gravy). It is based on roux and milk (oat milk in my case) and then mixed with a miso slurry at the end. I added a little bit of gravy browner, as I prefer my gravy brown, so if you make it as the recipe states then it will be a creamy colour.
Rating: :)



THE NEW VEGAN by Janet Hudson is a book I have not used in a long time. While I have made a few nice things from it, it reads like an omni cookbook with the word 'veggie' in front of what would otherwise be a non-vegan ingredient. Plus some of the recipes just don't look right. I am resharing this photo from a previous post, because I haven't made anything new to upload.
Greek Toast: Cream cheese, olives, sundried tomatoes, cucumber and capers make a creamy and tasty filling, and the toast s coated and baked until crunchy and brown. It is yum!
Rating: :)



THE ULTIMATE UNCHEESE COOKBOOK by Jo Stepaniak came out a very long time ago, before we were all making artisan vegan cheeses. I got this book from a friend who was cleaning out her cookbook collection, and I have only made one recipe from it so far. It is appropriate for today's theme!
Creamy Bleu Cheez Dressing: This dressing is based on tahini and miso and has a heft dose of lemon juice and white wine vinegar. I replaced the oil in the recipe with hot water, and I only made a half batch. I poured it all over a salad of cos (romaine for my US friends), black beans and cucumber. Yum!
Rating: :)



VEGAN COOKIES INVADE YOUR COOKIE JAR by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero really needs no introduction!
Rocky Roads: I made these recently for a bake sale to use up some white chocolate I had kicking around because I myself am not a fan of white chocolate. I didn't have white chocolate chips, rather a bar of chocolate that I chopped up for this, and the chunks melted and made the cookies kind of deformed, but people still snapped them up! The ones in this picture are the prettiest ones, and the one of the right is smiling at you! These also have regular chocolate chips and chopped roasted almonds in them. No marshmallow or jelly, because American rocky road is not as good as Australian rocky road! ;)
Rating: :)



WRAPPED IN PASTRY by my friend Leigh Drew is now out of print, which is sad for those who don't have it because it is great and contains my go to pastry recipes! Also, the title is a Twin Peaks reference, so that is awesome. This book has so many goodies in it, some of which I will touch on later in MoFo.
Peanut Butter Caramel Blueberry Pie: This is every bit as awesome as it sounds, and was the first recipe I made when I tested for this book. The peanut butter caramel is so simple (four ingredients), and I have used it many other times for other recipes. Normally I think of strawberry as a friend for peanut butter, but blueberries are amazing. They also look pretty, along with salted peanuts. So yummy!
Rating :D



I just realised there are some blueberries, blue cheese and a few blue bowls in this post!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post: Month of Gizmo



Those eyes! I could stare into them for days. I miss Gizmo everyday, but the last few weeks it has really been hitting me hard again. Sharing these photos and showing everyone what a beautiful girl she was makes me happy.

VeganMoFo 2011 #8: 'The New Vegan'

The New Vegan
Janet Hudson, Thorsons, 2005



I first saw this book in a little shop in Newtown several years ago, and liked what I saw with a quick glance through. However my student self could not at that point afford another $40 cookbook. But my friends got it for me for my birthday. Yay for birthday presents! The book is a paperback in the sort of size and thickness that does not stay open easily. Also, the binding in my copy fell to pieces soon after I got it, just from opening it occasionally. Contents include Hors d'Oeuvres, Salads, Soups, Entrees, Companion Pleasures, Desserts, Pantry Essentials, Break the Fast, Sandwiches and Snacks, and Juices, Smoothies and Shakes. There is one to two recipes per page. I am not overly fond of the font used for the recipe titles, though that is me being fussy.

I don't have a lot of photos from this book, though I have made more recipes than I have photos of, so I will give you a bit of a run down of some of the better things I have made.

Greek Toasts


These are nice, crisp little squares of toast with a yummy cream cheese, olive and sundried tomato, cucumber and caper filling.

Roasted 'Chicken' with Apple Creme Sauce


I didn't have access to any 'chicken breasts' to split in half, so I used two 'chicken chops' and sandwiched the stuffing between them. Served here with a bed of Blow Me Down Lemon Spinach, a nice side dish from the book.

Stars and Stripes Timbale


Quite nice flavour, but mainly a star because it was my first timbale and I was so happy it turned out. It was also the first dish I ever took a photo of, thus starting me down this addictive path of food photography.


Tempting Cacciatore Tempeh


This recipe gets its photo here by virtue of being the long photo from this book hanging out in my 'To Upload' folder. It is a nice recipe. It called for smoked tempeh, which I had never seen, so just add a little bit of liquid smoke if that floats your boat. The tempeh is cut into four portions, so it is more of a tempeh steak in a cacciatore sauce.

Portobello Mushroom Sandwich


This book does have some good sandwiches, and this is a great one. I decreased the amount of oil and vinegar used for sauteeing the mushroom (and skipped the capsicum).

Rancho Scripps Patty Melt


This is a great sandwich. It is creamy, cheesy and just yummy. I used Fry's burger patties here. The recipe calls for almond Jack Cheese... sure. I just used some Tofutti slices.

Here are a few five star recipes that I don't have photos for:

Aviary Ravioli with Hip Herb Pesto (uses wonton wrappers for the ravioli and is so delicious and so cute!)
Tomato Phyllo Pie
Vegacotti
Cranberry Oatmeal Drops
... Lettuce, Tomato - I Beg Your Pardon... BLT Not!

