Happy Birthday, here’s a box full of (sugary) snakes! PLUS! First Friday this week

Our mission: Create sweet treats for two boys little boys to eat and show off at their birthday party.
Likes: Snakes, music, and the color orange.

Here’s how it went down:

We’re pretty pleased with them! And luckily one of our young recipients (who came with dad to pick them up) seemed happy too. Can’t go wrong with marzipan snakes!

In other news, we will be back in our booth at Art Murmur this Friday! We’ll be bringing very delicious and seasonally-appropriate Strawberry Shortcake, as well as savory hand pies in two different flavors, made with locally-sourced organic veggies (yes we had a fun shopping trip to the farmer’s market)!
We will also be having a raffle for one dozen cupcakes that could be yours, FREE, if only you come out on Friday and sign up for our email list. Good deal?
We’ll see you there!

Make your own ice cream!

A few weeks ago I got a craving for a really good ice cream sandwich. It could have been the on-again-off-again hot, summery weather, or just the fact that ice cream sandwiches are delicious. Whatever the inspiration, I decided that May’s Art Murmur would give me the perfect excuse to learn how to make ice cream and develop some really tasty ice cream sandwiches. It was really a perfect situation for me– I got to fulfill my craving at work, by sampling batches of ice cream and cookies. It was pretty rad, but I did get a stomachache or two along the way. I know, life is rough!!

You can check out this last blog on art murmur here!

I was a little nervous about finding some good vegan ice cream recipes but luckily a friend loaned me a wonderful book, The Vegan Scoop by Wheeler Del Torro. This book is fantastic! It has easy to follow directions for dairy free ice creams and sorbets in 150 flavors!

I started with the basic vanilla recipe because I wanted to something simple and versatile. My first test recipe was fantastic and I would highly recommend it.

Here is the recipe so you all can make it too!

Ingredients

1 cup (235 ml) soy milk, divided
2 Tablespoons (16 grams) arrowroot powder
2 cups (470 ml) soy creamer
3/4 cup (150 grams) sugar
1 Tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract

Directions

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup (60 ml) soy milk with arrowroot powder, and set aside.
Mix creamer, remaining 3/4 cup (175 ml) soy milk and sugar in a sauce pan over low heat. When it starts to boil, remove from heat immediately and add the arrowroot mixture. The liquid should thicken. Next, add vanilla extract.
Refrigerate mixture until chilled, approximately 2 to 3 hours. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

The one thing that bummed me out was the reliance on soy creamer. Soy creamer is NOT cheap. I never buy it for personal use and I felt that there had to be a way to get around relying on it for tasting ice cream.

First I turned to the Internet, where I learned that people have crazy (and expensive!) solutions to replacing soy creamer. So I turned away from the internet, and went to the ingredients list to find out what made soy creamer different from soy milk anyway.
After looking at the ingredient list, it seems to me that the crucial difference was the fat content. Soy creamer’s primary ingredients are soy milk, palm oil, and sugar.

Well, we can add in a little extra fat at home and for way less then the price of soy creamer!

Here is what I did:

I looked at the difference in the fat between a cup of my brand of soymilk and soy creamer, which about 14 g. For every cup of soy creamer the recipe called for, I added 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil ( you can add an oil or your choice ) to a scant cup of soy milk. I combined the soymilk and oil in my blender and prepared the recipe according to directions.

This batch turned out identical in texture and had a great flavor! So don’t bother buying soy creamer unless you really want to. I also am going to experiment with soy free alternatives to these recipes!

I would highly recommend this book and I plan to try out some other recipes. It’s got 150 recipes, so there’s plenty to choose from!

Art & Ice Cream & Some Cute Litte Cupcakes

Wow, it’s already been over a week since the last awesome Art Murmur (and the Amoeba art show) and I am just now getting around to posting these pictures! Better late than never, though, because I know you wanna see these new items we had with us.
We had our brand new savory scones, in apple-rosemary and herb & cashew cheese, as well as potato pesto turnovers, apple turnovers, and…

Ice cream sandwiches! With house made vegan ice cream and cookies. They were really fun, and a hit– I think they’ll have to make another appearance later this Summer.

Also, that same day my book arrived direct from the printer! Did you know I just had a vegan cookbook published? I am so thrilled to finally hold it in my hands, and had a lot of fun taking it to Art Murmur to share with friends as well as strangers.

A sort of blurry shot from the Amoeba Art Show, but trust me, it was pretty wonderful! Many thanks to our friend Ryan, whose space it was held in, and others from Amoeba who not only created the art, DJed the show, and showed up to party, but also ate (and even helped sell) a ton of cupcakes!

Last but not least, I wanted to share these photos of some cupcakes we did for a baby shower this weekend. The decorations were by request of the person who ordered them, and I think they turned out really cute.