Cooking Up a Party: Little Artists

Volunteering for Bake A Wish has provided me with so many opportunities to flex my creative muscles. For example, a request came in recently to provide sweets for an Art Show at one of the children's homes that Bake A Wish serves.

The order of the day: 3 dozen mini cupcakes with an art theme. I started rifling through my cookie cutter drawer and re-discovered this collection of mini-fruit cutters and lo and behold, the lemon-shaped one looked just perfect for making sweet little artists out of fondant. I used half of a miniature pumpkin cookie cutter to fashion their berets and voila! Les petites artistes!

Vegan Scones, Australian Style

A vegan diet is something that appeals to me as I learn more about the health benefits it offers and I've been looking for opportunities to transform my favorite foods into vegan alternatives. When the challenge of baking for a kid with egg and milk allergies arose, I decided to give it a go and create a vegan version of the basic scones the Kid and I enjoyed during our tea at the Sir Stamford in Sydney this summer.

Vegan Basic Scones
makes 1 dozen small scones

3 cups organic flour, plus some for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
5 3/4 tablespoons vegan margarine, cubed (I used Vegan Buttery Sticks by Earth Balance)
1 1/4 cups coconut milk
Powdered sugar for dusting
Jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, mix together flour, salt, and baking powder until combined. Using your fingers, rub butter into the flour mixture until it is the texture of corn meal. Turn on mixer and slowly add coconut milk. Allow the mixer to stir and knead the dough until a soft ball is formed.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat down to about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thickness. Using a round cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out scones and place on a parchment lined cookie, spacing about 1 to two inches apart.
Bake for 12 to 14 minutes until slightly brown on top*. Allow them to cool and then dust with powdered sugar. Serve with your favorite jam or preserve.

*It should be noted that these will not be golden brown like the non-vegan scone seen in the upper corner of my picture. I believe there's something about butter vs. vegan margarine that affects how they brown but I'm no scientist so I'm not sure. Suffice to say, you will overcook your scones if you wait for this vegan version to become golden brown in the oven. So keep an eye on them, looking for just the faintest hint of browning to know they are done.

Cooking Up a Party: Around the World Birthday

The Kid turned four years old this year and since we spent so much of our summer in Australia, we decided a party themed around world travel would be the perfect way to share our adventure with his friends. We hosted the party at the local children's museum and it couldn't have been easier.

A children's tea menu based on our experience at the Sir Stamford in Sydney was served. And since one of our little guests is allergic to both dairy and eggs (in addition to nuts, just like the Kid), we served vegan variations on the theme in addition to traditional Australian scones and tea sandwiches. I'll be posting my recipe for Vegan Australian-style scones next week - they are dead simple to make and if you're like me and leaning more and more towards a vegan lifestyle, you'll want to have these in your back pocket for a simple treat for entertaining on the fly.

We served cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches (using vegan cream cheese in one and traditional whipped cream cheese in the other), along with mustard butter and cheddar, and vegan butter and jelly sandwiches. And in addition to sandwiches and scones, we served veggie sticks and a fruit salad. I found these clever divided plates online - they are biodegradable and reminded me of airline food service trays. We chose bamboo flatware and cloth napkins as well to keep it green. 

Oh - and I musn't forget - these amazing, adorable, inspired cake pops by the truly fantastic kathyphantastic. One of the many reasons I love having a blog is getting to know people like Kathy - talented, amazing people who love what they do and do it well. I asked her to make these globe and airplane cake pops to go with our theme and boy, did she deliver!

Then there's my culinary contribution to the party - the cake. I have told the Dad so many times that cake decorating has to be one of the most humbling experiences of my life. The professionals make it seem all so easy but trust me folks, it's not. This is probably the best cake I've made so far and it was far from perfect. But the Kid loved it so I'm pretty pleased with myself.

At the end of the party, each of our little travelers got to take home their own little suitcase full of party favors. Inside, we included an inflatable globe, a passport book of stickers, some crayons for coloring the paper airplane coloring sheets I found at Oriental Trading, and a mix CD featuring some of our favorite traveling songs.

And the best part of the party for me had to be sharing one of our favorite museums with our friends. The kids got to play, learn, and eat cake all in one morning!

The Kids Cook Monday: Ratatouille Remixed

A few weeks ago, The Kids Cook Monday shared this recipe by The Gourmand Mom for Layered Ratatouille. Coincidentally, the beauties you see above arrived in our CSA bushel that same week.

Now, you can say I really only gave her recipe a wink and a nod - as you know, I'm one to cook by the seat of my pants more often than not - but I just had to say that this is a perfect example of what a great program The Kids Cook Monday is. I hope you'll check it out and see what recipes you can make with your kids this week!
For my take on ratatouille, I pulled out my trusty mandolin (which I would never, EVER, NEVER let the Kid use, even with supervision) and sliced up some zucchini, summer squash, and eggplant. Then I enlisted the Kid's help in arranging it in the pie plate, sprinkled it with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and baked it in the oven at 350 degrees F for a few minutes or so (probably around 15 to 20 all told). I pulled it out of the oven (using my trusty oven mitt, of course) and added sliced garlic and halved grape tomatoes (also from our CSA bushel), returned it to the oven and baked it some more until the tomatoes were soft. This, along with some smashed red potatoes (again, from the CSA bushel), was dinner and it made for a lovely  light summer supper.