KZCAKES: cupcakes

November 25, 2016

It All Started With A Cupcake

November 25, 2016

I went vegan after I made my first successful vegan cupcake. It was actually this cupcake recipe from Chloe Coscarelli, and at the time I...

I went vegan after I made my first successful vegan cupcake. It was actually this cupcake recipe from Chloe Coscarelli, and at the time I'd just seen her win cupcake wars with her vegan cupcakes! All I knew about her at the time, was that she was just a girl my age (almost exactly to the date!) who loved to make cupcakes, and I thought, "how different can we be?" and so once I tried out her recipe and loved it, I thought, "why would I make any other kind of cupcakes but these?" so then I decided I would go vegan, because as long as I could still have cupcakes, there was nothing holding me back!

When Alex and I moved to New Jersey, we didn't know anyone and were just starting to make some new friends, so I decided to bake lots of vegan cupcakes for people and all of sudden we were having big parties at our apartment, the cupcakes always the highlight of the night.

I busied myself testing recipe after recipe, and baked zillions of cupcakes. A year or two later, I began selling them by the dozen to friends, coworkers, and anyone else I knew.

When friends came to visit, we pretty much spent the whole time baking together. That became the only thing I knew how to do!!

I started selling out of my apartment, I had a little menu, ranging from classic flavors like chocolate peanut butter and red velvet, to whacky flavors like Sloppy Drunk (rum cake with tequila buttercream and a wine-soaked piece of fruit) and Irish Barfight (butterscotch-filled vanilla cake with a whiskey buttercream, dipped in cherry puree and sprinkled with mini chips).

People ordered them for wedding showers, baby showers, weddings, birthdays, valentines day, Christmas, Hanukkah, anniversaries, or just to eat for themselves (which I encouraged)!

The flavor I sold the most of was the Pumpkin Spice cake with a cinnamon buttercream and a candied pecan. I always made a giant batch of candied pecans so I'd have them leftover to eat. What is the deal with pecans and why are they so impervious to our willpower?

Another big hit was my New Years cupcakes. They were pretty simple, actually. It was a pink champagne cake with a raspberry champagne buttercream, topped with raspberries and gold sprinkles. My brother said they were his favorite cupcake he ever had, and I know that's not a lie, because he is very honest, for better or worse.

New Jersey is special to me, not only because it is the birthplace of my veganism, but also the place I remember spending most of my time in my kitchen, baking during every free hour, no matter if I had 6 friends in the kitchen with me, or if it was just me and my tunes. I loved hosting brunches and dinners in my apartment, and loved meeting new friends and learning that when you're new in town, the best way to meet people is to lure them in with vegan baked goods!

October 28, 2014

Tengo 27.

October 28, 2014

Obligatory birthday post! I had tons of things keeping me busy this month, including having my brother and some of his friends visit, shows...

Obligatory birthday post! I had tons of things keeping me busy this month, including having my brother and some of his friends visit, shows to go to, CMJ, my sister-to-be come and stay for a few days, and birthday festivities! First things's first: Champs. We go to champs at least once a week. We make a point to take everyone who visits us to Champs at least once while they visit. We are pretty much obsessed. They've always offered specials, but they now make these printed cards that they put inside the menu with three specials offerings, because it's often easy to miss them when you stumble in. This is the sweet potato hash, and it has kale, mushrooms, onion, sweet potato, guac, sliced jalapeños and their chipotle dressing, which I am in love with. This dish was created specifically for me and my taste buds. No just kidding, it was on the specials list. They'll make it specially for you too.

It's a tradition we have in our little two-person family that we celebrate all special occasions, including but most importantly birthdays, with Ethiopian food. Our favorite restaurant is in New Jersey where we used to live, so we make the trek out there every once in a while. Now, to go over two tolled NY State bridges, through the Garden State Parkway, and whatever godforsaken traffic said obstacles may be withholding, that's got to be some damn good food. Believe me -- it is that good. We make a thing of it and get appetizers, eat every last bite on the platter, get Ethiopian coffee, and vegan chocolates. They are also BYOB, so we bring a couple bottles of red wine and yeah, like I said, make a thing of it.

Now, while photographs of Ethiopian food may not be magazine-cover status, the taste of it is way better than anything that has every graced the cover of Bon Appetit. This is especially true at Mesob Restaurant in Montclair, New Jersey. I have eaten at dozens of Ethiopian restaurants in several different states including legendary DC and PA. Mesob still wins. This is the best food. Ever.

