Anatomy of an Engagement Cake

My lovely friend Jen (of the big variety, not of the small who was married in June) is engaged to Ryan, and on Saturday we all got together to celebrate this! Jen and Ryan asked me to make their engagement cake. I was honoured, and or course said yes. How fabulous to be able to make a vegan engagement cake! Hurrah! Here is what followed...


First up, one needs a flavour. I gave Jen a list of options, and I made some cupcakes for her top picks. This cupcake was the winner. It is a Chocolate Peanut Butter Heavencake from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. A chocolate cupcake with the middle pulled out to make a hole which is then filled with Peanut Buttercream and topped off with Ganache. Nom!


How big would the cake need to be? Apparently enough for around about 130 people. The biggest pan I had was a 9x13 inch, but it is more of a pan than a proper cake tin. Also, not big enough! I found this fabulous website, Simply Cake Tin Hire, a lady who lives near me and has a zillion types of cake tins that you can just hire. Hurrah! I was originally going to get the 12x18 inch pan, but alas I found out that my oven is only 17 inches wide! So I hired her 9x13 inch tin, which was much better than mine with its tall sides and super sharp and straight edges. And I decided I would have to put two together to make a giant 13x18 inch cake.


Ingredients! The concept for the cake was to be a two layered cake with Peanut Buttercream in between the layers and all over the top and sides, then smothered in Ganache. Nom! First step - making the cake. Or cakes. I would need to make 4. The recipe I decided to use for the cake was the Chocolate Cake recipe from The Joy Of Vegan Baking.


And here are the ingredients all mixed up and in their tin and about to go into the oven to become...


Cake! Wonderful cake! Cake that I then had to cut 1 inch off the edge of to make them 8x13 inch, otherwise they would be too big for the cake board. I got a 18x18 inch board to display my cake, the biggest I could. Sadly, this meant that the cake in its entirety on the cake board would be too big to fit into anyone's fridge. Meep. So I would have to create and store it in two halves until the day arrived.


I used the Peanut Buttercream Filling and Frosting recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. I made a triple batch, which was enough to fill and ice the cake with a bit left over for decorations. So, once one has put on the frosting, one must add...


The Ganache! The recipe is the one used in the Chocolate Raspberry Blackout Cake from Vegan With A Vengeance. I made one batch which just covered the cake for its first layer of ganache. I then popped them on some baking paper on a cookie sheet...


... and covered it with an upturned cupcake carrier, minus the cupcake carrying insert. A perfect fit and kept my cakes safe and sound on the journey of to Jen's. Where I would say goodbye to them until the following day.


Where I had to carefully assemble the two halves on the cakeboard. I was terrified that it would just all fall apart. Amazingly it did not! So we had one big cake!


Which I then proceeded to tart up with lots more Ganache and some piped on Peanut Buttercream frosting. It was not the absolute perfection that I was after, but it was reasonably impressive, if I do say so.


And here is the happy couple, about to massacre my life's work. Well, my work of the last three days. Hurrah for Jen and Ryan!


And a tasty slice of cake on a napkin. And may I say, it was NOM! What did other people think?


Well, I departed shortly after the cake and there was only this little bit left. Apparently people really liked it, and a few even wanted the recipe! No doubt many people there never knew that vegan could taste so good... and so naughty!

So, all in all it was an experience! The end result was pretty gratifying, though I don't know that I would be in a hurry to make a cake of this size too soon. Hee.

Happy engagement to Jen and Ryan!

Happy birthday to my Dad!

Earlier this month my dad celebrated his 65th birthday. Every time there is a birthday or other special day, the person at the centre of it gets to pick their own menu. Here is what my dad chose for his dinner. All these recipes except for the dessert came from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson.


For his starter he chose Indian-Spiced Lentil Soup, which an absolutely delicious soup! I had some of the leftovers for dinner last night and it freezes and keeps really well. Five stars!


He challenged me a bit with his choice of main - Crispy Triple Soy Roast with Double Mushroom Sauce. Firstly, for some unknown reason my first batch of seitan I made was a total fail. I have no idea what happened because I make seitan quite a lot, but the whole batch went in the bin. My second attempt was much fine, however after marinating it when I came to roll it out it became apparent that it would not make nearly enough for all the stuffing. It calls for a 1-pound piece of raw seitan, but I would probably double that. Even though it is tricky to roll flat, there was no way I would have been able to get this thin enough to be big enough for all the filling. Also, my bean curd or yuba sheets were a bit annoying. I found I had to soak them for ages to be soft enough, then press out the water with some paper towels. But they were all folded on each other it turned out and I couldn't separate them. I haven't used them before, so I need some more practice.


Because I had so much excess stuffing, I just baked it in a dish of its own. Apparently Americans like baked stuffing, according to my cookbooks! This is mushrooms, tofu, soy, bread, miso and parsley.


