Cupcake Crawl!

And yet another reason why NOT living in NYC can sometimes suck....

This Sunday at 11am, there is going to be a "Cupcake Crawl" located at Little Cupcake Bakeshop (30 Prince St.New York, New York) This is a crawl across the city to eat the best cupcakes on the Lower East Side, NoLita and Chinatown.

With the tour is starting at Little Cupcake, it will then head to Sugar Sweet Sunshine, one of the highest rated according to Zagat. Next stop is Baby Cakes! The best little vegan friendly joint out there! And last, but not least a new shop called Everything Frosted in Chinatown.

According to the site, this crawl is to help support the good work of the Food Bank For New York City, a non-profit helping to feed the hungry, they are only asking for a $5.00 donation per person. 100% of donations go to charity.

(info from http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/ and picture from www.babycakesnyc.com/the_bakery.html)

"Is there sugar in syrup?"

Oh sweet snowflakes that cover the ground, how I love thee...it is that time of year again, time to hop into the kitchen and whip out more vegan treats while watching Elf. I don't know how many times I have seen it, but it just gets better every year some how...
So tomorrow the whole store is heading down to the glorious hills of North Carolina to check out some cool furniture and get our inspiration on. For the ride to the airport, I was asked if I would make cupcakes. Always eager to oblige, I said yes and then, wait, what kind of cupcakes would I make that are befitting for a breakfast meal and accompanying a nice OJ beverage? Well, I knew I wouldn't be let down if I checked out to see if Bake and Destroy had anything that I could sink my teeth into. Banana Bread French Toast Cupcakes. Um, hell yeah.
After work I headed back home, ate a tempeh sandwich (thank you Mellow Mushroom) and began the process.



For the cakey goodness:

• 1/2 cup mashed over ripe banana
• 1 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup milk (dairy or non-dairy)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted, cooled & chopped

Sift all the dry goods together, and then the liquids and combine...slowly fold in those toasted nuts and bake em! Pour each cupcake liner about 2/3 full, and if you're feeling uber fancy check out Fancy Flours amazing liners. I am a fan of the reindeer. Now, over at 350* for about 20-22 minutes and finally top those suckers off with a good serving of maple frosting and enjoy with that sweet mimosa!

GiGi's Headed North

Okay, so this little bakery has been in town since this summer, but hey, it is better late than never to talk about this sweet shop!

I first learned about it when I saw that there was a posting for "cupcake bakers needed" for a new bakery near the Fashion Mall. I was all about that! Even though I do not have any real baking skills, I still applied and they did give me the time of day! The owners are two couples that are here in town and just thought it would be an awesome little adventure to embark on. I am not sure if they knew what they were really getting in to, but so far their shop and offerings are superb. I first headed over there when they had their grand opening last summer. Figured I would grab a few delicatessens and bring them back to have some of my co-workers try them out. I ended up getting a Miss Princess (for the sweetest girl in the office), a white cake baked with strawberries and topped with a cream cheesy frosting, featuring pink sugar crystals and fondant crown! Any little girls dream!I also got the Lemon Dream Supreme, cause in the summer time, I am all about the citrus. Lemon cake with a lemon filling topped with lemon buttercream frosting and a candied lemon slice. It was also fantastico, however, I didn't get a crown on mine.GiGi's is always having some sort of event or give away it seems if you check them out on Facebook: GiGi's

Just looking at their Fall/Winter Menu Lineup is making me dream at my desk! Listen to this, these are just today's offering (remember they switch it up everyday:
Candied Sweet Potato
Hunka Chunka Banana Love
Midnight Magic
Grasshopper
Top Hats
Peanut Butter Cup
Southern Comfort
Texas Milk Chocolate
Wedding Cake
White Chocolate Macadamia
White Midnight Magic

These things can be evil when one is on a diet. Also, always bring a friend with you to these things, cause unless you are planning to go into hibernation this year and you need to stock up, these babies are intense! but oh so good...

9 months later...

No, no baby, only a Ch'en Ch'en. However, after being married since January,we finally had our wedding reception. After much planning and effort put in from my beautiful Meh, a very Mexican themed fete was had.

It could not have been a more perfect fall day...and according to Mr. Irving, "it was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day; the sky was clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet..." and the food could not have been more abundant. The courses included homemade black bean burgers, Mexican rice, tofu vegetable dishes, vegetarian tamales, and lots and lots of desserts.


Homemade pies, caramels and blueberry bread from Suzy, and of course four dozen vegan cupcakes, that were provided by Meh's own neighbor, Dreams to Reality.





A cupcake genius she is! We asked her if she would be able to make us a couple of vegan cupcakes for the reception and she happily obliged, even though she was not use to vegan cooking.

