April and "Eating like Santa"

The Easter Bunny did it.
Not my fault I got a little derailed this month (it is, but I'm firmly shifting the blame to his fuzzy shoulders!).
Not much of a derailment, but you can't send baking to a bake sale without having a taste test first. I mean, what if I'd screwed up and not put in the baking powder, or too much salt. That would not be helping any kitties.
And then, I'd bought some cute Sweet and Sara Easter marshmallows (the bunny and the chick) for the girls, and neither of them liked them (which must have been the coating as they usually like the normal ones) so of course I didn't want them to be wasted....
Back on track for May however. I think Santa would be OK with this.

Easter Weekend

Individual Simnel Cake, originally uploaded by Vegan Year.

Just around the corner.
This is an Individual Simnel cake from Vegan Bake Sale - a fruit cake yes, but not super heavy, and with homemade marzipan on top, also a layer of the marzipan in the middle of the cake.

Karmavore Bake Sale

This Saturday, at the Karmavore Store in downtown New Westminster. More info here.

This bake sale is part of the WorldWide Vegan BakeSale (more info here) and I will be baking all day Friday to donate a bunch of stuff for Saturday morning...... I won't be there all morning as I have to run around after the kids but will be popping by later on (unofficially and to buy some goodies).

Come along if you can, fill your tummies and help the kitties....

Another Give-away....

If you'd like a nother chance to win a copy of Vegan Bake Sale, then head over to Joni's Just the Food blog. She's willing to ship internationally, so everyone can enter!

Vegan Slow Cooking

Now available for pre-order on Amazon!
(I know, already!)

Saturday Teaser -

Spelt Jam Thumbprint Cookies, originally uploaded by Vegan Year.

And with recipe! So its not really a tease today.

Spelt Jam Thumbprint Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen

Just like the title says, your favorite jam baked into cookie, with a cute thumbprint filled with more jam. Overload? Maybe, but it’s your choice of jam. The cookie part of these isn’t overly sweet, the idea when eating is to get a little of the jam filling with each bite which makes them taste sweeter.

⅓ Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Canola Oil
2 Tablespoons Shortening

⅓ Cup Rice Milk
¼ Cup your favorite Jam
1 Tablespoon ground Flax Seeds
½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 ½ Cups Spelt Flour
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
½ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Baking Soda

2 Tablespoons Jam for the Thumbprints

Icing sugar to dust

Preheat oven to 375°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In large bowl cream together the sugar, oil, and shortening until light and fluffy.
Whisk in the milk, jam, flax seeds, and extract for about 2 minutes to distribute the jam really well.
Sift in the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking powder. Mix to form firm dough.
Chill for 10 to 15 minutes to enable easier handling.
With lightly dampened hands, as required, shape dough into Tablespoon size balls, flatten cookie into a 2-inch disc, place on baking sheets 2-inches apart.
Push the top of one finger (or thumb) gently into the centre of each cookie to form an indentation.
Bake for 7 minutes, then remove tray from oven. If necessary use the back of a ½ teaspoon measure to re-indent the centre of each cookie. Scoop ½ teaspoon of jam into each indentation in the centre of each cookie. Return to the oven for a further 3 to 4 minutes.
Cookies will be lightly browned underneath.
Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to complete cooling.
Once completely cool, and prior to serving, dust lightly with a little icing sugar.

Interview

With yours truely - right here!

Go check it out!

Giveaway......

The lovely Celine (of 500 Vegan Recipes, etc fame) at Have Cake will Travel is giving away a copy of Quick and Easy Vegan Bake Sale on this post! but you'd better hurry because her giveaway is only open until Sunday!

This month -

Is likely to be a little slow blog post wise.

I will, of course, post photos of all that I make for the Karmavore Bake Sale on the 23rd, but other than that I apologise in advance if posts are few and far between.

The reason? not only am I madly slow cooking all the time, but the weekends this month are chock full of dance competitions and exams, and because of that the girls have extra lessons during the week making them fuller than usual. and of course, wouldn't you know it, the volunteering I do at the girls' school is already booked up for the month so no respite there.

I will be blog as much as I can and be back more frequently when things are a little less crazy!

Giveaway winner!!

There were 60 comment entries submitted to win a copy of Vegan Bake Sale (thanks all, the support is pretty overwhelming!) and using the Random Number Generator I have found the winner - it is comment number 16!
Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 100 Result: 16 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Comment number 16 is - Lee Ann!

So, Lee Ann, could you please email me at the address in the side bar with your mailing details and I will send you your book!

Thanks to everyone else for entering, and I am sure I will do another giveaway at some point in the future - keep watching this space.

If by any chance Lee Ann doesn't email me by next Friday 8th April, I will redraw.

One more day to enter the...

cookbook giveaway!

Enter on this post to win a copy of Quick and Easy Vegan Bake Sale..... Open to worldwide entries!

Saturday Teaser #8

Nanaimo Bars, originally uploaded by Vegan Year.

Or whatever number we are up to - with all the bonus ones I've thrown in!

Nanaimo Bars! Yum.

Another month like Santa.

March flew by. I think because I have been so busy with recipe development I didn't have time to stop and remember that I am not eating treats, and then miss them. And I've been kept so happily full from all that testing that I (on the whole) haven't felt like I wanted any. Dates to the rescue as ever... For full disclosures sake, I did have a little bit of Vanilla Waffle on morning when I made them for the girls for a special breakfast, and in one of the recipes I made some caramelised nuts to go with so they count as treats.... but on the whole eating like Santa is getting easier as time goes on, not harder. If you are interested, the day I had those caramelised nuts I could feel them in my body afterwards - like I do when I drink caffeinated coffee - racing heart, sweats, trouble sleeping... so I guess I have detoxed a bit and this is how I respond, or now I can see it anyway. Not so much after the waffle, but it was only a little. The challenge for the year continues to go well, and, without really trying, I've lost 25 pounds since Christmas. Wonder how Santa is doing with that???