Houston Vegans Celebrate!

This past weekend, Houstonian vegans gathered to celebrate two milestones..... the 6th birthday of the Go Vegan Texas radio show and the opening of a new all vegan restaurant, World Veggie Cuisine. **Update 06-06-08 Sad to report that World Veggie Cuisine is no longer open** First, the food. The buffet was huge, about half raw items, and included cajun, ethiopian, and comfort food. On my plate below I have bbq seitan, lentils with injera, potato salad, sprout salad, chickn empanada, green salad, and black beans. This wasn't even close to everything that was served. The food was delicious, and I think my favorite was the potato salad. It's very exciting to have another vegan option for dining out!

After dinner, we honored the founders and hosts of Go Vegan Texas, including Janice Blue (pictured below), Shirley Wilkes-Johnson, Jerrilyn Halbert, and Kristen Lee Ohanyan, as well as their longtime sound engineer Mark McGuire. They told the stories of how the show began, challenges over the years, and hope for the future. We are so lucky to have an all vegan radio program here in Houston!
We also had a raffle to raise money for Society of PEACE. The prize? A vegan cake that I baked and decorated. Almond torte with a strawberry mousse and fresh strawberry filling and frosted with an almond buttercream. The raffle raised over $50!
Here is a close-up of my buttercream flowers (yellow chrysanthemums and pink rose) in my basketweave "basket" with a rope border. This is probably my best rose to date! I've had some issues with my icing being the right consistency. But with my new stand mixer (thanks honey!), things seem to be improving. Oh, and since several of you asked how I got the embroidered affect; it was easy! Simply ice your cake smooth then wait approximately 10-15 minutes for the icing to crust over. Then, take a paper towel (this is where the print comes from, so they will vary by brand) and a fondant smoother (or your hand) and essentially "iron" your cake.
Since the cake was being raffled off, I wanted to sneak a taste of my creation. So using the leftover cake after leveling, I made my own little mini cake. The mousse came out kind of runny, but it was still delicious! And as it turns out, I got to have another taste, since the person who won the raffle graciously shared the cake with everyone after the dinner. Aren't vegans nice?
I hope you're not sick of seeing pictures of cakes, because there's another few headed your way soon. That, and pictures of the art car! The parade rolls tomorrow! Expect a full report by Monday....

MeatOut(reach) in Houston

Spring is a time of year when everything gets a fresh start... flowers are in bloom, baby birds are chirping, streets are lined with garage sales galore, and many people are taking a close look a their diet (no doubt some are trying to get their bodies in "beach shape"). This is where Meatout comes in. Every spring, this grassroots campaign asks people to "kick the meat habit" and promotes a plant-based, cruelty-free diet. Events were held throughout the world, and here's a few things that happened in Houston!

First, for my personal activity, I made a batch of cupcakes (also to celebrate a friend's birthday) to bring into work. My colleagues got to enjoy the mucho margarita cupcakes from VCTOTW. I kept them on my desk in my office, and as people came in, they could read my meatout literature and paraphenalia as the scent of tequila-spiked frosting wafted through the air.
On Friday night, I joined other members of Society of PEACE for Food Not Bombs in downtown Houston to serve up free vegan food to the needy as another form of Meatout outreach. There was quite a large turnout, but we were prepared and easily had enough food to feed 100 people! I made baked ziti topped (just free-formed this part) with pine nut cream from V-con. Not the prettiest picture I know, but rest assured that what it lacks in visual appeal was more than compensated by its creamy goodness.
Our final outreach event for Meatout was tabling and leafleting to the downtown Houston lunch crowd just outside of city hall. SOP had a table set up with plenty of veggie literature, including vegan starter kits and information about Houston area events. Five of us took to the sidewalks and handed out leaflets to anyone who would take them (and surprisingly, many people did!). My favorite combination to hand out was a post card saying "Stop global warming one bite at a time" and the Vegan Outreach leaflet entitled "Even If You Like Meat" My opening line? "Would you like some information about the connection between global warming and your diet?" Since global warming is a hot topic right now, I figured this was a good way to draw them in, and hopefully they would see how cruel and unneccessary the animal industry is as well. Many people did a double take and asked how global warming and your diet are connected. Sadly, I think this is a connection that many people still fail to make. At least now a few more Houstonians are aware!
And I couldn't let this opportunity for more baking go by, so for the volunteers, I made whoopie pies with pink frosting (recipe from My Sweet Vegan). I thought these came together nicely, the cakey cookie wasn't too sweet, letting the sugary frosting really shine through! Almost like a vegan dessert hamburger of sorts, or at least that was my thought process in connecting them to meatout!

