Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

As I mentioned before, I came across a recipe for Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake, and it sounded so bizarre I had to try it (not to mention it looked delicious in the pictures).  So last night, when I probably should have been going to bed because I had to work this morning, I baked cupcakes!

The recipe and directions are all in the link.  The only difference is rather than putting the batter in cake pans, I put it into cupcake liners.  And yes, those are gingerbread men and candy canes on the liner.  Apparently I used all of my plain cupcake liners for my wolf cupcakes earlier this year, and these were all I had  :)  I baked them at the same temperature, and I believe I started with 15 minutes, checked them and cooked them another 2, then they were done after another 2.  So 19 minutes total with 2 pans of 12 side by side in the oven.  Yes, that's right, it made 2 dozen cupcakes!

The icing was really easy to make, it had the same consistency and texture as normal icing, and it turned out a really fun Ghostbusters slime green!  I was a little worried though because it tasted like avocado.

Overall the cupcakes were really good!  Me and a guest taster both agreed that they were a little better the next day.  For some reason the avocado taste in the icing wasn't as noticeable after sitting over night.  I brought some to work and made everyone try them.  They seemed to like them, and weren't too freaked out that it was avocado or vegan.  I made my guest taster take some to a class they go to on Monday night since there was no way I was going to be able to eat all 24 of them, so I'll let you know what the reaction to them there was.

Next baking experiment (after all of these are finally eaten and I'm no longer sick of chocolate cake) may be a cake made with the chocolate stout beer I have in my fridge.  I'm not sure what the next dinner will be.  I do have a butternut squash in my cupboard and some ricotta cheese.  If you read my squash blog, I mentioned I wanted to experiment with other flavors but keeping it along the same lines as the recipe I used.  So I may be doing that later this week.  Also, I'm still impressed with my vegetable Wellington.  Here's the piece I warmed up in the oven for dinner tonight:

It held it's shape, the crust was crisp and flaky after warming, and it still tasted great.  Nom nom nom!

Wellington Update

One of the guest tasters ended up coming over later last night. I warmed the wellington up in the oven for about 15 minutes on 325, then left it on “warm” until they got there. The crust was still crispy!

I let them try everything and give me their option before letting them know what I thought. They found the mashed parsnips a bit odd too, but they didn't think the goat cheese was too strong. Their piece was also less oily.

I had leftovers for lunch today. I just microwaved it because I was feeling lazy. The crust was soft, but it was still really good. It was once again less oily, and I didn't notice the goat cheese as much. I think it may have just kind of “built up” on the ends, and the pesto needed to sit and “dry up” (or be cut open and leak out). So over all, I'm really impressed with my Vegetables Wellington Redux :) Now, to figure out what to do with these leftover mashed parsnips...

Vegetables Wellington Redux and Mashed Parsnips

Tonight, I made Vegetables Wellington, with a side of Mashed Parsnips for something different.

I took pictures pretty much at each step, but they're boring, so I'll skip through a bit.  First, chop up some asparagus, red pepper and onion.  Sauté in oil, then add spinach.  Stir in pesto and set aside to cool.  Lay a piece of the puff pasty out on a piece of parchment paper, then tuck that into the pan.  Line the ends with pastry squares you cut from the other sheet.  Spread the goat cheese over the bottom of the pastry, and add the vegetable mixture.

Brush edges with beaten egg, then cut a piece of pastry to fit the top.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes (or overnight if you're me so it's ready to go when you get home from work the next day).  Brush the top with egg, and decorate all pretty like with extra pastry :)

It said leaves & stems, I also did a flower

Bake!  While that was going, I started my mashed parsnips.

Thumbs up if you're a dork!

I pretty much just made the parsnips like I would mashed potatoes.  Peeled, chopped, boiled and then mashed with milk, butter and salt & pepper to taste.  After baking, while the Wellington was cooling, I heated the tomato sauce.  Here's the spread:

And in true Melinda fashion, I did this all while wearing heels:

Once everything was done, I sliced the Wellington open, topped it with tomato sauce, and got my sides.  The finished plate:

Wellington, Mashed Parsnips & Salad!

