cake vegan for life

Since I am way too lazy to really blog, here are some photos from school and home.......

Celebration Cake for an assessment. I really wanted to pipe this cute design. It was originally a henna design but I changed up the colours and make it vibrant to contrast the white fondant.

Strawberry and custard flan with a clear glaze.

Farewell mud cake with a new ganache recipe I came up with. The cake was too dry for my liking but the ganache was awesome.  Cheated at the piping by putting a stencil of my writing under some baking paper and transferred it onto the cake. At this stage, I am way to scared to pipe directly onto a cake!

Vegan sausage rolls.Recipe by Leigh Drew and her upcoming cook book "Wrapped in Pastry" If you don't get the Twin Peaks reference, you should reassess your life.

Scones. Easiest recipe ever. Flour, Nuttelex, rice milk. DO NOT ADD SUGAR. Topped with some whipped coconut cream and black cherry jam. 

Practice wedding cake. This is going to be a 2 tiered, 5 layered mountain of deliciousness.

Quinoa Non Carne

I have been in such a recipe slump for a long time, cooking mainly from books or things I have memorised but finally I bring to you AN ORIGINAL!
After a recent trip to Costco we got quite a few things in bulk that have been hanging around the pantry waiting to be made into something delicious. With a rumbly tummy I pulled out quinoa, canned tomatoes, 4 bean mix and thought to myself, "what can I do with these?" Then a lightbulb went off - Chili Con Carne!
I googled a few basic recipes to see what else I would need...... Onions (didn't have any) Capsicum (none of those either) Meat (Um, NO!) So a quick traipse through the fridge and I had myself an almost con carne recipe. Here's what I used (feel free to add and subtract whatever you like)

Olive Oil
Half a bulb of garlic (thinly sliced)
A thinly sliced green chili (These are less hotter than the red ones cos I'm a baby)
A packet of fajita seasoning (you could use taco seasoning or something similar)
A can of lentils
A can of tomatoes
A can of 4 bean mix
4 tbs salsa (or more if you like)
1 cup quinoa
10 small vine ripened tomatoes
3 mild pickled chilis (They come in a jar, kind of sweet and mildly hot)
2 tbs Tomato Paste

Heat about 2 tbs oil on a medium heat. I used my Le Chasseur cast iron dutch oven) Throw in the garlic and turn the temperature down to a medium low. Cook for about 3 mins. DO NOT BURN! Burnt garlic tastes VERY BAD! If you see the garlic getting dark brown, turn the temperature down!! Add chili and cook for another 2 mins. Add the fajita mix and stir, then add some more oil to make a nice thin paste. Cook for another 3 mins.
Add the canned tomatoes, lentils, four bean mix and salsa. Stir through to combine. Throw in the quinoa, vine tomatoes, pickled chilis and tomato paste. Bring to a simmer then turn down to low, put the lid on and cook for 10 mins. Check, stir, taste and adjust if needed (maybe more salsa or tomato paste) Cook for another 10 mins with the lid on. After the 2nd 10 min round of cooking, take off the lid, stir and if you need to, add some water to keep it like a stew. The quinoa likes to suck up all the liquid! Cook for another 10 mins with the lid off.
Serve and EAT! You could serve this with some guacamole or maybe just some nooch sprinkled on the top.

More school stuff

school scraps

Vegan bathroom and make up

For  a more comprehensive guide on how to veganise your bathroom, head on over to VEGANZA for her awesome 3 part series.

College stuff

If you follow me on twitter, you'd know that I am currently a Patisserie student.
Here is a photo dump of a few things I have been making between getting High Distinctions

Vegan New York

New York was an absolute blast! We stayed around Times Square and did all the touristy stuff, as well as eating everything vegan in sight.

 Sacred Chow was an amazing first taste of New York.
I tried the biscuits and gravy with scrambled tofu. Delish! Andy had the frittata which was also really nice.

 We headed over to Babycakes next for some take away treats.
What a cute little cafe. Pretty crowded and hustle bustle. Cakes are in demand!
We got a few different things, some cookies, cupcakes and donuts.
My personal favourite was the brownie cupcake with mint icing.



