One image to replace my words today

I was thinking about writing a post about being vegan and health but I just finished this:

Chocolate cake with 

raspberry jam and 

chocolate ganache fiilling

I won't eat it. Baked for some friends who are staying with us a couple of days, but still, it sounded controversial to my chosen topic.

There's no failing without trying

I'm not sure if I told you before but I (finally!) got Hannah Kaminsky new book "Vegan Desserts - Sumptuous Sweets for Every Season" a while ago. The problem is I'm trying to avoid sugar as much as I can (it doesn't mean too much for a sugar tooth person like myself, but I'm doing my best), so it means I'm also avoiding get too close to this delicious book. You know that I'm a huge fan of Hannah's recipes and there are at least 20 recipes in the book I wish I could try as soon as possible!

Considering this, I just made one recipe until now. Shame on me or congrats, Glauce? I really don't know, but this is how things are. And I have to say that it was a partial fail too. Why? First things first, the recipe I've decide to make was the Summer (I love that the recipes are separated by seasons even thinking there's no real summer in Ireland) S'mores Pie.

Sounds delicious, right? Yeah, picture looks amazing in the book too (I also love all that amazing photos in the book and have to remind you that Hannah is an amazing food photographer too). So, where's the problem? My significant issue is called vegan marshmallow topping. I won't reveal the details of the recipe here (buy the book!) but this is kind of obvious. And even considering that I have Dandies marshmallows at home, I decided to follow the recipe step by step and make them from scracth. That was my mistake. Hanna was pretty clear in the beginning of her book that just one brand of egg replacer would work proper. Well, I don't live in the US and I wouldn't find it so I decided to risk everything and use the one that is available here in Dublin. Guess what? It didn't work at all.

But it wasn't the end of the world (well, kind of!) and the rest of the recipe came out pretty good. I didn't use Dandies anyway and decided to eat the pie the way it was. It was delicious, seriously. I wish I could eat more of it, but it was my husband that had most of it.

This experience didn't make me think the book is any worst, I love it and can't wait to try more recipes. Hopefully with no more mistakes (I don't believe on failing, do I?)

Happy (vegan) Valentine's Day

Vegan Chocolate Love cupcakes by me (Sweet)

♥♥♥

Peanut butter "cheese" cake

Let's go back to the main topic of this blog: vegan food. If you're stopping here for the fist time I have to warn you that I am not a chef or a genius in the kitchen, but I love cooking and decided to create this blog do share my experiences about cooking and living as a vegan.

For the Christmas evening I baked a vegan peanut butter "cheese" cake. To make the "frosting", or last layer, I used the "crema pasticcera" mix that I had at home, bought in Italy. It's creamy custard filling very popular there. I would say that for the next time I do this cheese cake I would go with a chocolate layer, makes more sense.

Peanut butter "cheese" cake

Crust:
1 1/2 cups vegan cracker crumbs
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegan margarine

"Cheese" cake
1/2 package extra-firm silken tofu
1 package vegan "cream cheese"
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 175°C.

For the crust, stir together the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar in a medium bowl. Melt the margarine and incorporate it into the dry ingredients, forming a crumbly mixture. Use your hands to press this mixture into the bottom of a 7 inch round springform pan (all the recipes use the 9 inch pan but this recipe is for a smaller cake). Make it further up in the sides to form a lip at the edge of the crust. Set aside.

For the filling, drain the tofu of any excess water and blend it in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add in the vegan "cream cheese" and blend it again. Add the peanut butter, the sugar and vanilla and blend it again for 2 or 3 minutes (or until it achieve a very smooth and homogeneous consistency). Add the mixture over the crust and spread it.

Bake it for 35 to 40 minutes.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 8 hours before serving. You can serve it with soy cream too.

Vegan coconut pie to celebrate!

If you come here frequently you know that I am a big fan of Hannah Kaminsky, her book and all her sweet recipes. To celebrate this blog 2nd anniversary I made our first giveaway and the prize was a copy of her e-book Mission: Impossible Pies. Last week I finally did the first recipe of this amazing book: Coconut Pie. It is delicious and very easy (and fast) to make it, being an wonderful quick dessert option.

