Pandoras Box

Yeah, so this week has pretty much sucked to the high heavens and no amount of cookie dough consumption or hours of cupcake porn that I look at will make anything feel normal or better. It's been the hardest week that my husband (still so weird to say or write) will ever have to go through, and my heart just breaks for him and his family. I truly have no idea what he could possibly be thinking or feeling, luckily though, we have some of the most supportive friends out there (thank you Absola and Anna for all the foodie love!)

This blog, however, is not suppose to bring people down, so I wanted to spread a little cupcake cheer by letting you all know some things that I discovered lately.

First of all, if I could have been in my 20's in the 1920's or 30's and live in Paris, sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes (cause we're too stupid to know what they do to you, so they just look cool then) and be dressed in buckets of pearls and black satin, I think I could be a happy girl. So in the love of Louise Brooks (no, not because she has an awesome last name) I went and chopped my hairs a little shorter and lot blunter. It is still a little bit of a shock, but I am sure that people with a sense of style, and some knowledge of all things cool, they will appreciate my hair cut too.
(photos from:www.leatherockhotel.com and eutund.wordpress.com)

Also, I am so excited for the new Tim Burton movie, that unless you've been under a rock-which I guess could be kinda cool-then you would know that Alice is taking on a whole new feel. It's not the 1950's classic one where you want to go play, or the horrible 1980's live action one, it's a dark and creepy typical Burton movie. Can one really think of a more twisted childhood novel to recreate though, from a Tim Burton perspective?? The story plays Alice as being 17, and after attending a party at a Victorian estate where she gets proposed to in front of snooty society types, she runs off following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland. She had visited here before, but for some reason she cannot remember.

The part I am most looking forward to would have to be the Red Queen, played by, who else? Helena Bonham Carter. With the favorite retort of "Off with their heads!" Tim decided to capture the creepiness with a nice serene moat filled with floating heads of those who disobeyed. Don't worry kiddies, it may sound dark and demented, but you will be able to sleep afterwards. You might just have to check the closet a few more times than normal.
So, in the anticipation of the movie, Urban Decay (an amazing make-up line that is vegan friendly) came out with a "Book of Shadows".

Open the palette to reveal a pop-up scene of Alice in the mushroom forest. Her “drink me” bottle discarded, she staggers past towering mushrooms, only to cross paths with a very peculiar, hookah-smoking caterpillar. A large mirror rests behind the scene – you feel as if you are transported into the film itself. Hidden inside a secret drawer are 16 best-selling Eyeshadows, given topsy-turvy names like White Rabbit, Jabberwocky and Oraculum. Alongside them lie travel sizes of Eyeshadow Primer Potion and two 24/7 Eye Pencils. From smoky neutral eyes to flashes of hallucinogenic green and purple, the looks you can create are as endless as the rabbit hole itself. Anyone who loves Urban Decay, Tim Burton, Disney, or Alice in Wonderland absolutely MUST have this palette. Even the Mad Hatter would say this Book of Shadows delivers it all.

Ah, I cannot wait to get my palette! Hopefully you all will get yours too! Well, have a fantastic evening and day and week !! Eat lots of cupcakes and cookie dough!

Normalcy ? Never heard of it...

Uhg, so this past week has been pretty crazy. I can't believe it has already been two weeks since we got married, but there has not been anytime for celebrating life as newlyweds. Well, I take that back, we did go to get veggie burgers the other night, however, I think that was a bad idea since they made us a little ill. Tasty though!

Since Brandon's been by his moms side 24/7, it's been a little tough, and there have definitely been some moments when I thought my heart strings were going to be ripped out from inside of me.

A couple of nights ago we were able to have a little Wii party with some tasty vegan treats, and even better company. Anna, Justin, Josh, Abby and Michael all rendezvoused over at the House of Ch'en for some white bean and sweet potato stew, zucchini muffins and bread, homemade hummus, hurricanes (complimentary of Abs), and some midnight vegan strawberry cupcakes in celebration of Josh's birthday.

