Sweets

I didn’t find my First Kiss, but I ran into Diva!

I’m talking about apples (lol).

I was at this grocery store where a large selection of apples were found.

I was hoping to find First Kiss, but no luck.

But when I saw Diva, I had to get it.

Why?

Well, when you see an apple that has a name like “Diva”, there is no way to not try it, right?

I thought a galette would be a good way to really enjoy this apple.

What a beauty!!

I always love the artisan-look (aka., amateur look (lol)) of galette.

The galette was delicious as it was, but I decided to dress it up a little (well, after all, it’s Diva (lol)), with soy vanilla ice cream and rum lingonberry sauce.

The slightly warm galette, the soft creamy ice cream, and the tangy sauce.

Mmm, mmm, mmm!

The sliced apples (about one and a half) were coated with rum and maple syrup before placed on the flattened galette dough.

Once the edge was folded, about 1-2 tablespoons of cane sugar and some cinnamon were sprinkled on top.

Then, dots of my homemade vegan butter (about 1 tablespoon) was dropped.

The galette was baked at 400F for about one hour.

Rum Lingonberry Sauce: lingonberry jam, rum, water

FYI, the Diva apples are delicious to eat fresh as well.

Addendum*
Crust: I used this recipe. I used olive oil. I know the recipe says it’s for quiche crust, but it worked great for this galette.

Well, there are only two people in our household.

So, that means my husband gets asked the same question often.

“What do you want me to make?”

“What kind of cookie do you want me to make?”

Him: “Oatmeal.”

Me: “And?”

Him: “Just oatmeal.”

Me: “Oatmeal and what?”

Him: “Just Oatmeal.”

Oatmeal it is.

And something a bit extra.

These cookies were crunchy, chewy, and unmistakably oatmeal-packed.

I must say the subtle orange flavor was nice.

I made this cake a little while ago.

For some reason I’ve been missing the chance to make a post about it.

When I found the pictures yesterday, I felt I should do so immediately, because the pictures are rather “summery”.

Can you tell I like blue x white dishes?

This lemon cake was very lemony.

The cake sponge itself tastes lemon, and it’s served with lemon icing.

There are various shapes of cake, but the ring is one of my favorites.

It looks so elegant.

EAT CAKE.

I cut up this piece for a picture, but mine is usually double the size (lol).

I dressed up this cake rather simply with pistachio and herbs.

I really like the natural look.

I had a little cake batter left, and I got to make a few cupcakes as well.

Still enjoying this piece from the Pioneer Woman Collection.

Not only is this plate pretty itself, but it also makes whatever you put on look great.

That, in my opinion, is a good plate.

When it’s in the middle of January, I always doubt if it is ever going to be warm again.

Thank goodness for the four seasons.

Summer does come to Minnesota!

It was my first attempt to make vegan chocolate chip cookies.

I used this recipe, and I was happy with the result.

Since I liked the vanilla bean version, I went ahead and bought the Whole Foods brand’s chocolate mint ice cream as well, and I was not disappointed.

Baking has become quite exciting since I started vegan-baking.

There is this added suspense related to not knowing exactly how thing will turn out (lol).

The process of making these cookies was actually pretty unadventurous, which was a good thing.

The hardest part of this post was to take pictures when the ice cream starts to melt, which, I believe, results in the best-looking pictures.

The ice cream disher definitely comes handy.

My ice cream sandwiches tend to be a bit smaller than typical ones.

I like to stop eating when I still want to eat a bit more, which is not always easy to do though…

As you can probably tell (lol), I’m into food, but I’m also quite into fitness as well.

I do not restrict myself from eating any certain foods (because it never works and leads to binge-eating later), but when it comes to sweets, I’m extra picky.

I say I’m picky, but not in a sense that I do not eat particular kinds of sweets, but I’m picky in a sense that I only (try to) choose to eat good quality sweets.

As a result, I typically stick with home-made sweets.

I don’t mean to brag or anything, but when you make your own sweets, you know exactly what’s in them and you can control the flavor or the level of sweetness to make them just right for you.

But even with homemade sweets, I usually don’t like to have too many around the house.

So this does not happen a lot, but the other day, I realized that I had several goodies in my kitchen, and I thought making a parfait would be a good way to enjoy them all together.

Well, I had a few Grandma Kiel’s Molasses Cookies.

I had coffee jelly.

And I had Vanilla Beans Ice Cream from Whole Foods.

As you probably noticed, I happened to have soy whipped cream as well, and it completed my parfait.

Love how this coffee jelly reflects light, just like a piece of jewelry.

These Anzac Cookies are one of my favorite cookies that my mother used to make when we were little.

