I have been meaning to make a batch of Vegan cupcakes ever since my co-worker Tom gave man a vegan chocolate cupcake from OMG baked goodness in Toronto.

Yes that was about 3 weeks ago… I haven’t had a moment of time to do so.

I did some research and found this recipe at Allrecipe.com but had to substituted some ingredients for ones I am NOT allergic (or intolerant to) – You can surely try out the original one for yourself. I am sure it tastes fantastic!

Ingredients (of the original recipe)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 cup water

Ingredients (of my recipe with alterations)

• 1 cups teff flour
• 1/2 cup of rice flour
• 1/4 cup of raw sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/3 cup virgin coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup soy milk

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and sift out larger chunks.

2. Combine all wet ingredients and mix.

3. Combine both bowls together and mix it until its the consistency of frosting.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and let it bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cupcake rises and crackles.

This recipe yields about sad cupcakes or 7 happier ones. I used 2/3 of my batter with my version of the recipe and the last 1/3 i added some organic roasted almond butter.

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The making of homemade Lara Bars

Welcome to week 1 of my ‘new lifestyle’ With a total of 10 pounds lost this week… its a big change.

So with my discovery of my huge food intolerance to 210 items. I have been forced to cut out many things in my life. Its hard working on set and seeing co-workers eat snacks and foods i never had to think twice about. Now I do. I have removed gluten, sugar, and dairy from my diet (along with many other things… the internet would crash if i listed it all)

To yield 10 “Lara Bars”
- 20-30 prunes
- 1/4 cup of slivered almonds
- 1/4 cup of cranberries
- 1/8 cup of goji berries
- 1/8 cup of cashew (which i discovered this week i am allergic to)
- 1/8 cup of walnuts
- 1/8 cup of toasted white sesame seeds

MUSH everything in a large bowl. I used a spatula to mush the prunes and added from ‘smallest’ seeds/berries to largest. I folded the larger nuts in so they wouldn’t all crappy.

I have two small pound cake pans, that i coated in a saran wrap. Then I put half of the yummi goodness in one and the other half in another

I divided each pan into 5 ‘bars’ Then packaged each up with some parchment paper and saran wrap.

It was a WINNER! They taste amazing! I love them.

Unfortunately I had half a bar and had a major sugar high for 45 minutes (and my body temperature went super high ). So all 9 bars were finished by my mom.

I can’t have sugar… or sugary ‘dried’ fruits…

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Mom will celebrate her sweet birthday tomorrow. Alex my brother ordered her cake from Chalk river. its a cute lady bug. We ate the cake already. Its so cute. Ah

Happy Birthday Mom.
We love you!

Here you go, my first attempt.

We can’t succeed unless we try right? Well.. I tried. And it is hard. Took me about 30 minutes to make that teeny tiny square… My mom helped iron and cut the pieces I sewed it together.

Thank goodness for Doloris (Shawn’s mom) who took a peak at my sewing machine weeks before.. or this sad attempt would have never happened… Boy was there many things wrong with that picture, cheap thread, wrong needle (16.. thick enough for corduroy) threaded wrong, wrong stitch tension, wrong foot, wrong stitch. Just plain wrong. And it didn’t help that i took the machine apart 3 years ago, and just put it back together….

Don’t ask, I am Chinese, I assume I can disassemble it and like my family in Taiwan does… put things back together, lickity split… NOPE…

Ask me about…..
The piano
My brothers bike
Our VCR
My mac laptop (.. such a triple tear moment)

Doloris also made me that lovely quilt for my 29th birthday. Read about it here.

One day I will make something… the problem is it takes so dang long. I will keep trying.

I have all the squares ironed and cut out already (well mom does… Thank you!) I just need to stitch them together, iron,… forget it

Until next year… I will posted my finished … NAPKIN TEAR

Happy Birthday Sherald (Shawn’s papa).

We celebrated his Birthday the past past weekend. My cousin Jennifer Chao @ www.jenniferchao.com made this wonderful cake for us. Shawn had taken photos of his dad’s banjo and tada.. an edible version. It was almost WAY too goo to cut into.

