dessert – Page 10 – The Witty Child

The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

April 16, 2012June 7, 2018 wittychild

After a ~~lengthy~~ two-week-ish cupcake sabbatical, it should only make sense that I’d be up to my old tricks again.

But with a twist!

I’ve long been intrigued by the rainbow cakes (“Oh, that explains the title!”) that proliferate various DIY-type sites around the internet. They looked perhaps a little fiddly, albeit not terribly difficult, and ooh…colourful! It was a cool, cloudy, day today, and I decided that a little colour would improve things immeasurably. With my trusty copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World – the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes recipe, if anyone’s trying this at home – and a few bottles of food colouring, I came up with these (and stained my thumb yellow in the process):

You can see their rainbow goodness right through the liners!

With a slight drizzling of icing, peeled and ready to eat.

You knew there had to be a cross-section, right?

The trickiest part was getting equal colour distribution. One-sixth of a cupcake recipe doesn’t yield nearly as many generous spoonfuls as you might think, and the first seven or eight wound up with way more purple than the last few. I tried to amend my spooning technique with the other five colours, but that didn’t quite work out. I was initially bummed about that, but now…nah. It just means that each and every one is unique.

baking, Cross-stitch and Embroidery

So Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny walk into a bar…

April 9, 2012June 7, 2018 wittychild

Wait. What?

Okay, so I’m not insanely early with this, I swear. Just kinda, sorta four months late. I think my inner monologue started something like this (perhaps abridged for the sake of time and space): “Oh, boy, I love doing Mill Hill beaded kits. They’re so quick and cute, and if I start stitching now I’ll have this finished in plenty of time for Christmas…All right, now that I’ve got the stitching finished, all that’s left is to add the beads. Ooh, they’ll twinkle nicely when this is hanging on the Christmas tree….Oh, well [bad word]! There’s a bead stuck on my needle! Hmm, maybe if I try pushing it back off the way it came…nope…”

One of the red beads got stuck (as in, super-stuck) on my beading needle. Right over the eye. I could neither slide it over the eye and down to its rightful place on the ornament nor slide it back off. Considering that at this point I had already completed most of the beading and had, oh, three red beads to go, I was considerably unimpressed by this development. So I calmly and rationally did what any psychologically normal person would do: stuffed the entire works into a drawer to be ignored until some to-be-determined point in the future when I felt like dealing with it.

A few weeks ago, I happened to bitterly mumble something about “that [bad word] bead”, to which my mom replied, “Why don’t you just take a pair of pliers and crush it? You do have extras, right?” Genius! So, yesterday I took a pair of pliers and crushed the sodding little thing to bits, whereupon I cheerfully resumed my otherwise pleasant little project. Here it is, with one of my mom’s potted plant-like things standing in for a Christmas tree. Hey, foliage is foliage:

It’s called “Kitty’s Gift”, and I can see now that I need to trim the backing paper on it…but I’ve still got eight months or so. She looks rather like my youngest cat, too.

Gratuitous cat shot:

(Yes, the cat, I got dressed up in time for Christmas. The tree, not so much.)

Also on my list of Easter weekend homemakery, I made a pie from scratch for the first time. Well, the crust is from scratch, at least. I didn’t want to go to all the trouble of doing a scratch filling only to find out that the crust was going to be inedible, but…next time! I used the Buttery Double Crust recipe from Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, and dumped a can of peach-passionfruit filling in between. The edge of the crust turned out a little lumpy and imperfect, but I’m still satisfied for a first attempt:

My Pennsylvania RR Peach Passionfruit Pie. One of the pies in the book shows a crust with little stars cut out; I happened to have a small locomotive cookie cutter handy so used that instead.

I could use more four-day weekends. I get so much more done around the house than I do at work. 🙂

baking

Say it with baked goods

March 23, 2012June 7, 2018 wittychild

I’m afraid I don’t have a terribly exciting story this time. A gentleman I know very generously supplied me with four 1:160 scale automobiles from his personal stash. I was extremely grateful, and decided to…say it with baked goods. A very vocal peanut gallery was rooting for the cappuccino cupcakes from (you guessed it) Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which I prettied up with swirls of mocha buttercream and chocolate-covered espresso beans.

