Category: cake

Wedding cakes

Posted by miss alix – 7 Mar ’11

Hello dear friends! We’re back from our honeymoon which means back to blogging for me. I hope you all enjoyed the guest posts while I was away.

With everything that happened in the past few weeks, I’ve got lots to share. There were many adventures on our honeymoon. There were many fun times with our visiting family and friends. And of course, there was the wedding. So I’ll have lots of details and treats in the next few weeks for us all to nibble on while we wait for the official photos from the wonderful Liesl at Photo Pink (I’ve seen just one photo so far, and it’s stunning and I can’t wait for the rest).

I want to tell you all about everything, the food, the music, the rain, the craziness and all the fun, but it just won’t be the same without photos I think, so I’m going to string you along a little bit longer. Not to worry though, the road to the finish will be highly entertaining and delicious.

Let’s start with cake, shall we?

i am a messy baker sometimes Perhaps you recall, I chose to make our wedding cakes. Yes cakes, plural. There were eight of them.  I took over my mom’s kitchen for 2 days and made a huge mess. We spent one day baking and one frosting more or less.

lots of chocolate cake When I say that I made eight cakes, I really mean I made about 24 (or 30, I lost count), since each cake was several layers. We made 10 chocolate cakes, in 3 different sizes alone.

cake crew Luckily, I had lots of help in the kitchen to get everything done. Robin, Agatha & Shiri, some of my oldest friends, came in from out of town for the wedding and spent their extra time preparing frosting and measuring ingredients for me. I would not have been able to do it without them. I put Robin to work as soon as she got off the plane. Shiri and Agatha were also kind enough to actually drive all the cakes across town to the wedding.

frostingMany cakes were made, and even more frosting. Vanilla frosting, chocolate frosting, espresso frosting, peanut butter frosting. More than I needed it turned out.

raspberry sauceI made a raspberry sauce for one of the cakes. It’s one of my favorites, as it’s sweet and tart, with only a few ingredients. I also made a chocolate ganache to top a few of the cakes, but something went terribly wrong along the way. This is the sort of thing that happens when you are making a ton of cakes at once, and also trying to organize the final details of a wedding. So there was no chocolate covered cake, though I wish there had been.

layer cakeHere are the beginnings of a little coconut cake. With these cakes being a bit taller than usual, I reinforced them with some wooden dowels. A few were still a little wiggly though.

the ugly cakeDespite everything being rushed, I was happy with all the cakes except for one. If only that chocolate ganache hadn’t turned to chocolate fudge, it would have been lovely. Instead this cake was a chocolate raspberry mess. I couldn’t leave it alone even with the reassurances of my friends. Alas, despite my best efforts, it remained a mess. It tasted awesome though.

wedding cakes

So for the record, I have no regrets making the cakes. Even with all the time it took, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Nearly everyone told me that they tried a few flavors and loved all of them. Every single cake was completely eaten by the end of the night. I would say that’s a wedding cake success.

DIY wedding cake

Posted by miss alix – 24 Jan ’11

Onto a rather controversial topic…wedding cake.

From the start, I’ve said that I’m going to make it myself. At some point I made a concession that we’d order a small wedding cake from someone and then I’d make a few additional cakes. Let’s be honest though, I really just want to do it myself. Generally speaking, don’t people hate wedding cakes anyway? If we’re gonna serve cake, it better be a good cake, and I make a damn good cake.

My plan is to make a handful of cakes rather than one giant one. Then we’ll have a bunch of different flavors and I don’t have to worry about tiers. Here is  some of the inspiration I’ve found.

I totally fell for these art deco cakes courtesy of Martha Stewart (of course!).  Simple but varied designs with limited color palate. I love that all the cakes are different sizes.

Seriously, who doesn’t like a choice in cake? Check out this pound cake table from Once Wed. Gorgeous!

I was also thinking something like these rustic cakes. The idea of not having to pipe anything seems pretty appealing. I’m also into the fact that they’re kind of tall. Kind of into the idea of tall cakes.

