Baking on a Tuesday...?

Yes, indeed. Tuesday night was full of baking. Three hours of baking, plus another hour and a half this morning. I was tired after all that, but it was for a good purpose - a party. We're always having some kind of party at work. ALWAYS. Today was a breakfast for all our different departments, and there's a lot of us, so we had to make sure there was enough food. I did my part. First, I made a double batch of cinnamon rolls. The same ones I made a couple of weeks ago, only double (duh). I did everything but bake them last night, and stuck them in the fridge to chill out until this morning so I could bake them fresh. They got huge in the fridge. Once again, I used flax as my egg replacer. Everything else was the same (x's two!).

Pretty in the pan.

Gooey

Up close and gooey

While the dough for those was rising so I could roll them out, I made Pumpkin Streusal Cake from Veganomicon. I made no changes to this one, it was awesome as is.

This cake was moist and perfect.

After the cake, I gave up for the night. I woke up bright and early (4 am) and made scones. Specifically, Chocolate Chip Scones from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I had a tiny problem with these. I kept adding flour and no matter how much I added, I couldn't get them not sticky so I could shape them. So I just scooped them up and dropped them on the cookie sheet. They came out fine. Fluffy and sweet and chocolatey.

Sprinkled with demerara.

There's the spread. Vegan sausage, pancakes with apples on top, pumpkin streusal cake, cinnamon roll and fruit. There was a scone, but I ate it before the photo. Like a true southern dweller, I washed it all down with a Diet Sundrop. Breakfast of Champions.

Well, now. I am just entirely too proud of myself.

Today, for the very first time, I baked with yeast. I know, the FIRST TIME, right? I was scared of yeast, this is true. But no more. I have conquered my fear! With cinnamon rolls! See, I have been wanting to make cinnamon rolls for a very long time now. I finally decided that I wanted to make some for a work party, in which we have a carry-in breakfast for the whole building. The party isn't until next week, so I decided to practice this morning. I found a great looking recipe on VegWeb and used it. I used flax eggs, and for the filling, I used half demerara and half sucanat. I had extra filling, but that might have just been me. It was a proud moment for me when my yeast got foamy. I killed the yeast on my first attempt, but nailed it on the second. I nearly cried when they came out of the oven.

Then, I put a simple glaze on them:

The only complaint I had was that there wasn't enough glaze. That is a problem easily solved. Otherwise, amazing.

Cake? How could I forget the cake?!

I appear to be a little behind, as I keep finding pictures of things I forgot I made. And I just made them last weekend, how terrible is my memory? Last Saturday, Oct. 25th, was my mom's birthday. She requested a lemon cake with lemon frosting. I told her I could do that. And I did.

There it is in all its heart-shaped glory. I used the Vegan with a Vengeance Lemon Gem Cupcake recipe, only baking it as a cake for around 30 minutes. It was perfect. I wanted the frosting a little more sturdy, so I used shortening instead of margarine.

Mmmm, frosting...

And, for Halloween, I made cookies for work. Bat-shaped cookies. Bat-shaped chocolate cookies. Bat-shaped chocolate cookies with icing. Bat-shaped chocolate cookies with icing and sprinkles. You get the point I'm trying to make, right?

Already packed up to go, because I forgot to take pictures (sigh, again).

I used Kittee's recipe for Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies. They were amazing, as always, and taste like brownies. Or Cocoa Puffs.

And, finally, to bring me up to date, I have actual brownies, not brownie-flavored cookies. Yesterday I was off work and decided to make brownies for a groovy guy who is sick and loves brownies. I used this recipe from Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk! I never have close access to soy yogurt and I was out of soy sour cream, so I blended half a block of extra firm silken tofu with the two tablespoons of soy milk and used that in place of soy yogurt. I also used a Green & Blacks dark chocolate bar instead of chocolate chips. They came out perfectly. I shoveled two in my mouth, hid two away for later and wrapped the other five up for my man-friend.

So shiny and crackly.