The Review:  Good, not my favorite though.  As one of the reviews said on the site, the goat cheese is very strong.  If I ever made this again I could probably get away with only using one 4oz log.  The pesto was also very oily, if that makes sense.  I'm not sure how to get around that though, since it's oil based.  Maybe try a different kind next time and see how it comes out?  *shrugs*  As for the parsnips, they were kind of weird.  On the one hand, the butter and milk made them seem a little like mashed potatoes, but being closely related to carrots, they also tasted like carrots.  I don't know if I'd ever bother making them again.  Over all, a very yummy dinner and full tummy. Hopefully my guest tasters show later, because there are a LOT of leftovers!
Next blog may not be an entree, but a baked good!  I came across this recipe for Chocolate Avocado Cake that sounds interesting and I want to try it!

Bonus Blog - Random Deliciousness

Just a blog to show off some of the yumminess I've baked in the past.  Enjoy!  :)

Brownies with Raspberry Cream Cheese icing and fresh raspberries

A fruit tray I did work

Me, at my day job, with a cookie tray I did

Wolf cupcakes for the cast and crew of "After Visiting Hours"

Graveyard Brownies for Halloween

Baked brie for New Years, and a brie (before baking) for St. Patrick's Day

It sounds like Thursday I will be making Vegetable Wellington with a side of mashed parsnips for dinner.  I also may have some guests to enjoy it with me!

Ratatouille

Tonight I made ratatouille!  I used a recipe I came across on Smitten Kitchen because it had pretty pictures :) 

My completed Ratatouille!

 

I'm not going to get super detailed in the steps I took because I followed the recipe from the site pretty closely - Combined the tomato, onion, garlic, oil, salt and pepper in the bottom of a casserole dish; sliced the veggies and layered them on top; drizzled with olive oil; seasoned with more salt & pepper and thyme; covered with parchment paper and baked.

I'm not sure why I've always thought I disliked squash.  I tried a sliced piece of the summer squash and it was good!  Still not a fan of zucchini though.  I have another one in my cupboard to experiment with.  I also ate the leftover red and yellow peppers because they were yummy.  Never thought I liked peppers either!

The site suggested eating it with a "dab" of soft goat cheese or with crusty french bread.  I had some leftover Mediterranean spiced feta in my fridge, and I always have crusty sourdough, so I toasted a few pieces of bread, and put a little of the feta on part of the Ratatouille.  The flavor of the cheese didn't quite go with the dish, but the bread was great for soaking up the leftover veggie juices on my plate.  Over all, tonight's dinner was delicious and I'm STUFFED!  UGH!  It was too good because I'm SO FULL!

I still haven't figured out what to do with the brie I bought on sale.  Anyone know any good recipes other than wrapping it in pastry and baking it?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

Pastas!

Today's blog is about two last minute pasta dishes I made the past couple of days.

Sunday a friend and I decided we wanted to cook something different for dinner.  We came across Whole-Wheat Shells with Asparagus, Peas, Feta, and Mint among the Vegetarian Times recipes.  It sounded different, and I already had most of the ingredients, so we gave it a try.  It was a last minute thing so I don't have pictures or anything.  It was a really nice, light, summery dish because of the lemon & mint and since it didn't really have a sauce.  The feta I had in my fridge was flavored with Mediterranean herbs, and I liked the extra flavor it added.

While at the store getting a few ingredients we needed, we, um, definitely did NOT find Keebler sandwich cookies on sale and buy them to dip in Nutella that was also on sale...  :)

While in the cupboard where I was keeping the veggies I bought, we realized that the top of my eggplant was starting to get a little moldy.  Already having Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, pecorino romano, pasta,  tomato sauce and fresh basil, I figured some sort of last minute Eggplant Parmesan would be best for dinner tonight.  I sliced the eggplant, dipped the slices in egg, and coated with a breadcrumb, grated romano & chopped basil mix.  I baked at 375 on the first side for about 12 minutes, and on the other side for about 9.  

One of these didn't make it into the dish, it went straight into my tummy!

 While the second side was cooking I cooked some spaghetti.  I decided to do a baked pasta dish, so I layered the sauce, spaghetti, more sauce, eggplant, a little more sauce, then topped it with some mozzarella I had in my fridge, and the rest of the breadcrumb mix (couldn't let it go to waste!).  I baked all of that at the same temperature for about 20 minutes.  It turned out so yummy I went back for thirds.  I only wish there were more eggplant slices.  While layering it I wished I had some ricotta to layer in, put I really liked it how it was.  It made it another lighter dish.  I think the extra cheese would have made it too heavy.