Since Monday's are my Fridays, I was very ready to play a little tennis and then beat Abby in the face with my awesome KO moves in boxing. She likes being reminded of who is stronger and better when it comes to virtual Wii remote flinging and spasm arm movements. So with fruit juicy drinks in everyone's hands, food passed around, and Ch'ens tail being omnipresent, some games were ready to be played. There was of course the traditional Wii Sports that started off the night, a little tennis, a little boxing, then some righteous bowling. The boys went off to Best Buy to get another game for the PS3. Dante's Inferno? Really, there's a game about a poem over 800 years old? Well, at least those boys are getting in some classic literature, even if it is by ripping out spines and then mutilating demons with a new spine sword..very classy.
Around midnight, we decided that cupcakes needed to be made.Luckily for bellies, Abs had her tips with her (frosting tips that is). We whipped out an Oh-My-God-I'm-Going-To-Die-From-Food-Awesomeness batch of strawberry cupcakes from the Joys of Vegan Baking and then did not hold back with the frosting. For Josh's birthday cupcake we loaded that sucker up with about twenty gazillion tasty calories on top. Oh, and some heart sprinkles. Good times, good times.
So here whip these up and amaze your friends! Or give them to random people and make some friends!!

Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes (from The Joys of Vegan Baking)

Ingredients:

Unbleached All Purpose Flour : 1 and 3/4 cups

Sugar: 3/4 to 1 cup

Baking Soda: 1 teaspoon

Fresh strawberries, pureed or crushed 8oz (I used strawberry pie filling, cause that's what I had)

Vanilla Extract: 1 teaspoon

Canola Oil: 1/2 cup

White Distilled Vinegar: 1 tablespoon ( I used Apple Cider, still awesome

Yield: 12 tastetactical cupcakes

Procedure >>

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/ Grease/line a muffin tin.

2. In a large bowl combine together the flour, baking soda and sugar.

3. In another bowl, mix the oil, vinegar and vanilla. Add the pureed strawberry also to the oil mixture and stir to combine.

4. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir together but do not over stir.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins.

6. Bake for about 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

7. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. When cool, frost the cupcakes and top each with a whole strawberry!!

A Beetlejuice Bride

That's right people. I got to play the wonderful role of a bride last Tuesday and marry my best friend ever! Everything was pretty last minute. We knew that we were going to get married, and were originally planning on doing it on Halloween of this year, but with wanting to make sure that certain people would be able to attend, we decided last Saturday night that we would plan for it on Tuesday, uh huh, a full two days in advance. What was I going to do with all this extra time that I had on planning a wedding? Luckily, I have some of the most amazing friends in the world, and so I had major help. Saturday night, right before Helzberg closed, I was able to go and explain to them that we needed some rings ASAP and to hook a girl up. Brandon picked up his ring the following morning, and since he has uber small fingers, his ring is about 3 sizes to large, so we're still waiting on his real ring to arrive. Monday morning, before work, we went to go get a license at the courthouse. Then I had to go prepare and present to my first big clients at work, which lasted well after the time I was suppose to get off. After, I went home and told my mom and Anna, that, "hey, think tomorrow at three o'clock would work for you?" Luckily they were able to get out of work and make that sacrifice for us! Absola, being the super woman that she is, and never sleeping, spent the day constructing flowers for my bouquet, corsages for mine and Brandon’s mom, and Ch'en, along with a beautiful center piece and flowers for the gents. Marie Antoinettes favorite flowers inspired all of the arrangements, since she knew that I loved the queen of fashion! Yeah, but she didn't stop there, she also pulled out, from who knows where, dozens of our favorite vegan cupcakes, so German chocolate with toasted coconut for me, and some mint chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache and little pink heart sprinkles individually placed on each one for Brandon. Just after midnight she stopped by with the loads of wedding goodies.