With some vegan vanilla ice cream to make it even better

Everybody should try at least one of Hannah's amazing recipes, from heir blog or books!

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Aos queridos leitores brasileiros (e também portugueses, por que não?),

a autora me autorizou a publicar aqui a receita em português, o que faço com muita alegria, pois além de ser uma delícia, é rápida de fazer e todos os ingredientes podem ser encontrados no Brasil (diferente de algumas receitas que levam, por exemplo o vegan cream cheese, que não está disponível ainda para quem mora no país).

Então vamos lá!

Torta de côco vegana

340 gramas de tofu (a medida da receita é em "ounce", mas já fiz a conversão ao usar aqui também)
1 xícara de açúcar refinado
2 xícaras de côco ralado
1 xícara de leite de côco
1/2 xícara de farinha de trigo
1/2 colher de chá de fermento em pó
1/2 colher de chá de sal
1 colher de chá de extrato de baunilha

Pre-aqueça o forno a 180 graus e unte uma assadeira de 9" (eu utilzei uma menor, de 7" para que a torta ficasse um pouco mais alta e adorei). A minha assadeira é bem anti-aderente, então não precisei untar, mas por via das dúvidas não custa passar um pouquinho de óleo e farinha no fundo e laterais.

Escorra o excesso de água do tofu e o coloque em um processador ou liquidificador. Bata até que ele fique bem cremoso. Adicione o açúcar, o côco ralado, o leite de côco, a farinha, o fermento, o sal e a baunilha e bata até combinar todos os ingredientes. Tome cuidado para não bater demais, pois o ideal é manter os pedacinhos do côco ralado.

Coloque a mistura na assadeira e asse por 40-45 minutos, até que as laterais fiquem douradas, mas o meio ainda esteja um pouco oscilante (não totalmente firme). Espere esfriar e coloque na geladeira por 1 hora antes de servir.

Se quiser variar, sirva com uma calda de frutas vermelhas ou um pouco do seu sorvete favorito!

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Thanks, Hannah, for letting me post the recipe in Portuguese for my Brazilian friends and readers!

Today is the day: giveaway winner!

First of all, a big thank you to Hannah and her publisher and everyone who entered and promoted the giveaway. Thank you!!!

And the winner is mama2lilev! Congratulations, you'll receive an email to download the e-book Mission: Impossible Pies.

First blog giveaway and recipe!

I can't believe it took me so long but I am finally doing the first giveaway of this blog! In August I will celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the blog (and I missed the 1st one, still can't believe that). Time is really flying and it's cool to see that I'm still enjoying writing here. Cause of the blog I got in touch with amazing people and could met personally some of them. I decided to cook more and I'm writing more in English too. I won't write anymore about it today cause I have too much to share: the giveaway and a vegan raspberry "cheese cake" recipe.

First, the recipe! I finally got back into my kitchen last Saturday to bake and I decided to make a fruit vegan "cheese cake". Matteo loves chocolate (also do I) and most of the time I end up making everything with it. He wasn't here last week, my sister-in-law can't eat chocolate, so it was a perfect occasion to try this new experience. I ended up making a mix of two recipes I had and it worked very well.

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Vegan Raspberry "Cheese Cake"
Crust:
1 1/2 cups vegan graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar (or regular granulated sugar or brown sugar)
1/4 margarine

"Cheese" Cake
200 g extra-firm silken tofu
1 package vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti Creamy Smooth)
250g fresh raspberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 tablespon salt

Preheat your oven to 175°C.

For the crust, stir together the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar in a medium bowl. Melt the margarine and incorporate it into the dry ingredients, forming a crumbly mixture. Use your hands to press this mixture into the bottom of a 7 inch round springform pan (all the recipes use the 9 inch pan but this recipe is for a smaller cake). Make it further up in the sides to form a lip at the edge of the crust. Set aside.