It was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and boy was it delectable.  It was enough for 4 fat people, about 10 servings. The neck was modeled in cocopuffs and rice crispy treats…

We all had 1 piece that day and another the day after, and I also brought it to a friends house to share a third of the cake with her and her husband.. So there was plenty to go around. It was very enjoyable.

If your in the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) Region and need a custom cake, check out my cousin:

Jennifer Chao
Owner of Sweet Escapes
www.jenniferchao.com
info@jenniferchao.com
(416) 602-3017

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Read about her experience here:

http://www.jenniferchao.com/tag/banjo/

I forgot to post these up. Exactly 1 month ago today was my birthday. I was born December 24, 1982. Which makes me 29 years old right now. This year was very special, it was the first time Shawn and my family celebrated my birthday today. I had a great time, because i was princess for the day. I had my favorite HOT POT, which i love… many selections of food. I also received many wonderful gifts. One i cherish the most is a quilt made by Shawn’s mom, Doloris. Other gifts i love were the boxes of chocolates in which i am pre-diabetic now…

I wouldn’t change that day for the world. It meants so much to …

Aren’t you hungry now?

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I drew this while in Alliston last week. We put up speaker systems and a wall mount up at Shawn’s, and i bought this little easel and frame… I was inspired by this one duck sitting on the mantel (one on left..) my original idea was to draw all the items on mantel… but i got distracted and this happened

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Thanksgiving weekend marks our 2 years anniversary. I can’t believe we have been together for 2 long years. I am very happy, and I had a great fun weekend with Shawn. Since i was young we would go camping with YP (young people) my youth group at Algonquin park. I miss that every year. So this year i asked if we were both NOT busy if we could go camping.

Shawn planned this wonderful trip for us and to top it off, at work on Friday he won the $5 draw (you put $5 in and you can enter your name into the draw,…) the total amount collected was $405… whopee. so our trip plus all the smoked fish and meats we could carry was all covered. That makes me happy.. happier.

We left my house at around 5 am… eek. But we got there just in time for the sunrise, and it was spectacular I wish i could relive it again. It was so beautiful. im glad i stuck my hand out into the FREEZING Haliburton air.. and took these hipstamatic snaps

We stayed at a co-workers cottage and it was awesome. It had a great little dock that outlooked ducks and wildlife playing (and fishies jumping).

There as a campfire.. which inspired me to do some light graffiti shots (click under ‘light graffiti’ under photography). I lite up a fire for the first time.. and continued to burn random things. It was fun…

We hiked for a couple KM, went to a GREAT smoke house (Norm’s.. you have to go there), went to a pancake house and bought a lot of… not pancakes but syrup and jams. My favorite is Guava Syrup. YUM, and took many many ‘couple’ photos while hiking and at Ritchie falls.

More to come soon… after i have lunch and charge up my laptop.

BTW… i am NOT excited about coming back to life… it.. is a drag. ah

I wish i could jump into a teleportation device and relive Thanksgiving weekend…

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A little bit of a nutty week. Really insanely busy. Kitchen renovations occupied my free minutes, cabinets went in and same with the lighting. We up North to Alliston for Friday and where we smoked some rainbow trout, and salmon. Today we smoked 6 types of cheese with the cold smoker. how yum. Friday was my last day on Listener. … Next week will be something new.

Next weekend going to a cottage for 3 days. Very happy. I remember when i was young always going to algonquin park on thanksgiving weekend. I can’t wait.

Also im buying a new canon lens 70-200mm T2.8

Chao

We are renovating our kitchen
I was shooting in the hammer (hamilton)
Shawn helped lay the tiles with Tom
We burned down a van
Watched a 2 day bank robber
Broke into a vault
Ran into a 5 ton vault door
Bruised elbow
Twisted ankle…
Lost 1 pound of sweat

And that is a wrap of Episode 1
now for week 2.