After all this pasta, I'm trying to find something other than pasta primavera to make with my squash, zucchini, etc.  If you have any suggestions, let me know.  Also, some other dishes I may try making in the future: Vegetables Wellington Redux, a pot pie, this delicious-looking-ness, and ratatouille.  Speaking of which, I guess I could make ratatouille with my veggies.  Maybe that'll be dinner Wednesday!

Bonus Blog - Cinnamon Rolls!

Hungry yet?  :oD  This recipe is from Pillsbury's website, and I believe I came across it on Facebook.  It's really simple, just bake the cinnamon rolls as normal, but add 1 mashed up banana and 1/2 a cup (or 2 giant spoon fulls if you're Melinda) of peanut butter to the regular icing.  Mmmm...  the peanut butter over powered the cinnamon roll flavor a little, so next time I might only do 1 giant spoon full.  And, with many things I make, there was delicious leftover topping to spread on toast and bagels!  I couldn't eat all 8 rolls myself, so my co-workers got to enjoy these.

I went to the store tonight and bought (in addition to the brie and feta on sale) a summer squash, zucchini, yellow bell pepper, red bell pepper, mini portobella mushrooms, and an eggplant, so there are lots of possibilities for dinner this weekend.  I'm currently thinking some kind of pasta primavera, but we'll see ;o)

SQUASH!!!!

Today is all about squash.  I've never liked squash, not even pumpkin pie, but I've decided to give it a try.  I went with 2 different recipes using 2 different types of squash.  I also decided to actually follow recipes this time since I was cooking something completely new.  While researching squash online, I came across this very informative site all about squash.

The first dish I made is a recipe I found here.  This one I actually made the night before so I just had to throw it in the oven after work.

Here's my purdy squash!

Having never cooked squash before, I wasn't 100% sure how to go about cutting it, but I found a very helpful video on about.com.  When I got to the part where I had to gut it like a pumpkin, I thought Gross!  There's no way I'm going to like this.  It even smelled like pumpkin.  Yuck!

I boiled the squash until tender like the directions said, and after draining the water decided to brave it and try a piece.  Surprisingly, it tasted more like a potato than pumpkin.  At this point I thought I may actually be able to eat this dish!  Then, with all of the ingredients in the pan, it was MASHING TIME!!!!

You can't tell from the picture how amazing it smelled at this time.  It fact, it just looks like some kind of weird mush in the picture.  I kept telling myself to wait until it was fully cooked to taste it, but it smelled so good I gave in.  And it tasted wonderful!

We're going to take a break from that dish for a while, and move on to the next.

The second, I didn't completely follow a recipe.  I came across a recipe for acorn squash stuffed with apple, cranberries and orange, but it didn't give much direction.  So I did some searching and made something that's a combination of multiple similar recipes.  The ingredients: Acorn squash, granny smith apple, orange, dried cranberries, cinnamon and agave nectar.  Some of the recipes called for pecans or walnuts, both of which were on sale last week, but nuts are crazy expensive!  Even on sale!

Chopped up the fruit, mixed in the cinnamon, filled the 2 squash halves, poured the agave nectar over them, and baked.  There were leftover fruit mixture that I, um, did NOT eat while everything was cooking....  *innocent look*

I luckily had a guest taster this week, so there weren't a ton of leftovers.  We both agreed the squash casserole tasted kind of like cheesy mashed potatoes.  I didn't measure out the squash, I just used a whole one, so the consistency was a little runnier than I would have liked.  Next time I think I'd do a little less milk.  I'd also like to experiment with ricotta cheese in place of the sour cream and some different seasonings.  The acorn squash dish was almost like a dessert.  It was sweet and completely different from the casserole.  My guest taster thought the filling would be good in a tart or something along those lines.  I was a little disappointed that the flavors didn't soak into the squash more.  But once I got down to the bottom of the squash, I could mash it up and mix it all together.

So over all dinner was delicious, and I learned that I do like squash.  :)  I was thinking about some sort of pasta primavera with squash, zucchini and peppers for this week's dinner.  However, both brie and feta are on sale this week, so we'll see!

And, of course, it wouldn't be my blog without a goofy picture:

Delay

I left my digital camera with some of the pictures of Thursday's meal at work Friday, so my squash blog won't be up until at least Monday.  Boo!