We went to Mesob on the weekend before my birthday, which fell on a Tuesday, and the hassle of getting to and from Mesob on a weeknight is pretty impossible. So on my actual birthday, Alex cooked! It's really cute to see this super learned almost doctor get so flustered and confused by tasks that I complete on the reg. It makes me feel powerful. Anyway, he did a great job. He followed the recipe for New England Glam Chowder from Isa Does It, and lucky for him I always make notes in the margins of anything confusing or what I thought worked or suggestions for next time, such as "salt!" or "put nori in the blender," because I could see him literally losing his mind trying to crumble nori by hand. It came out great and we adorned it with handfuls of oyster crackers.

Surprise! He made me cupcakes! Baby's first cupcake! Also the first cupcake I ate that I didn't make or buy! They were perfect. The best birthday cupcakes I could ask for.

We put the cupcakes on the table in lieu of bread or whatever you dip in your glam chowder. Just kidding, we didn't dip our cupcakes in it. That would be gross.

The following weekend I made a meal that we lovingly refer to as "Italian Dinner." The plate is divided into quadrants. It always has meetballs, pasta, greens with beans, and caesar salad. It comes with breadsticks and red wine. As uncustomizable as I have just made it sound, I changed it ever-so-slightly this time, by making the tempeh meetballs from Isa Does It, instead of my usual recipe. I also made the beans with a ton of arugula my Italian customer gave me from his garden. This time I made the sauce how his father makes it. It was on point. I was inducted into this family when I was taught the secret to his success this summer. My Italian food game is at an all-time high.

We've talked about the breadstick phenomenon, haven't we? It's like when you bake someone some bread, they are like, "Oh cool. Bread." But when you bake them breadsticks they are like, "OMG I LOVE BREADSTICKS," you know? They are only like 20 minutes more difficult and warrant a 100% better and more worthy response. Plus they are better for dipping into your special sauce.

The day after I made this dinner I got really sick, and decided I am going raw. I always say I'm going raw forever after I get sick. Rt4? Compromise? Who's to say... Oh look! Almond Butter!

KZ Passing out now.

June 12, 2014

The Spring is My First Love

June 12, 2014

So much to catch up on! What with the end of Spring and all of its festivities, I've been backlogged with exciting vegan happenings, ...

So much to catch up on! What with the end of Spring and all of its festivities, I've been backlogged with exciting vegan happenings, food, music and news :). I left you all somewhere in the beginning of May, when the weather began to slowly soften and become friendly to New Yorkers and East-Coasters alike. It's been slow going, but I'm enjoying every cool breeze I can catch before the unbearable third-floor heat hits my skin for three. straight. months. I've been procrastinating putting in my air conditioner, in part because I think I might drop it. But also because I'm hanging on to Spring's last dying breaths, telling myself its not time for sweltering heat yet.

So since you didn't stop by for a dramatic weather reading, I can share with you some of my food projects during the month of May. Mother's Day was nice, since I got to spend it with my mom in New England. We did yoga together, went food shopping, other shopping, and had a nice Mother's Day lunch. As per tradition, I made cupcakes. These are Coffee Almond Chocolate.

For a week or two I tried to follow an all-raw diet. I had been feeling sort of sluggish and felt like I ate too much after every meal, and generally that I wasn't putting the best food possible into my body. I ran into trouble while in transition, often feeling light-headed and tempted. Mostly hungry. Hangry, even. I was in a bad mood a lot. I think the key to a raw food-exclusive diet is to keep full throughout the day. Snack often and never let yourself get so hungry that you crave other food. I think it's also something you really have to stick with, then it gets easier with time. I'm really just rattling off ideas here, because as I said, I only lasted a couple weeks.

I've been trying to limit sugar and eat more salad, but still somehow find myself eating pasta all the time. I made and drank smoothies for breakfast for a couple months too, all from Kathy Patalsky's 365 Vegan Smoothies! Anyone have words of encouragement/discouragement for a raw diet?

We hit up the shop-up, obviously, in mid-May. This time I got Yeah Dawg! which are homemade hot dogs made from sweet potato and vegetables, topped with homemade sauerkrauts and pineapple! It's all about the pineapple.

That's Sriracha, not ketchup!

I found myself making dinner late one night, the BF out of town. I was trying to eat up some leftovers in the fridge but couldn't force myself to eat what I didn't crave-- pasta. I ended up with what I guess I am calling "Sweet Potato Alfredo" over fettuccine. It was really sweet without all the added nooch, and a good handful of parmesan crumbles made from almonds and lemon zest. But after the toppings, it really did hit the spot for creamy, salty, doughy pasta cravings.

Later that week, we went to see 2 shows, one was planned, the other was a surprise! The first was Mirah, one of my old favorites. I feel like her music probably saved my life in college, and has been inspiring me ever since. She just put out a new record, which I bought on vinyl, our hipstery tradition. She was really great and it had been years since I'd seen her last. She's such an inspiration for independent women of all types.

