Stardust’s Saturday baker

Attention stalkers!  As of yesterday, I have been installed as Stardust’s Saturday baker, and my first day and my new little gig was good fun.  I made a batch of whole wheat buttermilk biscuits, a vegan cinnamon-raspberry cake and a “bothersome” molasses cake with “tiresome” tangy vanilla frosting.  The last piece was a debacle, because parts of the cake stuck to the tip of the Bundt pan, and to salvage the damn thing, I decided to use some frosting to cover up the mistake.  Well, the kitchen by this point was rather warm, especially with the wonderful addition of Tony (who literally jumped up and down and screamed “Yaaaaay!” upon seeing me in the back), one of Stardust’s cadre of cooks.  The kitchen was so warm, with the oven being on, the icing kept melting off of the damn cake.  I had to stick the cake *and* the icing in the beer fridge up front to keep it solidified.

So what was supposed to be an 8 am ’til 12 noon shift turned into me staying until 2 pm, with Tony and Casey, the regular baker who was working the front, battling with my inner Martha, who was going, “It’s not PERFECT!  AAAH!!”

The cake’s fuck-ups did enable me to kind of lose my mind in the kitchen, much to Tony’s amusement, and perhaps encouragement.  When I was making the frosting for the cake in a bowl, I looked down at the creamy-sweet goodness and remarked to him how I wanted to stick my face in the frosting.  “Do it,” he said, “and run around the building yelling ‘FROSTING FAAACE!’”

So, of course, we kept screaming “FROSTING FAAACE!” in the kitchen for the next two hours or so I was there.

As you can see, despite that damn debacle of a cake (that looked to have sold well later that night), I had good fun.  I’m excited to go back next Saturday.  I’m planning on scones and cupcakes this time around.  In the meantime, I hope to make some things at my new place in order to get in a bit of practice time, and to try some new recipes out.

By the way, Tony has dubbed me as the Butter Assassin, and from here on out, I’m going to use and abuse that new moniker as much as possible.  So, next Saturday, come over to Stardust from 8 am until noon (hopefully not longer… again), where you can see me puttering about in the mushroom apron my friend Melanie bought for me as a Christmas gift one year.  All the recipes I used were based on my well-worn copy of Abigail Johnson Dodge’s book, The Weeekend Baker, which is a rather apt title considering my new job–providing I can keep it.

FROSTING FAAAACE!!

Take-out Diary #1: Ethos

I’ve been wanting to try out Ethos, the sorta-new vegan place on Orange Ave near Antique Row and Lake Ivanhoe, since it was recommended to me by my friends Fran and Joe, as well as a random vegan guy who was at Redlight Redlight when I went there last (see Beer and Cupcakes entry). If vegetarian restaurants get me excited, vegan restaurants fascinate me, as I’m interested in seeing what one can make sans diary and eggs. I mean, I know it can be done, and can be done often, but I want to know if it can be done well.

So, en route to taking Hao to work today, we called up Ethos for take-out. We managed to park on the street with no problem, just as two young women were about to speed away on mopeds, and popped inside.

The interior of Ethos looks incredibly homey, with plenty of wood accents. The design could have just as well been suitable for a neighbourhood pub or even a solid, reliable apothecary. Vegan cookies and other pastries were in a glass case, looking mighty tempting as we waited for the woman doubling as a server and cashier to bring our food out from the back and ring us up. We first saw her carrying a large tray loaded with good-looking food as she headed out to an outside patio area I didn’t investigate while we were there. The wait to be rung up wasn’t long, as the food was ready and wrapped in eco-friendly take-away.

After dropping Hao off, I took my dish, the “Healthy Trio,” to my parents’ place in Oviedo for a late lunch. The description for my trio on Ethos’ online menu is “Black and green olive tapenade, homemade hummus, and tomato-mango salsa served with toasted bread, tortilla chips, and fresh seasonal veggies.” On the whole, I was very satisfied with what I had ordered. The tomato-mango salsa tasted more of cilantro than anything else, which isn’t bad considering I love cilantro, but I had expected more of a mango flavour. This very slight disappointment was more than made up for by the bread; it appeared to have been homemade, and I couldn’t figure out if it had olive bits or perhaps some other flavouring, but it was gorgeous with the olive tapenade. Carrots and celery were provided for dipping, although I’m not very fond of the latter, along with blue corn chips, which were great with the tapenade and the salsa.

