vegan whoopie pies

I took a stab at these vegan whoopie pies from shortbread bakery for thanksgiving (as well as some double layer pumpkin pies which i thought ruled). I followed the recipe listed except I used regular old flour opposed to whole wheat. Maybe next time!

vegan oreo triple layer chocolate cake

So, today's one of my favorite people in the entire worlds birthday! Tara's 25 now and we started the day grabbing some coffee and soup then reviewing some hair cutting dvds. Last year I made her inside out german chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate ganache which were pretty delicious. Now that she's made the switch to veganism, I wanted to make something equally special. I'm much more of a cupcake maker, but I thought I'd give a stab at cake-dom. I put it on a platter I made with a 1950's style flyer for the movie Zombie Strippers.

Here's the recipe (that you end up tripling due to the layers):

Cake:
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar

Oreo Buttercream Frosting:

1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
1/2 cup earth balance
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 soymilk

It's really rich, so I advise taking small slices and having it with a glass of soymilk.

pumpkin pancakes

I am working on mastering the pancake. There's something about food that you have to flip that I just haven't gotten the hang of yet. This was my second time making these pancakes and I think that I've gotten the taste down, now I just need to focus on making them pretty.

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
a pinch and a dash of regular 'ole white granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground clove
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups soymilk (or regular milk if you're into that)
1 can pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Mix up all of your wet ingredients (pumpkin, soymilk, oil & vinegar) in a bowl separate from the dry (flour, sugar, spices, etc). Whip out your electric mixer and pour the wet into the dry. From there use about 1/4 cup worth of batter per pancake in a lightly oiled skillet! They're totally delicious.