Monday, September 8, 2008

Pushing 30

I am now officially in the last year of my 20's. Here I am blowing out the first of two sets of candles.

If you remember my birthday last year, John made me an ice cream cake. Well this year he outdid himself and made a mocha devastation cake (from My Sweet Vegan) and got fancy with a piping bag! It was a lesson in patience to stand by and watch someone else decorate a cake, but I tried my best to keep my mouth shut (except I had to say something when he accidentally wrote a "b" instead of a '"p" in "happy"). I can't wait to see how he tops this next year!!
Sunday was the Houston Vegan Knitters first meeting, the perfect occassion to make knit cupcakes (inspired of course by vegan yumyum's version)! Simple vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream right out of VCTOTW decorated with natural sprinkles and fondant "knitting". One was a mini-version of my very first knitting project, a pink and white dishcloth (which I'm still working on). I am so excited for more knitting projects, including making blankets to donate to pet shelters, a hobo bag, belt, fruit cozies, cupcakes, and maybe a scarf or two. Now I just need to learn how to purl....
I have been in the mood to make a fancy dinner ever since I saw the recipe for Emerald Rice Cakes in the June 2008 Vegetarian Times (originally from Millennium). There were four separate elements to this dish, including a butternut squash puree, habanero jerk sauce, homemade seitan and cauliflower stir fry, and jasmine rice cakes. It was certainly worth all of the work, and the puree and sauce could easily be made a few days ahead.

And on my actual birthday (the 8th), my mom made me a chocolate pecan pie (from La Dolce Vegan), since the weekend had been been filled with too much cake already. The two red candles apparently represented 10 candles each.... 29 candles on one cake is a bit too much.
Thanks so much to everyone for the birthday wishes!!! And a special thanks to my family and friends for making it such a special weekend.

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday!

Wow, that emerald rice cake dinner looks delicious. I wish I had the patience to make it. Of course, if I were a better cook and knew it had a decent chance of turning out well, maybe I'd go for it. :)

Vegan Girl (Roni Seabury) said...

Happy Birthday!! Let's see some of your knitting! I hope it looks as good as all your food.
Roni

Vegan Girl (Roni Seabury) said...

Happy Birthday!! Let's see some of your knitting! I hope it looks as good as all your food.
Roni

Anonymous said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Looks like a terrific celebration (and the b-day cake was lovely, "B" or not--though obviously, he corrected it!). Your cupcakes are stunning! (Oh, and for me, at least, the 30s were the best decade so far, something for you to look forward to!). :)

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Amandaaaaaaaaaaa; happy birthday to you!!!! :0)

Anonymous said...

Rock on John! Looks like you had an awesome birthday! I asked Sergio if he'll make me a cake for my birthday and he had to point out that I didn't make him one for his. DOH!

Your knit cupcakes were teriffic!! Sergio ate the fondant version of your dishcloth. You know what! I tried to purl last night and I couldn't do it! Your mom made it look so easy!

Anonymous said...

happy birthday! it must be wonderful to have a guy who can bake...mine made me a cake (from a mix) and put it in the oven on broil. Since then, I've taken over the cooking duties for obvious reasons.

aTxVegn said...

Happy Birthday, Amanda! John sure did a great job on your cake, and your cupcakes look amazing. I really love the little beanies! Your Emerald Rice looks perfect.

Leigh said...

Hey! Happy Birthday, Young'in!

Anonymous said...

The cupcakes are awesome! I hope you will share your finished knitting project with everybody.

The deep concentration on John's face is great! He made you cake!! Happy happy happy birthday week!

Veronica said...

Happy birthday! All those birthday treats look phenomenal! Mmmm, cake & pie.

The knit cupcakes turned out gorgeous as well. Beautiful plating on the rice cakes too!

Unknown said...

yum... birthday deliciousness! those cupcakes are adorable. glad you had a wonderful birthday!!!

Amey said...

hoorah!
looks like you had a festive birthday weekend. How incredibly RAD that your hubby made that amazing cake. I'm totally amazed. You found a good one!

Also, that recipe from Veg.Times caught my eye as well. In fact, they've had a lot of good looking features recently. Maybe I'll do a Vegetarian Times week!

Amy said...

Oh Wow! I wish I had an other half who would make cake for me!!! YUM.

Your cupcakes are adorable. I'm glad you had a great birthday :)

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Can John give Ryan a lesson in baking? I'd love to have someone else make my birthday cake!
The Emerald Rice cakes look awesome.
Once again, Happy Birthday!!

Sheree' said...

