Ice Cream Cupcakes!!

That's right, cupcakes, baked in ice cream cones.. These are seriously awesome!  I wish I had kids to bake these for, but instead I've been making them for my man (he's a toy collector so he's really more of a man-child), and my friends, and pretty much everyone really.

They're super simple to make, I found the recipe HERE (they're vegan, but don't even have soy milk in them, so this recipe won't require a trip to the supermarket for all you non-vegans out there! Plus I think any cupcake recipe could be used).

I do have to say I didn't use the icing from the recipe, as it required 6 cups of icing sugar... I find 3 cups of icing sugar in my icing too sweet, so 6 cups just screams diabetes to me!  Instead I always use a modified version of the vegan butter-cream icing found in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Actually it's about time I was really honest, my wonderful bf always makes, and pipes the icing.. So I don't really know the exact recipe he uses! But I can tell you an approximate..

Vegan Butter-cream Frosting
3/4 Cup Vegan margarine
1/4 Vegetable shortening (You can sub this for margarine if it's winter, but in summer I recommend using the shortening, as it holds up better in heat).
Approx 2 cups icing sugar added slowly
A few dashes of soy milk (we actually use oat milk these days)
1tsp Vanilla

The icing sugar and milk are pretty much added until the desired consistency is reached.. I hope that is useful to anyone like me who finds a lot of vegan icing recipes a little too sweet!

This is what the cupcakes look like before they are iced.

I hope you have as much fun as I do when you make these! (Yep, I really do find them that exciting and amazing. I love novelty stuff!)

xx
Lucy

It's Sunday Somewhere

Ok so I am a little behind schedule for my Sunday post, however I figure it's probably still Sunday somewhere in the world, so technically I'm not really behind.. Right?

I have been feeling completely un-motivated & tired lately, which I am putting down to my sugar and alcohol detox I started last Tuesday (yup that's right, no more booze and no more baking, it's so difficult! I'm aiming for 3 weeks), and it doesn't help that the Autumn is finally starting to show, the weather has been all over the place, from really humid and muggy to cold, wet and windy. Which leads to the point I was going to make, - When it rains all weekend, all I want to do is stay inside and bake!

Instead I found this great vegan food blog called Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes, which I just had to share with you all! I've only made one thing so far, but pretty much everything looks amazing and I can't wait to try out more recipes (especially the sweet stuff haha!), as an added bonus, it's not one of those vegan blogs that uses a lot of weird ingredients, so it's great for non-vegans too!


Below are a few pictures of especially delicious looking recipes which I can't wait to try!

Pasta with Chipotle Cashew Cream

Fennel crusted Potatoes

Besan Chilla (eggless omelet)

Coconut Muffins with Orange Glaze

Mmm!  This is making me want to go to the kitchen and get cooking (but instead I have assignments to do and classes to go to, boo).

Do you have any favourite cooking blogs? I'd love to hear about them!

xx

Lucy

Making Pizza!

We got a pizza stone for Christmas, so have been making heaps of pizza lately, it's so delicious!   Last week I decided to try out Casey's pizza dough recipe, it was really good (click on the link for the recipe). It made a great crispy thin base (I am not a fan of thick crusts).

Mixing the flour (you can see the honey, yeast and warm water doing it's thing on the left.
If you don't eat honey, this can just as easily be left out)

Kneading dough

Into the hot water cupboard!

Roll it out nice and thin

Making the sauce

For the sauce, I don't really follow any recipe.. I usually fry a few cloves of garlic and some chilli in olive oil, add a small can of tomato paste (130g), and can of chopped tomatoes, some basil, paprika, oregano, salt and pepper.

Yum!

We generally put mushroom, olives, grilled eggplant, zucchini and capsicum on our pizza, and then when  comes out of the oven, some fresh basil on top. I also keep meaning to make both chilli and garlic oil, to drizzle over the pizza before eating, which makes it even more delicious!  (oh we don't put cheese on our pizza, but this would be good with cheese too).

