It's been four days!

...and my friend Maeve has yet to take off the tiara that adorned the top of this birthday cake. I brought this cake to a joint birthday celebration for her and her friend Caitlin. Not pictured are the matching earrings that came with the tiara, that I don't think Caitlin has taken off either.

Not surprising, I mean, just look at those jewels.

This was actually the first time I've ever made the NEW VEGAN CLASSIC Raspberry Blackout cake from Vegan with a Vengeance. How odd.

Some thoughts on this, all numbered:

1) I'm a PPK cult member, what's taken me so long?

2) Baking cakes is fun! What's taken me so long?

3) I remember when Isa posted this cake on Livejournal's Vegancooking community years ago, before you could type! Before I could type!? What's taken me so long???

4) I'm spoiled with gee-orgeous personalized cakes from Sweetpea nowadays, love it! That's been delaying this.

5) Maeve told me she wanted me to bake this cake, so I did.

I baked, melted the ganache & our friend Jeff frosted.

Is there too much booze in sight for public viewing of this photo? I also brought vodka I'd infused with vanilla beans and local basil (that Maeve grew!) and vodka infused with coffee and more vanilla beans.

We meant to remove the tiara before lighting all 43 candles. Hilarity ensued.

Jenny!

Happy Birthday to my little sister, Jenny! She's entered the later early twenties and living a life of style in NYC. She loves to look at herself, so here we go. If you ever see her on the street (she frequents Stogo! and all the hip spots in Williamsburg) say hi, she'd love that. I just know it. I wish I was there to celebrate and buy her all the sugared and salted margaritas she's fond of.

at Pommes Frites

With the wind and attitude in her hair shopping at the Chelsea Markets,

holding my olives

Years ago in Portland (okay, 3) holding a vegan cake she'd made

Look! Our brother and the family cat that lives with Jenny, Monkey

Jenny and Mike's new cat, Desmond (named after LOST!)

Two of my favorite people

And Jenny, Mike and my grandparents. I keep this photo on my digital camera, because I'm occasionally sentimental. It's from 3+ years ago at a street fair in Little Italy.

Tomorrow - the report of Dittering Day 1 & 2.

Birthday Cake

Mocha Layer Cake

Photo by Karla of Veganshizzle.

This cake was an instant classic, in terms of flavor and the dear film quote.  As usual, it was made by Sweetpea Bakery for a friend's surprise birthday party. 

Sliced, and enjoyed.

A real blog post coming soon enough....cake = good.....

cake!

I celebrated my twenty-sixth birthday this past weekend and had the delight of two cakes, fruit picking, dinner, a pub crawl and celebrating galore.  Food Fight! and Scapegoat's wild Anniversary party just happened to be on my actual birthday, September 7th, so I just happened to spend time there as well after brunch at Junior's with friends.

It was also the first time in a few years I didn't make my own vegan birthday cake, and if you're going to get a vegan cake anywhere in Portland, let it be from the super talented bakers at Sweetpea Baking Company  It was FANTASTIC!

Chic-o-Stick Cake, by the lovely Katie Jane at Sweetpea

Entitled both "Here's Your Fucking Cake" and "I Love Jess" on the side. 

Coconut cake, Peanut Butter buttercream, Chocolate Mousse filling, Crushed Chic-o-Sticks

Webly and I went (underripe, but still! awesome!) peach picking on Saturday on Sauvie Island.  

The perfect way to spend a birthday weekend afternoon!  

And after a day of being nibbled by coworkers, the Chocolate and Jam Whole Foods cake my office got for me!  It was kinda dry, but regardless, sweet to get!

That's all.  It was a magical weekend!  

I'm off....

Low and behold - my camera is working! again! I spent 3 days assuming it was gone, fiddling with it, and then last night, although the menu is being funky, I decided to attempt using it to capture Thomas' birthday cake - and success!
This camera has really held up through the past few years, with all the dropping I've done to it, the portland mist, etc. - so while I'm absolutely wanting to replace it, I do have soft spot for it, for sure.

From last weekend - Toasted salt and pepper pecans (another one inspired by Julie! who made these a while ago at a potluck - they stuck in my mind!).

I didn't have her recipe, just the idea - so I toasted the nuts in a pan, added a lil bit of olive oil, some coarse sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of organic sugar.



Oh, and that cake that I just had a teeny little sliver of?
Mocha Buttercream Layer Cake.



At the birthday boy's request.
FYI, It says 'T-rock'. Not that anyone calls him that. I underestimated how much frosting I had left to pipe, and was simply going for T, and then kept going...

He requested the cake I made for our anniversary a couple years ago, with the layers from the Candle Cafe cookbook (recipe here), but since I was out of maple syrup, I made the chocolate cupcake batter from VCTOTW and added coffee extract to the batter.
The buttercream is based on the fluffy white one from the same book - with coffee liquor as the liquid, and coffee extract and cocoa powder added. I myself would call is heavenly! or something.





And dinner before cake - baked tofu (tamari, sesame chili oil, agave, rice vinegar, garlic), sesame green beans (VWAV - asparagus recipe) and short grain brown rice.



Thomas and our friend Jeff split what I was originally making for dinner for the birthday guy - half a soy chicken baked in sweet and sour sauce - and then dove into the vegan baked ziti that that he asked I make while I was away as well. I wanted some of the tofu to myself, above, so I only used half a recipe of VWAV's tofu basil ricotta - plus chopped roasted red pepper.



Wish me and my camera good luck - red eye flight tonight! If you were me, where would *you* go, and dine, in Boston and NYC? And well, South Shore Long Island if you're familar..

