Cakes

Strawberries. I love them. I saw them at the market last weekend and bought them - but they are such a tease. Early berries are never that great, let alone those sour California berries! I can't wait until Oregon's sweet berry season starts.

With that said, I was inspired by the berries and make this cake:

Vanilla cake with strawberry jam filling and strawberry frosting.
I made the strawberry frosting by mixing strawberry jam and powdered sugar with some earth balance.

I had so much fun decorating this cake I decided to make another, one of my favorite combinations - chocolate and mint!
The filling was simple - cashew cream and chocolate chips. I soaked the cashews over night, blended them with some soy milk, then blended in some melted chocolate chips. So simple and tastey!

This mint chocolate cake is by far the best cake I've made i at least a year. The pudding in the middle really made this cake rich. I can't wait to make this for my birthday.

Mr. Bolsh told me he'd eat this whole cake in a week so I didn't need to take it to work like I did with the strawberry one. Well, wednesday came and he hadn't even eaten half the cake. He complained that living with me is like living in Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory! He lives a tough life, it's true. So I took this cake to work and had rave reviews from my co-workers. I even recieved an email about it,
"Just wanted to share a testimonial of your cake. I have had a headache almost all day it seems, and I swear since I ate you cake, it’s gone. Apparently it’s not only delicious, it has healing properties!

Thanks for sharing it with us!"

Aother co-worker, after hearing of its medicinal properties said I should open shop next to St. Cupcake and start "Revival Cakes!"

Garlic Shells

For Easter I had created a wonderful garlic sauce for some scrambled tofu. We didn't use all the sauce so I got creative. There was no real recipe here but it went something like this.

Garlic Shells with Broccoli:
1 cup soaked cashews
4 cloves garlic sauted in olive oil for 1 minute
Enough soy milk to make it smooth in the blender.

Mix the shells, sauce, and broccoli and eat right away or bake for 15-20 minutes.
We had extra faux sausages left over from the Sunday brunch so I threw those in, just to use them up.

I guess this qualifies for a cassarol - a great way to use up ingredients.

Crepe Cake

Today is my 9 year vegan anniversary! So today I post a cake! However, I will not be eating cake today. I am once again trying to go without processed sugars for about a month and a half.

This cake was inspired by a photo/recipe in Martha Stewart a few years ago for a chocolate crepe cake.
I just my regular crepe recipe with a bit of cocoa added. I used a cashew cream between layers until I ran out so I used a blueberry filling.

Simple Breakfast Crepes:
1 3/4 Cups Flour
1 1/4 Cups Liquid (apple juice, water, soy milk...)
4 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 1/2 Cups Soy(/Rice/Oat/Nut) Milk
4 Tablespoons Oil
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
Pinch of Salt

Mix all together until the bumps and lumps are gone.
Ladle a small amount into a warm frying pan, or use an electric crepe maker. Pick up the pan and rotate until the batter doesn't spread anymore and let cook on one side until the other side is done.

To make the cake, keep layering crepe with the filling of your choice until it's as tall as you want, or you run out of crepes.


This was a very intensive process! And unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my cashew cream thick/strong enough to support so many crepes. None of that matters when you taste it though - it was great, but something I'd rather have someone else make for me.

Raw Dinner

As much as I love cooking, sometimes I like not cooking just as much.

This salad was inspired by SusanV, who, probably a year ago, posted about eating corn on the cob by rubbing it with lime and sprinkling with salt.

Spicy Corn Salad:
2 ears of corn
1/4 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon fresh dill
1/8 teaspoon (or to taste) chili flakes
Couples of shakes of salt to taste

Cut the kernels off the cob, mix with the spices and serve cold with a side of lime and dill.

I was going with raw lasagna, inspired by Nutshell, but I was missing a few ingredients so this is:

Tomatoes and Garlic Cream:
1 heirloom tomato cut into thirds
3 sprigs oregano
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup soaked cashews
1/4 cup water or oil
Chives to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the cream sauce first by pureeing the soaked cashews and 1/2 the clove of garlic, add enough water or olive oil to make it a smooth, creamy consistency.
Make an oregano pesto with the oregano, olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper

Layer: 1/3 tomato, 1/2 of the cream sauce, 1/3 tomato, oregano pesto, 1/3 tomato, remaining cream sauce. Garnish with chives and cracked pepper.

