Colleen Patrick-Goudreau of Compassionate Cooks and the Vegetarian Food For Thought podcast has written a virtual bildungsroman of vegan baking – The Vegan Joy of Baking! I tried a few things last weekend and the coffee cake knocked my socks off, but who needs socks when we have vegan baking? You can try some recipes here and also preorder it on Amazon. It’ll be out in October this year. Congrats, Colleen!
I remember doing a demo against McDonald’s in the early nineties. We had the bright idea to not just protest but to bring food, too, that way we could offer people an alternative to a Big Mac. Genius, right? If only we had brought actual food that people wanted to eat. Instead it was, and the shame is with me to this day, Fantastic Food Falafel. Yes, falafel from a box. Now look at McDonalds, they’re even bigger, and it’s all our fault.
So it makes me happy to see these cupcakes from Sugar Crash Mobile Bakery’s debut, a benefit for Josh Harper. The revolution will be frosted.
New York magazine asked me to host this vegan dinner party on May 23rd, and gave me the free range to come up with a creative menu that fit with their theme. I can’t give you all the details but think Asian Bat Mitvah!
We are having our event at a yet to be disclosed location, and if you buy a ticket, you’ll be getting an e-mail from me 24 hours in advance with the location, the menu, and some fun places to hit up before the dinner party. Before this event gets too public, I wanted to give you, my loyal friends, cooking partners, and readers, the chance to buy a ticket! Its $35 bucks, and you get a multi-course meal, open bar, dance floor and the delicious tunes of Man Man!
Buy your tickets today between 3 and 6 to make sure you get a seat!
Here are the details again:
Who: Post Punk Kitchen
What: A dinner party
When: May 23rd, 2007 from 7:30 to 11:00
Where: We’re not telling
Why: Because you want yummy food
How: Go to nymag.com/nyxny to buy a ticket for $35
The charitable partmer for this event is NY Cares.
Why didn’t I think of that? I guess sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. Cut out little shapes from fruit leather make adorable cupcake toppers!
Did I say I was sick of cupcakes? Suddenly I’m feeling better.
I know that sounds perverted, don’t blame me, blame Bingo Hag and their song about vegan cupcakes!
Earthday cupcakes from Madness Rivera in the Vegan Cupcake Pool
On Earth Day 1990 I awoke to my best friend telling me that my grandmother had just died. The day before my cat had died and my boyfriend had cheated on me with a green haired girl who was always at every punk show.
But Earth Day that year was a big deal. It was the 20th anniversary of the holiday, and although the day wasn’t really on the radar in the 20 years since 1970, the 80s were over and I suppose people were thinking that it was as good a time as any to stop snorting cocaine and go green again. So I went to Central Park with my anarchist youth collective as I had planned, there was no point sitting around in Brooklyn crying when I could be in the park with my friends. Crying.
One of our first orders of business once on the Upper East Side was to go cardboard box surfing. That is, you flatten out a cardboard box on the sidewalk, run towards it as fast as you can, jump on it and see how far you can slide. Depending on the sidewalk and the slipperiness of the box it was usually only a few feet, maybe 10 if you were really little and really lucky.
A woman with an expensive baby stroller and big sunglasses shouted at us, “You are doing this on Earth Day?” Of course, these boxes were destined for the garbage dump, any amount of surfing on them wasn’t going to make the environmental situation any worse. In fact, kudos to us for finding fun with garbage instead of sitting home, playing video games and using electricity.
Once in the park, a comfortable distance from where the B-52s were playing, we lay in the grass and did whatever teenagers do on the grass. I rolled over onto my back, away from my friends and looked up to the sky through my purple tinted sunglasses (can anyone but a teenager appreciate the world through colored lenses?). I thought about my grandma and my cat. Since that time, my first instinct whenever a loved one dies is to look up at the sky and wonder “Where the fuck did you go?”
The last time I had spoken to my grandma she had asked me to bring her mirror and make-up to the hospital. I thought of how she wasn’t just able to say that she wanted to see me one last time. I felt guilty because I never did bring her make-up and mirror and how I should have known that what she really meant was that she loved me, even if I did paint my face white and dye my hair purple. I thought about how I don’t want to grow old that way – afraid to tell people I love them.
Garbage was accumulating all around us, and it wasn’t ours. Hoards of people were making their way through the park, dropping McDonald’s wrappers and Budweiser empties and whatever else they didn’t want to deal with. I picked up a McDonald’s Earthday napkin and read the missive on it. It talked about how McDonald’s was committed to the environment and how the napkin was whatever percentage recycled material.
Did you ever make a promise to yourself that you will never forget? I can remember a few. For some reason when I was walking up my elementary school stairs in second grade I stopped, looked at the building and thought, “Never forget this day.” And I haven’t, it was March 9th. I have no idea why I wanted to remember it, other than that I was catching on to the fleetingness of life. But on Earth Day, April 22nd 1990, in the grass in Central Park, I thought it again and this time I do remember what I was thinking.
Don’t believe the lies that napkins tell you, don’t grow old and afraid of love, don’t ever stop looking up at the sky and wondering.
I had some sense at the time how hard these things would be, but 17 years later- exactly 2 times the age I was then- I’m trying to get back on track. I don’t want to disappoint that 17 year old because I feel like she’s the wisest person I know. Also, she might kick my ass if I don’t follow through.
I have a confession to make. I am sick of cupcakes. Now, don’t go burning your VCTOWs (unless you intend to replace it and line our pockets with another 98 cents). It’s just that we spent a year baking, decorating, writing and breathing cupcakes. It was bound to happen. So it’s not that I don’t appreciate all the amazing photos and cupcake love, it’s just that I needed a break from thinking about my enemy, the cupcake. Which is why you haven’t seen an update here for awhile.
Also, we’re finishing up out next cookbook, the Veganomicon (queue thunder and smiting). And although there are two cupcakes in the book my mind has just been elsewhere. Take a look at this blueberry brownie, you’ll see my mind reflected in the blueberry.
So I’m going to use the blog to just shoot the shorts about vegan baking in general and if a cupcake sneaks it’s way in…so be it!
Spoiler Alert! In the actual movie zombies descend upon the peaceful scenery and are fought off with vegan cupcakes. I think Cupcake 6 deserves an Oscar nod.
PS I love you, too!
If you are seeing this it means that you signed up for our “Mini-donut Alert Services (MAS).” I hope the alarm wasn’t too loud, this functionality is still in beta.
Our first sighting comes from lolo at VeganYumYum. I know I link to her too much. It’s like I don’t even have a blog, I just link to hers.
But while you are over there, check out her Vegan Vacation contest. It’s pretty damn awesome.
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