Vegan Brownies?!?

Please excuse the poor quality of this photo,,, took it from my iPhone and not my usual DSLR.

I've just recently watched an amazing movie called Earthlings which is a  2005 movie about humanity's use of animals as pets, clothing, entertainment, scientific research, and food.  This movie has opened my eyes particularly towards what I consume in my diet.  I've watched Food Inc. a few years prior, but hadn't effected anywhere as disgusted as this film.  After watching this film, I was so confuse on the direction I wanted my diet to move.  After pondering and sharing to my feeling with co-workers, one of them had made a good point regarding the consumption of meat.  Natives who live in cold climates need to hunt animals to eat in order to survive because vegetation is so scarce.  I then thought about the fact that even in the animal world, they hunt other animals for food for survival.  I came to the conclusion that I do not wish to become a vegetarian, or vegan, but a Flexitarian .   I now do my research to make sure that the meats, eggs, dairy, items I purchase were from animals that had a a live.  Free range, organic, and not from a genetically modified chicken that lays over 20 eggs a day.  You get what I mean.

Its hard... but I've been doing a bunch of research and found some really cool recipes.  I stumbled upon a Vegetarian Brownie from a site called Love Food Eat.(Click on the link to go to her site)  I read the comments and those who made the recipe were very happy with the results and most importantly, the taste.

So here it is, my first attempt on a Vegan Brownies, I've modified her recipe and cut all the ingredients pretty much in half because I wanted to make a small batch to test it out. 

Yield 12

Equipment:

Baking Pan 5x8
Parchment paper

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ cup vegan chocolate chips
• 3 table spoon of olive oil
• 3/4 cups water
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 ripe banana mashed well.

Directions:

1. 
Combine all the dry ingredients and mix well.
2.
Mash the banana, and combine all the we ingredients together
3.
combine the wet and dry ingredients.
4.
Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and pour the batter into the pan.  Spread the batter so its all even, and place it into a 350 degree oven for 15-20 mins.    You may want to check earlier if you want a gooey consistency.

Looks like Brownie batter =D

All in all it tasted pretty good!  Not the best I must admit, I think I added too much banana, I should have just used 1/2 because it was a bit gummy.  Practice makes perfect!  My next attempt, Double Chocolate Cookies,  researching right now!

My Procrastination Syndrome...Themed Cake: Angry Bird

Shame on me.... what's my excuse this time.... Diablo 3!!  I've been playing this game for the past 3 months now... enough excuses...  I should make it my goal to post at least 1 entry every month!

My co-worker's daughter's birthday was on June 10th.  Two week prior I overheard her in the next office talking about how she wanted to buy a themed cake for her daughter's 8th birthday and was waiting on pricing confirmations from bakers.  As soon as she passed my office door, I waved her inside and asked her about the cake she was going to get her daughter.  She showed me some Angry Bird Cakes.  I ashed her which cake had she planed on getting her daughter from the pictures she showed me and it was a 2 layer cake, being a rectangle base, and a circle second layer.  I then asked her how much she would be charged for such beautiful cakes and I was astonished to hear that it would be approximately $400.  I looked at it and said that I could replicate that cake and charge only half the price.  She was a bit skeptical, but I quickly whipped out my iPhone and showed her my past wedding cakes and she was convinced.  For the next half hour we planned out the detail of the cake.  It took me a whole week to plan out her cake and prepare the marshmallow fondant ready a few days before.    I took the Friday off to baked the cake in the morning and masked it in the evening. 

 On the day of her daughter's birthday, I delivered the cake with my car's AC BLASTING because it was incredibly hot!.  I was soooooooo afraid the cake was going to melt.

Everything turned out well.  I assembled the cake at her house and all the kids were excited.  It made me really happy **blush**

Piggies make out of Timbits wrapped with marshmallow fondant!!!

 
It was very tiring and labour intensive.  All-in-all I was very pleased with the results! It's a matter of time before I do another cake!