For the filling, drain the tofu of any excess water and blend it in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add in the vegan "cream cheese" and blend it again. Add the sugar, vanilla and salt and blend it again for 30 seconds. Add the fresh raspberries and blend it for more 2 or 3 minutes (or until it achieve a very smooth and homogeneous consistency. Add the mixture over the crust and spread it.

Bake it for 35 to 40 minutes.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 8 hours before serving. Add 3 tablespoons of raspberry jelly over it. You can serve it with soya cream too.

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A big inspiration!

I have to say that since I decided to start baking (and also cooking more), some people had a HUGE influence in my life, being great inspiration. One of those incredible people is Hannah Kaminsky, author of the amazing My Sweet Vegan cookbook. I got in touch with her many times, for different reasons, and she have always been amazing. I love the recipes of her book and I love her blog, Bitter Sweet.

And about two months ago I did an interview with her to prepare a profile article for the German magazine I'm writing for. You can see the page here and I'll post the article in English in the near future. It was a pleasure to write this article and I have much to thank this girl.

Besides all this, she (and her publisher) gave me the permission to give to my lovely readers one copy of one of her new e-books: Mission: Impossible Pies that you can buy on-line. I already have it and I loved all the recipes and wanted to share the book with you!

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The giveaway

The Prize: 1 copy of the e-book Mission: Impossible Pies, by Hannah Kaminsky.

Who can enter the giveaway? It's open to everybody in the world!

How to enter: just leave a comment saying what kind of vegan food do you prefer to cook: salty or sweet and the reason.

Dates: the entries will be accept from today (July 26th) until August 4th. The winner will be announced on August 6th. If the winner is not a blogger user, please come back here to check the blog post of August 6th and get in touch with me because I will need the winner's email :)

Increase your chances! You can do one or more of the following things, return here and leave a comment saying which one you did (leave a comment for each extra entry so you can have more chances):

a. Tweet about the giveaway and mention @GlaucexVx and @bittersweet__
You an use this text: "All about... (vegan) food (@GlaucexVx) is giving away a copy of Mission: Impossible Pies, by @bittersweet__ http://TwitPWR.com/MGB/"

b. Join the All about... (vegan) food Facebook page and "like" our wall post about the giveaway.

c. Write about the giveaway in your blog and leave a comment here with the link.

PS. AOS LEITORES BRASILEIROS: mesmo nao traduzindo o post todo, o sorteio do ebook "Mission: Impossible Pies" vale tambem para o Brasil e para respostas em portugues! Basta responder a pergunta com um comentario. Para aumentar as chances, basta divulgar no Twiter ou no seu blog (e postar um comentario aqui com os links) e se clicar em "Like" (ou "curtir") na pagina do blog no Facebook e tambem no post (e sempre voltar aqui e deixar outro comentario dizendo que fez isso tambem!).

An excuse for ice cream!

It's almost summer time and even if I usually eat ice cream the whole year, it's always good to have one more reason to eat some delicious vegan ice cream. Last year I was invited to have some of my recipes on the German cookbook Ox #4 (Das Ox-Kochbuch Vier). You can order the book here if you speak German :) But because of the book is available just in German I decide to share here on of my favorite recipes that is on the book: the strawberry pavê. It is an easy dessert and I hope you all like it!



Vegan Strawberry Pavê


1 litre vegan vanilla ice cream
150g sliced strawberries
1 cup sugar
100g plain biscuits
Strawberry syrup (optional)

Leave the ice cream at room temperature for a few minutes and beat in a electric hand-held mixer to cream it. Bring back to the freezer. In a small sauce pan, place the sliced strawberries and the sugar and let it cook until make a syrup. Set aside and let it cool. Separate a part of the syrup, without the strawberries pieces to soften the biscuits (here you can use some soy milk - or coconut milk - instead of the syrup too). In a glass pan, make a layer with the biscuits, another one with the ice cream and one more with the strawberry syrup. Repeat the process until the end of the ingredients. Take to the freezer for 5/6 hours. At the time of serving, decorate with strawberry syrup and some fruits.

* This recipe was inspired by one of a good friend of mine, that has an amazing blog (in Portuguese), Aceita um café?. Thanks, Cinthia!

