Thursday, April 10, 2008

birthday #4, mystery fruit and mawr vcon

Oh my gosh, it's been a few days, hasn't it? I have been cooking! Notably I made a turtle cake for my friend's 24th. A turtle turtle cake, if you will. He's so cute... swimming in generous puddles of buttery caramel sauce. It was almost a shame to cut into him to get at the deep chocolate innards. Almost.

I started with the Vcon deep chocolate bundt cake, mostly in the interest of conquering the book - in all honesty I don't think the coffee really meshed with the rest of the cake components, but I also oopsed and used my regular crappy brand instead of brewing up my stash of GOOD coffee that I keep around just for cakes. I am d'oh.



Luckily toasted pecans and caramel sauce (ohhhhh that sauce!) go an incredibly long way towards nummifying everything they come into contact with. Generous layer and then onto...






My FAVOURITE icing in the whole world. I got it off vegweb, but I've seen identical versions over the internet, and holy all that is holy, it is good. Think rich, choco-fudgey, creamy, not too sweet. Also low in fat, and not like eating a bowl of shortening (*ahem* buttercream I'm looking at you). Add an extra shake of salt and it's pure heaven.



(especially dolloped all over a pound of strawberries and eaten as dinner which I did not do, gosh no, certainly didn't!)

The finished product? Gooey, addictive, got pretty much destroyed by three people, if that says anything. Also, it had wings and is thus a Koopa Cake for extra nerd points. :)




The other day I found these chayote squashes for 25 cents, can you believe it? And at a mega-supermarket no less (I was making excuses to walk really far 'cause the sun was sooooo beautiful that day, and hey, they have a good selection of extracts in the baking aisle).

Anyway, I had no idea what they were, but I did a brief search-up and they're totally a mexican thing, so I made probably the least-brainer I could have, just tossing them with coarse salt, lime juice, chili powder, cumin and red chile flakes. Lovely refreshing, actually. They taste a little bit like a bland cucumber-melon and I don't think I'd go nuts trying to find them again, but hey, one less mystery on the list.

And more Vcon recipes cause I'm predictable like that. They are both to die for, because the Vcon is predictable like that. This is the pineapple cashew quinoa stirfry, mega yum. If pineapple-y grain-based stir fries had a bare knuckle fight in that square foot of free space in my kitchen I'd probably leave my bets with the pineapple couscous curry I made a while back, but that's not to say they both wouldn't both fight valiantly with their ways of deliciousness and copious use of sweet sweet juice. I'd also even say this tastes better out of the microwave the next day, but I might just be weird like that.

I'm not one for adult food, really. I made the Vcon tomato couscous with capers and rustic white beans and at first didn't really... know what to do with it? But then something happened, something wise in me turned off my computer, headed to the fire escape with a glass of leftover white wine and a trashy novel and all of a sudden I was "some single woman shooing her cat away from the subtle flavas of leek", instead of "some kid blogging, rocking, reading AND playing video games while shovelling back stirfry". I dunno, it's a subtle difference. And I was sad to see the last of it go.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG THAT CAKE!!
It looks so good. So SO SO good!

Unknown said...

Your Koopa cake is AWESOME!! Looks so rich and delicious!

The pineapple cashew quinoa stirfry looks great, too. I love making that!

Jenni (aka Vegyogini) said...

Super Mario 3 is my favorite video game ever! Your koopa cake is beautiful. :)

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

As I said on the PPK, I LOVE that cake, so cute! I'm a fan of the pineapple-cashew-quinoa stir fry, so it sounds like I need to make your curry couscous!

Unknown said...

I'll take half of that cake, please. yes, half of it. and I'll gobble it down in one bite because OMG it looks so good.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

That Turtle Cake is MESMERIZING!! How sweet of you to bake that for your friend's special day :0)

I've never heard of chayote... looks intriguing!

You always do the V'con recipes justice - everything looks delicious, as always! :0)

Anonymous said...

