Things have been bananas over here at ADO Headquarters (aka, my teeny studio apartment)... For the past few days, my oven and I have been working overtime, churning out cookies, truffles and cakes all morning, afternoon, and night.
Conversation heart cookies, before and after dipping in chocolate. Happy Belated Valentine's Day, btw! Sadly, these are the only photos I took of the baking process.
Anyway, now that the Valentine's day mad-rush is over, I can relax a bit and update this bloggie of mine. I feel rather guilty having left it un-managed for a whole week, but the internetz survived without me, life went on, and we're all truckin' along as usual. So let's just brush the dust off this thing and bring it back up to date, shall we?
Hm... where to start... whenever there's a long gap between blogging, I always feel a bit awkward when it's time to write again. :) And even though I have all these past half-written posts, they're mostly about things that happened so long ago that they no longer seem relevant. But I'm gonna just share them anyway...
Several weeks ago, my friend Raphaelle held her bake sale for the Born to Run Global Sighthound Rescue Organization. I was able to drop a few items off at the sale right before it started (above photos), but couldn't stick around so I just snapped some pics of the goodies other people donated:
There were various cookies... .
cinnamon rolls with icing, made by Raphaelle (looks amazing, no?)...
chocolate muffins with hazelnut-chocolate glaze...
jelly donuts muffins...
... and even two savory dishes - I think veggie and lentil soup! There were also a bunch of other goodies that I didn't get a chance to photograph.
I got one of Fiona's afghan biscuits, cuz they're the bomb. And according to the FB event page, they were able to raise 635,000 won! Totally awesome and I'm sure the funds will greatly benefit all those gorgeous dogs.
A few weeks ago, I also somehow managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Cheonan to keep my mom company while my dad was out of the country. Got fed some good homey eats.
Ahh, whole wheat bread, vegan butter, Marmite, split pea-lentil soup, and lipton tea. Reminds me of England...
I also tried making some fat-free applesauce cake. lol. I usually don't make things totally oil-free but I was in experimental-mode, so I gave it a shot. I used the recipe for Vegan Raspberry Applesauce Muffins from this 'Simple Math Bakery' blog, but just replaced the raspberries with apple chunks. And instead of muffins, I made loaves and topped them with thin apple slices and cinnamon sugar. Here's the recipe with my changes:
Vegan Fat-Free Applesauce Cake
Adapted from this recipe on Simple Math Bakery
Yield: 2 medium loaves
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup chopped apple chunks
1/4 apple, cut into thin slices
cinnamon-sugar from sprinkling on top (optional)
Preheat oven to 375°. Prepare loaf pans or paper molds. In a small bowl, stir together the soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Let sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes, until it starts to curdle.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, spices, salt, and brown sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together the applesauce, vanilla extract, and buttermilk mixture. Add the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Gently fold in the apple chunks.
Divide the batter between the two loaf pans and spread evenly with a spatula. Lay some thin apple slices on top of the batter and sprinkle with some cinnamon-sugar (optional). Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool on rack and enjoy~
The result was on the chewy side and I kinda overbaked it so it was a bit dry on the bottom, but the apple-cinnamon flavors were still really yummy~~ Since there was no oil, it wasn't as rich in flavor and the texture was a bit uneven, but it made for a nice health(ier) afternoon tea-time treat.
Well, that about wraps things up for today. Thanks for reading!!