What do you like to put on your pizza?

xx
Lucy

Waffles for dinner!

I haven't done much baking this week, so to make up for it, I decided to have breakfast waffles for dinner! (I love having dinner leftovers for breakfast too heh).

We don't own a waffle maker, so I borrowed my sisters, mainly to experiment with making vegan waffles, because my family are crazy about waffles and whipped cream, both of which my vegan boyfriend can't eat!

The waffles were fairly average, a little bland, and having the same problem I seem to have with vegan pancakes, - a little bit heavy and chewy, rather than the light, fluffy and crispy non vegan ones (although these ones did get a nice crust). The recipe I used can be found here.

Instead of whipped cream, I served these with whipped coconut cream, which I have read about, but never made before, and man was I impressed!!  To make this, you put a can of coconut milk (full fat, don't use the low fat ones), in the fridge overnight, until the cream separates and rises to the top. Scoop the cream out, leaving the runny coconut liquid, which can be used in smoothies or curries, and whip the coconut cream as you would normal cream, with a teaspoon of icing sugar and a dash of vanilla!   If it's not whipping properly, put it in the freezer for 5 mins or so, and then continue to whip it into soft peaks.   *EDIT* I tried making this with coconut cream and it was gross, so make sure you use coconut milk when making this!

I then garnished it with pineapple (which was great with the coconut), blueberries, agave nectar (instead of maple syrup), and a sprig of mint!

All in all, it was pretty delicious, I just need to tweak the waffle recipe a little... or find a vegan substitute for beaten egg whites, to make the waffles lighter and fluffier!

Do you ever have breakfast for dinner or vice versa?

xx
Lucy

Summer Days

The last few days have included a lot of relaxing with family and friends, a little thrifting, and some baking of course!

Oh summer, I hope you never end!

Plum upside down cake (vegan). This was pretty good, but the recipe needs a
little bit of tweaking before I post it here!

(I also sneaked a few pears into the cake, because we have a lot on the tree)

Yum!

 
As for the thrifting, I will share my latest finds with you tomorrow, I am so happy about what I purchased!
I'll also show you this great vintage gift I received from my sister (don't you just love surprise presents? I sure do!)

xx
Lucy
                                         

Yumbots & the best vegan mousse EVER

For Christmas, not only did my man get me a pair of beautiful pink flamingos for the garden (as shown in this post), but he also got me these great novelty silicone cupcake holders called Yumbots!

Aren't they cute?

It made me want to do some baking asap, but since I had already planned to make a delicious chocolate mousse for some friends who were coming over for dinner, I thought I would make it in these instead, and was quite pleased with the outcome!

The mousse (or pots de creme as the recipe calls it), is rich, creamy and delicious. Although I am only vegetarian, my man is vegan, so when I found this recipe he was really happy, it's incomparable to any other vegan mousse recipe I have tried, and is something that non-vegans will also love!

The original recipe is from the Voracious Vegan (sadly the blog is currently down for maintenance), however I have made a few very small changes, and converted it to metric for you.

Vegan Chocolate Mousse (makes 3-4 servings)
This dessert needs to be made 1 day in advance to ensure it sets.
Ingredients:
 400g Coconut Milk
150g dark chocolate (the better the quality, the better your dessert, but don't use anything over 70% cocoa)
1tsp (heaped) instant coffee
Splash of vanilla
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of cinnamon


On the stove, bring the coconut milk to a simmer, then add the coffee, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Turn the heat off, break the chocolate into pieces and add to the hot coconut milk, stirring constantly until chocolate is mostly melted, then using a stick blender, blend it all up to fully combine the chocolate and milk.
Pour mixture into ramekins/teacups/a bowl and chill until firm (preferably overnight).

The original recipe suggests using a blender to combine the (unmelted) chocolate with the hot coconut milk, so if you have a blender, you could do that instead.


Enjoy!
xx
Lucy