Monday, September 10, 2007

Someone Else's Baking

I've been lucky enough the past few days to have someone else do my baking for me! It began with John baking his first cake ever, the Caramel Banana Pecan Ice Cream Cake from Vive Le Vegan. I have loved ice cream cakes since I was a kid, and thought this would be a fun thing to try! Here is John mixing the wet ingredients with the dry for the bottom cake layer...



We opted to use chocolate soy ice cream instead of vanilla, this was a good call I believe. It paired well with the vanilla cake, pecan, and caramel sauce. Here is John scooping the softening ice cream over the layer over bananas and pecans.... looks like the perfect finger licking opportunity.



And here is the finished ice cream cake! I don't think we let it sit quite long enough in the freezer, hence the fast melting ice cream, but we still both devoured our own pieces in record time. Not sure how long this will last in the freezer, but my guess is not long! (I'm sure you're wondering, what happened to cutting out sweets....)


Before enjoying half melted ice cream cake, we went to celebrate my 28th birthday at Ruggles, one of our favorite more upscale Houston restaurants (I even went dinner there before prom back in the day). To start off with I had my favorite green salad, which I have my own version that I love to make at home. ( yes, I know this isn't baked... but cmon, give me a break)


Follow that up with a vegan veggie pizza topped with plenty of basil, spinach, zucchini, artichoke hearts, mushroom, onion, and asparagus.... and you've got yourself a meal!!



And finally, the last baked good that I didn't have to make myself I ordered from Celine of Have Cake Will Travel on etsy (you must know by now that I'm addicted). The cookies arrived right on my birthday and even included a sweet birthday card to go along with the sweet cookies :-) I ordered a combination of coconut chocolate chip and chocolate peanut butter fudge. She even threw in a few chocolate chai snickerdoodles as a little extra! My fave had to be the choco pb cookies, they were HUGE and moist and absolutely chocolatey, peanut buttery good. If you get a chance, go order some yourself!!

12 comments:

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

Holy Moly! Jared and I would/could devour that whole ice cream cake. Sounds like you had an awesome birthday dinner. Welcome to the 28 yr old club!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Oohwee, I'm a jealous girl over here! All those sweets & treats look amazing!

Ruthie said...

OOOOOooh nice to meet ya :-) my husband and I are both vegan and will be moving back to Houston in 8 months. Maybe we can have a potluck. *G*

Anonymous said...

first cake ever? looks like a pro's baking!

bazu said...

That cake sounds awesome! Can't go wrong with pecans and chocolate, I believe. And wow... it is so not safe knowing that instead of drooling over them, you can actually have Celine cookies in real life!

Happy 28th! We're the same age now. =)

Amey said...

Happy Birthday!
Oh you little devil! I was wondering who ordered up all the cookies from Celine. I keep looking at her site and trying to justify ordering myself a big batch of cookies. Yum!!!

:) amey

Anonymous said...

I'm so showing Alex that cake! I need my man to bake for me too. That pizza is giving me some serious cravings. I love home made pizza so much!

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

That cake is one of the most delicious things I think I've ever seen! Bananas and chocolate and pecans... three of my favorite foods all together in one recipe?!?

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

oh my goodness that banana cake, pizza, and Celine's cookies (isn't she the greatest, making her treats available online!?!??!?! I still have my treats from her left to devour, haha), look incredibly enticing and delicious!! yum!! :0)

aTxVegn said...

Definitely a good call on using chocolate ice cream! That cake looks amazing. And your pizza and salad - perfect birthday food.

Celine is a genius. All of her creations are fabulous!

Anonymous said...

What a great birthday! I am thinking of treating myself to some Lagusta's Luscious truffles for a mail order treat on my upcoming birthday, but those cookies look pretty good... hmmm

Carolann said...

WOW! I've never seen a Vegan Ice Cream Cake. It never crossed my mind! It looks like you had a wonderful time! Happy Birthday!