Although I’m not a huge fan of Michael’s, there is no denying that they stock some spiffy cupcake boxes. The recipient was delighted with his unexpected sweets, and I had an excuse to bake…win-win!

(And yes, I do craft/bake/produce other things besides cupcakes, I swear!)

baking

Margarita Cupcakes – After Dark

March 6, 2012June 7, 2018 wittychild

I remember now why I like quick, small crafty projects: instant gratification. For example, right now I’m working on a rather large (14″ x 14″) needlepoint. Although I’m genuinely loving every stitch, and it really is progressing at a reasonable clip, I still have nothing completed to show for my efforts. Ditto my recovering project. Waiting for my not-so-silent partner to hold up his end of things means I don’t yet have an awesome “finished” photo. For someone who blogs about her crafty exploits, it can be frustrating.

Thank heavens for cupcakes. Who doesn’t like foodporn photos of cute, tender little cups of love?

And look! With a different finish than usual! I usually follow the prescribed decorating from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World; that is, a demure little layer of icing spread evenly on top while coloured sugar coyly mimics the salted rim of a real margarita. (This can be seen in an earlier post.) Somehow, though, the fluffy piped swirls and haphazardly sprinkled sugar just scream, “Fiesta!” Perfect, since I’ll be taking four to a coworker who has just a) turned the big 6-0 and b) announced her rapidly approaching retirement.

Public opinion will determine whether this flirty new approach sticks. I’m sure my test subjects can hardly wait.

baking

Why don’t you make like a banana and split…

February 12, 2012June 7, 2018 wittychild

…into a dozen delicious cupcakes! Muahahaha!

*ahem*

I had had a hankering for these for a while, and had slowly been acquiring the ingredients necessary to churn out a batch. When soy yogurt – *bing* – magically found its way into my fridge on Friday, I knew I was in the clear.

These are Banana Split Cupcakes from Kris Holechek’s The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes, and oh, lordy, they can make believers out of omnivores!

The picture doesn’t do them justice. A moist vanilla cake studded with chopped maraschino cherries and bananas, mini chocolate chips, and crushed pineapple…heaven! I actually wound up with 16 cupcakes instead of the alleged 12, but this is my own fault for not measuring my mix-ins as precisely as I could have. (“Eh…that looks like 1/4 cup.”) I topped them off with a basic vanilla buttercream piped into approximations of swirls, and sprinkled a few chopped peanuts on top for good measure. They make a nice contrast to the sweet of the cupcake and icing.

The best part? My cherries were not quite as thoroughly drained as they ought to have been, and imparted a lovely pale pink colour to the batter. It wasn’t my intention to make Valentine’s cupcakes – I used the heart-print liners because they’re seasonal, but it wasn’t a deliberate attempt or anything – but I wound up with them anyway.

baking

Labour Day Classic

September 5, 2011May 27, 2018 wittychild

I didn’t set out to make Rider cupcakes yesterday, really and truly I didn’t. All I really wanted to do was to experiment with my new cupcake pan (sturdier and not prone to bending the way my shiny disposable aluminum ones are; the trade-off is that the darker coating wreaks havoc with my baking times and temperatures and results in what I feel are overbaked cupcakes. Hence, experiment), using a familiar – so I knew what I should be getting – and preferably light-coloured cupcake recipe, that I might better be able to judge degree of browning. What better than the basic vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World? The liners I used weren’t terribly important; these were just going to be “practice cupcakes” for home. Yet when my eyes lit on an open package of green and white gingham liners, an idea started to form. Green and white liners….white-ish cupcakes….perfect snacks for the Labour Day Classic between the Bombers and the Riders!

I substituted almond extract for the vanilla in the recipe since for some reason I have three bottles of the stuff in the cupboard, and found a lonely-looking lime in the fridge that seemed to be begging to be incorporated into the icing. While almond-lime seems like – and is – an unusual combination, I thought the sweet and tangy might play off one another well, although my test audience remains uncertain of its status as the next power-combo. It’s no peanut butter-chocolate, that’s for sure, but certainly not offensive, at any rate. And I actually had enough icing left over for a 13th…what, too soon? Okay…

While I realize that neither almonds nor limes are indigenous to the Land of the Living Skies, there’s also canola oil and wheat flour (101 varieties suitable for growth in Saskatchewan, according to the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation, which also lists lemons and oranges as viable crops but not limes), so I feel like it’s at least somewhat representative. And I can’t say for sure whether my culinary toying affected the outcome of the game, but, well, Riders 27 – Bombers 7.

