The Cake is Not a Lie.
Long time without an update. Certainly not for lack of activity. A lot of things have gone on in the past month. I visited a Farm Sanctuary, went to the beach for a week, and lots else.
But today, my friends, I bring to you, the cake from Portal. I have to admit it's not 100% vegan. I *had* to have the fish-shaped crackers, if you know what I mean, and they have non-fat milk in their ingredients. But besides that, all is.
I don't feel like typing all the exact ingredients, but the cake is basically cocoa powder, a shitton of maple syrup, whole wheat pastry flour plus regular flour, and soy milk. The icing is a regular buttercream icing, with coconut milk substituted for soy milk. Since the original recipe calls for coconut pecan icing. I made 3 layers, icing in-between each. I pressed sliced almonds into the cake, and plopped maraschino cherries and fish-shaped chocolate crackers on top. Unfortunately, I had used all of my confectioner's sugar on the chocolate icing, and accidentally poured out the rest of my coconut milk before realizing I had to make some sort of whipped cream/white icing to hold on the cherries. So I compromised and smooshed the cherries into the cake.
The cake itself probably weighs about 5 lbs, and does not travel well. It's very moist, and won't allow me to wrap it in any way, so I'm hoping my two hungry boy roommates will make do with the cake ASAP. Basically "Hey, Portal cake in the fridge!" will be sufficient enough to get it eaten. Myself, I do not like chocolate cake nearly *this* much.
Tattoos and Blenders :p (how's that for disorganized?)
It's been a while since I last wrote. This is mostly since not much has happened, but I figured that since I want to keep this blog going, I should post something.
Friday I went shopping, and bought a food processor/blender. A lot of recipes I want to make require me to chop/blend/whirr. I also want to start eating a lot more fruit, and the blender is helping with that. I've been making smoothies out of my orange juice and bananas. I also had some strawberries in there, and blackberries. I bought raspberries, but those were mouldy the very next day. I was so upset about the mouldy raspberries, because (A) they were expensive, and (B) I *just* bought them.
Topic #2: My tattoos. I find my tattoos to be very unorganized. They seem to have no theme. They're just random things in random places, and I'm looking to tie them together a little bit. I'd at least like to get my arm going. I have this large tattoo on my forearm, as I'm sure many of you have seen it. A lot of people lately have been asking me if I'm going to "finish" it. I was kind of insulted by that because I didn't know what they meant by finish. It's done. I spent 3.5 hours in a chair. I consider it done; or do I? I'm now thinking of all the possibilities I can work into my arm. I do have the piece by Sherri DuPree on my shoulder, and I'm wondering if I could get it coloured in, and have a background added, and then eventually work that into a sleeve. I think then I would be really happy with how it looks. I just have to pick what kind of theme I want on my arm. Probably mostly Kurt Halsey, and then Sherri's angel can sit proudly on the top of my shoulder.
I'll think about that while I run off to make more cupcakes ^_^
Mark Twain was a Vegetarian.
I'm starting to get that itch where I don't want to write anymore. It's a pain in the but, it's embarrassing, and I feel like no one reads my entries anyway. But I'll do it, because I can, and maybe someone gets some kind of enjoyment out of it.
I went over to my mom's house yesterday. We went to a little play her community was putting on. It was just a few parts of some of Mark Twain's stories. It was cute. It was very difficult to hear a lot of the actors due to lack of enunciation, or they spoke too softly, but it was entertaining. There was this adorable little boy playing one of the parts in Tom Sawyer, and he must've been about 4 or 5. He was begging Tom to paint in this adorable little voice. He even put on a bit of a southern accent. He didn't really like to stay where he was supposed to be. Curtain call was tough because he wanted to stand in the middle of the stage and wave to everybody, but adorable, none the less.
I made dinner for my mom as well, and I'm a little frustrated with how that went down. I cook for Brady all the time, and he doesn't care if it's vegan or not. He loves everything I cook and eats it and gets seconds later. But my mom was picking on the food. She shouldn't care if it's got meat in it or not. If it's delicious, you eat it. I know she was just teasing me because it was "fake" meat, but honestly, if I was cooking that in a pot, with all the taco sauce on it, it smells good, and it looks like meat, so I'm not sure what difference it makes. Frustrations aside, she did end up eating it, and said it was good, but didn't want me to leave the rest of it with her. I took it home, and Brady ate it, and said it was good, so at least I know it wasn't disgusting. My little sister wouldn't eat it because it had corn and onions in it.