John did a wonderful job! I am so glad that you had a wonderful birthday. I want to dig out my June issue and try and make that dish. Oh my it looks good!

jessy said...

happy birthday! :D

wow - those rice cakes look absolutely divine! and your cupcakes are the cutest ever! that's so sweet of John to make you a birthday cake. that rocks so hard! :D

Anonymous said...

That emerald rice cakes recipe caught my eye in that issue, too! I'm glad to finally see what it looks like and I'll have to put it on my definite "to make" list!

Happy Birthday!

J said...

What a sweetheart your hubbie is! The cake looked yummy!

The knitting group sounds so fun! I used to knit a lot, but haven't had time lately. I made several baby items when my boys were small! By the way, purling is basically knitting from the back side. That always helped me to think of it that way.

Happy Birthday!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday! I can't even imagine my husband piping icing on a cake for me- he's more of the special ordering cake kind of guy. The 30 are great - you'll see! And OH MY DOG your cupcakes are just the cutest freaking things I've ever seen. I need to start a French Vegan Knitting Group...
I hope you had a great day!

Animal-Friendly said...

Happy Birthday!!! It looks like John did a great job on your cake, even if he almost misspelled "happy"- haha.

That recipe from the Millennium cookbook sounds soooo complicated but looks too good to resist making!

Anonymous said...

Have a yummy birthday.

the little one said...

Pushing 30 - too funny! Looks like you had a great bday! Those cupcakes are INSANE! How long does such beauty take you?

Anonymous said...

Amazing! Every last dessert looks stunning, and I'm so thrilled to have provided the recipe for your birthday cake this year. Happy belated birthday!

Tami said...

John did an awesome job! And so did you on those cupcakes, not to mention the dish from VT. It looks like your birthday was wonderful.

Happy 29th!

tofufreak said...

happy belated bday!!

i so know how it feels when i have to watch people decorate cakes. it's like every fiber of my being wants to take the little piping bags from them and say "here this is how it's done" and then do it. but it's so sweet that he made AND decorated your bday cake :)

your bday food looks phenomenal :)

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday! What an amazing cake.

J said...

Happy (late) birthday!

How nice that he made a cake for you, it looks great! Don't know how he'll top that one though.

And your dinner, you had me at habanero jerk sauce.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!! That is so nice they made you a vegan cake and pie! Those cupcakes and your dinner look fabulous!

...barbara... said...

happy late birthday...
everything looks ridiculously birthday edible.....
(*gnaws back of hand*)

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Those cupcakes seriously ROCK! I don't know why you think you need advice on how to work with fondant. If anything, I bet you could teach me a few things! But, of course, if you send me an email I will be happy to help in any way I can.

Oh, and hapBy Birthday!

Erin said...

How sweet of John to make and decorate your cake! He did a great job. Your knitting cupcakes are VERY impressive, and the fancy meal looks great. I have two Millenium cookbooks but haven't really desired to make anything yet because of all the parts of each recipe.

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

happy birthday! I heard recently that 30 is the new 20, so you're almost into the best years of your life! and I'm not kidding, your food just keeps looking more and more amazing.

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

Hi Amanda, I just wanted to check and see if you guys are ok, as I heard you were in the center of the storm. I hope so. I am crossing my fingers for you.

ps happy birthday! Tell John I love the cake :)

The Vegan Snorkeler said...

Happy Birthday!!! Your cupcakes are so cute and your birthday cake looks amazing!

Jes said...

Happy belated birthday! And wow, I'm definitely craving some cake now! :)

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

What a great birthday celebration! And very impressive cupcakes.

T said...

Happy birthday! Wish we had a vegan knitters group like that around here... especially with cupcakes! I also made that dish from veg-times- definitely not as picture pretty as yours, but absolutely delicious!

Cakespy said...

There is nothing sexier than a man decorating a cake! :-) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! It looks like it was a wonderful time!

J said...

Just thinking about you, hoping you fared well over the weekend with that nasty weather. :)

jd said...

Oops!

This is kinda late, but I just read your post & wanted to say: HAPPY B-DAY!

It looks like you had a fantastic celebration :) Enjoy your year of "pushing 30!" LOL!

Snowberry and Lime said...

yum, those cupcakes look delicious! The cake is really sweet, too, hehe.

Stella said...

Happy birthday!

I just turned 29 in June, and I am quite excited about it

Anonymous said...

Awww, happy belated birthday Amanda! How sweet of John to bake you a cake and then your mom to make you a pecan pie!

Those knitting cuppers are adorable. I really should use some of my new found free time to take a knitting class or two.