Cupcakes took over my life

This month has been consumed with whiskey-filled cupcakes. Seriously. They're kind of taking over my life. Earlier this month, I made a whole crap ton of them, and headed up to Scranton for Parade Day. 

Let me school you on a little thing called Parade Day. Thousands of people descend on the small city of Scranton, PA wearing their finest green t-shirts and drink until their livers beg for mercy or they get arrested, whichever happens first. The bars open around 8AM, and the actual parade starts around Noon. But as you could expect, most of the people who go to the bar at 8AM never actually make it to the Parade. It's a long day of drunken revelry all in the name of green beer. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's sad, but it's always interesting. 

Parade Day used to be the most magical day of the year for me. I loved it, obsessed over it. I made big countdowns on put them on my wall and saved my change all year to buy my own personal bottle of whiskey for the festivities. Those days are gone now, (my drinking capacity has all but diminished) but I still look back on Parade Days past and remember them fondly. (Well, what I can actually remember...)

Since partaking in the festivities no longer interests me, the lovely ladies at the Fanciful Fox suggested I set up a table outside their store, and feed the drunken masses with my goodies. And I said, "Well, why NOT?" I loaded up my car with cupcakes, grabbed my little brother and headed to downtown Scranton. 

It was an interesting day to say the least. My brother, at the tender age of ten, learned a lot about business, cash handling, and the dangers of alcohol poisoning. I made some money to put towards the business, and people got tasty treats. Really, everybody won.

The big sellers of the day were the goodies with booze in them, of course. The Carbomb cupcakes and Irish Coffee Whoopie Pies made me a lot of new friends. To make them vegan, I make my own Irish cream. I know, I'm fancy.

It was a really fun day, and definitely the best way to spend Parade Day if you're not drinking. Thanks again to everyone who stopped by and enjoyed a treat. And of course, a very special thanks to the ladies at the Fanciful Fox for helping me make it happen. Slainte!

How I Spent My Winter Vacation

It's been awhile, and I hope no one's been worried about me. I've been MIA most of this month because I've been on vacation for the last week and a half! Don't get too excited, I barely left town, but I did have a full week of no-work, responsibility-free fun. I tried to stay away from the internet as much as possible, and just enjoyed spending time with my workaholic boyfriend, who was also on vacation. I'm here to give a recap for all you Nosey Nancies out there. (Don't worry, sometimes I lurk too...)

My vacation started by baking a bunch of cupcakes and cookies and heading up to Scranton to visit family and friends and drop off an order. Banana Split cupcakes, bowling, laundry, haircuts, and vegan chili cheese fries filled up my agenda.

AND I got a belated Christmas gift from one of my closest friends, Justin. I've been drooling over this necklace for awhile, and even though I never told him about it, somehow, he knew. I guess after 15 years of friendship, it comes with the territory. But seriously, how cute is this??

I headed back to Philly, and Ken and I did some nice weekend stuff. Gospel Brunch with friends at Johnny Brenda's...

...and a visit to meet Ken's new nephew! I've been working on a blanket for him over the last month and it was awesome to finally have a sweet little baby to wrap up all warm.

We spent our Valentine's Day enjoying the beautiful weather in Philly (over 50 degrees!). We headed to Chinatown, ate some Bahn Mi and honeycomb waffles, and roamed the streets and stores finding all kinds of gems.

That night we headed to a dinner party. I made some cake: vegan chocolate cake with a raspberry Chamboard filling, a raspberry Chamboard frosting and a dark chocolate ganache topping. It needs a little tweaking before I can give you the recipe, but it was a pretty big hit among the party guests.

Tuesday, Ken took me to New York. He had planned a really sweet, romantic getaway, but God laughed at all our plans, and after losing a debit card and forgetting to take enough cash out (combined with our lack of smart phones) we had to improvise. Not to be deterred, we still had a great day full of free art at the Met, tasty snacks, and a self-guided walking tour of Ken's alma mater, NYU.  Best of all, I finally made it to Lula's Apothecary and got some vegan pistachio ice cream in my belly. I'm pretty sure I'd walk 20 miles in a mud storm with someone whipping me the whole way to get another scoop of that good stuff, so it definitely made the trip worth it. After a long day of riding trains and walking the big city, we got home late and slept like fat babies.

The rest of our vacation was pretty uneventful. I did a lot of cleaning around the house, more laundry and organizing, mixed with ample amounts of reading, loafing and snacking. I made sure to meet up with my lady friends for early-afternoon Lucille Bluth-style lunching and enjoyed the sunshine and ridiculously unseasonable temps that blessed Philadelphia last week as much as I possibly could. And of course, I got in lots of quality time with my sweet little love, Gracie LaRoux.

I didn't get to leave the Mid-Atlantic region, let alone see a sunny beach, but I did ease deeply into that stress-free vacation mind-set. Now it's back to work, back to baking, back to cold temps, and back to the grind...

Banana Split Cupcakes

I made these beauties awhile ago to take to a friend's New Year's Day party. Which also happened to be one of the craziest parties I've been to in awhile. People wasted at 3 in the afternoon, a girl walking around with a bottle of whiskey in her overalls calling it her "whiskey baby", an old man with a light-saber inside a traffic cone as a hat, and Elvis double dipping in the black-eyed peas. You can't make this stuff up people.