Which of course raises the question: can a blue and gold creation pull things the other way at next weekend’s Banjo Bowl?

baking

It’s a marshmallow world in the…spring?

April 23, 2011May 27, 2018 wittychild

A normal person would, much in the style of Charles Emerson Winchester III, do one thing at a time, do it very well, and then move on to the next thing. My approach is somewhat more chaotic, and I have found myself with one Mother’s Day project on the go, one yet to be started (eep!), one baby sampler due early summer started, and one anniversary present due late June started. Everything is slowly getting done, bit by bit, but thanks to my own special brand of multitasking, nothing is really getting finished. Thank goodness for long weekends.

I did, however, manage to steal a bit of time to try my hand at homemade marshmallows. These are not vegan, alas, as my experiences with agar agar have been somewhat unpredictable and I actually wanted these to work; if anyone knows a good gelatin-to-agar agar equivalency rate or other vegan option, I’d be thrilled.

That said, they turned out perfectly! I used Alton Brown’s recipe (found here), although I used nearly 2 1/2 Tbsp of vanilla instead of the recommended 1 tsp to enhance the flavour. They do get a little sticky if left at room temperature, despite the powdered sugar/cornstarch coating, so I’ve been keeping them in the fridge.

Some of them have extra “skin tags” because I cut them once in the pan, then turned them out and re-cut on the bottom, and some of my cuts didn’t quite line up perfectly – but that’s purely cosmetic. I’ve never used a candy thermometer before or attempted anything quite like this, but if I can manage, anyone can. They are vanilla-y, soft, and smooth, and I can’t wait to make s’mores out of these babies!

Oh, yes: Happy Nabokov Day!

baking

You’re a cute l’il pumpkin, aren’t you?

September 25, 2010May 27, 2018 wittychild

I don’t hate my job, per se. I do, however, hate that the eight hours per day spent at work, plus travel/preparation time, is severely cutting into my crafty time. Hmm. Maybe I’ll enjoy it even more if I don’t get to do it all that often. Or maybe I can learn to cleverly invest my paycheques and retire within the next two years, thereby freeing up all sorts of time. Or not. In the meantime, if they’re happy to pay me to hang out in the office, being helpful and productive and generally not screwing things up too much, then I’m happy to be there.

One thing I definitely love about my job, though, is the Bake Day Club. There are about 20 or so of us now who take turns bringing in delicious home baking (or even purchased donuts; we’re not picky) every Thursday. This week was my turn – my first time. Eek! It had come out some time ago that I do the whole vegan thing, so I was super determined to prove to everyone that I can bake just as well as they can, without the use of dairy or eggs. I whipped up a pan of Cranberry Lemon Zing Oat Bars from Kris Holechek’s The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes – a crowd-pleaser if there ever was one – and these little gems:

Top-down shot:

How autumny! (Thursday being the first full day of fall, of course.) These are a variation on the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I left the chocolate chips out, replaced them with ground walnuts, and added a little extra ginger, nutmeg, and cloves (about 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon of each) to give them a spicy pumpkin-pie feel. Oh, yes, and used mini-cupcake pans, obviously, instead of standard ones. People kept asking if I had baked them from scratch, and no one thought to ask whether there was, you know, like, tofu or something in there, ick. Yay! Chalk up another victory for tasty vegan baking!

Despite the aforementioned time crunch and sad lack of craftiness, I have managed to finish a couple of UFOs (or does that make them FOs, now?). Stay tuned….

baking

Some day we’re gonna marry and you’ll be my pineapple queen

June 15, 2010May 27, 2018 wittychild

Nothing outstanding today, sorry. This isn’t even the first time I’ve made them. But summer’s rapidly approaching, and nothing is quite as refreshing as a Pineapple Right-Side-Up cupcake from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Aren’t they adorable?

They look all fancy-like but are actually ridiculously simple. And straight out of the fridge…mmmm….that delicate blend of spice and fruitiness can’t be beat. And who couldn’t use a little extra Vitamin C?