I’m really excited about the whole project. I am looking forward to spending a day baking without having to worry about all the other wedding stuff (although I’m sure I will anyway).

Now we just need to decide what flavors…and how many…

birthday cake

Posted by miss alix – 22 Nov ’10

Guess what. It’s my birthday.

This weekend I got to be a part of a cake and ice cream birthday party with two lovely ladies, Tara and Gen. I would say that we outdid any other party I’ve been a part of with mere quantity of delicious cake and ice cream.

We had 3 cakes, more than a dozen cupcakes and two ice cream cakes from Scoops.

cakes and cupcakes

I made a chocolate covered vanilla cake and a red velvet cake. There were chocolate cupcakes too.

But my absolute favorite part…

brown bread ice cream cake

…was the brown bread ice cream cake. Heaven on a plate. I’ve always wanted to have vegan brown bread ice cream. It was exactly as I imagined it would be. Amazing!

happy birthday

We all wore fluffy tiaras and sang happy birthday and ate loads of cake and ice cream. I had a major sugar overload but it was well worth it.

Oh, and I kind of fell in love with Tara’s cat Lucky.

lucky cat

How cute is she?

Spider web cake

Posted by miss alix – 27 Oct ’10

Halloween is nearly upon us and I feel like I haven’t yet gotten my yearly fill of creepy decorations and festivities. Granted, we’ve been to a haunted corn maze, had our 3rd annual Halloween movie marathon, I even baked a pumpkin. Not to mention, we’ve watched over 40 horror movies this month (so far).

It’s still not enough though. So tonight, just to satisfy my Halloween cravings, I made this spiderweb cake. I think it’s creepy but still has a bit of elegance. No one wants to eat a cake that looks gross, even if it’s supposed to evoke grossness.

spider web cake

I had a little extra fondant (and a leftover cupcake) and this little ghost came haunting around.

ghostie cupcake

Before this weekend arrives, I still hope we’ll get to carve pumpkins. I’ve got my costume all together and can’t wait for all Halloween festivities.

Looking for more Halloween inspiration? Here are some more Halloween desserts from years past.

Halloween Treat roundup

Posted by miss alix – 26 Oct ’10

Halloween is just around the corner and I thought we all could use a little dessert inspiration.

I’m thinking of making a fancy Halloween cake this year, just have to find the time. I really like the idea of painting on a cake or using some stencils.

Here are a few of my favorites I’ve made over the years.

ghost cookies

Cutest, easiest ghost sugar cookies. If you can frost a cookie you can make these.

zombie cake

Chocolate zombie cake. Gotta show the zombie love.

brain cupcakes

And zombies need some brains to eat.

spooky ghostcake with dandies

Dandies Marshmallow ghost cake. I love anything that’s creepy and cute at the same time.

vegan halloween cupcakes

Or you can get really crazy with pumpkins, spiderwebs, bats and more.

Personally I always want to make chic-o-stick cupcakes around Halloween, but can’t ever find them.

What are your favorite Halloween treats?

Vegan coffee cake

Posted by miss alix – 17 Oct ’10

I have really good news for everyone. You can thank little vegan planet for finding this one. Trader Joe’s started stocking a few cake mixes and whenever I see something new on the shelves I check to see if it’s vegan. I picked a box of vanilla cake and it was definitely not vegan so I didn’t bother checking the rest. Turns out, the coffee cake is vegan. I don’t usually make boxed baked goods, but hey, who doesn’t like an easy dessert every once and awhile.

So I followed the directions on the box using almond milk and Earth Balance instead of milk & butter. Threw in a teaspoon of egg replacer and 2 tablespoons of water. Did some stiring and some crumbling. Forty minutes later we had a delicious coffee cake.

So go make some freaking coffee cake already. It’s easy, it tastes good. It’s vegan. Yay!

Thank you cakes

Posted by miss alix – 26 Sep ’10

Sometimes you need to say thank you. For the times that people go way out of their way to help you. Or when someone works endlessly on a project. Sometimes you need more than a card or an email.

That’s where these little cakes come in. Because nearly everyone loves a cake just for them.

