A little late.... oooops

So this is really late but I wanted to post about it anyway. For St. Patty's day I hosted a vegan dinner for my mom and her mother and uncle. I served vegan Irish brown bread, potato leek soup, and carrots and parsnips with a chocolate cake (and green icing) for dessert.

The brown bread was amazingly easy and tasted soooo good, like a dense cornbread! I ended up making two loaves!

The potato leek soup was fabulous as well, I had never worked with leeks before and I really enjoyed them.

The carrots and parsnips were good, but were not my favorite (they were just veggies lol)

This weather

Can I just say I LOVE this weather. Today my friend and I had a picnic and it was amazing!!!! It tasted yummy, but the sun and warmth was even better! We went to a little local park and just enjoyed the weather. I am loving life right now!!

Sweet Art

My favorite bakery is Sweet Art. They are all vegetarian and do many vegan options. They are also a cafe of sorts too. They have interesting hours but the most amazing food. I love their cupcakes, brownies (they occasionally have pb brownies too) their cakes, buttercream... Okay I love it all! I got my birthday cake from them, it was a Best of Both Worlds (6. in cake with four layers of alternating vanilla and chocolate cake, I chose to have chocolate buttercream filling and a vanilla buttercream frosting... it was unbelievable, I ate half of it in one day... by myself) They have an amazing atmosphere, and really helpful staff. They owners are a married couple, the wife does the baking and the husband makes paintings which are hung around the shop (get it, sweet...art...sweet art?) Anyway, I really want to work here over the summer!!!! So, I went there for breakfast with my best friend over break and we ordered the breakfast quesadilla. I wish I remembered what was in it. But it was a whole wheat tortilla, with tofu scramble, some match meat probably, sweet potatoes I bet and some daiya, and onions and avocado on top. I wish I remembered what else inhabited this deliciousness but I cannot. Here are the pictures though. This is pretty much the best place ever and if you are ever in the area you absolutely MUST try it... it is too good for words. You will not be let down!

I love this quote! 

My bday cake (that I shared with my sister)

The inside, YUMMMMY look how tall it was!!

It was soo moist and rich, the chocolate buttercream was HEAVENLY!!!

Hal & Al's

Hal & Al's is an all vegan pub/bar. We had chili cheese fries, I had ordered sweet potato fries with chili and daiya, but I think they just made a mistake. Totally didn't bother me though, I could have eaten those fries all day long... too bad they ran out!!! Then I had a chili tofurky dog with daiya onions black olives and then ketchup. It kind of scared me how similar it tastes to a normal hot dog. I really don't eat much match meats, so when I do they kind of freak me out. My mother had a luna burger which is a vegan burger from a local company (the Luna company, I guess) on a pretzal bun. It tasted pretty good, I liked the consistency of the bun and burger together and the sweetness of the bun complemented the burger nicely. For dessert we got sweet pretzel bites. They were basically french toast with sweet vanilla sugar glaze. They were so good and puffy and the glaze was very sweet, I just wish it came with a little more. It was an amazing restaurant, my all time favorite! I would honestly come back to Ohio just for Hal & Al's. The service was great, very relaxed environment and quick, caring service. I have heard they have a very comprehensive beer menu so if you like beer it makes a fantastic bar just for that. Anyway I will upload the photos later, just wanted to fill you in on this great place! While in ohio we ended up always matching, this night was no exception....

Diggin' in!!

The damage

Pattycakes Bakery

This morning we went to an AMAZING little bakery, the best part: It was all VEGAN! It is called Pattycakes Bakery, my mother and I shared a pumpkin walnut muffin which was deliciously decadant! We also shared a cinnamon roll, it was a very manageable size and was not heavy like a Cinnabun roll would be. It was sweet and fluffy! They had shirts for sale (made by American Appearel) and I got one in blue! I am soo excited, it is very cute! They also had free buttons and fliers and whatnot that I hoarded. They had hemp-flax oatmeal bars and we got one for my dad, we also got a slice of cake: lemon with fresh blueberry frosting!! I already ate half of it! It is soooooo goood! Fluffy, moist, and so fresh... just like I wish the weather would be here. It was a great environment and the workers were clearly having so much fun together. I noticed no men were working, but there were male customers. The presentation of the goods was unsurpassed, and I believe the prices were justified, however, it was a little pricey. It was also a little challenging to get to, we took a cab and even he got a little turned around. Ok, so then I made a pb sammich for lunch and then we went to the most amazing restaurant EVER for dinner, I will post more about that later.