I knew the next day was going to be a doozy, so I made sure to get a full four hours of sleep . Grammy Hammy and Meh ventured down and met me so that I could look for a dress, shoes, and veil, a good three hours before the ceremony. We headed over to Nordstrom’s, where I found a nice little black dress with a big, bright red flower head band that had some cute little netting on top. Tim Burton would have been so proud, since it was all paired with some nice red little satin shoes and black lace.


Getting ready was about a thirty-minute process, and then I headed up to Brandon's moms for the ceremony. Anna, Justin, Chris, and B's family were all already there. Anna took plenty of photos for me and even brought a wedding cake from Taylor’s (drool). The little bride and groom on top were so cute! They are now proudly displayed on my refrigerator.







Everyone have his or her corsage on? Okay, let's do this thing! Five minutes later (seriously, five minutes) our Kurt Cobain and Courtney vows were said and it was time for some a new kind of rush (I was shaking the whole time!), bring on the cupcakes!

The coconut cakes were gone in a second, along with most of the Taylor’s cake. People! Come on! Eat up! A new bride can't be taking this stuff back to the house; my biggest fear is being a fat wife! Oh well, I guess he's stuck with me now. Of course, Brandon is one of the sweetest guys any girl could ever meet. Even if I weighed five hundred pounds, he would still tell me I'm beautiful everyday. He's a keeper.

A nice big reception, aka, cupcake party, will be in the future, so that way we can actually plan it and have all of our friends there. For now though, I am just happy to be a Beetlejuice Bride.

And On the Third Day, God said, " Let there be vegan cookies!"

Always a good way to start off the holidays is by getting out the cookbooks and marking which pictures look like you could just eat them right off of the page. Ok, so maybe this is something that I just do all the time, but still I love any excuse to bake up something new...even if they do turn into melty globs of burnt sugary goodness:: cough :::maple pecan drops :: cough.

Thanks to Colleen and her wonderful cookbook, The Joy of Vegan Baking, (you can not go wrong with any recipe in this book) Anna and I were able to create a little mini mecca in Anna's kitchen the other night. Since she is the new Susie Homemaker in training, she jumped at the idea of whipping out batches of tasty treats to send to her co-workers, along with her fiances co-workers and family. Super sweet right?? I know, she's awesome. So what was going to fill those nicely stacked metal tins laddened with Christmas cheer? Well after a little bit of debate we decided on Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies, Organic Peanut Butter Cookies, and Strawberry Oat Bars. They were originally raspberry, but hey when you have a jar of organic strawberry preserves just sittin' there, one's not going to pass it up.

So for the gift that keeps on giving and giving:

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies
(recipe borrowed from "The Joy of Vegan Baking")

1 1/2 tsp. Ener-G Egg Replacer

2 Tbsp. warm water

3/4 cup non-dairy butter

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. peppermint extract

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup non-dairy chocolate chips

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.) In a small bowl, use a fork to whip the egg replacer powder & water together until it's thick & creamy. Set aside.

3.) Cream the butter & sugars together by hand or with an electric hand mixer at high speed. Beat in the egg replacer mixture & the vanilla & peppermint extracts.

4.) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, & salt. Add this to the butter mixture along with the chocolate chips. Stir until combined, but do not over-stir.

5.) Drop the cookie batter by rounded tablespoons onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.

6.) Bake the cookies for 10 -12 mins., or until the edges begin to harden. Although they might not appear completely done, the cookies will continue to cook after they're removed from the oven.

7.) After removing them from the oven, immediately take the cookies off of the cooking sheet & place them on a wire rack to cool.

8.) Repeat steps 5 - 7 for the remaining cookies.

As for the Peanut Butter ones, well I found this recipe from Recipezaar and it sounded wonderful with the almond butter added to the peanut, next time it is a must try with various nut butters !

Chewy, Buttery Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies  

1/3 cup peanut butter

 1/3 cup almond butter 

1/3 cup margarine (I know Susan, I know..)

