Sweet end to (vegan) Sweet

Sometimes we see the end of things like a bitter end but this is not the case. Since baby boy was born I decided to not take orders to Sweet for a few months to dedicate myself 100% to him and I was happy about that. And then life gave me a few surprises which took me to a decision: it is the end of Sweet in Dublin.


I'm not saying I won't bake sweet treats anymore but I have no idea about when I'll be able to get back on taking orders and making other vegans happier. Sweet last 3 years and I'm very happy about all the cakes and cupcakes I've baked but life now has other plans to me and my family.


I'd like to say THANK YOU to everyone who ordered from me, enjoyed my cakes and spread the world about Sweet all this time. It was a pleasure and I'm happy that I could find in vegan baking something great and inspiring to do here in Ireland.

(Pic by Greg)

Baking time

This week I started baking for Christmas orders. If you're new to this blog, you don't know that I bake vegan cakes and cupcakes for vegans (and also non-vegans) in Dublin. I've started doing this in 2009 and this year I wasn't being able to bake that much cause of my Master but since September I'm back on track!


It's great being able to bake for people that many time don't get treats at their parties and I really enjoy doing this. I'm getting tired faster cause of the last month of pregnancy and after any small effort I feel breathless but I will bake while I can.


Yesterday I delivered some chocolate with peanut butter and lemon with coconut cupcakes for a birthday vegan girl and tomorrow I'll delivery more for a Christmas party (and next week will be all about baking, making decorations and frosting and I'm glad Matteo can help me with the deliveries). I'm not that much into Christmas this year (and this is a shock for me cause I really like the holidays) but the house is set up and gifts are under the tree, so I'm good.


If you want check my vegan cupcakes and cakes, like Sweet page on Facebook or visit the Flickr page :)

Vegan treats - Christmas gift ideas

With my sweet tooth I can't deny how much vegan treats always make me happy. And I gave up on avoiding sweets during my pregnancy a few months ago (I'm not eating them as a crazy person but I'm still eating some stuff in a regular basis). Having said that, I will suggest some amazing vegan treats for those who live in Dublin!


1. Sweet cupcakes: well, have to start with some shameless self promotion. I'm taking orders for this holidays and if you want to gift someone with cupcakes, please contact me at dublin.sweet (at) gmail (dot) com. I'm organizing my schedule and won't take last minute orders.

2. Choice chocolates: this brand have some amazing dairy free options, including Caramel Flavoured Choices, an awesome box of 12 foil wrapped choc's with a 'caramel' soft centre, Choc'n'Orange Bar, Choc'n'Crispie Bar and Choc Bar. You can find them in the The Sweet Life store at George's Street Arcade. Have to say that the caramel chocolates are one of the best vegan choc's I've ever eaten since I've become vegan.

3. Celtic Advent Calendar: Celtic has some dairy free options, which include this calendar and this is the second year I'm buying it not just for me but also for some friends. They're lovely. You can find them in the The Sweet Life store at George's Street Arcade.


4. Natasha's Living Food: the best option for raw treats in Dublin. You can contact her for private orders or you can check in the website where to get her products. They're really delicious and raw chocolate is great and rich in iron and magnesium too.


5. Nakd bars: I've been eating these bars since I've got pregnant to avoid sugar and solve my cravings for sweets. The "nudie" bars are great and also the "oatie" ones. Most of the health shops in Dublin have them and I think you can also find the "oatie" ones at Tesco.


That's it! Hope you can put together a nice package of threats for your vegan loved ones. A gift full of compassion and respect for the animals :)


And taking about Christmas, today we bought Cheatin' Roast Turkey for the first time (there's no Tofurky in Ireland) and I can't wait to try it and see if it's good!

World Vegan Day in Dublin

Tomorrow (November 1st) the world celebrates the World Vegan Day and, yes, I think it's a day to celebrate. Celebrate the small victories that the animals are having and, most important, keep on fighting for them.


There will be an event in Dublin, the Fun Hat Table Quiz, for the World Vegan Day and I hope to see some new and old faces there (mainly non vegan people! It's a great opportunity to be around some vegans and get informed). It will be fun too!


I'm starting to bake some cupcakes for tomorrow cause Sweet will be contributing for the event :)

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.

Sugar? Agave? Nothing at all?

Vegan chocolate cake date I baked using agave nectar

There are many studies around about the use of sweeteners. The white sugar is always the "bad guy" and we all know that it is really bad (mainly due to its refinement process) and in some places it is still not vegan too. Because of all that, people started to look for other options, healthier, of sweeteners.

The agave nectar (or syrup) has been used for a lot of people as a more natural option. I had never used before two months ago and I thought it was really good to bake using it and that it could be better to replace the white sugar in the cakes with it (Matteo's birthday cake was made with agave). Then two days ago I received this article by email, about the myth of the agave and how bad it can be to our body. I'm not an expert in the issue and I really don't know what to do. In Brazil is not that hard to find the brown sugar, known as a more healthy and less toxic option and I can find it here in Ireland as well (including some organic options). But will be this enough? I really like sweets and I'd like to have some good options.