They gave us free buttons!

So fluffy and moist!

How cute is the seating? And that giant chalkboard?

DELISH! I took home a peice of that lemon blueberry cake (the lemon cake with pink frosting in the upper left)

I also got a blue shirt! I couldn't resist, look at that wall though! NOTICE: Obama now has a mustache lol

And they have personalized bags?!?!

To go cakes, I love how they decorate them with their logo!

...and cookies and muffins!!

Ohio

I am in Ohio. Yes, Ohio. Well apparently, Columbus, OH has a huge vegan following. Yesturday I went to ZPizza for the first time, I had been wanting to try it for a long time as I've heard about it on PETA. The food was delicious and reminded me of Pi pizza. The dough I thought was better because it was whole wheat and softer than Pi's. The cheese was daiya and obviously the same. Their match meat was more tender and less seasoned (a plus in my opinion) The only difference I couldn't decide was the sauce which would have needed to be a side-by-side comparison. It was a little pricy, to say the least. But it was delicious, and a fun atmosphere. When I told them I was vegan they pulled out a list, sort of like it's own separate menu. My first clue into how awesome Columbus is. 

Anyway... you may be wondering why we are in Ohio. My mother is a nurse and we are attending the Midwest Nursing Research Society. It is a lot of fun and am really enjoying it. Anyway we are going home tomorrow and I am nervous we will get delayed due to the snow. Can you believe it is snowing at the end of MARCH!?!??!

California Salad, we already ate the avocado, so creamy and yummy

Can you see the steam? Fresh service!

YUMMMM

Needless to say, this got eaten like right after I took this

DAIYA!!!

Spring Break, exciting announcement in the works!!!

I have some very very very good and exciting news that I just received yesterday, however I am not ready to share it with the public yet. Heck, not like I really even have a fan base though who would spoil anything!! So just know there will be a big surprise reveal coming up soon (think mid/late-April)

So besides my icing failing miserably, I made cakes, cupcakes and cookies. My cakes fell (I either overmixed or the batter was toooo moist) but they leveled out just fine. My cupcakes are kind of a mess, but the cake itself tastes great. AANNDD- it was super super healthy! I replaced the oils with applesauce to make it even more moist, so no oils, the butter I used had flax seed in it (smart balance light with flax is vegan, flax is a natural, plant source of Omega-3's), I used whole wheat flour, and obviously there was no cholesterol since there were no eggs or dairy!!

buttercream? ya right...

6in cake, see how badly it fell?

So I realized why some exploded like that, I believe those were the ones I added some "buttercream" to the center to see what would happen, none of them visibly had a filling after baking so I guess it absorbed it

what I ended up leveling off, boy was it tasty

After being in the fridge for a long while my "buttercream" held together a smidge better, adding the green dye

all iced and pretty

side view, first time I've iced a cake like this (with a spatula, etc)

about to dig in!!!

In case you were wondering, once room temp the "buttercream" went to mush again, this was after the crumb coating... and after my cake started to slide around : (

The cookies on the other hand.... well they are good.... fudgy, chocolatey, and crunchy. Although I was going for gooey and chewy.... I have no idea what happened with them.... first, I think I messed up the batter because it was unbelievably sticky! Second, my oven is a mess and we have no thermometer so it's a guess and check game. I guess some were over done, but the recipe said until the edges were firm. I ate numerous since after each tray went in I tried a different technique, thinner cookies, shorter cooking, thicker cookies longer cooking, and tons of other combos. So of course I had to try them all to see if something worked.... right? Well none turned out like the picture or the way they were supposed to.... they are kind of dry and cakey but they are dense and fudgy (not gooey fudgy mind you though) I had tried the regular chocolate chip recipe of hers (Kelly Peloza) and they too were supposed to be gooey and chewy and I ended up with cakey, and I even made them in a different oven that is more reliable. Anyway, those were my mishaps. Maybe I am just not destined to make cookies?