2/3 cup brown sugar 

1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Substitute 

2 tablespoons water 

2 tablespoons soymilk 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

3/4 cup all-purpose flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking powder 

1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Mix water and egg replacer together in a small bowl, set aside.
2. In big mixing bowl cream together peanut butter, almond butter, sugar and margarine.
3. Mix in soy milk, egg replacer and vanilla.
4. Sift in flour and baking powder into mixture. Add in salt.
5. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto lightly greased cookie sheets.
6. Bake for 8 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are lightly browned, but center is still a bit soft, as it will harden as cookies cool.

Okay so now while you are running out to the store to get the supplies, unless you are super cool and have all the ingredients at home already, I will post pictures up laters. So enjoy!and good night! oh yeah, and have a "Kickass Cupcakes" New Years!!!

Chai Cupcakes and Broad Ripple Brew Pub

Merry late Chenmas to everyone! I hope you all got what you wanted and more. Christmas time always seems to be a very jolly time, but always really stressful too. So that is also partly the reason why I haven't written about things that have happened too recently. I did want to talk about some wonderful baking adventures that I went on with Abby a little while back. Taking out the old Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and whipping up some Chai Raspberry Cupcakes were most delectable. 

Since Absola is always on the go, it's sometimes hard for her to actually have enough time to come over and make some vegan goodies. We were able to decide on a good time and we thought it'd be appropriate to turn one of our favorite drinks from Starbucks into a cupcake. Chai and raspberry might not sound too good, but trust us, it is amazing. Brandon is usually the judge of what is good or not, and he successfully ate about half the batch in one sitting. So proud. 

Abs has all of the good frosting decorating tips so the baby cakes turned out very nice. All swirley twirley and beautiful. Good enough to wear as a dress, if I do say so myself.
With bellies full of sugar it was only appropriate that we then met our friends down at the Broad Ripple Brew Pub.  Abs wasn't able to go so I made sure to order some extras and eat it in memory of her absence. 

The BRBP has a lot of nice vegan options. My friend Anna and I split some vegan's Shepard Pie and hearty veg friendly Sloppy Joe. The sloppy little sandwich was a vegan’s delight. Pair it with some nice fried little beets and carrot chips and a girl is going to be a happy girl for the rest of the evening. There was also a "Susie's Beer" on the menu that sparked some attention, so Justin and Brandon thought that would be fitting to order some of those. Since I am not a big beer fan, I passed and nursed on the lemon water. Jealous, right? I know, I live life to the fullest. 

So if you're in Indy and you are looking for some good vegan options, head over to the Brew Pub, but maybe not on a Friday or Saturday night, cause you could be with the not-so-cool crowd and you might be sitting next to the Abercrombie wearing, backward hat-tool that would shout random crude comments about a lame-o game or something, and that would be a total buzz kill.

1.. 2...3 ! Sisters Cafe

Down in the heart of Broad Ripple lies an old Victorian house that has been renovated into a quaint little vegan restaurant. It seems more like it should be a B&B with it's wrap around porch and bright colored paint job, yet who would have thunk it that it would hold such amazing delights.

I have ventured down to 3 Sisters Cafe a couple of times, always kind of waiting to be disappointed, since something in Indianapolis surely can not taste as good as other places like, oh I don't know, The Chicago Diner, or Pure Luck, however, this little gem holds it's own. Yesterday, my awesome friend Absola (yeah it's Abby, but come on, for her personality you need a more "unique" name) met me for some late afternoon eating at the Cafe where we decided it was necessary to split a few things. Both of us trying to branch out and try new items on the menu, Abs got the Portobello Sandwich and I ordered the Three Way Salad.

The Portobello isn't like any normal mushroom sandwich. They had taken several kinds of mushrooms, mainly portobello, and pureed them with bread crumbs and some tasty herbs and spices. Then they grilled the nice little patties and placed it on a big ol' wheat bun with the standard lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onions. As a side she had the red skinned potato salad.
Yeah, I was taking half of that thank you.


