Sweets

I like to make vegan treats myself because it’s a bit tricky to find good vegan sweets even in Bangkok, but more than anything I enjoy baking and creating my own desserts.

As part of the surplus set I received from Happy Grocers a few days ago, I got these sweet potatoes.

When I realized that the inside was orange colored, I quickly thought they would be just like the ones we had in the U.S.

But when I roasted them, I noticed that they seemed rather similar to the Japanese style sweet potato, Satsuma-imo, because of its texture (creamier and fluffier) and its taste (sweeter).

I took the advantage of these features, and I made “frosting”.

(I purposely left a few small chunks for the color and texture.)

A little note to myself – roasted sweet potatoes, maple syrup, salt, coconut oil, soy milk

I brought several baking pans from the U.S., but what I didn’t bring was a cupcake pan.

They sell cupcake pans here, but I decided to go with these individual cups this time.

I wanted a “warm” flavor profile for my cupcakes, so I chose cinnamon.

These cups worked just fine.

The cakes were finished off with the beautiful, orange-colored sweet potato “frosting”.

I call it “frosting”, but it’s pretty much creamed sweet potatoes with a touch of maple flavor.

My husband was skeptical about the “potato” sitting on his cupcake, but with one bite he approved!

I liked them, too.

They tasted great, and I really enjoyed the less-processed “potato frosting.

It’s October, although the temperature in Bangkok hovers around 90 F degrees.

These cupcakes brought a little piece of autumn to our home.

I’ll be honest.

I do miss all the fall things in Minnesota, pumpkin patches, apple orchards, apple cider, Halloween decorations…

If you ask me, chocolate is always a good idea.

I made a cake with the same recipe when I had my father-in-law and his wife over for dinner in Minnesota.

It was a big hit, so I kept the recipe in my “keep” folder.

The only thing I changed was using coffee in place of water.

I always like to sneak some coffee in my chocolate treats.

I had to take a picture.

It looked like art!

I poured the batter into the pan, but I coulndn’t stop licking the batter stuck in the bowl.

So good!

This was where I was contemplating if I should use my finger (lol).

Just out of the oven.

Looked dark and so handsome!

I wanted to bake it in a round pan, but I didn’t have one.

I did have a brownie square pan, but I didn’t want to make a square cake, which would remind me of grocery store cakes (lol).

So I used my Shoku-pan bread pan, and it worked out great.

It’s not round but still looks elegant.

I thought about making ganache, but I decided to go with powdered sugar.

This cake is so moist and delicious.

It’s a perfect snack to enjoy during a break from my Thai language studying.

It’s going.

Slowly.

I really enjoy learning the grammar, and I can make simple sentences.

The problem is that I don’t have many opportunities to actually speak the language…

Okay.

My oven works.

I baked Ciabatta.

Now I baked a cake.

So, this means moving forward I can’t blame my oven if things do not turn out well! Ha ha.

To make a lemon cake, I went to a grocery store to get lemons.

They had yellow-colored lemons that I was familiar with, but they were also selling these green ones as “lemon”.

Well, it was written in Thai, but my translation app clearly indicated they were “lemon”s.

Whatever it was, it gave this cake wonderful citrus tartness I was looking for, so I was happy.

I also decided to use rosemary from my little garden for the cake.

I chopped it finely and added it to the cake batter.

Just out of the oven.

It made the kitchen smell so good!

A lot of lemon icing drizzle went on top.

The more the icing, the happier it makes my husband. 🙂

I decorated the cake simply with fresh pomelo, Thai “lemon”, and rosemary.

The cake turned out wonderful.

It was so moist, and the sweetness was spot-on.

Very happy with the result.

I used Ms. Anthea’s recipe as a base.

https://www.rainbownourishments.com/vegan-lemon-olive-oil-cake/#recipe

I highly recommend it.

The apple season is here, and I’m so excited.

I love seeing all the baked goods showcasing apples.

What I don’t love is that it is hard to find vegan ones.

So I decided to make some myself.

The local farmers market this time of the year is so pretty with red and orange colors.

The squash is fun to look at, but apples are the ones I came here for.

There are so many different kinds, but it’s nice to see many vendors having descriptions for each and that helps.

When we were leaving the market, we saw a lady carrying a jar of apple cider and asked where she found it.

I was hoping to find apple cider, but for some reason we missed it.

When we went back to the area as told by the lady, sure enough it was there.

So the mission was accomplished!

We got fresh apples.

And apple cider.

If you think these donuts are dark, it is because I added ground Hoji tea leaves.

Hoji tea is a type of Japanese tea, but it is roasted and has a wonderful warm flavor.

I think it was perfect for this fall season.

These were so delicious!

I used this recipe as the base recipe.

https://shortgirltallorder.com/vegan-apple-cider-doughnuts

Check it out if you are interested.

St. Paul is so pretty right now.

This was me a few weeks ago, but now I’m needing a much heavier coat.