So how do I feel about this book? Fairly meh. Which is hard for me to say, because I like to be sunshine and light to everyone. One of the things that turns me off about this book is the huge reliance on vegan versions of meat and dairy products. At the time that I got this book, the availability of these things to me was very limited. However, I have had good success making some of the recipes by subbing tofu, tempeh or mushrooms for the meat. But it does read very much like an omni cookbook with the word 'veggie' in front of the meat/dairy product. Now don't get me wrong, I love me some plant-based meat and cheese, I have a very high tolerance for faux. However, it is not something I want to eat all the time. Plus having to source these things and then the expense of these things make it not something I want to do all the time. Maybe it depends on where you live. One of the recipes also calls for bonita, which I assume means bonito, which is fish, so I am not sure what is going on there. I also find that I need to use my own judgement very much with some of the quantities of liquids or sugars being called for in the recipes. There is a naan recipe in it that has so much sugar we had to eat them for dessert as pancakes. However, to be fair I have made some very nice food from this book, even some great food. I will probably make the odd thing from it here and there in the future, but I will not be reaching for it frequently.

What cookbooks have you been given for birthdays?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post


This little sweetie is Pascall, who was my fourth childhood kitty. Unfortunately, we lost Patches (from my last post) to a blood clot when he was three and a half. Pascall was a gorgeous little silver tabby from the RSPCA. Sadly, she lost a fight to kidney cancer when she was not even a year old. She was beautiful, and she used to sleep with her head on my pillow and her body under the covers with me.

Well, that was a bit of a downer post. Lost kittens and not favourite cookbooks. Come back tomorrow though, there will be cupcakes and happy kitty tales!

VeganMoFo #7: Recipe Round-Up - Getting toasty warm with The New Vegan (and BSG rave)

Just squeezing in a post for today. The reason being that I have just spent my evening watching the finale for Battlestar Galactica - finally! OK, this is going be a food post but first let me geek out a little bit. I am a science fiction and genre TB geek. I was introduced to BSG by my television mentor Brendan (seriously, the man has the most outrageously spot on taste in TV shows) sometime during my last year in Sydney. I had seen a few episodes late night on normal TV, but if you haven't started watching from the beginning it is way too confusing. It is, however, one of the best and most incredible shows ever. The arc of the story is phenomenal, and absolutely everything pays off. A couple of months ago I bought my limited edition shiny black box of the complete series, but I hadn't seen the final three episodes yet. I then introduced it to my mother and my brother, both now firm BSG fans (yay), and we have been doing a BSG marathon ever since. The moral of this story is: Go and by the complete series of BSG. Now. Don't accidentally get the old one though, because that is lame. The new one - one of the best things you'll ever see!

Now, where was I... oh yes! Food! So, today I am going to be talking about some recipes from The New Vegan. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this book. Or a like-hate relationship. I have made some food stuff from it, but pretty much every second recipe reads like an omni recipe but with the word 'veggie' written in front of the pork/lamb/shrimp/cheese whatever. Super heavy on the processed stuff! Also, one of the recipes called for bonito flakes, which last time I checked was fish. So, hmmmm....

But as I said, I have made some nice stuff from it. Some of that nice stuff has been in the form of some damn tasty toasted/grilled sandwiches, a few of which I present to you today!'


Portobello Mushroom Sandwiches are delicious. Rather than being a whole fried portobello, there is a mixture of mushroom, basil, balsamic vinegar and (if you want to) red capsicum. On bread with mayo, parsley, mozzarella, lettuce and tomato. Nom-tastic!


The Monte Cristo 2000 is a fairly simple combination of cheese, vegetable seasoning and faux turkey slices (though I used Redwoods Cheatin' Chicken) sandwiched between bread. The entire sandwich is then fried in parsley butter until golden on both sides. With a classy cherry tomato skewered through the middle. And some fries on the side (there was some salad too).


Ahh, the classic Grilled Cheese Sandwich, a classic. It really doesn't need a recipe, but I must make as many recipes as I can! This one sprinkles vegetable seasoning into the sandwich, which makes it quite salty. This sandwich is also fried in Nuttelex. I enjoy my grilled cheese sandwiches on the side of some delicious soup - often tomato!


This delectable concoction is a Rancho Scripps Patty Melt - yum, yum, yum! A burger patty (mine is a Fry's one) with 2 cheese slices, scallions and mayo that is then placed under the grill (or broiler for the Americans) until it is delicious and melty and wonderful. And then skewered with some olives and a dill pickle. Again - all class. ;) But it is fantastic!!

For all the cheese, I used Tofutti slices - either mozzarella or American style. The book calls for all fancy types of cheese - almond Jack (I don't even know what that is), provolone and so on. I can't get that variety so I just use what I have, and it works out fine!

Cute Cat Photo of the Post

This is the lovely Possum, or more accurately a pretty awesome close-up I was able to get of his beautiful hind paw. Lovely!

Now I am off to bed. I am exhausted because yesterday I helped out at a Twilight/New Moon convention that my friend was organising. It was interesting to be on the helping side of things, normally I am attending conventions like the great big geeky fan girl that I am. But Twilight exists for me to mock it, so I had no problems forgoing the fan experience to help out. Still, I ended up doing numerous food and drink runs (including a memorable 18kg work of drink bottles I carried for far too long) and now even now I am still exhausted and quite sore. I think the gym tomorrow will call for some gentle exercise, some stretching and perhaps some sauna. ;)

Who else here is a total geek? Don't be shy! Geek girls are totally hot. Hee!