But what should we use as a really good option? Nothing at all? What do you think?

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.

Sweet Birthday Cake

I love to bake birthday cakes and I love to bake vegan chocolate cakes.

I am not cooking too much these days because I am baking more, having more orders to Sweet! Yesterday I made a birthday cake for a young lady. Her mother asked me something with the colours white, red, yellow and blue and a different decoration because her daughter studies art design.

Inspired by this cake, I made my best seller cake: the chocolate one with chocolate ganache and strawberries filling. I really hope the girl likes it as much as I liked to make it :)

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!

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:

Super size me

I think I have a problem with sizes when I'm baking. Seriously, I love bake big cupcakes. Govinda's restaurant have my biggest ones and they are the ones I like more. Maybe everybody loves most the mini cupcakes (yes, they're so cute), but I still prefer the super size!

Yesterday I decide to bake some vegan strawberries muffins for the very first time. I like muffins but my heart is all about cupcakes. But I decided to give them one chance and I didn't regret! They look great and they are delicious! I used the recipe of the amazing book Vegan Brunch. So, today, Govinda's has also vegan muffins available ;-) And the sfihas are a great success! Everybody loves them.


For last Saturday I got some orders and the one I enjoyed most making it was the chocolate with caramel birthday cake (beside the fact that I got burnt making the caramel)!


As I told you, I'm having no free time this month to cook, so my husband is helping a lot. For the weekend he made an amazing zucchini lasagna and I ate a lot (super size me!). I won't post the recipe of the lasagna here because there is no secret, is all about layers (we had zucchini, ragu, soy cream and cheese), but I wan to say one thing: always cook the pasta before starting to make the layers. Even when it is pre-cooked, do it. It will be so much better in the end!



Last thing for today: my dear Brazilian friend Raquel (I wrote about her before!) has a new passion: graffiti! And she did a cupcake and sent to me yesterday and I want to share with you because I loved it:

Hope she'll have a lot more to show us in the near future! Keep going sweet ;-)

PS. I just realized how many times I wrote the word "love" today. Well, love is always in the air and it's great, isn't it?!

More than sweet

Life is (almost) always sweet.
Being vegan is sweet.
But sometimes we need salty flavors!

Today, for the very first time, Govinda's (Abbey St) is selling our vegan sfihas. Originally from Iraq, this snack is very popular in Brazil and Argentina and, of course, we have a vegan version for it! I said "our" because this wouldn't be possible without the big help of my lovely husband that is helping me these days as much as he can and cooked the sfihas yesterday for me ;-) So, today Govinda's has two options available: soy sfiha and broccoli + tofu sfiha!



Hope Irish people like them!

And as usual, some sweet cupcakes. For today I made double vanilla with raspberry jam filling ones:


Well, Sweet is becoming more than sweet. Should I change the name or create a salty brand too?!

Go vegan!

Another great illustration by Danilo Lucas!
Being vegan is sweet ;-)

Check out my Sweet Flickr too!

PS. I'm involved in a super cool project from Germany and yesterday I received another amazing invitation from the same people! Hope I can share the news soon ;-)

Sweet Myspace

Yes, I'm still busy as f...! But I'd like to share you the new Sweet Myspace layout because I'm loving it. My Brazilian cousin Danilo is an amazing illustrator (check his work here) and he made some awesome illustratons for Sweet (I will be using them to make postcards and other publicity)!


And if you have a Myspace profile, add Sweet ;-)

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!

Sweet summer

I'm having a busy week and I'm loving it! I know I still have to write some posts about Brazil here, but be patient.

Yesterday I spent all day in the kitchen baking and cooking (Betrayed guys had a vegan cheesy strogonoff to eat before the show) but it was worth it!

Cupcakes for Govinda's restaurant

Cupcakes for the gig

Chocolate cakes

If you live in Dublin, I need your help: I need to have my vegan cupcakes being sold in more places (coffee bar, restaurant, etc) so if you know about any place that can be open to that, just let me know, please! You can write to dublin.sweet@gmail.com. Thanks a lot ;-)

Time to celebrate

The cutest pic ever (Thanks Panda!)

I had a very busy week, but a week with a lot of good things happening! I baked some vegan mini cupcakes for a 21st birthday party and it was so cool (thanks Ciara!).

Some of the cupcakes before the party

Hope this week I'll have more time to write here ;o)

Cores e sabores *

Matteo's birthday

Vanilla with chocolate
Chocolate with peanut butter

* Colours and flavours

Sweet vegan

As you know, I'm crazy about chocolate cakes. And now it's time to make everybody in Dublin taste my vegan cakes! Yesterday I baked a birthday cake on demand: chocolate with chocolate ganache and strawberries filling!



Today I baked some mini cupcakes and tomorrow I'll make a special cake for Matteo's birthday on Sunday.


Oh, yes, life is really sweet!

PS. And we bought an Easter vegan egg. We really don't care about the holiday itself, but the eggs are awesome and I can't resist ;o)