Vegan Treasure Chest Cake

Last week was a bad week. Nothing majorly catastrophic, just a collection of a lot of really crappy little occurrences culminating in a minor anxiety attack in a checkout line at Target:

• I was turned down for 3 different jobs
• I got a parking ticket due to my own stupidity (and they are not cheap in LA)
• both of my embroidery machines were crapping out on me the week before I'm vending at World Fest

I know in the grand scheme of life, these are not a big deal but in my own little reality it was certainly frustrating. Needless to say, I was desperately in need of some creative therapy and lucky for me my nephew's 6th birthday party just happened to be last Saturday. 

It has become a tradition for me to make him a birthday cake matching the theme of his party. There has been a monster truck, a Transformer and this year it was a treasure chest from Jake & the Neverland Pirates. In years past I didn't make the cake vegan because I'm the only one in my family who is, but this year I decided to go for it and not tell anyone until after they said how awesome it was (I'm nefarious that way).

I found a Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake mix that was accidentally vegan (I know, I know, not the most healthy of choices, but my baking from scratch attempts usually end in complete and total failure). I substituted the 3 eggs it called for with 3/4c unsweetened apple sauce and it turned out AMAZING!

The bottom part of the chest was made up of 4 layers of deliciously awesome chocolate cake and the lid was formed from handmade vegan rice crispy treats. I used chocolate fondant to cover both parts and yellow colored vanilla fondant for the decorations.

There were a lot of little details I didn't have time to get to, but I think it turned out super cute! The whole process of decorating a cake like this is therapeutic for me. I find the kneading and rolling of the fondant to be soothing. It was definitely exactly what I needed to forget about the previous events of the week - and chocolate cake can solve almost any problem - amiright?!

Everyone loved the cake and it was fun to tell them it was vegan after they all raved about it! My nephew had a fun pirate themed pool party and he seemed to be excited about the treasure chest cake his auntie made him.

Me & Jake

L.A. Vegan Beer & Food Fest 2013

Yesterday was the 4th annual Los Angeles Vegan Beer & Food Festival. Last year I was a volunteer, but this time around I wanted to roam around and enjoy the fest free of responsibility. My husband and I met up with some awesome friends and had an amazing time eating great food, drinking beer (full disclosure: I do not like beer! I tried a few and really didn't like any of them except for the one cider I found and the kombucha beer), enjoying amazing music and meeting new people.

My friends Jeremy & Lucy - that's me in the middle.

It's so refreshing to attend an event where you know you can eat and drink everything there, no need to hound each vendor for their ingredient list. I would love to see more vegan events like this in L.A. throughout the year! There were so many people - I love what a large vegan community there is in this city.

Photo Credit: Zombie Eye Photography

On to the food! We ate so much, but only hit about half the vendors. There was a lot of yummy looking food I didn't get to try - it's hard to pace yourself and still try one of everything!

First stop, the Seabirds truck. I knew the line for this one would get long so we ordered our Battered Avocado tacos right off the bat. Just as amazing as I remember them being last year! Certainly one of my favorite vegan dishes ever.

Next stop was The Frankenstand - always a treat, great vegan hot dogs, but today we tried their special Cannibal sandwich.  Super good - the green sauce was amazing.

After a brief pause from eating, I moved on to some vegan tamales. These were made with soy meat and beans. It's been SO long since I've had a tamale and this one definitely hit the spot!

Sometime after the tamale and sampling numerous beers I did not like (nothing against the beer makers, I've just never been a fan of beer) - we came across the beverage highlight of the day (cue singing angels): Unity Vibration Kombucha Beer. I think I drank about 17 glasses of this stuff. It was light & refreshing. The raspberry was delicious, and the ginger was a perfect way to settle my stomach so I could get back to eating more stellar vegan food. Plus - it's gluten free!

After waiting in a line that did not move for 20 minutes hoping to get some jambalaya, we gave up and went to Tony's Darts Away for a seitan french dip sandwich. The au jus was to die for!

Couple more glasses of kombucha beer later, we went back to Seabirds for potato & cheese taquitos. Super crisp and tasty, though not as fantastic as the avo tacos. I could live off the creamy sauce they were topped with.

