Vegan MoFo Day 24 - Christmas Birthday Cake

No your eyes do not deceive you, this was a birthday cake request. It somewhat resembles a South Park character but that wasn't intentional. This was a sponge cake minus the cherries, sliced in half and filled with strawberry jam and buttercream then covered in more buttercream and decorated with fondant icing.

The Christmas and Birthday hating friend was delighted with it.

GO VEGAN!

Go MoFo!

Vegan Mince Pies

The halls are decked with bells and holly, the Christmas Cake has been baked and is being fed copious amounts of brandy until it's ready for decorating and the first batch of mince pies have been baked. It's CHRIST-MAAAAAAAAS! Vegan Mince Pie Recipe makes 12 Ingredients 1 1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon granulated white sugar 1/2 cup (113 grams) vegan margarine a bit more than 1/8 cup ice water but not quite a 1/4 cup (40 ml) 1 jar of vegan mincemeat Method Sieve the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and add the margarine. Rub the margarine into the flour until it resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the water and gather together to form a dough. Cover with clingfilm and chill for half an hour (you AND the dough hee hee hee). Set oven to 205 degrees centigrade (400 Fahrenheit). Grease a 12 mini muffin pan with margarine and dust with flour. Tap the excess flour off (do this over the sink). Divide the dough in half and lightly flour a work surface. Roll one half of the dough until about 1/8 inch thick and cut into 12 rounds that are slightly bigger than the muffin tins. Place the rounds in the muffin tin and put about a teaspoon of mincemeat in each round. Roll out the second half of dough as before and cut out your star shapes. With a pastry brush gently dab some water on each of the star points and place over each pie - pressing the points down gently. Brush with soya milk and dust with sugar and bake in the oven for 15-20 mins. Take out of pan and cool.

Try saving one for Santa!

GO VEGAN!

Two Thousand and Fine

Happy New Year guys. Did you miss me?? Yeah...I know you did really. Thanks for all your lovely words of condolences, they all meant so much to me. I've not really had time to grieve as Salem passed away and then we left for England the very next day. Being home now I am feeling the full force of my loss - the house is so empty and lonely without him. But onto brighter and happier things and a chance to regale you with tales of my first Vegan Christmas. I am completely in love with Toffuti. It was my first taste of vegan cheese and I absolutely love it. The tubs of Cream Cheese are just amazing. I tried the French Onion, Garlic and Herbs, and Herbs & Chives and they are all AWESOME. I smuggled 2 tubs back with me which I am rationing myself to and I also bought some Cheezly but have not tried that yet, I'll give the verdict after I have. Bought some Cheese Powder, Bouillon, Custard, Mayonaise, Chocolates, Braised Tofu, Paté, Pepperred Steaks, Mince, Fry's Polony (sliced sausage), Agave Nectar, Reggae Reggae Sauce (OMG how good is that stuff!) and ...ummm....there's more I'm sure but you get the general idea - I WENT VEGAN SHOPPING MAD AND LOVED IT!! Santy bought me a nice new shiny camera so hopefully my photographic skills will improve and won't make your eyes bleed looking at my photos. Having said that - I have no photos of my Christmas dinner because Mr treehugger's family don't open presents 'til after dinner, which is around 6pm. Yeah I know!! But we had McSween's Haggis with all the usual trimmings and my plate was piled so high it wouldn't have made for a pretty picture anyway! Managed to see lots of people, missed a few too ;) and got out and about on lots of walks to the Forest, the river and the beaches. Went to Wagamama's (AMAZING!!) and visited two other restaurants where I had Spanish Tapas and Greek food. The Greek place, Bar Zuka, did the BEST Dolmades and Falafels I have ever had! All in all, I had a fantastic trip to England but I am glad to be home and looking forward to getting back to normal. Well, as normal as I can ever be. Cue the montage

Vegan MoFO Day 25: I wasn't a happy bunny but I am now

I baked my Christmas Cake yesterday and it all went horribly wrong. You're probably thinking why the hell am I baking my Christmas Cake in October and I'm all horribly wrong. Right?

Well...let me tell you - I like my Christmas Cakes like I like a cheap date - moist, fruity and pissed in no time! I ply my Christmas Cake with so much alcohol between now and the big day that you really don't want a naked flame to go anywhere near it come Yuletide!! This is my first vegan Christmas and as I will be taking this Cake all the way to England with me to show off to all the rellies, I want this Cake to ROCK!! I want it to be even more special than my old faithful Christmas Cake recipe that was passed down to me by my mother who was, in turn, given it by her mother who was given it by her mother etc etc. You get my point. This Cake has to be the freaking business! I trawled the interwebs looking for a suitable recipe when this one caught my eye. I liked it because, apart from the Fruit, it doesn't contain any sugar, it uses no Marg or Oil and it's by The Vegan Society!! So it's got to be good right??!! I also like the fact it uses Marzipan as an optional addition. Seeing as there was no sugar in the actual Cake mixture - I really really liked the thought of the Marzipan, won't it be a really nice treat when tucking into a slice - a Marzipan surprise!! So - this was my Cake of choice. Went out, bought all the ingredients (boy aren't dried Fruits and Marzipan expensive!!) and set to. I thought, when I had mixed all the ingredients together, that it seemed a little dry - but I had measured out everything and followed the recipe to a T (about the ONLY time I actually do follow a recipe) so I figured it would all be alright. Have faith in the recipe Jeni! Ha blinking Ha! I took the Cake out of the oven, went to flip it over on a plate and half of it came out whilst the other half was welded to the bottom of the tin through the medium of melted Marzipan. Man that stuff is like superglue!! So, after my initial panic and bout of swearing (I really do swear like a docker), I quickly flipped it all back into the pan and cooked it for another ten mins thinking to myself it's better to leave the Cake to go cold before trying to take it out of the tin - give the Marzipan time to harden up and solidify, ya know. So when I took it out the second time I gently scraped a knife around the edges and left the Cake to cool. I went to look at it today and guess what?

TA DAA!!!

It looks alright, it smells HEAVENLY so fingers crossed it's gonna taste just as good. It seems the Sprites were Spritely elsewhere 'cos Zoey had mischief afoot in her household too!

The Planets must have been all out of sync - though I did check my Chrondala to see if the time boded well. The Chrondala is an ancient, secret manuscript of ancient lore passed down through generations to those who are worthy of it's gift, and is highly sought after by Sages and Parsley's the world over (and can be found here for free). FREE!! I paid 2 quid for mine years ago and this little beauty has made me so happy ever since - 2 quid well spent. I swear every time I look at it I discover something I've never seen before.

If you're stuck for a gift for someone - print out the Chrondala - I can't think of anyone who wouldn't like this. I bought a cheap glass frame to keep it safe and snug and I LOVE mine.

Today's song is If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out by the FANTASTIC Cat Stevens - don't ask me what he calls himself now 'cos I will embarrass myself - he will always be Cat to me. This song is from the totally FAB film Harold and Maude - if you've never seen this film then you HAVE to!! It is in my top 5 favourite movies of all time, I love it even more than The Wizard of Oz!!

:)