When my nice little innocent salad came out, I was greeted by a plate that was about half the size of the table! The thing was seriously huge. Trust me though, I was not complaining. The nice assortment of greens was topped with warm grilled pineapple, and not that canned crap. Grilled tofu, sliced and grilled almonds with avocados and edamame. Honey lime vinaigrette was the dressing of choice. Abs partook in that adventure as well. Considering we were not able to finish our meals, one could easily state that we were well served. The food was amazing, service is usually pretty friendly and on top of things, however, yesterday I think was a bit of a crap day for our waitress.


After having some amazing food with superior company, Abs and I walked on down to the Girly Chic Boutique. If you have not been into this shop, you MUST go.. not only for the clothing, but for the style of the store. The shop owner was completely inspired by Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. Pretty much a funfetti cupcake threw up and created a second version of Eden. The place has the feel of a vintage rescue squad going in and decorating the place with random objects of yesteryear and creating a really welcoming and fun enviornment. All of this eye-candy can make two girls very thirsty.
Monon Coffee Shop it was.

Once done meandering thru the rows of tulle and hand crocheted flower hats and shirts, we picked up some black board special vanilla soy spiced lattes. The nice thing about the Monon Coffee Shop is that, unlike some over abundant coffee stores, these drinks are actually still made with hand-poured and timed shots, so the flavor is a lot more delectable than that of, oh say, Starbucks.

So kiddies, the moral of the story is: go to 3 Sisters AFTER buying some nice tulle skirts from Girly Chic (we still want to feel good about ourselves while we're in the dressing room), and then head over to the Monon to pick up some truly "hand-crafted" specialty drinks.

Another Chicago Classic: The Bleeding Heart Bakery

While reading through various cupcake blogs, like Bake and Destroy, Cupcakes Take the Cake, and Cake Spy, all of these awesome writers, seemed to have the same conclusion when they wrote about this little bakery on the west side of Chicago. The Bleeding Heart Bakery is "by far the best bakery in Chicago!", "A gem to find on an accident! Absolutely one of the best! "and "Michelle is a sugar wizard!", or so claim fellow Yelpers online. With over 300 people willing to go online and take the time to write in their two cents, that bakery must have made some kind of impact on them!

For people with any kind of concern for what they put in their bodies, yet still have that strong sweet tooth, this place is for you. "Local, Sustainable-Punk Rock Pastry!" is the description that Michelle and Velentin Garcia so appropriately came up with for their store. With a love of punk rock and all things organic, they use all organic, local, and sustainable ingredients to create these classic pastries. Though all the items are not completely vegan, they do make many allergy friendly and dietary friendly options.

So what better way to celebrate anniversaries and Halloween, than to visit a place that Sid and Nancy would call "home"? After eating at the Chicago Diner, Brandon and I thought we needed some dessert, so we walked over to The Bleeding Heart to try some of their fall specialty cupcakes. The shop was pretty amazing looking on the outside. All neon green and hot pink, with various colored font, highlighting this "organic bakery". Stepping inside, I knew I had found home. The tables were all shaped like funky artsy style cupcakes, there were proudly displayed cakes from various pasts, and even chocolates shaped like baby guns, how sweet, right? The girl behind the counter quickly and GENUINELY greeted us, a rarity I feel. I asked if I was allowed to take photos, trying to avoid situations like ones before, and she said that I could. So I started snapping. After a few photos though, Michelle came out and said I couldn't take any. Oh well.
How was a girl to decide on what to get when there were so many options that all looked like something I would be willing to die for? I went with the pumpkin and chocolate ganache cupcake, along with a brown sugar frosting and maple cupcake. The pumpkin one came with a nice little plastic black rat on top. I think that is what lured me in.
Both cupcakes were good, they definitely were not the best though. I think the only thing that was really good was the brown sugar frosting on the one. For the most part, I think the idea and the store itself were amazing. Maybe I just came on a bad day and they were sitting out for too long, since they seemed rather dry. However, that is definitely not going to stop me from trying others in the future!