I wanted them to be a little more than just a cake though; to really communicate the message. Rather than just the typical butter cream writing on top, I thought I’d try something a little more fun.

I made some simple, colorful bunting for a coconut cake for Shawn. He’s been working endlessly putting the finishing touches on Brainwashed Love and I thought he needed a little reward. The bunting was perfect because it allowed me to completely cover the cake with coconut, which I’ve learned, makes the cake difficult to decorate on top.

For the second cake, I tried my hand at creating a fondant covered red velvet cake. I’ve used fondant for flowers and such but had not yet covered a complete cake. I sure did need a lot of muscle power to roll it out but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, considering the horror stories I’ve heard. It wasn’t perfect, but still adorable. I stenciled on the thank you, using just plain paper that I cut with an exacto and some yellow food coloring.

I did a test of my stencil on another piece of fondant, just to make sure. It turned out  perfectly, but caused my actual cake to look a little blobby. Still a success though, I think.

Figs!

Posted by miss alix – 18 Aug ’10

My experience with figs has been limited almost exclusively to fig newtons. I just wanted to get that out of the way.

Then out of nowhere, I just really wanted to try figs. Perhaps it was because I was being bombarded with yummy fig ideas.

First it was a fig and cheese sandwich I saw at a restaurant (although it wasn’t vegan). Then I came across this recipe. When I passed a box of fresh figs at the market, I had to buy them.

fig & vegan cheese sandwich

So the sandwich. It’s just a basic grilled cheeze with some sliced figs inside and a bit of spicy mustard just for fun. So good! I may have had a few of these. And by that, I mean I did. Cheesy and delicious with just a hint of sweetness from the figs.

simmering figs

Next up was the fig upside down cake. Part of what excited me about this recipe was making a cake in the cast iron skillet I just recently acquired. I’m a big fan of any multi-use cookware. Not to mention for those of you looking for a little more iron in your diet, cooking in an iron skillet will actually add some iron into your food. See, cake can have health benefits!

vegan fig upside down cake

The cake was delicious; decadently sweet with a rich brown sugar flavor. I opted to make my own brown sugar by mixing molasses into regular granulated sugar,which definitely gave the cake it’s own distinct flavor (and more iron!).  I probably could have let it cool a bit longer so the figs were not so juicy when I flipped it, but it’s not always easy waiting for cake. Topped with coconut whipped cream, this easy cake could be a treat on a night in or a fancy dessert for guests.

Vegan Fig Upside Down Cake

adapted from here

  • 1 1/2 pounds fresh figs, stemmed and quartered
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 4 ounces Earth Balance
  • 1 cup granulated sugar mixed with 1 Tbsp molasses
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 2  cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2  teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup almond milk
  • 1 tsp vinegar

Preheat oven to 350°.

Mix figs and sugar in a bowl and set aside. Melt the Earth Balance in an iron skillet on medium heat. When it is warm, add the figs and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.

Beat the vinegar into the almond milk until frothy and set aside. Mix the oil and sugar until combined. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients, using a whisk. Combine the sugar, dry ingredients, and soy milk. Mix until there are few lumps.

Pour the batter over the figs in the skillet. Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes. Invert on plate and serve.

I highly recommend adding some whipped coconut cream topping.

My favorite ghost cake

Posted by miss alix – 22 Oct ’09

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/4651347]
I had posted this video previously but it wasn’t anywhere near Halloween so I thought it deserved to be brought back for another go around. The little ghosts are made from Dandies vegan marshmallows and frosting. I think it’s possibly the cutest cake I’ve ever made. Enjoy the video. Weee!

Vegan Sushi Birthday Party!

Posted by miss alix – 31 Aug ’09

Los Angeles is burning. I just thought I’d start with that. Ok, Los Angeles itself is not burning, but there happens to be a number of huge fires burning right next door, filling our city with a thick layer of smoke. Air quality has actually reached hazardous. Let’s not forget, the temperatures have repeatedly hit triple digits. Needless to say, this is not the part of summer that people relish in.

