Vegan Month of Food

My friend, Scott "Dubya" told me about this.

So...............I'm going to try it. I blog weekly about Sadie anyway so why not try to write about some food while I'm at it? I mean that IS the whole reason I started this blog in the first place!

The funny part is, at first I thought this would be easy. I mean, all I really have to do is pick a topic, write about it and post it, right?
Well..........I've started and stopped this post already at least 5 times.
I just can't figure out what to write about.

I mean, I could start by talking about how I much I love to drink a glass of vanilla soy milk in the morning. Or that Sadie is going to be eat tofu for the first time this week.
I could also talk about how much I love tofu or tempeh bacon or something like that.
I could list all the reasons why one should become vegan (which by the way, I am not, ironically).

For some reason I just can't get started writing. Maybe I was feeling uninspired or tired or lazy. Maybe it was because I was about to work around the clock on a secretly vegan birthday cake for a friend's son's first birthday, who knows.

Finally, I came up with an idea.

IS IT WRONG THAT I BAKE VEGAN CAKES FOR PEOPLE THAT AREN'T VEGAN AND DON'T TELL THEM?

I have completely embraced vegan baking. I just love it. I find that the products I produce are moist, delicious and crowd pleasers. Not to mention, healthier and more eco friendly.
I've bake vegan cakes and such for people whether they are vegan or not. I don't tell them that it's vegan unless I have to, which in most cases I don't.
I mean really, if it tastes good......................

Peter and I think it's funny. Watching people scarf down my desserts talking about how much they love them. I'm sure if they knew the eggs, milk and butter they love so much was missing, suddenly they'd have a different opinion of how the stuff tastes.

Is this wrong, I ask? It's not like I'm putting animal products into something that was meant for a vegan or vegetarian, that would be unethical. If anything, I'm doing them a favor.

Why are you so intent on baking these secretly vegan things, Stephanie?
Well, I'll tell you.
After working in catering and cracking 100-200 eggs a day, going through 12-20 gallons of milk and cream in one afternoon and meting 40 pounds of butter on a Tuesday morning I started to get a little grossed out.
I became very aware of what I was putting in my body and putting out in to the world.
Not to mention the immense amount of waste that we were creating.
I would have visions of cows being milked by machines, chickens being poked and prodded to get their eggs out.
It just didn't seem right.

Not to mention I was gaining a lot of weight because I have no self control when it comes to sweets (and some would argue I have no self control when it comes to cheese or bread either)

At home, I always hated how I would buy ingredients for a cake or dessert and whatever I didn't use would go bad because we don't drink milk, like Earth Balance instead of butter and don't always eat eggs.

Once I started researching and trying vegan baking I realized that so much of the ingredients needed could easily be stored in an airtight container in either a cupboard or freezer until the next time I needed something.

Imagine, it's Thursday night and you suddenly have a craving for coconut cupcakes.
You don't have eggs, butter or milk in the house, but you need that cupcake or you're never going to get to sleep.

If you were a vegan baker, you'd probably have everything you need right there waiting!
Oil, apple cider vinegar, shortening, Earth balance, soy milk, cocoa powder, etc.

Little by little I started experimenting with serving my animal loving friends and family vegan treats I made, of course not telling them they were vegan, just to see.
Then it became a game to me. Something to challenge myself with. If I could make something that fooled everyone I had won. So far, so good.

Again, it's not like I'm putting anyone in a dangerous position by feeding them vegan cake. Unless, someone is so unhealthy that by eating a healthier vegan cake it kills them. But that's doubtful, right?

Now, check out this cake I made for a birthday party on Sunday.
(just don't mind the sloppy pictures, it was late at night and I was tired)


The cake is chocolate with chocolate fudge filling, vanilla and chocolate butter cream frosting. The baseball is a vegan pound cake (made with silken tofu)filled with chocolate fudge and covered with fondant.

Everything on it is vegan either by default or because I made it that way.
The cake was gone in literally 60 seconds after cutting and so were all of the business cards we put next to the cake.

I also made this really cute cupcakes for the big sister of the 1 year old, it was her birthday too.

Again, vegan all the way.


enjoy!
xoxoxoxoxoxo