Ohhh that cake looks soooo good I may have to make one! I have a question...in that sauce recipe it calls for Sucanat - what is that?

Lindsay (Happy Herbivore) said...

you make the most beautiful food ever. that cake. oh my vegan! oh my!

W O W

Jes said...

That cake looks so good and the presentation is awesome! Now I'm craving cake...thanks... ;)

Anardana said...

That cake is RIDICULOUS!! You are a genius. I'm going to attempt to copy it and make it for Matthew's bday in July.

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

Jenni - Sucanet is a natural sugar that still has molasses in it (and it's vegan). I used white sugar, though, cause I've made caramels with brown sugar before and the molasses taste was too overpowering. But it's all up to you!

Rural Vegan said...

You get so many extra points for turning that turtle into a Koopa, it's freaking adorable!

I found some chayote squash recently too, and was also relatively unimpressed, but they were cheap, so what the heck! Now I know!

aTxVegn said...

I love the turtle turtle cake. It sounds incredible. I'm with you on the buttercream. I hate the coated tongue feeling!

I eat chayote all the time cuz it's so cheap. It's always next to the zucchini at a much better price. But I agree it's not "to die for" by any means.

Anonymous said...

What a lovely, gorgeous, beautiful (and I'm sure delicious) cake! I sure wish I had someone to make something like that for my birthday... I'll bet your friend felt very loved.

pinkhairedcyn said...

That cake looks amazing! Also, I love love love both the tomato couscous and white beans from v-con. Yum!

Wheeler's Frozen Dessert said...

wow that cake looks so delicious - but so adorable! How could you stand cutting into it??

Seitan Wörshipper said...

that cake looks amazing...! Thanks a lot, I`m craving some tasty sweets just right now, midle of night.. ;)

Those chayote squashes are fun. I bought also some when I visited in one Asian market in my town. I was also thinkig about what to do with them, and because I haven`t really any good idea I decided to make some seitan wow where I throw those cubed squashes. They were tasting..hm..?.. I think littlebit like cucumber.Not that interesting or wery exotic kind of veggies in my opinion but nice to try out!

Your cooking are ALL mouthwatering, pretty nice bloggings! Seitanic Cheers from Finland ;)

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Too-cute turtle!!!

Anni said...

Liz: your single woman- fire escape - cat shooing sentence has such a perfect Breakfast at Tiffany's -feeling to it that I just had to read it over and over again. I hope you sometimes sit on your fire escape and sing Moon River, tell me you do?

Anke said...

that cake is the most amazing thing I have seen in a while. gotta remember this. I'm not nimble enough for intricate patterns on cake but I think I could recreat this amazingly cool turtle :-)

Doodleyboo said...

Ohhhhh! Your pictures are making me sooo hungry. I need to make a turtle cake too!

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

that turtle cake is so cute.

Anonymous said...

Haha, that has got to be the best cake ever- Not only incredibly tasty, but adorable as well! I sure hope that friend appreciated all of your work on it!

Anonymous said...

awwww...i can understand how it would be difficult to slice into that sweet turtle cake! sooo cute. and all that tasty looking food, and goodness, your writing style is awesome. you made me laugh a lot, and i was having a bad day, so thanks!!! :)

Seitan Said Dance said...

That cake is amazing!

And I've always wondered what those green fruits were and what could be done with them. Now I know. Thanks!

KitteeBee said...

Hey!
Chayote aren't just Mexican, they are used in a lot of Asian cuisines and we eat them down here in New Orleans a lot too. We call them mirliton, so if you do a search for that, you might find some interesting recipes. I don't know about eating them raw, but they're nice stuffed! Here's a recipe from pakupaku, to give you an idea...
http://www.pakupaku.info/stuffedmirlitons.shtml

xo
kittee

Vegan_Noodle said...

I desperately need a slice of that cake!!!

Sarah P said...

I have always wondered what to do with chayote squashes! and now I know.