It also happens to be birthday season. You all know that everyone gets busy between Christmas and New Years so this happens to be a popular baby week. Guess what that means…birthday parties! My friend Jannatha’s birthday was this week and we had a sushi party (which is probably one of the best parties you could possibly have). I think it’s been about a year since I’ve made sushi myself, and though that was good, these veggie rolls were amazing.

Since there are tons of places to find instructions on how to make sushi yourself online, I’m going to just give a few hints to making your sushi even more awesome. First and foremost, I insist you try something new. Being that I’m an LA native, I’ve been eating sushi since I was two years old. Yet, somehow I’ve never had a sweet potato roll. How is it that I’ve missed out on such an awesome kind of sushi? It’s so freaking good. Sauteed and sprinkled with a bit of brown sugar and hot sauce, it rivals my sushi favorite (avocado, is still the best though I think). So on your next sushi excursion, throw in a vegetable you haven’t  yet tried wrapped in rice and seaweed.

My next suggestion perhaps goes a bit against conventional sushi wisdom. Put loads of veggies in your rolls. This can potentially make your rolls fall apart a bit easier, especially when dipping in soy sauce, but do it anyway. More veggies mean more great flavors. Try different combinations of crunchy and soft. Try different colors mixed together. Just make sure you press your rolls extra tight.

Don’t forget the extras. One of the things that makes going out to a sushi dinner so special is not just the sushi itself, but all that comes along with it. Get some Japanese beer, perhaps some sake too. Whip up a little bit of miso soup. Many Japanese snacks are vegan too. I’m personally totally addicted to some seaweed crumble things that are sweet and salty and to die for. Definitely don’t forget the wasabi. If you’re afraid of wasabi, get some anyway. Mix a little in with your soy sauce and try it out. Even if you have too much, it stops being spicy after a second. Honestly, just try it.

Last but certainly not least, stuff your face with sushi! I guess you should save some room for dessert though. We had red velvet cake, as every birthday needs a good cake (or cupcakes). Despite the summer heat and fires and ash falling on us, the evening was cool enough that we could eat outdoors. The best part about sushi is that besides the rice, you don’t have to cook anything if you don’t want to. You end up with a cool summer meal that is much more filling than a salad, and generally speaking, way tastier. Now get to it, go make some sushi!

p.s. Thanks to Jannatha and Kyle for not only being awesome sushi party hosts, but also for letting me steal photos from them. :)

Barefoot in the kitchen

Posted by miss alix – 21 Jul ’09

I’m back! Reporting from the kitchen just in time to catch the sweltering Los Angeles summer heat. It’s the time of year where turning on the oven is literally painful, but I just can’t stay away. I’ve missed creating desserts and recipes for the past month. Despite the fact that I did bake two cakes, a dozen cupcakes  and a full Thanksgiving dinner to go into our film, it just wasn’t the same. Rushing to complete things, instead of lingering in creative process didn’t satisfy my kitchen addiction. So just having barely recovered from complete exhaustion, I already have a few projects cooking (quite literally).

First, I have to admit, muffins may have just changed my life. I’ve always enjoyed making cupcakes, in fact, I’m a pro. For the most part though, I’m not the hugest fan of eating them. Perhaps that is a result of just having had too many, but they’re just not really my thing. I genuinely do love baking them though. On the other hand, I’ve never really been into muffins either. I have this idea stuck in my head that muffins are dry and crumbly. I think the only muffins I’ve ever made personally were corn muffins, which are a breed off muffin all their own. In any case, I decided to try my hand at the banana chocolate chip muffins from The Joy of Vegan Baking and they honestly blew my mind. I altered the recipe slightly to accommodate the number of half-blackened bananas I had on hand and could not have hoped for a better result. They were super moist, with a subtle banana flavor and sweet gooey chocolate hidden inside. They were still fairly sweet but not in a dessert kind of way. I had to intervene to photograph them so they weren’t all eaten instantly. I may now officially be obsessed with making muffins. Oh the possibilities!