The vegan cupcakes are back!

If it is your first visit to my blog, you don't know that I started baking vegan cupcakes in Dublin last year. Since then I have been receiving some orders and I love to do this. But after we moved to the house, we couldn't figure out how the oven works until two weeks ago. And I wasn't baking. But now I can get back on taking the orders :D

If you want to see some of the Sweet cupcakes and cakes, just click here. Everything there is vegan.

All about ... Cornucopia

It's a beautiful and sunny morning in the first day of March and I really love this weather: cold and sunny. Most of the people that live in Europe love the summer and are always waiting for some hot days. But I come from a hot (really hot) city and I don't miss those melting days at all. I love the spring and I'm sure I will have another great one here in Dublin.

Last Saturday I went to town alone because Matteo was playing. I'm not used to making things alone but it was pretty good. I bought some stuff and decided to have lunch at Cornucopia. I really can't explain exactly why we haven't been there yet after more than 1 year living in Dublin... But it always time to start doing things that we never did before!

Cornucopia is a vegetarian restaurant located in the heart of Dublin city center. And it's always full. Now I can understand the reason: the food is great, the staff is kind and the place is nice. I didn't know about the options I had, so I asked a lot of food and dessert. I was excited because they have a lot of vegan options and I knew I should try their vegan cheese cake (my dear French friend Aurelia had told me about that when we were together in London and she couldn't believe that we had never gone there!). I had a noodle spaghetti with vegetables, couscous and bean salad. And a big slice of a blueberry cheese cake. All with an organic cola. Yes, I spent a lot too, but it was worth it.


It is really good to know all the options we have to eat around and I just added Cornucopia to my small vegan list.

The same, but different

I am still baking more than cooking, so I don't have too much to blog about. But last Saturday I did some different things that I want to share.

I made my classic crepes/pancakes but decided to change a little bit the dough and the filling! In my usual dough recipe I added 3 teaspoon of oregano to give a special taste. My usual filling is made just with savoury flavoured soya protein mince and herbs but this time I added 2 fresh leeks. The result was delicious. And as I said before, everybody loves pancakes!


Still on Saturday I decided to make a pie with some strawberries I had. We bought the pastry and I covered it with chocolate chips, Italian "crema pasticcera", raspberry jam and fresh strawberries and put on the oven for 20 minutes. This picture is ugly as hell but the taste was unbelievably good! I want to make it more times, but I need a pie pan first (and, of course, a better camera).

For the rest of the days, I am always baking my vegan cupcakes!


Oh, and on SundayI went to the cinema with a lovely Irish friend to see "An Education". I loved it! Yes, I do have a life outside the kitchen :P

Vegan Mofo III - Days 17, 18 and 19 - Pumpkin cupcakes!

I know I lost some days of the Vegan MoFo but I was blogging a lot, so I think it's totally fine! Since my last post everything in my house is about pumpkin!

Yesterday I baked my first vegan pumpkin cupcakes! They are so good! I used the recipe of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with two differences: I used fresh pumpkin instead of the canned one and I used the handheld mixer (they say there to do not use it!).

I also did the small pumpkins with icing sugar :)

And here there are the final cupcakes, with chocolate frosting:


And I still have one more post for today!

Vegan Mofo III - Day 13 - Inspiration

One of the best things ever is seeing that what you do can inspire people. I am not talking just about big acts but about small things you do. Yesterday I was happy to see that one of my best friends, from Brazil, baked her first vegan cupcakes inspired of all the baking I am doing here in Dublin.

I sent her the recipe in Portuguese with some tips about the replacement for the stuff she wouldn't find in Brazil and she blogged about her first time here!


I don't know if this sounds silly, but I am really glad when I read all these love messages that arrive to me and when I see my friends trying to make delicious vegan food around the world :)

And for those who don't know, my inspiration to start baking the Sweet vegan cupcakes was Cupcake Berlin! If you're going to Berlin, you must go there!