There were also some french fries from Fresh Fries and a dynamite roll from Shojin consumed during the day but I forgot to get pics of those.

Overall the day was a mad success and I cannot wait until next year! My friend Melissa and I even got to meet the Happy Cow!!

**The one drawback of this year's fest was the bathroom situation. I'm not a fan of porta-potties, but I will use them in dire situations. Unfortunately there was no water in the hand washing stations every time I checked throughout the day and no way was I going to use the bathroom without being able to wash my hands after :( There was also a massive line most of the day. I know this year was the biggest turnout they've had, so hopefully next year they will improve on that.

Go Max Go Candy Bars

One thing I missed a lot when I went vegan was candy bars (though probably best for my waistline that they weren't so readily available to me anymore!). I used to love Snickers, 3 Musketeers, Butterfinger and Milky Way but all those went the way of the wind when I became vegan.

By happy accident about 6 months ago I discovered Go Max Go Foods who make delicious vegan (and some gluten-free) chocolate candy bars. They have versions resembling some of my past favorite candy, though theirs are by far superior (and cruelty-free, so even better!). Here are the goods:

Cleo's: peanut butter cups
Snap!: crisped rice bar
Jokerz: peanuts, nougat & caramel
Buccaneer: chocolate nougat
Twilight: nougat & caramel
Mahalo: coconut & almonds
*Coming Soon: Thumbs Up: crispy peanut butter

I love supporting vegan businesses, especially ones that truly appreciate their customers. All you have to do is check out their Fan Page on Facebook to see how warm and amazing these guys are.

A couple months ago I left a message on their page suggesting a vegan version of a Butterfinger and to my happy surprise they responded that is was already in the works - OH HAPPY DAYS!! It really doesn't take much to get me excited. I have been counting the days until they release it.

Another super happy surprise is when I won their candy giveaway contest a couple weeks ago and received one of each of their candy bars (including a sample of the new Thumbs Up bar!!). Super excited. I had already grown to love Jokerz, Twilight, and Buccaneer (and would even make special trips to Whole Foods when I was craving them - I love my candy y'all) but this gave me the opportunity to try Cleo's peanut butter cups and Snap! crisped rice bar. Both excellent, but holy cow the Cleo's is AMAZING! Unlike other peanut butter cups, who's filling tends to be flaky and only somewhat resemble actual peanut butter, you bite into Cleo's and REAL ooey gooey delicious peanut butter awaits you. Yum.

I saved the Thumbs Up bar for last because I was so excited to try it I wanted to savor the moment. It did not disappoint folks. Crispy peanut buttery center covered in delectable rice milk chocolate. What has two thumbs and loves this new Thumbs Up bar?? THIS GIRL! Can't wait until I can get it in the stores (sorry waistline).

Vegan in Italy

Back in late April/early May my mom and I traveled to Italy to visit my brother and sister-in-law who live in Bologna. It has taken me way too long to post about this but better late than never :)

Mom and I on the plane ready for our adventure!

My vegan food experience started with the airplane meal. I requested a "western vegetarian" meal which is as close to vegan as it gets. It was decent. Steamed veggies, squash ravioli, fruit and salad.

Mmmm, airplane food.

This was my first real traveling experience as a vegan and I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to find much to eat in Italy.  I packed a lot of Clif bars, nuts and trail mix just in case. Luckily my brother & sister-in-law have some vegan friends so they knew of a few places and they love to cook which made things fairly easy. They were also very sweet to stock up on some vegan products in the freezer & fridge.

Our gracious hosts for the week.

Bologna is BEAUTIFUL, so colorful and filled with history. This is the view from the apartment.

Via Saragozza

I don't remember the exact order of meals anymore but I ate a lot of really good food. Fra (SIL), made some really delicious pastas. The first was a bean pasta with penne. I admit the thought of beans and pasta together seemed strange to me at first, but it was SO good. I'm not sure I can recreate this at home and have it taste as good because Italians seem to be magical in the kitchen :) She also made a broccoli pasta that was just as delicious.