Sampling of course was needed in preparation for this, and oh my. I do not know how she did it, but she made the best vegan hazelnut and chocolate cupcakes I have ever tasted. I only wish she had a store front so that I would be able to buy one everyday.

I knew that Sandra (the owner) was good, since she made my Tim Burton meets Lewis Carroll birthday cake.

The soiree was a complete success thanks to some of the most amazing friends and some of the most filling foods a girl could ever hope for.

Mounds in Cupcake Form

I am absolutely in love with coconut. Especially in the summer time. I am a sucker for anything that tastes like it could be found as a prop on the set of LOST or worn as a handy back up if your bra doesn't work out too well for you. In Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, they have an ample amount of recipes that you can chose from to satisfy your nutty needs. This recipe for coconut and chocolate cupcakes did not disappoint. Also, to help with the caffeine addiction, these babies are topped with coffee buttercream frosting. Thanks to my years of dedicated Starbucks servitude, I was able to properly assess the coffee aptitude of these delectable desserts.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Toasted Coconut

Coffee Buttercream Icing

Rainy Days= Perfect Coffee & Donuts Day

As much as I love cupcakes, I must say that I do enjoy eating doughnuts better. Dipping them in coffee, having some soy milk with em, especially the gorgeous little pink ones with sprinkles on top.

So on grey, rainy days, I like to look at things about Seattle, and then I am always taken back to the trip I made with my awesome husband to the west coast a few years back. On our mission to seek out vegan places, we headed over to Mighty-O's, a little cafe that is in an old historic building in Wallingford.



(from Mighty-O.com)

They mix hundreds of pounds of ingredients at a time, all organic. Also all of their glazes and frostings are made by hand and with love in the back of their shop. There are no preservatives or added yuckiness to the recipes. No animal products, no artificial colors or flavors, and therefor no cholesterol! (mine has gone down over50 points since incorporating a more veg friendly diet into my life!)


These sweet round pastries with centers missing come in all the basic flavors of course, but then they add in the funness, ranging from French Toast (which is what I ordered) to Cuckoo for Coconuts, Chocolate Raspberry, Grasshopper, Pumpkin, Cocoloco and even a Strawberry Shortcake.


You won't be coughing on any dryness here, each one is moist and tastes like it just came out of the fryer, which it most likely did. Organic coffee with Stevia and agave are the sweeteners and some almond or soy milk also don't hurt to help "wash" these puppies down.

I'm ordering my plane ticket now.

Karyn's Cooked

The other "weekend", Meh and I decided that it was time to head back up to Chicago for some high quality shopping, and some good vegan treats.

We took the train in so there were some limitations as to how far we could go around and how long we could stay around.

Seeing all the nice sights downtown, hitting up the Argo Tea, being greedy over a nice LeSport Sac, and getting pampered at Lush, it was time for some refueling.

At 738 N. Wells Street is this wonderful little gem of a place called Karyn's Cooked. The owner, Karyn, has a couple of little businesses lined up, so you might see her name around town. She also has a Raw Cafe, and a beauty line out. However, this restaurant has all the wonderfulness of a good home cooked meal.

Whether you are looking for Sloppy Joes or Meatloaf, this place has it.

To start out the meal we ordered an appetizer of Thai Skewers: at 4 bucks you get a nice plate of grilled tofu/seitan meat with choice of peanut or barbecue sauce. The peanut sauce is by far the best! About a minute later we were ready for the main act.

I opted for the Jerk Wrap (you gotta love the name..) It's Jerk Tofu (available on whole wheat roll or tomato tortilla) Spicy grilled tofu with a creamy garlic and jerk sauce topped with lettuce and tomato on a toasted whole wheat bunwhich. The wrap came with two huge potato wedges in barbecue sauce, and a side of vegan coleslaw. Holy crap though! Beware that this will make your mouth bleed fire! I am all about sweating while eating hot goodness, but this was ridiculous! I wasn't able to finish it while I was there, and in between every bite I would have to down some water and eat some slaw (which didn't have much flavor) to counteract the burning in my throat.

I have had this sandwich before and thought it was awesome, never has it tasted like this. I am just wondering if someone didn't twist on the top of the cayenne pepper well enough before using.

Meh's was a little more manageable. She went for Ron's Salad. It was a huge serving of mixed greens with grilled tofu, avocado, carrots, red pepper, tomatoes, olives and hemp seeds. House Dressing on the side. When she ordered it, the waiter let us know that Ron was sitting outside eating his salad, which was kinda neat since when we were walking in she saw this man eating an amazing looking salad and that's why she ordered it.

To keep us happy on the train, we decided to take some dessert with us. The most non-utensil friendly thing in the case were huge cookies the size of one's head. One peanut butter, and one chocolate chip please. The cookies went wonderfully with our Pike's Place Roast from Starbucks. Chocolate can always be a good pairing with anything though..