Happy Birthday Cupcake For Mommy

They say it's my mommy's birthday. Every year my mommy says, "didn't I tell you and your sister not to get me anything?" One reason my mommy doesn't want anything is because she stopped counting birthdays.

She doesn't want my sister to get her anything because my sister's perpetually broke and getting my mom a present would mean just hitting my mom up for more money later which really kind of means that in the long run my mom bought herself the present.This does not at all indicate that my sister is ungenerous or slothful or frivolous. Her Dickensian story is for another day. (this is what I call a cyclical gift-not to be confused with the diabolical "re- gift")

Did you ever receive a re- gift? I did. From a wealthy cheapo. Mrs. Scrooge didn't even have the decency to re- wrap the crappy gift they didn't want. They gave it to me with the original paper hanging off. Yuk. I mean why splurge on a piece of scotch tape.

The most prevalent reason my mom doesn't want anything is because many birthdays ago and one particularly auspicious April 17th my mom went into labor and gave birth to a 2.75 pound preemie...Me! (April 18th)

Now isn't that the best gift ever? Happy Birthday, Mommy.

Vegan raspberry cream cheese cup cake for Mommy! xoxox

Raspberry Frosting

4 Oz. tofutti
1/4 stick earth balance (softened-room temp)
3 C powdered sugar
tsp rice milk
tsp vanilla
2 T TJ's organic raspberry preserves (or your fave)

Cream tofutti and earth balance. Add powdered sugar. Beat 2-3 minutes. Add vanilla and rice milk. Continue to mix to frosting consistency. Stir in preserves.

Share with your birthday pal.

The Activist and the Cupcake

I know. I know I've been missing in action here. Do you even know I haven't been here? It's been a whole week. Lately when I'm not working, I'm sleeping or trying to wrap my head around global catastrophe. I pray a lot. For Japan of course. Other countries. Sarah Palin's soul. I want to do something. I know I will. Throwing a few bucks at the tsunami relief fund seems trite. I started to set up a product with donation proceeds on my Etsy page and I took it down.  I didn't want to jump right into this now and then forget about this disaster up the road when this will take years maybe decades to rebuild a country and people's lives.
I was at a party about a month ago. I had catered the dessert and knew very few people there. I was also an inconspicuous guest. I was wiped and took up space on the couch. This woman sat next to me. She fondled a cupcake, and held it up to her friend across the room and Soto vocce "these are the best cupcakes I've ever had." Her friend pointed to me and said, there's the baker. The woman introduced herself to me and covered her heart with her hands and praised my almighty cupcakes. The woman and I chatted and she told me she was an international peace activist. Like right up there with the Dalai Lama. Really. We discussed world events, or rather she did.
 I interjected very astute opinions like, "Oh what a bloodbath!" I think I said that several times.  "Oh what a blood bath!"And "Yep, it's a good thing that guy in the Middle East stepped down." or "it could have been another blood bath." Feel free to use the blood bath retort at your next party. It's a great icebreaker.
Believe it or not the international activist thought this was a very good point, and then she got up to get another cupcake.
As I gathered my trays to leave several Buddhist guests were gathered at the cupcake shrine. They placed there hand over their hearts and nodded their heads in reverence.
"You are doing a great service to mankind".
Humbled and grateful, I answered in my best Brooklyn accent.
"Go on... get outta here."

So I'm not sure what I can do about anything except show up, do the next right thing and more will be revealed. In the meantime, here's some comfort food pics. Wishing you all peace.

Ripplin Raspberry

Pretty in Punk

Peppy Paddy

You name 'em I'm tired.

MoFo 14 Yippeekay Dessert Day

Yippeekayay it's dessert day here at Veganville. Yep these are a couple of the new Voopee Pies you see. Truth be told before they hit the oven I didn't think I'd like them as much as the "Punk-in" or "What's up Doc" or "PB Lover" voopees. I mean what's the big deal about chocolate anyway? Ho hum. Zzzzzz. Well 17 minutes later these "little devils" wafted through the oven door and awakened me from my chocolate indifference. Those little devils cooled out on a rack, (no not my rack), and called to momma. While they were chillin' I whipped up a couple of different frostings.

And Let me tell you, the new voopees melt in your mouth with a basic vegan butter cream.

Vegan cream cheese frosting makes them decidedly decadent.

Lastly, (I'm sorry I don't have a picture here. I will later in the week with a recipe). I switched up the whole voopee with spreading the inside of a one cookie with raspberry jam and then frosting it with a raspberry, tofutti and earthbalance cream cheese filling. OMG another new Voopee. I think I'll name it "Truffle Off to Buffalo". Maybe. Who knew that cocoa could be so good? All this time, I've been in the dark about chocolate, (bad pun intended).

See ya tomorrow.