I will be trying desperately the next few days to catch up with blogs! I was out of town this weekend (in Seattle, more on that trip soon) and came home to almost 300 blog entries to read! I hope everyone is enjoying the start of spring, or if it doesn't quite feel like spring where you are, you at least got to enjoy Meatout 2008!<

Mostly Winners Here

So if you've ever leveled a cake for a fancy frosting job (I usually don't mind the bump), you've probably also found yourself munching on the "throw away" top part of the cake. Not that I'm saying you should stop this sensible and traditional practice, but if you're looking for something else to do with it, here's an idea.... cake truffles!

Got this idea from my cake decorating class. You simply pulverize your leftover cake in a food processor, then mix with just enough frosting to form balls. Pop them in the fridge and you've got cake truffles! You can thank me later. Just be careful not to eat them all yourself.

For the super bowl on Saturday, we went over to my parent's house where my mom had a platter of veggies and tofutti cream cheese french onion dip (thinned with a little soymilk) waiting. The best part? Some of the super addivtice tamari roasted chickpeas that seemed to disappear before kick off!

For dinner we had personal pizzas, a favorite now for get togethers as it allows everyone to put on their own toppings to their liking. I used tomato sauce, pesto, zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, and artichokes. Yum. Forget to snap a photo I was so engulfed the game (yeah right, I was engulfed in pizza). But I did manage to sneak a picture of dessert, coconut cream pie from My Sweet Vegan! My mom was looking forward to making this one as coconut has always been one of her favorites. So in the photo, a winner (the pie) and a loser (the Patriots)....

I was rooting for no team in particular. But since John is from Boston and all his family and nieces and nephews were rooting for the Patriots, I was pulling for the Giants just a bit (sshhh, I've always been a bit of a black sheep).

Okay, enough about football. Last week we also tried the Green Wa from Yellow Rose Recipes. Since I couldn't find plain soy yogurt in the grocery store, I went with the Indian version and used coconut. Since I love quinoa so much, it's great to find new recipes that use it, and this was no exception. If you like cilantro, this one's for you!
There was even enough to serve as a side dish (along with some lunches) the next night alongside curried soy curls with red pepper and snow peas. I'm telling you the soy curl possibilities are endless....

Much prep work and cooking to be done in the next few days. I'm in charge of bringing in breakfast to work on Friday. Most people just stop by the donut shop, or the kolache shop, or McDonald's (ick) and bring in something greasy and unhealthy. Come to think of it, although I attend these breakfast meetings every other week, I've never actually eaten anything at them. That will all change on Friday.
And on Saturday evening John and I are hosting a "Vegan Sweets and Eats Potluck" for the local Society of PEACE group. I've got some fun door prizes to show off, and I'm sure all the food will be fabulous as well. Can't wait to tell yall all about it! (Please note, I realize how southern I sound when I say yall all...)

Cake Decorating Course: The Basics

For the past four weeks I have been taking an introductory cake decorating class. My motivation for this came from numerous disappointments of attempts to add some fancy frosting to my vegan cakes and cupcakes. I love making desserts and impressing friends and family, epecially when it comes to showing off vegan baked goods. So I decided an 8 hour time commitment (although now I'm hooked and want to take course 2 and 3) was well worth it.

