OFF WEEK: Sorry, Gone Baking!

This weekend, I was baking a cake and forty-something mini pies for a theatre event. So I gave myself the week off cooking more new recipes.
Behold, I made a gluten-free, vegan birthday cake! And it was totally cute and more importantly delicious!

It makes me sad as hell to see vegans and gluten-freefolk bummed out and unable to celebrate with goodies with the rest of the crowd, so I try to provide options. In case you are interested, go ahead and click for THE CAKE and THE FROSTING recipes I used. I looked up the ingredients online for the sprinkles I used, and they were free of gluten and animal products (though full of food dyes, but ya pick your battles); I also had some dairy-free chocolate chips left from another recipe, so those went into the frosting between the layers. The overall effect was pretty rich and sweet, but I had it cut into small pieces to serve a crowd, so it was fine.
And the mini pies…

I made several tweaks and amendments to the recipe, and it turned out great. But I did also grant myself license to take a few shortcuts. I used (GASP!) storebought pie crust and (DOUBLE GASP) jarred caramel sauce. But then I topped the caramel with extra salt + salted peanuts, which provided the needed flavor balance.
And here are a slew of other non-blog baking projects I’ve made in the last few months.

(orange cupcakes with orange buttercream, filled with vanilla pudding)



(as described in Jami Brandli’s Sisters Three)


Enough of that! Next week, I’m back on track, don’t ye worry…
OH, and if you haven’t checked out my podcast Foodie Parlour yet, get yo ass on it!