Later I learned that my mother got the recipe from my and my sister’s English teacher who used to live in Australia.

Well, that makes sense, as Anzac Cookies are popular in Australia and New Zealand.

I asked my mother for the recipe several years ago, and I’ve made them several times, but this was the first time I made them vegan.

There are a few ingredients that are not vegan-friendly, but I felt pretty confident that I could overcome this.

And I think I did!

My husband is not a big fan of coconuts, but he said he liked them; the one which is missing from the pan was already in his tummy.

My husband suggested opening this fancy box of tea he recently received as his birthday gift.

The flavors are all so unique and interesting.

After going back and forth, we decided to try Chocolate Rose.

It was wonderful!!

The tea bag has a leaf at the end of the string.

Love the sophisticated design.

Have a great weekend everyone!

We’ve been celebrating my husband’s birthday last and this week.

We took a week-long trip to the North-West coast, and we had a blast.

I grew up in the culture where we have different ways to express love to loved ones than actually saying “I love you”, like you know, you do in many western countries.

So leaving a long “I love you” message to my husband on facebook is not my style.

But he is really the best husband, and I don’t know why I got so lucky.

Love you sweetie so much!

Making non-chocolate vegan cake has been a struggle for me.

I did find a trusted vegan cake recipe here, but finding a good vegan frosting recipe has been challenging.

I’ve tried a few recipes, and I also tried to come up with my own recipe, without success.

Then I found this recipe, for “cream cheese” frosting, and decided to give it a try.

I did need to go shopping first, but I didn’t mind because I always have fun trying new products.

I didn’t even know that such things like coconut butter or cacao butter existed (I didn’t need cacao butter, but at that time I was thinking about making her other recipe that does list cacao butter as one of the ingredients).

I used coconut cream instead of coconut milk, but that was the only change I made to the recipe.

The frosting was amazing!

This was not only delicious but also that the consistency was just perfect!

I went to the local farmer’s market looking for the best fruits I could use to decorate this cake.

Lucky me!

These strawberries were so adorable and super sweet.

These locally grown strawberries are so different from those you find at grocery stores, in so many positive ways.

I love this simple and rustic, yet elegant look.

It really showcases the beautiful strawberries.

Who wouldn’t want to try it?!

You can see how beautiful and perfect the cake sponge and the frosting look.

This cake will be a perfect dessert to enjoy with your family and friends for the Fourth of July celebration.

I actually made this cake thinking that this could be the cake I could prepare for my husband’s birthday which is coming up in a few weeks.

My husband is not a big coconut fan, and I personally did not think the coconut taste was that strong in the frosting, but unfortunately it was for him.

So, this is not going to be his birthday cake, but this will definitely go on MY list.

Have a wonderful 4th of July everyone!

I’m not a huge cookie fan, and I’m not a huge ice cream fan either.

However, there is something about ice cream cookie sandwich that gets my attention.

I wasn’t 100% sure, but my husband said his grandma K’s molasses cookies would be perfect for ice cream sandwiches.

So I went along.

I love molasses!

Grandma K’s molasses cookie recipe is so easy to follow.

Once you melt V-butter (original recipe calls for shortening) in a pan, you just add the rest of the ingredients and mix.

Roll it into small balls and coat each ball with sugar.

Usually I’m pretty relaxed when it comes to cooking and baking, and I accept and even appreciate irregularity.

But this time I weighed each ball to make sure they maintain the same size, mostly because they were made to be turned into ice cream sandwiches.

Last time I made these cookies, I skipped this process, but this time I decided to flatten the cookies.

It was so worth, mostly because this brought a huge smile to my husband.

He said now they were exactly like his grandma’s.

(I thought that’s what he said last time too. (lol))

I could have taken a little break here, but I kept going because I already had ice cream to go with my cookies.

My vegan Instagram “friend” said it was the best vegan vanilla ice cream, so I had to try it.

This is the Whole Foods brand.

You can definitely see vanilla beans, which is pretty cool.

She was right.

The ice cream was delicious.

And the ice cream sandwiches turned out awesome!

The cookies are on the soft/chewy side, which makes the perfect cookies for ice cream sandwiches, because they do not become rock hard when frozen.

I like tiramisu.

And I like parfait.

Why not put the two together!

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, right?!

Coffee jelly jewelry.

When you mash it with a fork, it becomes so pretty and shiny, just like coffee-colored diamonds!

Cashew “mascarpone” cream.

Super creamy and yum.

And homemade V-cake sponge.

It was cubed and then soaked up sweet coffee syrup.

Then it’s all we need.

Love the Trader Joe’s design.

Just looking at it makes me smile.