The class was taught at a local-owned store called Cake Craft Shoppe, rather fittingly located in Sugarland, Texas. The owner, Sheila, taught our course and gave us so many wonderful tips that only a professional could offer. With only six people in the class, not only was plenty of attention given to each student, but it was also a relaxed, cozy atmosphere. And I have to really thank my mom for taking the course with me. I think my favorite part was getting to spend time with her every weekend (and also learning just how much hard work she put into making all of our birthday cakes when we were young....wow!).

The first class involved going over basic things like how to make frosting (I had no idea consistency was so important), cake pans, spatulas, food coloring, decorating bags (I like the reusable kind since they are environmentally friendly), and other tricks of the trade. One of my favorite parts of the class was that, starting the second week, we got to bring in our own frosting to practice and ending with a final cak decorating project. This meant that I could ensure that everything I used was vegan.
So what did I learn? We began by making simple stars and seashells (tip #16, 20). Then moved on to dots (more complicated than you may think, 2, 3, 12), writing(3), drop flowers (2D), and the always-useful tight zig zag. We practice on cake boards that are coated in plastic so they can be washed an re-used.
Some of the more complicated designs were leaves (67), sweet peas, bows, and the very tricky rose (104). My frosting wasn't quite the right consistency to get the rose, but it's something I plan on practicing (maybe for v-day). I learned that I am quite ampidexterous with the decorating bag, often switching between my two hands when one got tired (I feel like I should have been a lefty, I mouse with my left and wear my watch on the right, but that's another story).

Beware those that are afraid of clowns! Don't scroll below! My instructor actually asked first before showing us how to make these if anyone had a clown phobia (she had a previous experience in another class with that). Cute for a kid's birthday cake. Or maybe cupcakes to bring to a circus protest! She also showed us that with just a few basic tips, you can make almost any kind of animal or character, faces, bears, turtles, frogs, tigers, horses, etc.

The final class involved bringing in our own cake and usng all of our newly acquired skills to decorate in any way we wanted. I chose to make the chocolate cake from Joy of Vegan Baking, the chocolate buttercream frosting (also JOVB) to ice the cake, and the frosting recipe for the root beer cupcakes in My Sweet Vegan. As I mentioned, consistency of frosting is important, especially when making roses or anything that needs a stiffer icing. Although I prefer the flavor of non-dairy butter in my frostings, it tends to just melt in my hands when I'm decorating. So this required using shortening for the frosting to decorate with (but I used butter for just the cake frosting).

We first learned to level our cakes (more in another post on what to do with the leftover tops!), anchor them, apply a barrier for the filling, and then get the smoothest looking frosting I have ever managed to put on a cake. A cake-turner came in rather handy. The final smooth look was achieved by letting the frosting crust over (about 10 minutes) and taking a patternless paper towel and a fondant smoother and essentially "ironing" our cake smooth.
My mom was a good student and planned her cake ahead of time, making it especially for her Valentine's couple bunco event that night. Her design involved pink hearts filled with stars, dice, shells on the top border, and flowers with leaves on the base border. She even made vegan icing too so we could share colors!
I decided to free-form the cake and just do what came to mind, of course knowing that I wanted some kind of veg theme. With all the colors I had I went with "Eat Veggies" and decorated with an assortment of mostly fruits and some veggies (dang I wish I'd made an orange for carrots). I used stars for the base border and shells for the top. In case you can't guess what they are, from the top going clockwise there are gree onions, broccoli, strawberry, grapes, lettuce, banana, and a mouth with a tongue hanging out! I wish I could invite all of you over to share a piece because I don't know what to do with this cake. I think it will end up in our coffee/breakroom at work on Monday.
I came away from this course learning many new decorating techniques, added confidence in my decorating ability, a bunch of handy tips and tricks, and the motivation to continue my learning! I'll have a bit of a break before the next class, which doesn't begin till late April, but I'm planning to take Course 2 (fancier flowers and borders, plus basketweave). But that will give me plenty of time to perfect the skills I have learned up until now, because goodness knows my roses need some work!