Oh yeah, and these cupcakes added to the debauchery. They've got a little of everything in them. It's a vegan banana cupcake with pineapple and chocolate swirled inside, topped with a vegan vanilla buttercream, chocolate ganache drizzle, homemade vegan caramel sauce, chopped walnuts, rainbow sprinkles, and of course a cherry on top. YOWZA. I didn't even get to try one of these they went so quickly, but everyone seemed to enjoy them. I could tell because on 3 separate occasions someone said, "Oh, YOU made the cupcakes!", then hugged me. And I don't think that was just the whiskey babies talking.

Did I ever tell you I grew up across the street from an ice cream shop? Nothing fancy, just a little shack next to a gas station that was only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. My favorite treats from there were mint chocolate chip ice cream in a cup, soft-serve vanilla chocolate twist in a cone with rainbow sprinkles, blue-raspberry slushies, strawberry milkshakes, CMP (chocolate, marshmallow, peanut) sundaes, and of course (on special occasions only) their banana splits. Which were always served in a little plastic boat. 3 mounds of ice cream (vanilla, chocolate and swirl), with a half a banana on either side of the boat. The vanilla was covered in pineapple preserves, the chocolate was covered in strawberries, and the whole thing was smothered in hot fudge and topped with walnuts, sprinkles, whipped cream and a cherry on top. And I always had to share it with my mom. I think I did a pretty awesome job recreating those banana splits in cupcake form. And you don't have to share these with anyone else.

These cupcakes are, of course, from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Honestly, if you like to bake and don't have this book yet, I don't know what's wrong with you. GET ON IT, PEOPLE.

And now I'm also thinking about a banana split layer cake. And what kind of layers it should have. And since everyone seems to have their own opinion on what a banana split should have in it, I'm asking you: What would be in your banana split?

THE GREATEST WEDDING EVER

I've been teasing you about this for awhile, and I'm finally ready to deliver the goods. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Some dear friends of mine eloped a few months ago. They're silly in love and adorable. They decided to have a party this summer for their family and friends to celebrate with them. What they managed to do was to throw not only the greatest wedding the world has ever known, but one of the greatest parties of all time.

There were pretzels and tomato pie. Homemade wine and kegs of great beer. Chickpea, Green bean and carrot salads in chinese take-out containers. Hand written signs labeled all the treats.

Decorations? Simply beautiful flowers in glass Ball jars and tea cups. Hand made bunting. It managed to be elegant, classy and casual all at once. The Bride and Groom looked lovely and dapper, respectively, without the traditional garb. I was fully impressed.

Dinner was served by Taco Truck. Honest Tom's Tacos. Chicken, or Grilled Sweet Potatoes. Crazy good Gucamole. And a drink they referred to as the "Arnoldo Palmer": Tamarindo juice mixed with lemonade. It was so refreshing my mind didn't quite know how to handle it.

And by now you should know about the desserts. Three different varieties of cupcakes, three different varieties of shortbread cookies, all VEGAN! We set up a dessert table that also included bowls of fruit candy and salt water taffy. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the desserts, and I was pleased with the way it all turned out.

The best part was the entertainment. Soulamite, a Philadelphia soul band that hasn't played together in a few years, got back together just for this party. They were still so tight, it's like they never stopped playing. And once they started playing, the party didn't stop dancing!

So for all you brides out there, take note. This wedding had everything a good party should: Great food, drinks and desserts, amazing music, beautiful decorations, and lots of love and good times had by all, without all that usual wedding stuffiness. Here's to a long and happy life together for Doc and Nicole!

Technical Difficulties

Guys, what happened to August? Is September really next week? I feel like I feel into a black whole of baking and lost an entire month. Sheesh! 

Oh well. I've been looking forward to sweaters and pumpkins and apples since those heat waves in July, so perhaps it's for the best. Chilly air means more pies are in my future, and that means your future's looking good too. 

I haven't given you guys a recipe for ahwile. I have a recipe for vegan rice pudding that I want to share with you. But I'm having some technical difficulties uploading photos. This is probably a good time to show you some of the things I've been doing to keep me so busy this month. Let's start with the filming I did with It's a Cupcake for Unique Eats. 

Mona from It's a Cupcake does savory cupcakes. With things like chicken and salmon. I know, it sounds weird. But people love them. She's got some vegetarian ones with hummus and the like. Hopefully I'll work with her to develop a vegan savory base so that vegans won't be left out of the world of savory cupcakes. If that's the kind of thing you think you'd be into. 

Unique Eats came to showcase her savory cupcakes. I made some vegan sweet cupcakes that got a minute or two in the spotlight. I think my hands might have made a cameo while sprinkling the mango cupcakes! Hollywood, look out...

On the vegan menu: Mango Madness Cupcake- Mango cupcake with homemade mango jam filling and a lime buttercream. 

Also vegan: Chocolate Cherry Cupcake- Chocolate cupcake infused with Monk's Blend tea, filled with cherry syrup and topped with vanilla buttercream and a cherry. 

My dear friend and former roommate Abbie dropped off some paintings for the walls. Stellar stuff. Especially if you're into robots and ninjas. (And honestly, if you're not into those things, I'm not sure we can be friends anymore.)

Thankfully the production crew were really nice. The space is small, and their stuff was big, so we were in close quarters. It was really fun watching how shows like Unique Eats are made. Also, with their ridiculously expensive cameras, everything looks beautiful. Even the saddest looking cupcake looks like a starlet on their monitors. 

They said the show should be airing in November or December. You know I'll be sure to keep you updated on the air date. And till then, stop by Unitea in the University City area of Philadelphia (on S 44th St near Spruce), to try some of It's a Cupcake's offerings. You may also find some of my delicious vegan treats on the menu!