 Moo Shoes was close by to Babycakes. Andy got some great shoes and they have the cutest, fluffiest kitty there just hanging out.

Angelica Kitchen was a nice place we had brunch another day. Nice whole foods. Nice atmosphere.










We kept stopping by Whole Foods on a daily basis either to get a cheap breakfast or snacks to fill the backpack with. Travelling is hard work and snacks are essential! I became addicted to Sweet and Sara peanut butter smores and at $5 a pop it became an expensive habit! Another filthy addiction I picked up was Peanut Butter and Jelly Lara Bars

We also found the coveted "Tweeps" when we went to Lula's Sweet Apothecary. While there, I enjoyed a Root Beer ice cream which blew my mind.

We also headed over to MoMA and checked out the Warhol, Picasso, and Vintage kitchen exhibitions. We also saw our favourite painting, Starry Night by Van Gough. AMAZING!!

 John's of 12th was accidentally discovered a few steps away from Angelica Kitchen. Vegan pizza and pasta. They also have vegan cannoli. Does life get any better than this? The restaurant was dark and candle lit for those who enjoy that but it just made my photos look bad.

Another mind blowing meal was at the Candle Cafe. The little brother/sister of Cafe 79. The service here was FANTASTIC and the food was even better. We had our first try of chimmichurri here and it was almost inhaled on sight. The serving sizes were huge and all the uptowners were eating this up. Literally. The dessert is something I will never forget and I would fly back to New York to eat it again but instead I bought the cook book so I can make it myself. Chocolate mousse pie in a cookie crumb crust. Enough said!

 We saw the Addams Family on Broadway. It sucked.

We hung out in Central Park trying to find the bridge from Home Alone: Lost in New York.

New York is huge and incredible and being vegan was so easy there.
I think I left my heart on the Lower East Side.

Vegan in Las Vegas

What do 2 vegans do in Las Vegas?
Elope, of course!

Vegan in Los Angeles

Recently we visited the United States for a quickie marriage in Las Vegas but found ourselves on the biggest vegan food adventure ever.
The absolute abundance and availability of vegan food in America is overwhelming! We took every opportunity we could to eat as much as we possible.
First stop was Los Angeles. We arrived in the morning, dumped our gear over at the hostel and adventured down Melrose for some quick eats and some light shopping which is where we found M Cafe. And who would be sitting beside us but The Veronicas! I also found out via twitter that Pete Wentz had been there the same day.
M cafe is a vegan/macro style cafe on Melrose which offered a great menu. I had the macro plate which consisted of brown rice, pickles and tofu. It was pretty nice and not expensive at all.
We walked down to The Grove and explored The Whole Foods Market there as well as the Farmers Market too. Got some lunch there then got the bus up to around Hollywood and Highland where we discovered a Trader Joe's. We spent the day on a hop on/hop off bus tour.

That night we ate at Swingers Diner. Burritos and Nachos. Eaten too quickly to take a photo. I think this is when I began my root beer addiction!

Our second day was spent at Universal Studios. We had packed our backpack full of goodies from Whole Foods but the security guy/bag checker didn't like that and made us throw away some of our food. Vegan options were few and far between but we spent most of the day on rides anyway.

Dinner was at Doomies Home Cookin' and holy jeebus, it was AMAZING! I had fried chicken and mashed potatoes and Andy had parmigiana. We also had a jalepeno popper entree which was too hot for my liking but Andy LOVED! Highly recommended for those DIY style Punk eatz. 

Days 3, 4 and 5 we spent at Disneyland! After trawling the internet for weeks beforehand I discovered a treasure trove of secret vegan eats. I don't have too many food photos from Disneyland because I was too busy soaking up the Disney atmosphere and chasing Disney characters.

The one thing i did get a pic of was this was an amazing portabello stack with cous cous. DELICIOUS! It came with a side salad which was also really tasty. I think it had raspberry vinaigrette. From the Blue Bayou (it overlooks the beginning of the pirates of the Caribbean ride)

So that's most of L.A, I'm sure I have forgotten something but next up is Las Vegas and the wedding.

Where have you been?

Blogging and blogger slump.
Here's a photo dump for your enjoyment

All photos taken with instagram