The second show was a complete surprise, my BF picked me up from work and sprung on me that we were heading upstate for a show. He told me to look in the glove compartment, in which I found two tickets for Death Cab For Cutie, a band we saw just over ten years ago, our somewhat unofficial first date. The significance, is that at the time of this show we were 3 days shy of our ten year anniversary. I always associate this band's early music with high school, the early part of our relationship, and a reminder of all the fun times we have had over the years. He's been a pretty great person to grow up alongside. This show was just a really amazing reminder of that.

We didn't have plans the next day, and I got off work late, headachey and tired. He decided we should go out anyway and that there was a new place he wanted to try, another surprise of sorts. We took the subway and I kept trying to guess where we were going to get off, since I had no clue where we were going. It was an interesting route, and three boroughs later, we got off the train in Brooklyn Heights, just in time for a sudden downpour and lightning storm. We ducked into a bar for a minute to try to wait it out, but it really didn't look like it was letting up anytime soon. We made a dash anyway, but had to stop under the BQE underpass because it was pouring almost comically in heavy waves of water. We hung out under there for a good 30 minutes, and I suggested we go to his new place another time, given the weather. He was persistent and said we should go anyway, and so we ran. We ended up in Brooklyn Bridge Park, which has the most beautiful view of the city, in my opinion, especially at night.

It was virtually deserted because of the rain and we had the place to ourselves. We walked all the way down pier 5 and pointed at the statue of liberty and the east river ferry and wowed at all the pretty lights. I looked into the viewfinder to see if I could get a better view, but actually just saw dripping water through it-- then I looked next to me, and Alex was on one knee. (!) I had no words.. I actually forgot to say "yes" because I was so speechless. I did of course say yes after.

We left for DC as planned the next morning for our annual anniversary trip. This trip was extra special, not only because we had just got engaged, but because it was our ten year anniversary! Yup, double digits.

We spent some time hanging around Adams Morgan the first night and had a few beers at Libertine just after getting Ethiopian at Meskerem, another tradition. We celebrate all holidays, achievements, any event worthy of celebration really, with Ethiopian food. And God, do I love that tradition.

Sambusas with Tikil Gomen, cabbage & potato

Sambusas with lentils

The next day we went hiking for several hours in Rock Creek Park, which is surprisingly impressive for us, since we are amateur hikers at best, i.e., we've never gone hiking before.

The hike was filled with "get the gear" Portlandia jokes and "chickshaw migratory path" and other quotes from Moonrise Kingdom, offerings of expert hiking techniques, lovely photos and lots of exercise.

We walked all around the city afterwards and came home utterly exhausted. We rounded out the evening with drinks with friends and fun hangs at our hotel.

Before we left, we made sure to hit up Brookland Cafe, a small spot offering a bunch of vegan sandwiches and platters.

I got the vegan shrimp basket, because how can you not, and was totally blown away. I really had to check if it wasn't real shrimp. The texture was so spot on it was creepy, in a good way! I think they used glutinous rice… That's only a guess, though.

Sigh..

Now we are full swing into June and I have Salad Plans that we are executing to a T. More about salad, Salad Samurai, in particular in the next post.

Thanks for reading everybody, and thanks for all the wonderful comments and love you have given us during our special time being newly engaged. I feel so much love for you all.

<333

April 04, 2014

More Babies, More Showers, More Cupcakes!!

April 04, 2014

You guys my best friend is having a baby soon and last weekend she had her baby shower! Obviously, I made the cupcakes. They were chocolate...

You guys my best friend is having a baby soon and last weekend she had her baby shower! Obviously, I made the cupcakes. They were chocolate-covered strawberry flavored, as per her request. They are chocolate cake, with a strawberry buttercream topped with a strawberry and chocolate ganache drizzle.

I can't believe the time has finally come for my friends to grow up and have babies and buy houses and become real adults. All I do to feel like an adult is eat goji berries. She's winning the adult race. But I was never very competitive...

When I got there she was in heels, and I applauded her for wearing heels while pregnant. Then she told me to give it an hour, because she brought flip flops as a back up, and I think about 40 minutes later she was rocking them. That's 40 minutes in heels I couldn't have done..

Okay baby showers are the smartest idea ever, and whoever thought of them is a complete genius. Throwing yourself a party so people bring you tons of presents? So smart. And all the guests think it's cute and nice and everyone loves babies, so they're all fooled into buying you like 100 outfits and everything you will ever need. Ever. Except college.

The cupcakes went over well, as everyone told me they looked pretty and tasted delicious! Really, they were considerably easier than a lot of other baking jobs I've had, it was just chocolate cake!

Chocolate: A crowd pleaser.