Picked up a bad batch of apple, grrr. After giving the benefit of the doubt, we were left with 10 apples that wasn't gonna be eaten...raw, that is!
There are myriad of things apples can turn into. But I didn't want to be stuck with a whole pie. I didn't trust my discipline to not consume excess :p. So...I made apple sauce. No grease, just spicing it up :).
First, all that apples had to be peeled and chopped.
Add spices combo I love - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove -, squeeze lemon and add sugar and cook until apple pieces collapse and reduces. It takes ~1-2 hrs. All that flavor gets concentrated while emitting an amazing scent throughout the house, mmm~~
We're going to celebrate recent events with friends this weekend; a wedding and a birthday! I'm absolutely delighted to be the cake person for this doubly special occasion. I've been seeing a lot (I mean A LOT) of ombre cakes. Ombre is color gradation or colors that shade into each other. It gives modern, art deco kind of look. I think this might be the time to bust out an ombre cake. But more importantly, the cake will be vegan.
First thing I wanted to do this time was to upgrade the vegan frosting. Previously, I used Tofutti cream cheese with Earth Balance margarine. It turns out fairly close to cream cheese frosting. But I've noticed Tofutti ingredient list looking pretty scary. It lost me after water. I've been wondering if there is a way to make it further away from the chemistry lab. It turns out...pretty simple! Food.com and other sites have been sharing vegan sour cream recipe. If I adjust sweetness and tanginess, it should come close to be similar to cream cheese. So what does it take? ~~drum roll~~ Blended tofu, that's it! Rest is adding vinegar, lemon juice and sugar. Hint of beany flavor is there but considering, I must say that creamed tofu is pretty good.
Vegan chocolate cakes were baked and it's ready for assembly! Since the entire cake will be covered in ombre frosting, I used strawberry jam and almond meal to balance it out. 3 layers were stacked. Next is crumb coat. This is application of thin frosting coat to keep the cake crumb in tact. Not so perfect but that's ok.
I divided the frosting in 3 portions; purple, blue and white. From bottom to top and out to in, one petal at a time. It's tedious but it's worth it :). Here is the end product. I hope everyone likes it!
