Sundays with Joy/Vegan Avocado Chocolate Cupcakes with Vegan Chocolate Buttercream

This cupcake was a bit frustrating.  Mostly because it ends up that mine isn’t completely vegan.  Cupcake vegan.  Buttercream not…just barely.  It turns out if I had bought the unsalted version of the margarin I used, it would be all good.  Whatever, I don’t get it.  That is why I am NOT a vegan.  The thing that really chaps my hide is that I could have used Crisco (not healthy but vegan) that I already had at home.  I even use vegan margarine as a spread at home (who knew?) but it is in the tub and wouldn’t hold together for the buttercream (I figured that one out the hard way).

Getting started…

Whatever, my vegan friends.  I gave it my best effort.  I know LOTS more for next time.  I also wanted to give it my best effort because I have a couple of acquaintances that I see twice a week that are doing a 30 day vegan cleanse.  I would’ve liked to have been able to offer them a treat or two.  I have made Joy’s Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies and I really, really LOVED them and no one knew they were vegan until I told them so that is why I didn’t want to cheat and add any butter or eggs or anything to any part of the recipe.

Interesting…

First off, the cupcake itself was fantastic.  I don’t know if the avocado was calling to the Mexican in me but I have never wanted to add cinnamon to a cupcake so much as I did during this recipe.  I was seriously restraining myself.  Maybe next time.  And there WILL be a next time.  I have chocolate cake recipes that I use for cupcakes that are great cakes but leave the cupcakes flat and kind of sad.  These puffed up all pretty, just waiting to be eaten.  They tasted great too!  I know the magic Joy can work and she certainly did it here.

Puffed up and pretty!
And who else thinks silicone cupcake molds were made just for snacking?

On to my failure of a vegan buttercream…

So I did first try it with my vegan spread but once I added my almond milk (instead of soy as in the original recipe), it all fell apart.  I really should have just left it out and I do think it would have worked.  I don’t know.  With the margarine, it was simple and foolproof.  It tasted fantastic too.  I dare say the flavor profile is that of her Best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.  One thing that is missing though, is a pinch of salt.  I didn’t add it to my second attempt because I had bought the “original” salted margarine and I thought I wouldn’t need it.  I don’t want to say I was wrong because some people don’t like it but I like salt in all of my sweets and particularly chocolate.  A pinch would have been perfect.

To end on a good note, the kids couldn’t tell the difference and my son stuffed two down his throat in less than 15 minutes.  I would say that was a success!  And as per usual with this series, if you want the recipe, buy the book!

I do have a GeekyLink this week that I think is pretty awesome.  Space is friggin awesome.  Space travel is even more awesome and now it might be easier (eventually)!

Harry Potter Birthday Party

So all last week was party prep for my soon to be (a few more days) 9 year old.  We had a heck of a Harry Potter party!  I don’t see how some people have the time to make themed food too because everything else took me so long.  However, if I had gotten started earlier than the week of then maybe things might have been different.  This was her first party in awhile because being born on Memorial Day and her birthday always falling around that time, people are usually out of town so we end up just getting some of the extended family together and going to the movies.  Men in Black III just wasn’t that big of a draw.  Don’t get me wrong, we probably will see it but it wasn’t birthday party worthy.  If the Avengers had waited till Memorial Day weekend, well, this would be an entirely different post and my daughter knows it.

Cockroach Clusters, surprise hit of the party!

She had been trying to decide between Harry Potter and the Hunger Games (she has read both series and seen the movies) but my nephew brought up a good point that the first Hunger Games movie had just come out and there are still two more to go so she will have plenty of time still to have a Hunger Games party if she is still so inclined.  As it was I could barely find any Harry Potter paper goods at the party stores.  However, what I could find was 75% off so…SCORE!  Once the theme was totally decided on, I spent lots of time Googling and on Pinterest.  What would I do without it?

The first thing I tackled was the house ties.  I got the idea from The Brilliant Crafty Type.  The only thing was that they didn’t include was a template for the tie itself, so most of my time on these was spent measuring a somewhat symmetrical tie.  On the whole it was really very easy, just measuring and cutting.  Plus, I already had half of the felt colors (which are really cheap anyways if I didn’t) and the pin backs.  I was only expecting 8 kids so I made 12 ties (3 of each house color) so everyone would have more of a fair shake in the sorting process.

