Weekly Wishlist: Pearls and Lace

I'm definitely starting to get a bit prematurely excited for warmer weather at the moment! These are a few of my current favourite pearly lacey pretties. I love these collar brooches! Such a simple way to pretty up a plain top.

1. Dahlia Lace Prom Dress  2. Asos Bunny Earrings  3. Topshop Pearl Collar Peplum Top  4. Dahlia Collar  5. Paper Orchid Cupcake Wrapper  6. Asos Collar Brooches

ohmygosh yum: vegan easter cupcakes!

Easter can be a little dull for vegan atheists like myself. I'm not a huge fan of vegan chocolate. It tends to be a little disappointing. Whenever I've been to the supermarket recently, I've found my self lingering a little while walking through the Easter egg aisle. While vegan chocolate may be a little disappointing, vegan baking definitely is not! So I decided to bake myself some easter-themed cupcakes. They are deeelish. Sure to cure any chocolate cravings Easter Sunday may bring on!



Cupcake Ingredients
2 cups of soy milk
2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
1 and a half cups of sugar
2/3 cups of canola oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 cups of plain flour
1 cup of cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

Chocolate Eggs
1 egg mould - I bought mine from Let's Cook & on Little Bourke Street
125 grams of dairy free chocolate - I used Whittaker's

Icing Ingredients
110 grams Toffutti Better Than Cream Cheese
3-4 cups of icing Sugar

Chocolate Eggs Method
Break all of your chocolate into small pieces. Place a pot of boiling water on the stove top. Put your chocolate into a bowl and sit it on top of the saucepan. The bowl will heat up and the chocolate will melt. Keep stirring the mixture until all chocolate has dissolved. Then spoon the chocolate into the moulds. Put the mould into your fridge until the chocolate has set - this should take an hour or two.

Cupcake Method
Begin by whisking the soy milk and vinegar together in a bowl. Set the mixture aside for a few moments while it goes all curdley. Sift all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Gradually mix the soy milk mixture and the oil into the dry ingredients. Spoon the mixture into patty pans, filling them approximately 3/4 full. Pop them into a moderate oven for around 20 minutes.

Icing Method
Put your cream cheese into a medium bowl and add about 2 cups of icing sugar. Beat them together with an electric mixer. Gradually add more sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Continue to beat it until the sugar has dissolved completely.

Put the icing on top of the cupcakes in any way you desire and decorate with your chocolate eggs.



YUM! Happy Easter!

ohmagosh yum: vegan red velvet cupcakes!

While I was away, I constantly found myself dreaming of all the delicious things I would cook upon my return. Red velvet cupcakes were up the top of my list so, over the weekend, I got baking! They turned out beautifully! I haven't had a red velvet cupcake in years so they are such a nice treat! I love the combination of the chocolatey-vanillary cake along with the creamy icing.

Here's what you need for the cupcakes:

2 cups of soy milk
2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups of plain flour
4 tablespoons of cornflour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2/3 cup of oil
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
red food dye - make sure you get a vegan one! most of the supermarket varieties have cochineal in them. i got a natural, vegan one from the health food shop.

Here's what you need for the icing:

one tablespoon of vegan margarine
1/2 tub of Toffuti Better Than Cream Cheese
around about 2 cups of icing sugar



Here's what you do for the cupcakes:

Pour your soy milk and apple cider vinegar into a small bowl. Give them a whisk and pop the mixture aside. Sift all of your dry ingredients into one big bowl. Gradually stir in the soy milk mixture. Add the oil, vanilla extract and red food dye. How much dye you need will depend on the brand. Just add it gradually until the mixture is a nice dark red.

Fill your patty pans about 3/4 full and bake in a moderate oven for 20-25 minutes.






Here's what you do for the icing:

Place the cream cheese and margarine in a medium bowl. Gradually beat in the icing sugar until it is a thick, fluffy consistency.



When the cupcakes have cooled, ice them in any way that you please.

YUM!

Weekend in Pictures

i dooo like teal + lace collars + gold buttons + red lips on Friday night



finally finished War and Peace. Phew.. that was a biggie!



gettin exercisey!





this cute boy is staying with us for a while until he finds a new home. he was almost shot by his owners! so sad.







aaaaand back to uni I go. first notes I've takes since 2010. 100 pages of reading before classes even begin! timetable sorted. good to go!
xox

oh my gosh yum: vegan maple pecan cupcakes!