In an attempt to stay away from the oven, I was thinking of some alternative summer desserts. Ice cream? Slushies? Fresh fruit salad? How about Jello? I finally had the chance to try the raspberry jel dessert from Natrual Desserts. I have a tendency to snack on chocolate chips when I have a craving for something sweet (or when watching a movie, or whenever I look in the fridge) but they’re just not working out in the heat. Melted chocolate hands just aren’t attractive. I haven’t made Jello since I was probably 10 years old, and had been planning to use the package in conjunction with something else, but thought the cool fruit treat would be a perfect summer sweet.

I won’t lie, having a big blob of giggly jello was super exciting. I’ve tasted some other vegan jel desserts and they’ve been a lot more like jelly which is extremely disappointing. On top of that, the raspberry was delicately sweet with a real raspberry flavor, not an artificial blast of sugar. Of course, the best part is that there’s no gelatin, which is something that I can’t believe people consume willingly, vegan or not.

This past month Shawn’s brother, Kyle, has been staying with us, working on Brainwashed Love for the summer. He turned 18 the day after we finished filming so I promised him any cake he wanted, which happened to be coconut. Here is the part where I confess I’ve never made a coconut cake before. I knew that I could, if asked, but I can’t stand eating coconut so it never happened just for fun. Kyle and Shawn devoured the entire cake themselves in less than 24 hours (Shawn even claimed it was the best coconut cake he’d ever had) so I suppose it was a success. There are a few common baking ingredients that I don’t like personally, so I’m very lucky to have a very reliable tester to try all the things I can’t bear to eat myself. There was something very exciting about making this cake as it has so many different coconut ingredients, it was very different than my usual cakes. I can only imagine it was decadently rich. I did learn some very important lessons about decorating coconut cakes though…

1. Do not try to write on top of shredded coconut. It will look like a drunken baker wrote it even if your hand is steady.

2. Make sure any coconut you put on top is firmly pressed into the frosting, especially for birthday cakes with candles. Otherwise you will end up with coconut shreds everywhere.

That’s it for today, I’ll have many more posts on the way as I have a bit more free time on my hands. Ah to be lost in the kitchen all summer long…

Dandies marshmallow ghost cake

Posted by miss alix – 14 May ’09

A few months back when I heard the announcement that Chicago Soy Dairy would be making jet puffed vegan marshmallows, I already knew the first thing I would be baking with them. Marshmallows are the one thing that I have missed since I was a vegetarian. I love the sugary flavor, the soft texture and especially the taste when roasted over a flame. As a teenager, when I discovered marshmallows had gelatin in them, I was honestly devestated. Since then, I’ve made my own marshmallows with the kit from Angel Food and indulged in the true confection that is Sweet and Sarah’s marshmallows.

Last Halloween, when I was planning spooky desserts to make, I came across this cake decorated with miniature ghosts. Sadly, the adorably constructed ghosties were made out of marshmallows and it was really only their cylindrical shape that gave them their ghostly appearance. I was not pleased with how my homemade marshmallows turned out, otherwise I would have made another stab at creating cylindrical ones myself. Instead I found myself making  ridiculous frosting ghost cupcakes.When I heard about Dandies I was exstatic. Not only do I have another vegan marshmallow option, but I could finally fulfill my dream of making a ghost cake.

I wanted a dark cake so I baked up a chocolatey coffee cake. I topped the bottom layer with a few Dandies just to see how they would bake. They puffed up in the oven and turned a beautiful golden brown. Though I had initially made a vanilla frosting go to go with it, I used so much to cover the cake that I had to top it off with some left over cookies and cream frosting. I then made my little ghost friends by sticking the Dandies on toothpicks and frosting their heads with vanilla frosting. The cake turned out amazingly. It was decadent with a contrast of rich chocolate and coffee with vanilla and cookies. My favorite part was the Dandies baked in to the center. Not only did it taste great, but it looked awesome; a perfect combination of spooky and cute.

We were so excited about the cake, Shawn made a little animation from it full of cute Dandies ghosts. I love it! I also had a ton of fun roasting these guys with a creme brulee torch (as we have an electric oven and no burners).

Vegan Ghost Cake from Shawn Bannon on Vimeo.