Next up was the chocolate frog boxes.  This was easy in that you could print it out and you are done.  However, the cutting out with the exacto knife, scoring the edges that you need to fold, folding, and taping were quite a bit time consuming overall.  I decided then that I would only make 8 and stick them in the goodie bags (or goodie cups as it turned out).

My favorite thing was up next!  I had already made my daughter a wand for this past Halloween when she was Hermione, so all I needed was 7 more.  I found this tutorial on how to make a wand from paper and I got 7 wands that I was very proud of.  Here again though, I already had most of the paint (I did break down and buy silver and gold metallic) and the glaze.

The rest of the prep was just printing out paper for signs and making/buying candy for my Honeyduke’s Sweet Shoppe.  I had Honeydukes, Sorting Hat, and Olivander’s signs.  I also printed out some cupcake decorations.  I found a Harry Potter Font to use for some of my signs.  I made chocolate frogs (thank you to Princess Tiana, I already had a frog mold) and Cockroach Clusters.  I bought sugar quills (pixy stix), jelly worms (sour jelly worms), licorice wands (licorice), candy snitches (Ferrero Rocher, for the grown ups), and of course Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.  I also made homemade butterscotch to use in my daughter’s Butterbeer frosting and for the Butterbeer itself (Just mix one heaping tablespoon of butterscotch with cream soda, it will foam up as you mix and is really good.  I would post my variation on the frosting recipe if I hadn’t messed it up and put too much confectioner’s sugar in it.  It would have been post worthy if not for that.

I didn’t have the foresight to print the Sorting Hat sign on card stock so I had to tape it to the couch in order for it to stand up.

Since it was mostly older kids, they played a Harry Potter word scramble game and character naming.  I just googled Harry Potter games, looked under images, and came up with a few.  I did play a lame form of quidditch as well, for a prize.  All in all, the kids seemed to have a good time.  The most important thing, I know my daughter did.  She even insisted on wearing her Gryffindor tie (that she got sorted into fair and square) to school today.

And to keep the theme going What I have learnt… from Harry Potter is my GeekyLink for today.  If you haven’t looked on Pinterest or Tumbler for Harry Potter pics and stuff, you are missing out.  There is some awesome stuff out there.

Sundays with Joy/Avocado Fries

What a busy week!  Um, so on Monday I finally buckled down and started, in earnest, preparation for my daughter’s 9th birthday party.  I mean it was only six days away so I guess that was the perfect time.  My excuse for putting it off had been that it wasn’t a big party.  Two little cousins couldn’t come, we were combining it with the celebration for my nephew’s First Communion and it was going to be so small I had even been debating on getting a piñata.  In the end, I decided that since it was going to be small, I could take the time and work on the details.

Well, the details took all week.

Ready for the dipping…

You will get to see it all soon but first things first.  I didn’t have till today to make my Sundays with Joy recipe: Avocado Fries!  This was another one of those recipes that I wasn’t sure I would have made if it wasn’t for the group.  This is why I am thankful for the group…and Joy.  Already twice taking me out of my comfort zone on another culinary adventure!

Ready for the oil…

I am so glad I made the fries, though!  It brought out a whole flavor profile of the avocado for me that I just haven’t experienced before even though I am a big fan of the avocado and use it often.  I felt so bad for some of the people in our group that had never tried them before let alone cooked with them.  If I do make them again I will definitely put more cayenne or just spice in general into the flour and panko bread crumbs.  Do not use regular bread crumbs.  Panko is surely a MUST for this recipe.  I also really appreciated the splash of lemon juice on the cooked fries.  It was the icing on the cake so to speak.

Getting ready for the paper towels…

I really did like these fries.  Once they were done I was bummed that there certain people I know that weren’t there to try them.  I have a feeling these are right up my brother’s alley.  I have a few aunts that would have been interested too.  Also my dad (who is gone right now but due to be home soon and maybe I just wished he was here, avocado fries or not) who will eat anything I bake even though he is not that into sweets, would have really appreciated how different they are.

Ready for my mouth!

So don’t forget to buy Joy the Baker’s Cookbook, check out her blog, and don’t forget to check out the blog hop on Bakeaholic Mama‘s page that started me on this adventure.  You won’t regret doing any or all of these things!

My GeekyLink today is just to tell you that if you missed the solar eclipse today, don’t wait for pictures on the news.  Go to twitter #eclipse and check out some awesome pictures by regular folks.  So pretty and awesome!

