Dandies Marshmallows + Brownies + Butterscotch Chips =

a birthday greeting for my friend Joanna, the super fly author of Yellow Rose Recipes. It's also the first culmination of my WHAT TO DO WITH A BAG OF DANDIES? post from last week.

Joanna and I met with friends from the PPK at the Bye & Bye last night (omg! Celine, Joni, Kim and Alin are in town!) for cocktails, Floor Punches, grub and conversation - and as Maeve and I were leaving for a Yelp Elite event, in walks Julie Hasson and her husband Jay with two pies!

Julie pretended to force me to take a bite of the banana creme, I did, I could rave about that wonderful dessert for an hour and a half, and what was my original point?

Happy Birthday Joanna!!!!

Smorey Butterscotch Brownies

They are admittedly thin because I used a slightly larger sized pan than the recipe called for. The original recipe is for Espresso Brownies that will be in next year's Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowtiz and Terry Hope Romero.

I added vegan butterscotch chips (from Pandacookie!!), a few halved Dandies vegan marshmallows before baking, and a bunch on top during the last few minutes of oven time. It fluffed up! Then it fluffed down. And then they were nibbled. There was still some of the desired gooeyness on top - yeah, Dandies rule.

Here's the BBQ platter Maeve and I shared at the Bye & Bye, my favorite dish on the menu. It's $1 off during happy hour. FYI, they've gladly swapped the collards for brussels before, if you're into that sort of thing!

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.