VeganMoFo 2016 #28: Holiday baking.

28th: Holiday Bake Day! – What are you planning on baking over the winter holidays? Do you make cake, or cookies? Or something savoury?

I used to do a lot of baking just for fun, and to take to work, and to eat. Not so much anymore. I lost my baking mojo in a massive way during and after Gizmo's passing, and I have never quite recovered it. I still bake, especially for things like bake sales, but nowhere near as much for fun random baking as I used to do. So I don't do a lot of Christmas baking these days.

The nice thing about a blog, when you blog consistently (which I haven't always), is that you get a nice time capsule of certain aspects of your life to look back on. For example, I can see that 2008 I had a big Christmas bake-a-thon, which included these cute reindeer cupcakes.



I also made these adorable Strawberry Santa Hats the same year, and the year after. These really are very good, should do it again.



By the way, both of the recipes above came from the wonderful Wing It Vegan blog.

My next big Christmas bake-a-thon apparently didn't happen until 2014. I don't often feel the so called Christmas spirit anymore, but apparently in 2014 I had a stirring, so I put it to good use baking. I stuck to pretty simple things, like these Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies from Isa Does It.



Gingerbread and ginger cookies are some of my very favourite cookies. As opposed to gingerbread men, which I can take or leave. My favourite ginger cookie recipe is the Sparkled Ginger Cookies from Vegan With A Vengeance. I have made these so many times, though sadly not recently.



This year I am not planning any huge baking extravaganzas. I am tired, which is boring because I know we are all tired, but I am. I will be working right up until Christmas Eve afternoon, because I only get public holidays off, so I won't have time to do heaps of Christmas prep. Plus I have a bake sale next weekend, that is using up all of my current baking focus.

So instead I am dipping into the convenient world of pre-packaged vegan christmas-style goodies!

I was super excited to find the fabled vegan stollen at Aldi. I love stollen but haven't had it since before going vegan!



I also have two types of ginger cookies to enjoy. The big cookies are from Smith & Deli, I bought them in Melbourne in November. And the ginger snaps are a random pack my mum bought that happen to be vegan.



What is your favourite thing to bake for the holidays? Or your favourite packaged treat if you don't have the time?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Sweet little Pascall, my fourth kitty. We didn't get to be together for very long, it broke my heart (and ended my childhood dream to be a vet... though obviously I came back to that later in life), but it was so sweet while it lasted. This little girl would sleep in my bed, under the covers with her head on the pillow. It was good times.