Sundays with Joy/Leek and Asparagus Quiche

This Sunday, for Mother’s Day, our little Sunday’s with Joy group is tackling her Leek and Asparagus Quiche from the Joy the Baker Cookbook.  I must admit that neither of these vegetables I have ever eaten before.  I have always wanted to try leeks but I have never wanted to eat asparagus.  I also must admit, that if I hadn’t been in the group, I probably wouldn’t have tried this recipe.  Working with the puff pastry, making a quiche in and of itself, and working with these veggies that I had never eaten before let alone worked with.

Leeks, asparagus, gruyere, O my!

Well, boy o boy, was I totally off, wrong, an idiot or whatever!  This was so freaking good!  My storebought puff pastry didn’t puff as much as I would have liked but I do think I rolled it a bit thin.  However, I was not even disappointed about that because it gave me lots of scraps to make a mini quiche that I didn’t have to wait as long to eat (you are supposed to let your quiche cool for an hour).  The leeks gave a flavor as good as I thought they would be, I was surprised at how much I liked the asparagus, and the gruyere… What can I say about the gruyere?  So nutty and buttery and rich.  Kind of expensive but it more than made up for that in the awesomeness of this quiche (and the tomato/avocado grilled cheese that I made with the leftovers).

Partners in crime, waiting for the rest of the filling.

The only change I made was that I didn’t use whole milk.  I used what I had on hand which was 2%.  I was thinking about changing the asparagus but I am really glad I didn’t.  It is not that I felt the need to absolutely follow the recipe but I felt it was more important for me to expose myself to something that I haven’t eaten before.

Also before I forget, Happy Mother’s Day to all my fellow mothers out there in the blogosphere!  I actually got a present this year that I know my husband put some thought into.  He has been planting (food, grass, trees) all over our yard the last few months and yesterday he put in a yellow rose bush for me.  Yellow roses are my favorite!  We had them in our wedding and I even have one tattooed on my back (my only one).  He hates giving them to me because they mean friendship but I always tell him, “Isn’t that the point?  You are my friend too and that is most important.”  Now he got me some that I will always have.

No GeekyLink today.  It has been a long weekend.

Tea, Earl Grey, Cupcakes with Lemon Scented Whipped Cream

These beauties are for Anne Wheaton and those others that actually order tea with, “Tea, Earl Grey, hot,” in the manner of a certain Captain, and just receive a blank stare.  I don’t ever order tea when I go out, but if I did, that is how I would do it.  How sad that anyone might not get the reference.

Speaking of the above reference, did anyone else know besides the millions of people that follow certain other people on twitter (@wilw, @levarburton, @jonathansfrakes, @brentspiner) that the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation just reunited at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo held less than 3 weeks ago?  Now, sure, it was a big theatre, but as a huge Next Generation fan, why the heck wasn’t this thing televised or something?  Of course you can pretty much watch the whole thing online here or here and OK lots of other places but it would’ve been awesome to have seen it live.  I also really like this recap and this is pretty funny (make sure you scroll all the way down).

No, that is not fingerprints in the batter! What are you talking about?

I showed a picture from the reunion to my oldest daughter (I think it was this) and she didn’t know who the people were.  *sigh*  I think now is the time to begin to school her with episodes from Netflix.  I remember watching the series with my mom, her favorite was The Offspring, and now I can do that with my daughter.  I totally remember buying her that episode from our local Suncoast for a birthday or holiday or something (geez, I’m old).

The beginnings of lemon sugar.

So speaking of moms and tea, I think this cupcake would be really great for a Mother’s Day Tea!  If I had to do it over again, I would make the flavor just a bit milder by using plain milk or only putting one bag worth of tea leaves in the batter instead of two but really it is to your taste.  While I was eating the batter (yes, eating the batter), having used the tea steeped milk and two bags worth of tea, I thought the batter was AWESOME but after baking, I think going just a bit milder may have been better.

Um, if you need another GeekyLink after the above post, I want to be your best friend.

Sundays with Joy / Oatmeal Raspberry Ginger Scones

Kinda the coolest week ever.

Last Sunday I joined Sundays with Joy,  a group that is baking their way through the Joy the Baker Cookbook.  Pretty awesome right?  However, it seems I joined a bit late, as last week they already posted these beauties (obviously mine are a bit different but we will get to that later).  This week they are posting Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins and since I already posted them in September, I had a chance to catch up.

I cut the big ones in half.