Here is the Double Mushroom Sauce, which was actually triple mushroom sauce because I made some mushroom stock for it as well. It was delicious!


The roast, stuffing and sauce all together. Not the most attractive thing to photograph! The stuffing and the sauce were both good, and the yuba indeed did go crispy! The texture of the seitan itself was a bit funny... kind of smooshy and spongy. I made a stuffed seitan roll for Christmas last year using a Vegan Dad recipe and that one steamed and then baked the seitan roll. This recipe just baked it, so I wonder if steaming it first would improve the texture.


And here it is with the side, Sautéed Green Beans with Tomatoes and Garlic . I have made this before and it is just a really simple, quick and fresh tasting vegetable dish that I highly recommend.


And dessert, which was Apple Berry Grunt from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. This was fun because it was made on the stove top, which was a bit different! It was pretty tasty!

Here comes bride... again

I have been neglecting the blog land terribly the last several weeks, I am not sure what has been going on! Lots of work, as usual, and then... stuff? And more weddings! Four weeks after being a bridesmaid, I got to be a bridesmaid again, this time for the lovely Diana and Brendan.


Here is out beautiful bride, Diana, in the appartment before we headed off to the wedding itself in our fancy pants limo.


And here are the beautiful bridesmaids! Leish, Dana and myself.

I of course have no photos of the wedding itself, as I was in it. After the wedding we went off the have photos on the rocks at the beach - where I seriously froze to death! We were provided snacks including vegan spring rolls (a bit smooshy) and samosas (sensational). Then it was back to the reception for the party!


Here was my entree, and a pretty decent sized entree it was! It was just some penne pasta in a tomato and olive sauce, with whole cloves of roasted garlic. Fairly standard, but not bad at all. And hurrah for no salads!


The main course was a lentil daal with rice. It was pretty nice, again pretty standard. But a decent serving size! I wish I had some greens though. Scurvy! Scurvy!


Here is the (non-vegan) wedding cake. But wait... what is that on the cake? Is that a bride and groom...


Nope. It is a Dalek and a Cyberman! Whovians unite! Now would be the time to mention to those who don't know that we are all GIANT sci-fi geeks. Hee!


Beware of the zobie bridesmaids! THRILLER! Yeah. Thank goodness. Because MJ had passed away just the week before the only music playing on the TV when we were getting ready was various MJ countdowns. And the number one was apparently Man In The Mirror? What?!? I think not. At least the DJ obliged us!


Then it was back to the table for dessert. The vegan option was Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce. It was an appreciated effort and not too bad, but it had that slightly grainy slightly not right texture of amateur vegan cooking. Still, beats the heck out of a fruit salad on a cold winter night!


And here is our happy couple having a wonderful time!


And here is my favourite photo of all! The husband and wife, exhausted and happy back at the room after the wedding. Awwwww.....

Good things come...

... to those who buy them on the internet and then wait for them to come! I always get so thrilled when I receive a package, it's like getting a present! OK, so I know I paid for it, but that was then. And when it arrives is now. Somewhere in the lag time, my brain forgets the part where I paid for it and it is like my birthday!

Anyway, the lovely Vegetation got me on to this fabuous site - The Book Depository. They don't charge postage, they get posted to Australia very quickly and with the current exchange rate they are a pretty fabulous place to get books from!

So, you can imagine my joy when 6 days after I ordered it, my very own copy of Vegan Brunch arrived! I have had a fabulous time looking through it and I can't wait to get the chance to make some recipes! Isa very rarely steers me wrong.

I also put in an order to The Cruelty Free Shop, which also arrived in good time. I swear they must think I am the biggest sweet tooth there, because I always seem to order sweets! But really it is just because it is hard to get the sweet stuff in the shops, a lot of the other food they sell I can get reasonably easily here. Here is a photo of my goodies:


OK, so you will notice 4 bags of Tropical Source Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, a total of over 1kg! No matter how hard I tried and bugged people, I could not find any since moving to Brisbane. There were some accidentally vegan brands, but they all either ended up adding milk or stopped being stocked. The only other stuff available here is Sweet William chocolate, which I hate hate hate - too sweet and fatty! So I always get excited when I get some real chocolate chips, a bake-a-thon is coming! I also got some Soyatoo Whipped Cream in a can, which I curious about. I tried a little bit in the UK and it was OK, much nicer than dairy cream which always made me sick. Some strawberry jelly crystals, for some sort of trifle dessert I feel the craving for. Some vegan merignue mix (anyone know if you can pipe this to bake into nests rather than just little blobs?). Chocolate frogs and chocolate drops for decorating things, and a little jaffa truffle just because! I have already nearly used up one bag of the chocolate chips.

