you just don't get food like this on campus

Today for lunch i made "fried rice" with leftover rice, chicken sausage, onion, apple, red pepper, and mushroom...yum. then I made vegan chocolate spice cupcakes, adapted from the kitchn. i put a chocolate glaze on them which was not vegan but could easily have been. they are more spice-y than chocolate-y...but that could be because i had to use "sipping cocoa" in place of some of the unsweetened cocoa.

Vegan Chocolate Spice Cupcakes
2 c white whole wheat flour
1 c white flour
2/3 c cocoa
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1/2 c raw sugar
1 1/2 c brown sugar*
1/2 t cinnamon
dash chili powder
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t cardamom
1/4 t mace
1 T fresh grated ginger
3/4 oil**
1 3/4 water
4 T cider vinegar

mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another, then mix together. bake at 375 for 18 minutes. makes about 24 cupcakes.

glazes are really easily to make but i usually regret making them because i usually have trouble getting them to look pretty...

*this was supposed to be 2 c raw sugar but i didn't have that much
**theres probably a way to cut down this amount, e.g. with applesauce, but i wasn't that ambitious.

another blog to check out

Smittenkitchen: This one isn't as funny as the last blog Lynnis said to check out, but its good in another way.
Its a cooking blog (that also has really nice photographs). So far I've made Chocolate Stout Cake, Giant Chocolate Butter Cake (a 1/4 recipe makes 18 cupcakes, 1/2 recipe makes 3-9" rounds), Lemon Cake, and Meatball Sliders (with ground turkey). All were very good and not too complicated...as you can see, I make lots of cakes. I know a lot of you are vegetarians, so here is the list of vegetarian recipes on her site. Also, here is a list of all her recipes involving chocolate (i'm not actually sure if it is complete).

Organic Pink Princess Cake

Today was Sofi's 4th birthday party at the Butterfly Pavilion (a nature center sort of place between our house and Denver). It was a smallish party, which I have been learning is the best policy. For several years now, Sofi has admired the Disney princess cake at the non-Wholefoods type store close to our house. This year she decided it was what she for sure wanted. I was tempted to give in; we just got back from our trip, I scheduled the party at the Butterfly Pavilion to minimize the effort required, and we already had one healthfood store pink cake a week ago on her real birthday. In the end, I decided it was important enough that the cake be made out of good ingredients, so I made a 90%+ organic pink princess cake (I decided to go with the candy letters at the grocery store, because I let Sofi pick out all of the toppings that would make it a real princess cake). I also made some cupcakes- I have learned the birthday party trick that it is much easier to get the kids cake fast enough if there are cupcakes- they got to be a princess army around the cake. I drew my inspiration from the cake that Annie made for my mom's wedding. I was proud enough of the effort that I thought it deserved a blog post. In the end, Sofi seemed to be happy that her cake was even more covered with princesses than the one at King Soopers. Also, it was really pink.