Pinto bean pasta.

Broccoli pasta

I ate A LOT of pizza. There was a place downstairs from their apartment called Pizzeria Lo Squero that we ordered take out from a couple nights. I got cheeseless veggie versions and the sauce and crust were so amazing I didn't miss the cheese at all.

With pizza this pretty, who needs cheese??

One night we ventured over to a yoga center, Centro Natura, in Bologna where they have a vegan/vegetarian buffet. We got there close to closing time so I think the selection wasn't as good as it normally is, but I had a huge plate of yummy vegan food including: breaded seitan, mixed veggies and a tofu concoction.

One of the best days in Italy is when we drove to the coast for a family gathering and Fra's dad made an amazing meal, including a vegan risotto for me. Even though there was a huge language barrier it was so much fun to meet everyone and share delicious food and wine!

Homemade risotto

The family :)

While waiting for everyone to arrive we took a short walk to the sea where we enjoyed a glass of prosecco and a gorgeous view of the Adriatic.

During the week we took a day trip to Venice and I was able to get pasta marinara for lunch at Ristorante Pedrocchi. The waiters were very sweet and the pasta was amazing. Again, it was just noodles and sauce, but it was magically delicious.

Venice is breathtaking, it almost doesn't seem real.

Ponte di Rialto

I was lucky enough to find some dairy free sorbetto in Venice as well at Il Pinguino. I got a mix of lemon and raspberry and it was AMAZING. 

Amongst all the delicious food Italy had to offer there was lots and lots (and lots) of wine to be had. 

Awesome (the dog) was allowed everywhere, so cool!

Italians are very friendly :)

 

Mimosa with fresh squeezed OJ!

Mom had had enough wine at this point :)

Fra happens to be a piercer and tattoo artist, and since this trip was close on the heals of my one year vegan anniversary she gave me this awesome tattoo to celebrate.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to eat, and eat well, as a vegan in Italy. I cannot wait to go back to visit and explore more cities this beautiful country has to offer. 

I do highly recommend packing lots of snacks though, they were certainly needed during long periods between meals. 

Who Dat Vegan? repost from Veganville

I love GiGi from Veganville! She has a great blog and an Etsy shop where she sells amazing baked goods! I ordered her JoJo cupcakes for my husband's birthday and they were some of the best vegan cupcakes I've ever had!

GiGi was nice enough to interview me for her series Who Dat Vegan? and here is a repost of the inteview!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday. I don't normally like to make a huge deal of it, but for some reason this year a lot of little celebrations are happening. I guess that is the result of my widening social circle :)

On Sunday I invited my family and some close friends to spend the day with me at The Gentle Barn, an amazing farm animal sanctuary in Santa Clarita, CA. We spent a couple hours hanging out with cows, horses, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, pigs, llamas, etc. And finished the afternoon with some delicious vegan cupcakes that my cousin Jana made, check out her awesome cakes at Jana's Fun Cakes!

My cousin & I with Buttercup, the sweetest cow ever!

 

Me and the llama...he's got his eye on me!

 

This is Portia, she was genetically engineering to be a fat Thanksgiving turkey,
and now she can't even hold her own weight :(
 

 

This poor pot belly is blind because his previous owner did not know how to properly
feed him, he had zero protein in his diet.

Husband, cousins, friends and me!

AWESOME vegan cupcakes, I think the best vegan frosting I have ever had!

It was so much fun spending time with my family, friends and all the animals! I couldn't ask for a better way to spend the day!

On Monday the husband and I drove out to Temecula where my mom and dad live and had an awesome Mexican fiesta with family complete with vegan tacos, homemade Mexican brown rice and margaritas! It was nice to have the immediate family all together, doesn't happen often.

I could eat Mexican food everyday.

 

Vegan chocolate cake with spider & pumpkin sprinkles!

SO good.

Mom, dad and brothers.

Husband and brothers

 

Tonight I think the husband and I are going out for a nice vegan meal (post on that later in the week) and then Friday will be another dinner with friends and karaoke! Super busy week, but it's worth it!