I've been doing my fair share of holiday baking! Sorry if the pictures are a bit small, but I'm still getting back into the swing of flogging.


In the lower left hand corner are my grandma's infamous peanut butter date balls, which are full of powdery sugar goodness and coconut and then covered in chocolate - so good! On the bluish plate is a veganized version of marshmallow fudge using vegan ricemellow. (The other desserts are non-vegan peanut butter date balls and divinity).


This is the macrobiotic dinner that my boyfriend and I had last night: hambulghur helper from the Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics. It's full of carrots, celery, tempeh, onions, and bulghur wheat. Very refreshing!

Another macrobiotic dish from the same cookbook: strawberry kanten (vegan jell-o, essentially) layered with tofu cream. Really good, but very rich. I spilled half of mine on the carpet and still couldn't finish it all!



Mmm, banana nut muffins! I was going to make low fat banana pancakes, but these sounded way better. Check the recipe out here: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=5712.0

For Christmas, my boyfriend's grandma got me a really cute dessert set (with a serving tray, plates, and cups,) and my mom got me a mechanical pastry bag. On top of that, I got Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and there were recipes for a tea/craft party in Vegetarian Times. You don't have to be in tune with the universe to figure out that message! So I had a vegan tea party. Above are tea sandwiches with soy cream cheese (mixed with either chives or green olives), tofurkey, and cucumber. The teas I served (which I didn't photograph) were chamomile with ginger and cranberry, and green tea with pomegranate and orange.


This was amazing brazil nut cheese, which is coated in a mixture of herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary and pepper) and then baked and drizzled with olive oil. I got the recipe out of Vegetarian Times, and I'm sure you'll be able to find it on the website in the next few months, after the issue is off the shelves.

These were the first cupcakes I made from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Holy freaking cow. Pictured above are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and low fat vanilla cupcakes with strawberry jam and icing.

These were requested after all 24 of the other cupcakes had been consumed (by only 8 people, I might add!) They're coconut cupcakes with coffee buttercream frosting. You're supposed to use coffee extract, but I didn't have any and used coffee liqueur instead. I would highly recommend making this substitution.


But of course, some people disliked coconut, so then I was requested to make these: chocolate cupcakes filled with peanut butter cream, drizzled with chocolate ganache, and then topped again with more peanut butter frosting. Some of the responses included: "I don't even like cupcakes but these are amazing!" and "I thought you said you were vegan?!?! Because these obviously aren't." Mwahaha! Vegan victory!


Peace!