Monday, February 25, 2008

sweet teeth, mexican sammies and salty things

Eek, I have a bunch of photos and the memories are fading by the second, I should get right into my ovening activities for my last few days in Ottawa --

I was actually sick of baking when I threw this together, but can you possibly guess why one would make a batch of ppk graham crackers if not for something spectacular in the future? Those with an eye for pie will like the final destination of these cookies! (also these ARE in my top ten favourite cookies ever and might have made them anyway, even if I did have zero luck finding honey-less graham crackers in the store).

And a dinner at my dad's is not complete without a tray of mysterious cupcakes carefully towered on a pretty tray and ready for omni appraisal (usually, "oooh, something frosted!!"). I wanted to make the orange pudding cupcakes from VCtotW, but I didn't have orange juice, so I decided to be intrigued by the apparent roll of the dice that is the V-con Jelly Donut Cupcakes.

Turned out well! Only 2 craters and I kinda thought they were cute. Tastewise they were nutmeg-y and very sweet, maybe heavier than I like normally, but definitely donut-esque. Sis liked them enough to eat 3 and tell me to make ones with frosting next time. :P

Oh yeah, she also requested a cake. In the middle of a jigsaw puzzling session, I offer (as I do) to make her something to eat, and she says cake. SUCH A GOOD REQUEST. And I refuse to use a recipe, and throw flour and oft-used ingredients around in such a way as to come out with.... a damned good teeny tiny cake thing. That I eyeballed. So cool. (that's peanut butter swirl on top and a tasty carob-chip dome in the middle. We all agreed it would rock the universe with a fudge layer, too bad I can't recreate it, haha)

My last morning we hit the Wild Oat bakery for breakfast and I shoot this terrible photo of the mmmnummy El Oxuaca sandwich. Yes, I pronounced the X when I ordered it. No, I haven't been to Me-hee-co. For absolute certain I melted for the combination of sundried tomato tapenade + black bean spread + avocado, tomato, cilantro and greens on nutty multigrain bread that had travelled about five or six metres from the oven to hit my table. Good stuff.

Having filled our bellies with sound food and zinging with health, it stood to reason that a trip to Sugar Mountain might be just the thing to ruin all that sprout-eating. Yay! I got aniseed balls (my favourite) and salted licorice. But I couldn't eat the licorice! Yes, I checked at home and there's our old friend beeswax stuck on the outside of that lovely salty sweet like a microscopic force-field of candy denial. It's a very good thing I discovered that the chinese salted licorice-y plums I bought the other day (called Li Hing Mui apparently) are infinitely superior to regular salted licorice, so I don't mind so much now and I just suck on dried fruit. :)

Also, I made the Smlove. (graham cracker speculation can be laid to rest now).

I didn't like it as much as I thought I would... It was kinda like chewing on a big wad of baking chocolate... but I AM weird and have been known to dislike fantastic things. Am I kicked out of veganism now? :D

19 comments:

Nicole said...

I LOVEEEE smlove. SEriously!

You sould start writing down all yer recipe shtuff so that you CAN recreate it. ;) Cuz that looks totally worthy of being recreated... yummm

Anonymous said...

Oooh. homemade graham crackers. These sound intriguing. I never ever buy them, then I feel so left out when there's recipes with them!! Grr!!

I don't blame you for not liking the pie so much. I'm not big on randomly sweet things either. I pretty much don't eat chocolate... ever. And I feel undeprived. How weird is that?

Theresa said...

That's a lot of baked goods! They all loook goooooood.

I made aloo paratha over the weekend. So. good. I will post soooon :)

Amy said...

I can't believe you don't have a recipe for us for that amazing looking cake!!!! YUM!!

MeloMeals said...

Wow.. that's a lot of sweet vegan goods!

I'm impressed you made your own crackers for the crust...

the peanut butter swirl on the cake looks soooo delicious!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Homemade graham crackers! **swoons**

Wow, your batch of those cupcakes turned out perfectly! Wish mine would have set properly as well! At least they still tasted amazing :0)

I've been hesitant to try the Smlove Pie recipe, even though it looks so decadent and amazing - I wouldn't be too keen on it, if my pie also ended up tasting like baking chocolate :0P don't worry! you're not kicked out of veganism, haha :0D

Vegan_Noodle said...

Wow, you EYEBALLED that cake? Very cool, looks delicious.

The smlove pie was definitely not very sweet imo... I think the taste does have a lot to do with the chocolate you use. Looks pretty at least!

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

wow,wow,wow! everything looks so good! and how gutsy of yr sister to ask for a cake. love it!

BitterSweet said...

Gorgeous baked goods! And I commend your patience for actually baking your own graham crackers to make the crust of a pie. Really, my sweet tooth would take over long before I got that far and I would just eat the graham crackers!

bazu said...

Way to cook and bake for your family! Let me know if you are ever heading down to Syracuse...

I'm loving following the saga of the jelly donut cupcakes- looks like you're in the "win" column!

I have SO many photos to catch up with, I might just have to accept that I won't be able to...

Jenni (aka Vegyogini) said...

So we basically had the same reaction to the Jelly Donut Cupcakes. I really wanted to love them because they're SO easy to make, but alas. Like you, I love black licorice. I've never heard of aniseed balls, although I think I would love them! Your sandwich looks amazing, as does your Smlove pie! I can't believe you and your sister are so close that you'd make an impromptu cake just because she requested it. I'm further amazed that you threw it together without a recipe! You're so impressive, Kamutflake Girl.

Rural Vegan said...

Yay for your jelly donut cupcake success! I wonder why your batter is so much lighter in color than mine, hmmm....

That peanut butter swirl cake is amazing. I'm going to have to demand a recipe, eyeballed or not. Fork it over!

Katkol said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ruby Red said...

You threw that cake together? I bow down to your skills. It looks like you labored on it for hours and used a 50-step recipe. Wow. The peanut butter swirl sounds amazing.

I'm really in the mood for Jelly Donut Cupcakes. Thanks a lot.

:)

Doodleyboo said...

Hey:

In your profile is says you like the "Goblin Market". Do you mean the Goblin Market by Elizabeth Gaskell? I love that one! Actually, I love Victorian lit. Are you an English major?

Kati said...

Hey, are you originally from Ottawa? I took a trip to Quebec in November and stopped in Ottawa on the way home (passed through Montreal but didn't have time to stop - next time). I ask because I saw you mentioned Green Door - that place was fantastic! Although, I do have to say, they were rather indignant when I asked which dishes were vegan (if you ask me, they aren't clearly labeled). Despite that, I will definitely be returning. And I will absolutely check out Aux Vivres in Montreal - I wanted to stop in the city just to eat there, but alas, we had to beat a snow storm on it's way through the Canadian countryside. Like I said, next time definitely.

You should try sprouting the apple seeds - it's fun! :D

Ashasarala said...

I've been meaning to make those graham crackers for months now! I was going to use them for that same, exact recipe, actually. Get outta my head!!! ;)

No words can describe how awesomely awesome that cake looks. ::drool::

Licorice makes me nauseous, though. I just... shudder at the thought of it...

Jessy and her dog Winnie said...

Awesome pictures! Everything looks great!

TB said...

amazing that you threw together that cake! i don't even want to imagine what a cake i just threw together would turn out like...! nice to hear your review of smlove. i keep almost making it and then chickening out. for some reason i suspect that i, too, won't like it much? hmm.