Friday Morning Flowers

Happy Friday!
I made this arrangement last night in my first floral design class of the semester. It's Pink Anthurium and I thought it might brighten your day :)

Weekend Baking

It's been a tasty 48 hours! Yesterday I found this recipe for cornbread and decided to give it a whirl. The main draw was that it didn't call for buttermilk, so I could substitute soy milk for regular milk. I got to use my new whisk (thanks, mom!), which was an added bonus. It turned out well, though next time I may try adding creamed corn as some people suggest. I think it will make it significantly moister.

Next up: Snickerdoodles! Thanks to one of my loyal Etsy buyers who reminded me I wanted to make these. Light, sweet, and cinnamony.

Finally, VEGAN HOMEMADE OREOS!! These turned out phenomenally well. I'm really excited about them because they taste delicious and are 100% vegan. You will not be disappointed with them! Order them from me :)

gluten free AND vegan fudge cookies

Today was my first attempt at using gluten-free flour. I picked up some of Bob's Red Mill at Costco and decided to replace regular flour in a recipe I've made several times before. I also replaced egg whites with Ener-G egg replacer. The cookies rose as usual without the addition of xantham gum, which is usually recommended with gluten free flour. Unfortunately, the recipe calls for canola oil and I used it, forgetting (as usual) that I really don't like the taste of it. On the plus side, as they are, these cookies are gluten free, vegan, peanut free, and corn free, which is an issue for some people. Next time I'll try a different oil, but I think overall these were a success. I'll get them up on Etsy soon

Note: Short and Sweets Official Tester just stopped by and tells me that the canola oil taste is all in my head. He says they are yummy and taste like chocolate and frosting. I cede to the Official Tester on this issue

Bread smells soooo good

I love the smell of bread in the oven, don't you?

I've got first rise, second rise, and the final products pictured

Bread is definitely one of those things that sounds super intimidating to make, but actually is pretty easy. It doesn't require the precision measurement that other baked goods need and timing is pretty flexible, too. Anyway, I made these of mostly whole wheat flour and a little bit of white flour. I used brown sugar for the sweetener (you need some to make the yeast happy) and some powdered goat's milk (normal people- go for cow milk. it's waaaaay cheaper) for lightness.

Unrelated, I forgot that I made animal cookies in my last big cookie bake, so here's how they turned out. I like the giraffe :)

Planning Ahead

it does happen sometimes.

I just planted my lavender seeds that I got. I figured out last week that I wanted to bake some things with flowers in them for flavoring and color and overall coolness. To bake with flowers, they really need to be organic since I don't think most people (myself included) would want to eat miracle-gro or pesticides. In a handy coincidence, I got a rose plant for Christmas that's waking up on the patio in a planter full of organic soil. Regular garden stores (or super stores) don't sell lavender seeds, I discovered, just plants that are definitely not organic. So I went online and found "French Perfume" seeds at Shepherd Seeds as suggested by a helpful garden center guy. They are sitting in their organic soil on my kitchen windowsill. Hopefully waking up from hibernation soon!

New items for Valentine's, Weddings, Anti-Valentines, and Birthday Parties

Well, today I managed to photograph all the cookies and fudge I made yesterday and post 5, count'em five, new items on ShortandSweets. I feel so productive!

I did learn that candy molds don't really work for fudge. I tried to make some rose shaped fudge and it just fell apart/didn't come out of the mold. Fudge doesn't get as hard as candy so it doesn't "pop" nicely. Oh well, it was worth a try. I did make some heart shaped fudge in an ice cube tray. The other lesson from the week is that clean glass in ones kitchen windows make doing the dishes much more pleasant.

Go! Check out all my new stuff! Tell your friends! ;)

Help Save Lives

Hearts and More

So tonight I am making vegan Valentine, Anti-Valentine, and Alphabet cookies. For the Anti Valentine cookies, I'm going to roll out the dough and cut out circles. After I bake them, I will frost a black heart in the center and then do a red outline and crossout. I like it :) Valentine cookies are much more predictable. I have the whole alphabet of letters, so I want to show people I can bake whatever message they want to spell. Tonight's letters? You'll have to check back to see!

More Results

This pic above is the result of the vegan and gluten free chocolate popcorn cranberry recipe. It tastes pretty good! Sweet cranberries contrasting with the semisweet chocolate. This time I poured it all into a 9 in pan and smooshed it around until it was evenly distributed. After it hardened, I cut it into wedges, as you can see. I think next time I will make it into small portions instead of one big chunk because it was pretty messy to cut and wanted to break apart into less than pretty shapes. I'm thinking muffin tins maybe.
These pretty vegan cookies were fun to make! I cut out the big hearts first and then cut little ones out of the middle and switched them into the other dough flavor. I added some orange zest to the light dough so the combination is chocolate orange. The chocolate cookies are REALLY chocolate since I used melted semisweet chocolate to flavor the dough, not cocoa powder. For the icing, I just piped melted chocolate onto the cookies. I also made these in star and flower shapes. I will get them onto shortandsweets.etsy.com shortly so you can see the other photos. Perfect for your sweetheart on Valentine's Day or as wedding favors :)

Results

Well, vegan meringues didn't work at all. They kinda did, but they tasted kinda funny. So I'll have to think on it and try again. I didn't get to the double chocolate things, but I did make the popcorn chocolate craisin thing and it looks good, but due to poor planning I ate too much dinner and didn't save room for dessert. sigh. I'll have to try it tomorrow and let you know!

Baking Day

Happy Monday! Today is baking day, and my goal is to try out three new recipes. I'm trying to add more gluten free items to my repertoire since I have more vegan stuff on my Etsy at the moment. So far I have one done and cooling (it's hard to wait to try it!). Not sure what to call it yet, but it's chocolate and gluten free, vegan, and has popcorn and dried cranberries in it. Seems tasty! I'll let you know what the verdict is.
Next I'm going to try and make vegan meringues and a double chocolate brownie mint type thing that's gluten free and vegan.


I'll keep you posted!

Hello!

Hello and Happy New Year!
This past fall I started my store on Etsy and I'm expanding to the blogosphere as part of my New Year New Plan. So, first, check it out: shortandsweets.etsy.com
I've got all sorts of delicious gluten free and vegan desserts, treats, and delights for sale. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my masterpiece up there this year. For a Christmas party I attended I brought this dessert:

Everything (except the tree) is edible on it, which seemed pretty cool. Popcorn, cranberries, cookies, and candy canes dress the tree, while the presents at the bottom are cut up fudge wrapped with ribbon. My other holiday project that didn't make it to my site was delicious smelling Christmas ornaments in various cookie cutter shapes and decorated with glitter:

They made our living room smell yummy!
In the upcoming week, I hope to post new items for sale for Valentine's Day and spring time. If you have any ideas for vegan or gluten free items you'd like to see for sale, please let me know!