Last weekend at World Vegan Day I was lucky enough to eat a delicious Mister Nice Guy French Toast cupcake - maple syrup and walnuts! I’ve been trying to eat as much raw food as possible this week, but my craving for more maple-cupcakey goodness got the better of me. Today I decided to make my own maple pecan cupcakes. And boy am I glad I did. They are delish.

I got my original cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra and Terry Hope Romero forever ago. I pretty much know it off by heart (probably not a good thing!) and whenever I make cupcakes these days I just make a variation on that.



I usually make double this amount, but I didn’t have enough maple syrup, so I halved it. You could always use maple flavoured syrup, but I don’t think it would be nearly as nice.





Cupcakes
½ cup of soymilk
½ teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 cups of plain flour
2 tablespoons of cornflour
¾ teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoons of baking soda
1/3 cup of oil
2/3 cup of pure maple syrup
¼ cup of caster sugar
½ a cup of pecans


Whisk the soymilk and the apple cider vinegar together in a small bowl. Pop the mixture aside and sift the flour, cornflour, baking soda, baking powder and sugar into a large bowl. Mix the maple syrup and oil in with the milk and vinegar (it should be a little curdley), then stir all of the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients. Roughly chop the pecans, then stir them in too.

Fill your patty pans about 2/3 full, then put them in a moderate oven for around 20 minutes, or until they are a dark golden brown and cooked through.

Icing
1 tablespoon of vegan nuttelex
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
½ cup of icing sugar

Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer. You may need to add a little more icing sugar to get the right consistency. Once you are happy with your icing, pop it on top of tour cooled cupcakes. Yummo!

It’s tea party time!

World Vegan Day

On Sunday, we headed on down to the World Vegan Day celebrations at the Abbotsford Convent. I had a little vegan slip-up while working last week, so I was looking forward to eating some deeelish vegan treats!

It was super hot so I was a bit excited to wear my new fave dress sans stockings.



There were even more stalls and displays than last year! I was a little disappointed that we missed out on a show bag, but we more than made up for it with all the yummies that we ate.

We started with a Funky Pie. I chose the ‘chilli-non-carne’, as I am loving all things Mexican at the moment! So good.



Then we stocked up on Mister Nice Guy cupcakes. Ahhmazing. We got the ‘French toast’ and ‘Betty White’ which we took home to share. I’m looking forward to sharing the last two with my sister tonight!







But possibly my favourite treat of all were sour worms and coke bottles! I don’t think I have had either since I was about 12, so I was particularly happy when I saw them. Yummo!





And I got some vegan dog food samples, all of which Flinnette loved! I threw them to her and she caught (almost) all of them in the air! This doggy is eating a lot of vegan food at the moment. She loves pretty much everything, so she’s easy to convert!









xxx

Peachy!

Recently, I have been craving all things peachy. Sadly, it’s the beginning of winter, so fresh peaches are not easy to come by! I’ve been satisfying my craving with Schweppes “Peachee” soft drink. Yum! And last night I thought I’d have a shot at making my own vegan peach cupcakes!



I was a little disappointed that they weren’t quite as peachy as I was hoping. BUT they were still delish! The mashed peach makes them more moist and dense which is ratherrrr nice.

I got my original basic cupcake recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Such a great book! I changed it a little too. And this time, I peachified it!



Peach Cupcakes

2 cups soymilk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 ½ cups plain flour
4 table spoons cornflour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
2/3 cup of neutral tasting oil
1 ½ cups of sugar
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 whole peaches

Pop the soy milk and vinegar in a mixing bowl together. Give them a good whisk with a fork and set them aside. The mixture will go all stinky and curdly, but don’t worry, this is meant to happen. Then beat in the oil, sugar and vanilla extracts. Now pop your peaches in a blender, til they’re nice and smooth. They should be somewhere between juice and puree. Mix the peaches into the mixture. Then sift the dry ingredients in and mix it all together. Line your muffin tray with patty pan liners; I didn’t do this as I’d run out, so you can just grease the tray if need be. Fill them up to about ¾ full and pop them into a moderate oven. It should take between 20 and 25 minutes for them to be ready.

Peach Icing

2 cups of icing sugar
1 tablespoon vegan margarine
½ peach

Pop the peach in the blender (or do it along with the cupcake peaches, then put it aside). Beat the margarine while slowly adding the sugar. Then add the peaches sporadically until the icing is the right consistency.

When the cupcakes have cooled, stick the icing on top of the cakes and enjoy!

xox