Later on in the evening, I spoke with Hao, and asked him how he liked his Peanut Pasta Salad: “Rotini pasta, broccoli, red and green peppers, onions, and Thai basil, tossed in a mild peanut sauce and garnished with cucumber.” He wasn’t as fond of it as I was with my meal; “It was too dry.” Perhaps if there was more peanut sauce to spread around, it would have hit the spot, but sadly, the Peanut Pasta Salad missed its mark with Hao.

Next time, I hope to be able to eat in the restaurant, as opposed to taking food out, but if the need strikes, I know at least one item on the menu that’ll satisfy, which gives me reasonable expectations for the rest of the menu.

Vegan bakey-bakey

A recent Kitchen Window article from NPR entitled Vegan Valentine has a trio of delicious-looking recipes, with the Chocolate Cake with Chocolate “Butter Cream” looking especially fantastic. Along the same vein, I recently ordered a book through the library, The Joy of Vegan Baking, by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, and I’m looking forward to receiving it. The website has a few sample recipes, including another chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Really, you can’t have too much of a good thing.

In any case, I’m excited to get the book, although it might be a while, since I’m ordering it through the library and it could take as long as a month. At least I’ve found some people online who give it the thumbs-up; The Joy of Vegan Baking has been endorsed by Eat Air - A Vegan Food Log, and the photos they have up of their concoctions look yum, especially the cookies shaped like squirrels and acorns. I want squirrel-shaped cookie cutters. It would be even cooler to have squirrel and blue jay cookie cutters, then I can have the cookies fight each other, like I’ve seen them do in real life. Really, I think the two species have arboreal turf wars; I saw a blue jay chase a squirrel away outside my window before.

Anyway, I’m not vegan, but I’m interested in vegan baking because I’ve known a few vegans, and it seems to me that one of the hardest things about being vegan is dealing with baked goods: Does it have eggs? Does it have milk? Honey? Gelatin?

In the past, I’ve done my own vegan experimentations with some successes, like my Cinnamon Vegan Banana-Blueberry Cake, but also some misses. A batch of biscuits I made with vegan butter came out ghastly, which I suspect may have been due to the softness of the vegan spread in comparison to real butter in the same temperature–and the soy flour may have had something to do with it as well. Also, I can’t help but be annoyed with some vegan substitute products which, upon close inspection, hardly seem like suitable substitutes. I was using Tofutti’s Sour Supreme sour cream substitute in the “Cinna-gan-nana-berry Cake” until I read the ingredients, which included partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Apparently, the company now makes a non-hydrogenated version, but good luck finding it at Publix. My question is: Why don’t they just make the regular version non-hydrogenated? Should vegans really have to choose between dairy and trans-fats?

Orlando actually has a couple of vegan-friendly spots with baked goods. Earlier this evening I was at Dandelion, and there were vegan cupcakes in the display case. There is also Ethos, which I have yet to go to, but I’ve heard they have vegan baked goods as well, which their menu confirms.

If you want to try your hand at vegan bakey-bakey, there are quite a few online resources that put me to shame in how little I’ve buggered with egg- and dairy-free baking. The BBC has an article on New ways of baking with, guess what, a recipe for a chocolate cake, although this particular recipe is raising an eyebrow with its “2 tbsp tahini.” Tahini? Moving on, the Post Punk Kitchen has more vegan baking tips and recipes. Chocolate cake? Check. If you’re looking for recipes and baking tips, ChooseVeg.com has some, although one ought to be aware of the graphic photos of animal abuse on its home page (Aaah! The chicken has no eyes!), so if you want to go straight to the recipes, click here. Chocolate cake recipe? Hell, they have a video on making theirs.

Should you be too intimidated to bake from scratch, or if you really want convenience short of a drive to Ethos or Dandelion, Goodbaker and Black Sheep Bakery sell baking mixes on their respective websites, though I can’t attest for how good these are, having not tried them (thoughts, anyone?). You can go a step further and order vegan baked goods online for delivery. Go ahead and Google it or use the Kanye West search engine (I’m serious, it really exists), or go to Etsy and check out their vegan section in “Plants and Edibles.” Some of the Etsy photos for these foodstuffs are nothing short of sexy.

And on Valentine’s Day, who doesn’t want sexy food?