Sugar Crash

Oh Sugar....


Homemade Coconut and Espresso layer cake with coconut buttercream
Whole Foods Strawberry Buttercream layer cake
Thanks to Aaron for letting me use this photo~
Thanks to everyone who sent warm birthday wishes, especially to those who spent the evening making me smile.


The cake recipes were from VCTOTW. I made a coconut buttercream and added raw almonds and toasted coconut.


My boss let me pick out this Strawberry Buttercream cake for our work cake break.
Yes, I went to work on my birthday, but only for a half day. I went home, went on a bike ride, had a quick lunch, ran an errand, frosted my cake, cleaned the apartment and then relaxed a bit till meeting my friends.


I met my friend Jeff at XV for cocktails. Indulgence!
I had the La Suzette - a minty, lemony, tequila cocktail pictured above. We also shared some of the best fries in Portland - yam fries with tomato chutney. After XV, I met more friends at Nutshell, a new vegan restaurant here in Portland. I had gone once before at the pre-opening, and was stoked to try it again on a special occasion (aka turning 25!).


My friend Michelle and I both ordered this hominy, quinoa-y, cumin-y dish with greens. It was delish. If only I remembered the name and actual description...

How about some more sugar?

mint chocolate cupcakes


coconut lime cupcakes


gluten free mexican hot chocolate cupcakes with chocolate mousse


Just a little something extra - NYC Black & White cookies, from the PPK Cookie Test Kitchen.
That's right, Isa and Terry are working on a cookie book!

Yo ho, Yo ho!

Today is my amazing boyfriend Thomas' birthday, and this past weekend we went out to celebrate..first stop (and the only in photo form) Portland's newest all-vegan restaurant:
Pirate's Tavern~
We also went to Dots in SE Portland to celebrate, home of fries and spicy tofu sauce, plus a few other vegan options as well.

Both of our meals came with soup or salad - I had a salad with ranch dressing. At first bite, the dressing screamed dill, but with every additional bite, I loved it more and more and honestly could have eaten a larger version as my meal.

Thomas choose the soup - mixed vegetable. Stew-y, potato-y goodness. Just throw on a little salt and pepper and you're set.
We also had an order of fries, quite possibly the crispiest in Portland, and Thomas had a mug o organic beer. They had a TON of organic, vegan wines, but only 2 were available by the glass.

I went with the dish I've heard the most (positive) things about - the fettucine alfredo with garlic bread and veggies. I didn't live up to the hype, and I like pasta and cream sauces and have made a few types of vegan alfredos at home.
Warning: Annoying complaints ahead:
I ate it, and was fine with it, but it was almost bland. The only 'nutritional yeasty' flavor was the dusting on top. Increase the garlic!
It was creamy in a way that vegans crave, not having that sensation. None of the vegetables, which the menu said came steamed or sauteed, but actually only came sauteed, really stood out. The garlic bread was more bun-like and seemed to be 2 day old bread, toasted.. (12.95)

Thomas went with the chicken-fried steak - a very sloppy plate that was mostly potatoes, but what small patty of chicken there was (food fight lita chicken?) was super tasty, in my opinion.
(12.95)
He liked it, our overall verdict is that we didn't like it enough take the bus here, and we'd have to take two different buses to get out there. Both of our meals were luke warm at best. We'd eat there for an event, but it's not something we'd go out of our way for, and I wish it was, being all-vegan and mostly organic.

Personally, I think with some more time under its belt, the food could rock..right?

For dessert we split a piece of Sweet Pea carrot cake. Delicious, of course, though pricey, like the rest of the place. Oh, and if you go, check out the ladies room, creepiest bathroom I've been to that's not in Romania (no offense to Romania).

I'll leave you with a bad joke:

What does a vegan pirate do in jail?






Staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrve.

they say it's your birthday

I celebrated my 24th birthday this past Thursday.
I took a half day from work and enjoyed a lovely, laid back day with Thomas who took the day off and met me with a tropical flower.
I'm short on cake pans since the move, so I made cupcakes fr the occasion. These are Coconut-Chocolate-Coffee cupcakes from the upcoming Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. In short, I broke into that secret database, or something.. They are chocolate coconut cupcakes with a decadent coffee coconut buttercream, topped with toasted coconut and crumbled dark chocolate.Apparently 24 candles on a cupcake can be done!We went out to lunch at Nicholas Restaurant in SE Portland. Shared a vegan mezza platter with the 'big' homemade bread. Our platter was two orders of hummus, falafel and tahini, a chickpea dish, a rice & lentil dish and the bread. So far Nicholas is my favorite Middle Eastern restaurant in pdx - quick, excellent food at very reasonable prices. We couldn't even finish the platter between us!Close up on the bread:
Coyly eating a piece of bread filled with hummus. You can sorta see the blonde streaks in my bangs - it was originally pink, then purple, not sure what's next.

Literally less than 5 minutes before I was leaving work, they announce (the boss just arrived) that they got me a cake! I was really touched. It's a vegan Irish Oatmeal cake from Piece of Cake bakery in Sellwood. I've had this type before and this time it was even better. Sweet, sweet, precious buttercream. The oatmeal cake is similar to a carrot cake in texture. Classy shot, I know.

Nursing stomach aches post cupcakes:

So that was the quiet 'big' day, on my way out of the early 20s! We decided to stay in and had a light dinner and watched Veronica Mars - we're both becoming addicts...Plans to go to the dinner destination, Bay Leaf, have been moved to the weekend.