Mint Pistachio Cake

I meant to make the rosewater pistachio cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but I was in a hurry and couldn't find rosewater. Going with what I had and on an inside joke with my sister, who will receive this cake, I went with mint. I never knew there are many mint pistachio cakes out there!

The pistachio taste wasn't strong enough to really taste it. Next time I will make some pistachio-butter to blend into the batter and make a light mint frosting. Everyone loved how moist it was.

I'm not sure if it's cool to post the recipe, but you all better have the book by now. I just subbed 1/2 tsp. mint for the rosewater and added some fresh mint to the frosting. Beautifully green- just like spring.
Rice-mellow was also added to the frosting (I'm moving and just trying to use up old food) and it gave a really nice dense thickness to the butter cream frosting. It reminded me of the vegetarian marshmallow fluff in a can.

Proper Plate

I've been busy so my cooking has been minimal. When I do cook it's about eating fast and I don't have time for photos. I am planning a wedding, working on a secret project with someone you may know, fixing a house to sell and buying my first house (well we bought it today but we don't get the keys until this weekend.)

I've been craving healthy, quick meals and came up with this weird variety of foods, called the Proper Plate because it tastes like something that would come out of this great vegan restaurant in Portland called Proper Eats. It's food that makes you feel good after eating there.


Proper Plate:
Mixed baby salad greens
1 handful carrots, steamed
1 large handful cauliflower, steamed
Lemon garlic hummus (oops, I added too much lemon while making it!)
1 Roma tomato sliced and deseeded
Sprinkling of Paprika
Sesame seeds

Laydown the salad, put the cooled steamed veggies on top and around the salad (in case you feel like dipping into the hummus.) Slather in hummus, a dip and a dressing in one. Place the tomatoes. Sprinkle with paprika, salt, pepper and sesame seeds. Add some nooch if you feel like going that way.

This was a great, filling, healthy meal with a lot of flavor.