Fall in Minnesota comes and goes quickly, and before you know it, winter is here…

I always want to visit an apple orchard this time of the year.

I happened to see a big sign advertising this orchard while driving on a highway, and I got excited because it was not too far from our house.

It was a beautiful property.

There is a lake right next to the orchard.

I didn’t realize apples grow this close, concentrated!

I even got to try my first-ever corn maze!

There were several letters hidden inside the maze, and if you find the right word that use those letters, you can get a prize, an apple!

It was the last hot/humid day, and we were sweating so bad.

So, we gave up finding all the letters, but we were (my husband was) still able to guess the word, and we were (he was) right!

They also had a pumpkin patch.

Some orchards allow you to pick apples yourself, but not this one.

Instead, you can purchase their apples here at the barn.

They had several different varieties, but I decided to get Lakeland because it was recommended for pies and eating fresh both.

I was thinking about getting 2 pounds.

When my husband asked the lady at the store how much is usually needed to make a pie, she said “3 pounds”.

I told him that I wouldn’t need much because I would make a galette, not a pie, and he told the lady that we would buy 2 pounds.

Interestingly, when we brought the bag handed by the lady to the cashier, we were told that it was 3 pounds.

I guess the lady wanted to make sure I had enough to make a pie?! :O

I’m not complaining, though.

I definitely did not need all to make my galette, but we certainly enjoyed eating the rest, no problem.

I just thought it was kind of funny.

The Lakeland apple has a nice tartness and keeps its shape when cooked, so it was really great for the galette (or pie).

I put almond paste/crumble on top, and I loved the flavor combination.

I served it with vanilla sauce.

The crust recipe I used was a Japanese recipe, and it was apparently much smaller than the American size.

I had a lot of filling left over, so I decided to make bread pudding.

This turned out great, too.

I love baking with apples.

My husband has a birthday in the middle of July.

I offer buying a birthday cake from a professional baker, but he says he wants me to make one, which makes me happy.

He is lucky to have his birthday this time of the year because there are a lot of beautiful produce available, especially in my mother-in-law’s backyard.

I enjoy showcasing them on his cake.

I’m so grateful that my mother-in-law always invites me to pick her red currants.

We pick them together, but she is so much faster than I am and lets me take some of what she picked.

They are so pretty.

Look like jewelry!

They are easy to remove from the stem when frozen.

This time I removed the seeds because my husband and I both like our jam smooth, without seeds.

Currants have a lot of seeds.

The ruby color is amazing, and it tastes absolutely delicious, perfectly sweet and tart.

It turned out to be a bit less thick than I expected, but it’s okay.

I also got something else from her garden I wanted to use for his cake.

Freshly harvested rhubarb!

By the way, their leaves are huge!!

Rhubarb ribbons are what I wanted to try making for the first time.

Peel the rhubarb into thin strips.

Cook them at a low temperature.

Sprinkle sugar.

I’ve seen completely dried version, but these stay soft after cooked.

If interested, check out Carleigh’s post ↓ .

https://www.instagram.com/p/CuP4mkLp5_B/

There are a lot of vegan cake recipe out there, but this has been my (and my husband’s) favorite so far.

https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-lemon-cake/

It does not require any special ingredients, and it’s so easy to make.

It’s a very moist cake, which we love.

Making the cake sponge is an easy part.

But I struggle to come up with an idea of what to serve the cake with.

I’m not a huge traditional frosting fan as it tends to be a bit too sweet for me, so I’ve been experimenting with other options lately.

This time I decided to make something similar to diplomat cream, but a vegan version.

I made my pastry (custard) cream first and then mixed it with coconut cream.

It turned out great!

Smooth, creamy, and delicious!

I made it vanilla flavored and carefully controlled the sweetness.

I used the recipe on this page to make vegan custard/pastry cream.

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/recipes-ive-tried-and-liked/

I kept the decoration simple as usual.

I like my cake to look rustic.

The frozen red currants looked so pretty on the cake.

Just in case if you were wondering what happened to the sugared rhubarb ribbons.

I made roses with them!

Yes, you can eat them, and they are tasty!

And no, I didn’t forget about the currant jam either.

I drizzled the jam on the serving plate.

It was mainly for the look, but it turned out that the tartness of the jam went so well with the vanilla cream.

He loved the cake!

We are planning to have my mother-in-law over today to celebrate his birthday together.

I hope she likes the cake!

We had some guests over the other day.

I’ve never met them before, and I had no idea what kind of sweets they like.

Actually, I had no clue if they eat sweets.

So I decided to make two kinds so that if they do not like one, there will be at least one other option.

One was the rhubarb brownies (previous post), and this was the other option.

Since the other one was chocolate/cocoa-based, I decided to make something fruity.

I love my bars with a lot of crumbs!

It turned out beatuiful!

Buttery bottom, lovely strawberry filling, and cinnamon crumbs on top.

I loved them when they were cold.!