Good things also come to those who consistently stalk the vegan sections of Borders and come bearing 30% off vouchers! I picked up Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. I have been searching for this book for a while, and the recipes look great! Now I just need to get a slow cooker. Or four of differing sizes and shapes, if I want to make everything in the book. Hee.

The other book I found is Great Chefs Cook Vegan. I love the idea of this book - it is collection of three or four course meals prepared by some of the top chefs in America. I love it that these chefs embrace the prospect of having a vegan come and dine with them, and want to excel in providing amazing food for everyone! The recipes in there are incredible and each has a stunning full colour photo. The level of detail involved in the recipes mean that I am probably unlikely to make much from here, and definitely not more than one recipe at once! But I am in love with the idea of this book!

Good things also come to those who have lovely friends! Allularpunk made more than a few of us jealous with the amazing pot luck her friends put on for her! Well, in the space of two days I had two different friends offering to cook me vegan dinner. Hurrah!

First was Jen and her fiance Ryan. I went over to spend the day scrapbooking, and they spent the evening cooking me dinner!


Here are my faithful minions, slaving away in the kitchen to bring me food!


First up was Jen's famous pumkin soup! I love it because she makes it so thick and so spicy. Yummy!


Followed up by some mushroom, barley and wild rice risotto cooked in their slow cooker, with some fresh bread made in the bread maker. It was fabulous! I bought along my own nooch to sprinkle on top.

A few days later, I went over to a friend from work's house before we went to a seminar on feline pancreatic lipase (oh yay, we are SUPER exciting people). For starters she made some hommus and some delightful marinated mushrooms. I didn't get photos of those, woe.


But here is dinner! It was based on a smoky baked bean recipe, which she modified to be vegan for me. She got rid of the meat and replaced it with eggplant and tofu. It was great! Really nice flavour, and served with some toast. She had never cooked for a vegan before, she did a really fabulous job of it!

So, finally in this epic post of random, sadly Wednesday night was a farewell dinner for the lovely Megan from work, who I will be missing a lot! We went to Grande Piatto in Camp Hill. I rang them in advance to discuss my vegan dining experience. They were a bit horrified by the list of things they couldn't use (how many times do you need to be told that cheese is an animal product?), but overall the did an alright job.


My starter was bruschetta. Which was really nice, the tomato was so fresh and the bread was crusty and good. There was so much onion in it though that I was suffering from onion breath ever the following morning despite brushing, flossing and gargling. Hee.


My main was just a fairly standard pasta dish of penne and mixed vegetables in a tomato sauce. It was fine.


And a side salad of spinach and rocket with fennel and beetroot. The beetroot was from a tin though, which was a bit of a let down.

Overall it was an OK meal. And it was pretty on par with what the others were being served (bruschetta and garlic bread for starters and several pasta dishes for mains). Not outstanding though, certainly something I could do at home for a lot less than the $25 it cost me and with very little effort.

Here ends the randomness. I am being a bridesmaid next weekend again and I am working a zillion hours until then, so if I may be a bit away from the blogging side of things for a bit!

Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Planet #2

I'm currently on call at the clinic, however this week I had the foresight to bring along Vegan Planet with me so I can do another recipe round up post at least! I am a pretty big fan of Vegan Planet, it has many great recipes in it and generally I am always happy with what I make from it. Last time I did Vegan Planet round up it focused on Asian-themed dishes. Today I am doing a bit of a round up on some pasta dishes with a couple of extras as well. So, let us get on with the photos.


Tuscan-Style Pasta with Chickpeas, Zucchini and Rosemary. Served with roasted asparagus, my favourite way to eat asparagus! I added some mushrooms to it, just because I could. It is really quick to make, and a great option for a day when you get home from work late and want something easy and yummy to eat.


Spring Vegetable Gratin. I am sad I don't also have an inside shot of this, because it is fabulous! The vegetables involved are potatoes, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and asparagus. It is wonderful, and develops this buttery flavour even though there is nothing remotely buttery in it! It's not filling enough on it's own. I cannot remember what I served with it but I think it may have been vegan sausages and bread roll. The book suggests a bruschetta for a side with a garlicky bean topping, which I think would be great.


Mac and 'Cheese'. I am on a mission to try every single vegan mac and cheese recipe in the world. There is something I just love about it. It is real comfort food for me. This was an excellent representation of this beloved dish. It is quite saucy. I also increased the amount of nooch the recipe called for, because I am addicted to the stuff. I served it with some sauteed broccolini (which I saute with some Maggi seasoning, nom).


Linguine Tetrazzini. I haven't written anything in my notes section on this, except a smiley face. It was pretty nummy. The recipe suggested serving with a bread roll and steamed green beans. I made it roasted green beans because they are awesome.


