Vegan Cupcakes and Emergency Chocolate.

I'm not afraid to say that I'm not particularly good at baking - cakes, cookies, desserts... they just aren't my forte.

But after the success of the delicious Hummingbird Bakery red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, I decided to try my luck at making a vegan version. My mum was throwing a long awaited house-warming and her fiancée is a vegan... which I know can be really hard sometimes. I tried it once, I lasted about 7 hours before running for the cheese counter, sweating like a crack addict. As a house warming gift, I decided to change the dairy parts of the red velvet and cream cheese recipe to their soy counterparts, but I tried two different batches of this to no avail. The cake in the casing cooked like a cake, but the rest of the mixture rose and then spread across the baking tray to create a cookie type consistency. When I tried to get the cakes out, the cookie topping snapped off and I was left with a very small amount of cake in the casings. Not good.
That's when all my prayers were answered... I found this.

Awesome Vegan Cupcake Recipe.

With all the excitement of my amazing new cakes and then the party, I forgot to take a photo! Never mind, let's just say they looked like little pieces of chocolate heaven that had risen perfectly and were smothered in a thick, creamy (ahem.) delicious non dairy cream cheese frosting. And covered with sprinkles :)

A little snap from the house-warming. My best friend Alex.

They went down a treat, and now I'm going to make Marc (Mum's fiancée) a vegan cake for his birthday too. Am currently playing with the idea of a chocolate and morello cherry cake with chocolate chilli frosting. Think I may do a trial run first....

Other interesting food news. 

We made more ribs!

This is them when we had just put the barbecue rub on them, before they went into the oven for four hours. We chose pork ribs this time as a variation and a different sauce and rub. The problem with ribs is that unless you have the money to buy epic and massive ones, there is just very little meat on  them and they are so awkward to eat. The Jamie Oliver book that is basically our bible because we can't afford any other cook books *sniff* has two different rib recipes. I definitely preferred the sauce on these, it was a great barbecue sauce but it was quite a lot of effort for a very small amount of sauce. The search for the best rib recipe continues....

This is one of the best things I have ever come across. FINALLY someone understands! Emergency food items are  a good idea Lord Sugar. Get me an emergency biscuit NOW.

 Rob seems to think I've got a bit of addiction to Come Dine with Me. It's not an addiction... I do not need Come Dine with Me rehab. But I did watch it earlier this evening, not because I wanted to... honest! That's where I came across this:

What do we think of this? Apparently it originates from a Hugh Fearnley recipe but it just screams unnatural to me. She cut open a huge turkey, layed some chesnut stuffing and then two ducks breast on top. She then made a layer of apricot and sausagemeat stuffing and then a layer of pheasant and then a layer of bacon strips... (This is beginning to sound like Epic Meal Time). She then continued to sew the turkey back together. Something just isn't right here. 

Rob cooked a deliciously comforting spag bol for dinner. And I'm consider making french toast with a huge scoop of Ben and Jerry's Phish Food on top for good measure... Nigella style midnight treat. I've even got a silk dressing gown to match.