How It All Vegan Breakfasts

Last weekend I ended up using two recipes from a cookbook, and from a cookbook I don't use often - How It All Vegan.

I have my own crepe recipe but I decided to branch out and try something new with one of my new toys - a crepe maker!

Strawberries and Cream Crepes:
1 crepe recipe, cooked into crepes
Fill the crepes with cashew cream
Spread with strawberries and sprinkle with powdered sugar


Breakfast Couscous Porridge:
This recipe was simple with a 1:2 ratio of grain to water. Blueberries and pecans were added to the mix. Next time I would make it a 1:4 ratio to make it creamier.
This wasn't as porridgey as I wanted it to be but it was alright.

Kitchen Gadgets

The following meals feature dishes made from new kitchen gadgets.

First the Panini Grill:
I love grill lines on my food. I can't wait until the day we have a backyard grill to include the smoky flavor. The Panini grill is great because it's larger than a George Foreman Grill and the lines are closer together.
I wanted a quick meal so I threw on a cut of cabbage, onion and some quickly miso-marinaded tofu. I sprayed the cabbage with soy sauce and sprayed the onion with olive oil before sprinkling on some kelp powder before grilling. I walked away and when I came back there was hot, grilled food waiting for me. I stacked them on top of each other and called it a meal.


Rocket Blender or "The Magic Bullet":
The Magic Bullet is a tool I've heard people rave about for a long time and I ignored it because I have my dear food processor to fulfill all my desires for chopping, blending, shedding. The Bullet seemed like the Vita Mix people who are just loyal.
When I broke our blender I went out and bought a Rocker Blender, just to try it. I had no idea the world I was about to step into!

Peaches and Cream:
Smoothies have been a great way to fill me up while not having much time for a full home cooked meal.
1/2-1 cup raw cashews soaked in water for an hour or more (I have these soaking in the fridge these days)
1- 1 1/2 cup soy/rice milk
1- 1 1/2 cup frozen peaches or strawberries

Blend the cashews with a bit of soy milk.

You might need more soy milk or other liquid, so just blend until it's thick and creamy.

Add the frozen fruit and maybe more liquid. Blend until the consistency you desire.

Take off the blender attachment and add the drinking cap.

We've really enjoyed this kitchen gadget because it's quick and easy both in clean up and use.
The pros, beyond the clean up and user-friendly style, are how well it blends ice and how you don't have to push down or stir the items -you can just lift it up and shake! When it's ready to serve you just throw on a little drinking cap to cover up the threaded edge and drink away.
The cons to this toy is the annoyance of screwing and unscrewing the blender attachment. Blenders are great because you can continue to add items while blending, something you can't do here.

Creamy Potato Soup:
I've been pretty stuck on the cashew cream lately. I used it in a potato soup to make it creamier and a bit thicker. It was a hit.
Cashews, veggie broth, carrots, onion, potatoes, and basil.


Pesto Shells:
Here I was trying out the Bullet again while making pesto.
basil, olive oil, veggie broth (to cut the oil down), garlic, cashews, sun dried tomatoes.

The problem with using the Rocket here was that to dice the garlic small enough the pesto became soup-like it was so smooth. I prefer various sized basil pieces in my pesto over a pesto-soup. It still got the job done but I will be sticking to my food processor for pesto.

Berry Picking

One of the greatest things about living in Portland is summer-time and with summer-time comes berry season!
This past weekend a few friends and I went berry picking on Sauvie Island. We gathered blueberries, raspberries, marrionberries, and strawberries!
I prefer my fruit fresh and simple.
Here a few of the ways I've been enjoying the fruit.

Fruit on skewers with a side of cashew cream and raspberries. Putting fruit in skewers just makes it more fun to eat!


Fruit layered between cashew cream.

Check out Jess' blog because you know you'll be doing something crazy with berries!