I made White Whole Wheat Powerberry Scones.  Now, normally I put these babies in my Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies but they worked so great in the scones!  It was almost like biting into a candy scone.  Cool right?  Antioxidant filled candy scones.  Have I told you that I really never liked scones?  I had them once, they were kind of hard and dry and not pleasant so I don’t know how many I would have gone on to make or have.  EVERYTHING has changed!  Joy mentions at the end of the recipe that they are best the day they are made and that is for sure.  However my husband who has been bugging me to “just make some chocolate chip cookies” and has been turning up his nose at most other things that I have been baking, really liked these and even ate the last one two days later.  These were not dry or hard.  They were soft and moist and yummy.  I am sad they are gone.

Of course I dusted the tops with some sugar, duh!

I am not leaving you the recipe because we want you to buy the book, but along with swapping the raspberries for the powerberries, I made them with white whole wheat flour, omitted all the spice and added a tablespoon of sugar to the dry ingredients and a teaspoon of vanilla to the wet.  Since I am sad they are gone though, I think I will make another batch with the spices and some frozen cranberries that I have tucked away.

I think I will only post GeekLinks on Sundays with Joy posts sparingly but do you want to know the other reasons why this is the best week ever?  My teenage niece called me up (she never calls!) to ask me what I was doing this weekend (I know she totally knew I was going to see The Avengers and I totally knew that she wanted to go) so I invited her to come see the Avengers with us.  So after my daughter’s soccer game, I took them all to the comic book store for Free Comic Book Day (I could totally tell she was impressed that I knew about that).  Went to lunch and then the movie (which was completely awesome, by the way)  Then when we got home the girls got caught up on My Little Pony youtube videos (insert eyeroll here, they are ALL completely obsessed including my niece).  Then we watched Doctor Who on Netflix.  Matt Smith is “her” doctor which is great but I want her to watch from the reboot and she kept asking when we would get to David Tennant because she just wanted to get to Matt Smith.  So I skipped all the gems that are the Slitheen episodes.  I was bummed, they make me laugh.  But all in all, a totally surprising, amazing, fun filled totally nerdy weekend!

Banana Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins, Camouflage Cupcakes and Fringe

I have had a hankering for some muffins for awhile now seeing as I spent all of last Sunday trying to adapt some.  I really wanted to get back to doing some baking with whole wheat flour and I just couldn’t make it work.  So I tried to think of some other whole wheat muffins that I have made and loved and then lightening struck. As always Joy was the answer.  Of course everyone knows of Joy’s Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins (I have even made a batch or two) but she also has another Blueberry Muffin that is a bit healthier with whole wheat flour and oatmeal that was ripe for the adaptation I was trying to do.  And even though I am thrilled with how they came out, I had to go and make them a tad unhealthier (but also a tad more awesome) by adding a streusel topping (that you can totally omit if you want).  Next time I think will use a berry that has a bit more kick and still goes with bananas, like well, maybe a blueberry.  You could even add some chopped nuts and make this a classic banana nut muffin.  It would be FANTASTIC and (kinda) healthy!

Those beauties had to wait till Monday morning, however, because Saturday I baked Camoflage Cupcakes for my nephew’s 11th birthday party on Sunday.  I got this idea from My Creative Way.  The cupcake was just yellow cake Cake Mix Doctored with a green basic buttercream frosting.  My Creative Way used brown and green food coloring but I used about two tablespoons of cocoa powder for the brown color.  Just spoon it into your muffin tin, alternating colors.  So easy and it looks great!  I frosted each cupcake with a thick layer of buttercream (piped on, then smoothed out) and then just one quick go round on each with a grass tip (Wilton #233 ).  I also sprinkled some green colored sugar on top which I had wanted to put on these just because but really worked out great because it helped make the grass look darker and added a little depth to it.  Top with a random army dude and you got yourself some Camo Cupcakes.

My GeekyLink this week is all about Fringe.  First of all, I am absolutely THRILLED that it was renewed for a fifth and final season.  Unfortunately, it is only for 13 episodes but something is better than nothing.  Yes, I was one of the first to find out via Twitter and it was one of the most awesome things to share among likeminded people.  If you are a fan you need to live Tweet it on Friday nights, it is one of the reasons it was renewed!  The fans came together and made it an event every Friday and aside from trying to avoid spoilers since I am on the west coast, it has just been one of the most fun fan experiences EVER and we do it every week.  Also, I am a big fan of The Fringe Podcast and I love, love, love their live show on Sunday.  Check it out!  So here is the trailer for the second half of the Fringe Season Finale.