I offered to cook for her again, just sans soy cheese and wheat meat. But she doesn't understand that food can legitimately be made vegan. Animal products don't HAVE to be in something for it to be tasty. I'm sure there's plenty of foods that you've eaten that are vegan by nature. Minestrone soup, Oreo cookies, pasta, pancakes (sometimes). And when I told her I was making vegan cupcakes that mysteriously disappear within days of making them, she said that was disgusting too, and couldn't imagine what one would bake with if I left out the butter and eggs. I noted that so many eat margarine, which is a butter replacement, without thinking twice. But the moment I put "soy" in the word it's disgusting. I'll cook something some day that she won't be weirded out by, but I guess until then she'll always be suspicious of my cooking.
In other news, another one of my dolls was repainted recently. To give you a refresher, she used to look like this:
But I had Aileen (frozen wings on DOA) repaint her to be my cute little deadly Zombie/Elf girl:
I'm going to get her these eyes in 12mm spirit dove. Then she'll need a little outfit, and eventually her own body. That's at least exciting.
Alice has returned, another workweek is over.
So another work week has passed, and today was my payday! So besides rent, I went out to Target and bought a blender/food processor combo. I'm hoping to be able to make a lot more of my recipes with this, like for smoothies, and different sauces. I also got some new underwear ^_^ I don't really take care of my clothes as well as other people do, so my underwear quickly loses that new feeling, or I buy them too small, too large.
Afterwards I went to the grocery store to stock up on some more food. I spent a lot of money unfortunately but I think I'll be good for the next few weeks. I also bought some blendable fruits and berries to make some smoothies! 
I also got my Milla in today, and put her eyes and wig on. She's officially Alice now. I just need to get a body for her, but I did take some pictures. I'm really happy with the way she came out!
I also made some Oreo cookie cupcakes!
In the kitchen!
I'm probably boring you all with my large amount of culinary posts, but cooking is something I have to learn to do. I tend not to want to eat a food that's supposed to be a substitute for meat, especially if I'm not sure of its origin. But it turns out seitan and such is super easy to make, and I'd be okay eating it, since I know every ingredient that went into it.
I did find something pretty awesome just now, and that is a vegan recipe for Twix. If you search it you can find it pretty easily. I have every single ingredient, and am very eager to make them. I'll of course update on how they come out.
Tonight I have plans to cook the seitan I bought pre-made into some Zatarain's for dinner for the rest of the week. Brady bought 2 medium pizzas for himself, so I'll have to make do.
I'm rambling now. I'm at work, and I have 1 hour, 8 minutes remaining of an impossibly slow Sunday.
S'mores!
First of all, an update on the stupid headphone situation. And thank you Holly~ I wrote the iFrogz customer service, and it has been confirmed that my headphones, are indeed, IMITATION LEATHER. I'm very happy to not have to be so worried, and I also feel very stupid for stressing over nothing. So, whoo hoo!
Now, for the topic of the post. My first batch of vegan cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World was a hit. I'm not sure how it went with the other boys, but Brady especially loved them. They were peanutbuttery with chocolate drizzle on top, and chopped peanuts. They were subtle enough to eat with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and as a snack. I'd have to say Brady probably had the most of them.
So I had to make another batch of a different kind of cupcake, and test those on him. I definitely have to say that vegan cupcakes are among the tastier cupcakes I've had. They've got healthier ingredients (the peanutbutter ones had flax seed in them) and are lighter and more moist.
So today's cupcake of choice was the S'mores Cupcakes with Vegan Buttercream frosting. I'm not sure how they came out yet, since I kind of screwed up the idea of "graham cracker crumbs." Essentially I was supposed to grind some graham crackers into practically dust, and mix that in with the batter. I got large crumbs, just not bitty pieces of graham dust. Next time, maybe, but I suppose these will be a bit chunky.
