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!"

Cupcakes

Nothing new, but I had a fun time making them.

Chai Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:
Chai Cupcakes with Chocolate from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:
Chocolate Mint Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:These are my absolute favorite!

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.

Is it hot where you are?

Cooking has been difficult with the heat so I've been preparing lots of raw fruits and veggies.
Adding fresh herbrs from the yard like basil, mint, and lavendar has been a nice touch to my ice water.
I also highly recoment one cucumber slice and two mint leaves, one of the most refreshing combinations yet.