Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

These are a variation on a recipe in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes by Kris Holenchek. The recipe in the cookbook called for green and blue food colorings to make the cupcakes look like Earth, but by omitting the food coloring I have cookies and cream cupcakes.



I frosted these with a buttercream frosting (from the same cookbook) and mixed crushed cookie pieces into the frosting so that I had a cookies and cream frosting for the cupcakes. The first time I made these cupcakes I made the buttercream frosting, frosted the cupcakes and then dipped them in crushed cookie pieces. The cookie pieces didn't adhere too well to the frosting by applying them to the frosting, but mixing them into the frosting really did the trick.

Lemon Almond Bling Muffins

I have made these muffins before and one of our friends really loves these, she said these are the best muffins she has ever had. I tried this recipe when I was in the process of majorly trimming back my lemon tree, I baked and cooked all kinds of things with lemon. I also made lots of lemonade and lemon soda at that point in time. Now that the lemon tree is healthier and isn't quite so full of lemons I can use them at a more sane pace, but I still love these muffins and a few other recipes I found during that lemon period. This recipe is in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes book on page 66. Seriously I know it seems like I only make things out of this book, honestly I don't, but it is an excellent book. I love this book very much and recommend it to all my friends who are looking for vegan baking recipes, this has definitely become one of my favorite cookbooks.

Raspberry Lime Muffins

I know for a 3 year old's birthday party you need to have lots of cupcakes and of course I will, 4 dozen cupcakes. But then I thought what about something a little less sweet for those who maybe find cupcakes to be too sweet or for those who might be watching their weight and so I decided to make 2 kinds of muffins as well. I saw the recipe for Raspberry Lime Muffins in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes (page 68) and thought that these would be a nice alternative to a cupcake with frosting, something a little sweet with the raspberries but not overly sweet and no frosting necessary. I can hardly wait to try these at the party, I'm even kind of hoping they don't all get eaten so I can have some for breakfast next week. I guess if they all get eaten though that would be a good thing, it would show people enjoyed them. I guess either way I'll be happy.

Banana Split Cupcakes

I found this recipe in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes by Kris Holenchek (page 98) and they sounded so amazing that I couldn't help but try the recipe out for my son's birthday. After all they sounded like something a crowd of toddlers would love. I have had amazing will power to resist eating one myself yet (I admit I did taste the batter as did my little helper) but I did give one of the cupcakes (unfrosted) to one of my son's teachers the other day to say thank you for an amazing act of kindness on her part. She loved it, she said she was expecting blueberries and then realized there were chocolate chips in it and was very pleasantly surprised.


I am planning to frost these cupcakes with Fudgy Frosting (page 157) and then sprinkle them with some chopped up salted peanuts and top each one with a stemmed maraschino cherry. Of course another fun option would have been to use Buttercream Frosting (page 157) and then drizzle some chocolate syrup on top and then sprinkle on the peanuts and top with the cherries. Anyhow, I am really excited to have such fun Vegan cupcakes to serve for this birthday party. Especially since my son has 2 friends who can't eat dairy. It makes me feel good to know that I can provide a yummy birthday spread that all the kids can enjoy. I'll try to remember to take pictures of all the cupcakes when they are frosted.

Make your own pita chips

This week I am preparing for my son's 3rd birthday party. Among other things, that means lots of baking. This year I am making 2 kinds of Vegan cupcakes and 2 kinds of Vegan muffins as well as some pita chips and "egg" salad sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches. Of course the cupcakes won't get frosted till the day before the party so you'll have to wait to see them all frosted.

I started off by making lots of pita chips. I bought 4 bags of whole wheat pita chips. Then I cut them up into chip sized pieces. I used a bread knife to do this and simply cut each piece of pita into 4 strips lengthwise and then cut the strips into smaller pieces and ripped the edges where the front and back meet so that I have thin chips. Once all that is done I line them up on cookie sheets and spray them with a little olive oil and then sprinkle them with a little bit of salt. Once all of that is done put them in the oven at about 350 degrees until they are as crispy as you want them. If you are baking 2 sheets at once I suggest rotating the sheets about half way through so that both sheets get baked about the same. I will admit it takes a while if you make as many at once as I do, but I really think they taste so much better than the store bought ones which tend to taste greasy to me.

RainXchange

We had our backyard dug up to install a 2,500 gallon RainXchange cistern to store collected rainwater in. When one of our landscape designers came by today to check on the progress of our large project, we are also having our driveway, patios and entryway redone in paving stones, she said how when she saw the hole in our backyard she began to think about converting her own swimming pool into a large rainwater cistern. I was so excited to hear that what we were doing in our own yard got someone else excited about doing something similar in their own yard, especially one of the landscapers who is responsible for helping us achieve our own vision for our project.

Our RainXchange and paving stone project is nearing completion and we are very excited about it. It is so beautiful and relaxing to have a waterfall and pond in our backyard. The sound of the waterfall really does help filter out the sound from the highway a few blocks from our house. It is also very relaxing and the sound of the waterfall just lulls us to sleep now. It is so much better than we even expected going into this and it's not even done. It just keeps getting better and better looking. We will have a truly amazing yard when all of the work is finally done.

Busy days

It has been very crazy around our house lately. We are getting ready to undergo a major project in our yard. We are getting a 2,500 gallon rainwater storage tank buried in our backyard. We are getting a waterfall and pond put in our backyard. And we are getting our driveway, patio and walkway redone in paving stones. That is the short explanation of all the work.

In order to make way for the expanded backyard patio (which will have gardening areas built in along the edges) we needed to move some of the plants that were back there that we wanted to keep. We also had to move some of the plants in the front yard that we wanted to keep in order to make space for the new walkway to the front door and the new patio area in front of the house.

We also had to get rain gutters installed on the house in the areas that correspond to the intake areas for the rainwater storage tank. We are also having a trench put in under the driveway to catch any water that runs down the driveway, even with the paving stones due to the grade of our driveway we are expected to water make it down the driveway (especially in heavy rains).

We have also been busy going back and forth with the designers to make sure everything is going to work together properly. We had them go back last week and maximize the size of our storage tank for the rain water. They also added to the design for the backyard irrigation to be fed off of the rainwater when it is available, three separate types of irrigation for the backyard (one for our citrus trees, one for our garden and one for the small grass area we are keeping back there).

We are really looking forward to this very large project being completed. Of course at that point we still need to plant things in the yard and have a fence installed in the front yard, but we are certainly getting there.