Vegan Cowboy Cookies

I’m not vegan, but I occasionally like to make vegan desserts for friends who are.  In general people are very excited and thankful when you bake for them, but when you bake something for a vegan friend the thanks is tenfold.  People with dietary restrictions are so often left out of food sharing that they seem especially appreciative when they are included.

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Pecan Sandies

I remember the first time I ever had pecan sandies. I was ten and at a family reunion.  They weren’t homemade, just the Keebler brand, but I thought they were the most delicious cookies I’d ever eaten.  I kept going back to the bag and getting 2 more.  I probably ending up eating half the bag.  Despite my initial love-at-first-taste I never really had them much after that.  My Mom is diabetic so it wasn’t common for us to have sweets around the house.  And now, as and adult, when I can buy as many cookies and candies as my heart desires, I don’t, because I make my own.  When I got a request for pecan sandies this week I was excited – I love trying new recipes and this is a cookie that I thought I would really enjoy eating.  And oh my gosh – they are so good.   Really nutty and buttery and only subtly sweet.  If  you have any cookie exchanges coming up I highly recommend them.  And if you want to make the really decadent for the holidays I imagine they would be delicious drizzled with chocolate.

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Apple Butter Cake with Apple Butter Frosting

I’ve  been in an experimental mood this week.  On two occasions I’ve baked things using without using a recipe.  On Sunday night I was craving something sweet.  I had a lot of peaches that were about to go bad so I figured I’d whip up a peach crisp.  I wanted a crunchy topping with a slightly spiced filling.  Well the topping was dry and the peach filling had so much cinnamon and ginger that it was only edible with a lot of vanilla ice cream mixed in.  I ate one serving, but threw out the rest.

Then I decided I wanted to make a sunflower seed butter cookie based on a confection I had in Portland.  Unfortunately no stores in my neighborhood had sunflower seed butter.  So I bought a container of apple butter instead.  I based this cake off from the lots-of-ways banana cake in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  And it came out really good – if you like apples.  The apple butter gives the cakes a very concentrated apple flavor.

I'm a huge fan of Baker's Joy. These cakes came out of the pan with no issues.

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Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting (by the way it’s vegan)

If anyone out there is saying eww…vegan cake, please keep reading.  This cake is really, really good.  And this post isn’t even about vegan baking, it’s about bikes.  Aside from baking my other passion is biking.  For two years I was commuting to work nearly every day.  If it was snowing I might take the train, but sometimes not even then.  I love riding my bike.  I’ve had some knee problems lately so I had to take a few months off and now I only ride three days a week, but hopefully with continued physical therapy I’ll be riding more soon.

Being a bike commuter influences what I bake.  I gravitate towards foods that are sturdy, portable, and can be served the next day.  There are a lot of beautiful desserts out there, but if I can’t share a dessert with people then I’m much less likely to make it.  Cookies and bars travel well by bike.  You just put them in a Tupperware and place them at the bottom of your backpack.  If you put your work clothes and lunch on top it will minimize how much the container moves and keep the cookies from breaking.  Cupcakes, however, are not transportable by bike.  The cupcakes will bounce up and down, the frosting will get smeared everywhere, and they might break.  This doesn’t mean that your coworkers won’t devour them, but they will not look pretty.

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Bourbon Ball Cake

Two of my favorite people are having a Kentucky themed birthday party this week, so I wanted to make a cake that was really special and fit with the Kentucky theme.  I decided adapt a Kentucky Bourbon Ball into a cake.  The important components of a bourbon ball are pecans, confectioner’s sugar, dark chocolate, and of course — bourbon.  I ended up using a 200 ml bottle of bourbon for this cake and it only had the slightest bourbon flavor.  If you love bourbon you might want to incorporate more.

Since I basically created this recipe, and wasn’t able to try it before I went to the party, I was really nervous when we first cut into it.  There was no need to worry.  The overpowering bourbon flavor that I tasted in the batter had mellowed, and the simple syrup had kept the cake moist.  (I made the cake Saturday night and we ate it on Monday).

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