The batter was very runny, as I suppose it should be, since the directions said to fill each cupcake to the top of the paper. The buttercream is essentially shortening and margarine, with confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and soy milk. Yummy! It was fluffy enough before I put the soy milk in, and I'm afraid the soy milk may have made it runny, but we shall see. I'll send an update with what Brady thinks as soon as he tastes one.
For the rest of my day, I'm relaxing in bed, in a t-shirt and shorts, in front of a fan and an open window. Today was definitely a hot day. I was running around in jeans, in front of an oven. Blah.
UPDATE: Brady tasted one of the s'mores cupcakes, and they're a hit! "Even better" than the peanutbutter ones, which I thought was hard to do. It seems the pieces of graham cracker that were left over were absorbed by the rest of the mix, and not even noticeable when eating the cupcake. I was a little worried because Bryan, our roommate, got to the cupcakes first. I worry when someone tastes something I make before I do.
A Wasted Saturday
I got up to go to lunch this morning with some friends from Apple. We went to Moe's and had tacos and burritos. I've also realized I can no longer stomach chips and salsa. I drank a little too much alcohol one night, and had chips and salsa, then got sick, so every time I eat them now it reminds me of being sick. Which is a shame, since chips and salsa are one of the only things you can almost guarantee will be vegan when you go out to eat.
But despite my not being able to eat chips and salsa, Moe's was a good time. Heidi was there, along with Camo and his two daughters. Camo and his daughters are vegan, so they chattered away about their favourite vegan foods. They brought vegan marshmallows for me to try, and we nearly ate the whole box. His one daughter was picking the tofu out of her salad, and leaving the vegetables.
Afterwards, I was supposed to go to a doll meet-up/picnic in Baltimore, but honestly, I didn't feel like going all the way to Baltimore, and I had left the cupcakes at home. Instead, I followed Camo and his daughters to Newark Natural Foods to pick up a few staples. Camo showed me some good stuff to get, and helped me sign up for a membership there. I think I've officially spent too much money on food this week, but at least it will last me a while.
I tried my hand at another recipe from one of my new cookbooks today by making chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, I'm a moron, and forgot that margarine spread =/= margarine STICKS... and although the dough tasted delicious, the cookies burst into dust upon removal. Great. It's okay, because I realized that the chocolate chips actually contained milkfat, so I couldn't eat them anyway.
Cupcakes!
So as a result of my new-found vegetarianism, I'm trying to find more ways to make tasty things that both Brady and I will enjoy. Brady's not vegetarian, not even close. But it makes me happy if I can make something that's cruelty-free that he enjoys.
Which is why I decided to get some cookbooks today at Border's. I bought two. Vegan with a Vengeance and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, both by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Today I decided to make some cupcakes. It was pretty daunting since there are literally 75 different recipies to choose from in this book, and icings, too. I finally decided on the Peanut Butter Cupcakes. It's a simple recipe that involves natural chunky peanut butter, molasses, flaxseed, vanilla, soymilk, and other basic ingredients. The "icing" is supposed to be a drizzled semi-sweet chocolate ganache. Unfortunately I didn't have a piping bag, and I forgot I could make one out of a ziplock bag. But my experience with a ziplock bag wasn't really useful for drizzling, so instead I just spread a small layer of the ganache on the top. Granted this is probably more chocolate than is required, but it'll do. On top of that I sprinkled some chopped peanuts, and voila. Cupcakes a'hoy.
I have to say, after trying one, they are pretty good. Less sweet than you would expect a cupcake to be, but I think that's the point. I mean, peanut butter cookies aren't generally sweet. It tastes pretty wholesome, and the chocolate ganache wasn't overbearing. They're extremely moist, and I had to eat them over the sink so I didn't lose the entire cupcake all over the floor.
I'm looking forward to cooking the other recipes in this book. I learned a few things, like I didn't know that soy milk would still curdle with vinegar the way that cow milk does. I've noticed you can use less soy milk where you'd use cow milk. I'm glad I don't have to crack eggs anymore or melt butter.
I'll be updating future posts if I make any more of these cupcakes, along with some reviews. The book is definitely a good resource, and I recommend it, even if you're not vegetarian or vegan. It was $15.95 at Border's, and they had quite a few.