'Sausage' and Fennel Cannelloni. I haven't done much cannelloni before. I buy the standard dry cannelloni rolls from the supermarket, which may be smaller than the ones you can get in America because I had a lot of mixture left over, even with downgrading the 2 medium-sized fennel bulbs to one small fennel bulb. Be sure to chop your fennel finely otherwise it is too chunky to fit in your tubes! Also I used reconstituted TVP mince instead of crumbled soy sausage. It was not bad overall. I served it with a rocket and corn salad with balsamic vinegar.


Linguine with Sage and White Bean Sauce. I found the sauce a bit dry in this recipe, though overall it was still fairly nice. Not protein-y enough or vegetable-y enough to make a full meal on its own, I served it with a Fry's Schnitzel and a green salad.


Mushroom-Soy Pastitsio. I ended up increasing the amount of tomato paste and seasoning for this because otherwise it might be a bit bland. I also decreased the amount of pasta by half from 500g to 250g because I generally find that 500g of pasta makes a way too huge amount and I prefer to have more of the rest of the meal and a bit less of the pasta. I tend to always do this with all pasta recipes calling for 500g! Served with baby spinach leaves.


Brown Rice and Chickpeas with Broccoli Rabe. And last but not least for this post is this tasty dish. It makes you feel really warm and healthy and satisfied when you eat it. It doesn't have a strong flavour, so it lends itself to a variety of sauces. Here it is modeling some Apricot BBQ Sauce from Veganomicon. I also served it with some vegan sausages, but baked tofu would be awesome as well. And, of course, a green salad.

Recipe Round-Up: Eat, Drink and Be Vegan

Time to clear out some more archives! Let me begin with a tale. Once upon a time there was a girl called Susan. And for many moons she would skip into her local Borders and look at The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton. Susan kept on putting off buying this book, because at $55 it seemed just a tad pricey, even though she knew that buying vegan books from Borders in Australia is never cheap. Then one day the magical interwebs sent Susan a Borders voucher, buy two cookbooks and get a third for free! Susan was full of glee, and skipped into Borders. But woe, the book was gone. Susan's woe was short-lived, however, for upon searching through the shelves she found Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. And she rejoiced. And she bought it. They went home together and the book provided delicious, delicious meals. And they lived happily ever after. The End!

So yes, Eat, Drink and Be Vegan is a new addition to my cookbook collection. I have not made that much out of it yet. But so far what I have made, I have been pretty darn happy with! I love that Dreena gives lots of suggestions for things that go together, because you all know menu plans (mine or other peoples) fill me with glee! So, let us take a peek and what has been cooked up, shall we?


This was the first thing I ever made. It is Garlicky Broccoli, Corn and Bean Burritos, topped off with some Smoky Avocado Sauce and a big green side salad for scurvy-fighting properties. The Smoky Avocado Sauce is delicious, and really pulls the whole thing togehter. I loved the beans for the burritos - you make your own pureed beans and it includes balsamic vinegar. It certainly makes for a scrumptious taste sensation!


Pictured here is Cumin Lime Tofu with Autumn Puree and a green salad topped with Polenta Croutons. The flavour of the tofu was awesome. Unfortunately, mon pere had purchased the wrong type of tofu (silken firm rather than real firm), which just refused to soak up as much marinade and it should have. It was still pretty tasty though! I found I was all out of pepitas, so I crushed up some sunflower seeds instead. The Autumn Puree was great, especially smothered in left over marinade. It is quite sweet and I think would also make a nifty quick pie filling. But that might just be me. The left over marinade also made a fabulous dressing for the greens. But I must now just take a moment to talk about the star of this dish.


Behold. The golden perfection. What happens when 5 ingredients, a bit of time and almost no effort combine. Polenta Croutons. Make them. Eat them. On their own. Holy cow, in case you cannot tell, I am in love with these things. They are seriously NOM and it is a miracle there were any left to go on the salad, I spent all afternoon just snacking on them!


This little number is Savory French Lentils with Roasted Winter Squash Rings, Lemon Broiled Green Beans and brown rice. So, the squash rings were more squash half moons because I could only find halved butternuts. The beans are super quick and easy to make. And the lentils require almost no effort and are really tasty. No wonder it is a mainstay in the Burton household, if we are to believe the blurb.


And finally the Bean and Corn Tortilla Lasagna with Avocado, served with a salad with Cumin-Cinnamon Vinaigrette. I used cheddar Cheezly to top this dish, but I have heard about the nacho flavour and I suspect it would go very nicely with it too. I did have a brief urge to splot some 'sour cream' on it, but in the end didn't. The salad dressing is amazing though! I put the extra in a jar and every lunch time I give it a shake and pour it over more salad. It is certainly inspiring me to eat lots and lots of my greens!

So, there is the current line up of dinners provided for me. They have all been fabulous. I will definitely be looking to get my hands on her other books if they are anywhere near as good as this one!