Vegan Mofo III - Day 12 - Feeling the fall

Yesterday I finally baked my first vegan carrot cupcakes! I love to bake carrot cakes and I was planning to make the carrot cupcakes in the last weeks. I think they match with the fall colors and weather and they are delicious!


I was supposed to use the recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, but it has to many ingredients that I didn't have at home, so I decided to adapt a recipe I always use to bake the cakes and it worked :)

Dublin Bay yesterday night

Vegan Mofo III - Days 10 & 11 - The first vegan cheese cake

I don't know why but I am cooking a lot this weekend (maybe it is the great combination of the new kitchen + new food processor!) and I finally made my first vegan cheese cake! And it was also my first cheese cake ever (I had never eaten the original one!). I was a little bit afraid about the result because it has a lot of steps, but it is good! I used the "Triple Threat Chocolate" recipe, from my favorite book ever, "My Sweet Vegan", by Hannah Kaminsky.

The only thing I did different was using a chocolate bar instead of the chocolate chips. And the only negative point I saw on this recipe is that it is expensive to make it here in Dublin (just the vegan cream cheese costs almost 5 euros!). But it is worth it, the labor, the price, everything!

I'm thinking about adding this option at the Sweet menu (for orders)... let's see! Now I want to make a strawberry one :)

Vegan MoFo III - Day 9 - Cupcake picture

That's how my day started!

Lemon and vanilla with biscuit vegan cupcakes

Vegan MoFo III - Day 1 - Cupcakes

I was thinking about how to start my first post of the Vegan MoFo 2009. It's the first time I'm being part of this event and it's important to me. Some days before I wrote here how this blog had begun and how cooking and writing about it is now part of my life. And when I think about my current life, when I look back to these 12 months I've been living in Dublin I can tell you that my life changed 100%. What I do everyday here is completely different from what I used to do in Brazil. But if there is something that I learned is that different isn't always bad. Different can be good too. But you have to open your mind to learn how to live (and be happy) with the difference. I am learning, every single day. And I still have a lot to learn.

March

April

And because of all these changes in my life, I decided to dedicate my first Vegan MoFo post to something that I'm doing now and that I never thought about before: baking vegan cupcakes.

May

June

July

Cupcakes were not popular in Brazil (now they are) when I was there. I think the first time I ate cupcakes was less then two years ago. The first time I ate a perfect vegan cupcake was in Berlin, last February. And I just decided to try to bake them last March. So, all this world of vegan cupcakes is new to me! Yes, that's true, I'm not that expert in baking cupcakes. But I really enjoy it. I like to see them growing up in the oven, the smell of them, the taste and, like everybody, the colors. And I am a vegan who loves desserts and sweet stuff, so I'm in heaven! Of course I don't eat them every day, but it's so good to be surrounded by those little cakes everyday. And it seems that everybody that tastes them, like them too! Govinda's restaurant is selling well and at the hardcore gigs I always sell them all too. They arrived into my life to make it sweeter and I couldn't be happier. Baking vegan food that helps me also to pay the bills is something good. It is to unite the business with the pleasure. It is to make people see that your path is ethical and also tasty. And now, after 7 months baking cupcakes basically everyday, I'm starting to make bigger plans, to dream a little bit more. Who knows what life is reserving for me for the next year here in Dublin?!

August

September

I just hope that is something sweet.

Cupcakes Take the Cake

... is one of my favorite blogs ever! I always go there to see what's going on and I'm in their group on Flickr too. So last week I received a message of them, asking to publish some of my SWEET vegan cupcakes pictures at their blog :)

I couldn't be more happy, here I am as the spotlight! It's so good to see the things you love to do being appreciated for so many people around the world. Thanks, Cupcakes Take the Cake ♥

And to celebrate, here we go with some vegan cupcakes pictures:

Ice cream day

Vanilla ice cream
+
whipped cream
+
chocolate syrup
=
vegan happiness

Keep calm and have a cupcake

My day started finishing these vegan cupcakes (vanilla with chocolate filling and strawberry frosting):




And one of the sweetest people that I know, my friend Gabriel, sent this to me and made me smile:


I wish a great week for everybody!