Daring Bakers Challenge: Flourless Chocolate Cake

This month's Daring Baker's challenge crept up on me like no other. And it failed on me like no other. Since it was so last minute, I went with a simple tofu variation of a flourless chocolate cake recipe. Wish I had beans to make Hannah's version. It looked alright coming out of the oven....
But once it was de-panned... it turned into a mushy mess, not cakey at all! At least the vegan vanilla mimicreme ice cream made it somewhat edible.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

I promise to post for real tomorrow, and catch up on blogs! I'm sooooo behind....

Giveaway Winner!

I had a blast reading about all of your favorite shoes! I wish you could all be winners, but the random number generator spit out lucky number.... 79.

The winner is Nora from My Cup of Tea! Her favorite shoes were....

"... these sparkly red mary janes i had when i was 5 and i would walk up to strangers and say, "do you want to see my pretty red shoes?!"

What a coincidence that her response totally made me remember the Mary Janes that I never wanted to take off in third grade. Send me an email Nora with your first and last name and I will have Onlineshoes contact you about your prize. Thanks to Onlineshoes for letting me host this giveaway!

Pillow of Love

Don't forget to enter for the $100 giveaway to Onlineshoes by Feb. 16th! See this post.

Time for another Work In Progress update.... I finished my love bear pillow for the Valentine's Day Stitch-Along. I was amazed at how fast the whole thing came together. Now I want to make room full of pillows!
Way back in December, I took a Valentine card making class with my mom and sister. I didn't exactly follow the instructions on all of the cards (like my heart skull and crossbones?), but I had fun with stamps and hole punches and glitter. After all that hard work, it's kinda hard to part with them!
Last night I finished the first of two nappy bags. Just in the nick of time too; my friend is due on Valentine's day! I really like the dragonfly pattern. I even modified the cell phone pocket to fit the my girlfriend's super cool iPhone that I wish I had. This bag is huge and has tons of space to stash all sorts of fun baby things... diapers, wipes, binkies. Crazy fun.
Tomorrow night I start another 3 week sewing class and I ordered my fabric for the project online at reprodepot. It's such a fun, whimsical print. I'll reveal what we're making when I'm done in a few weeks... (hint: it will be perfect for all the warm weather that's headed our way in the coming months)

This post is a part of Work-In-Progress (W.I.P.) Wednesdays where I share some of my projects that serve as a creative outlet for my mostly left-brained mind. I may be posting the results of finished projects, actual W.I.Ps, or projects that are on my to-do list. Be sure to check out others that are posting their projects as well!

Stomping Grounds Cake and a Contest

First things first. The cake. I was asked to make the birthday cake for one very cool vegan kid celebrating his fifth birthday. The party was held at the "Stomping Grounds" playland, so to continue the "stomping" theme, a dinosaur cake was in order. I know my brontosaurus and his footprints aren't exactly anatomically correct, but at least they are cute. The volcano was apparently the hit of the party when the birthday boy was blowing out his candles.
Even though this was the largest cake I've ever made (11'x15'), I was nervous that it wouldn't be enough for a crowd of hungry toddlers (is 5 a toddler? I don't know these things) so I also whipped up a batch of carrot cake cupcakes. These were also stomped, I mean stamped, with a dinosaur footprint made of fondant.


And now, the contest and some stomping of your own (which has nothing to do with cake). Onlineshoes has asked me to host a giveaway for a $100 gift certificate to their store, which carries plenty of vegan friendly shoes including the super comfortable Earth brand shoes. The rules are simple. Just leave a comment describing your favorite pair of shoes that you have ever owned (mine are the shoes on my feet right now, forest green vegan flats). On February 16th at noon (CST) I will randomly select a winner, so be sure to check back and see if you've won! The contest is only open to those who currently reside in the US. Now stomp to it!

And you can triple your chances of winning if you head over to The Urban Housewife's blog and Awesome.Vegan.Rad , where they are both running the same giveaway!