Woah! It’s been a long time. Sorry for the hiatus. :( My life is kind of turning upside down right now with moving, working, culinary school, my brother having a baby, and on top of that, my laptop bit the dust about a month ago, so I had to get that fixed. Anyways, I’ll be moving to a new place in town on November 1st, so hopefully more baking and posting then, to break the new place in!

Melisser from the Urban Housewife came down to austin a few weeks ago, and stayed with me for a few days. It was a pleasure to have her around to put up with myself and Austin’s crappy weather! Also in that picture are crystal and UrbanCowgirl from the PPK who was visiting from chicago. I hope to visit San Fransisco at some point and drop by Melisser’s new bakery, Sugar Beat Sweets, when it opens! Austin is rooting for you, Melisser!

I’m also trying to develop some recipes for a delivery only bakery that I want to start here in Austin. So if I start posting less recipes, and more photos, you’ll know why. Secrets! I’d love to eventually have a food cart, too.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of some rice krispie treats that I made with dandies vegan marshmallows, when my local co-op started carrying them. so delicious. I love you, chicago soy dairy.

I made yeasted donuts today for the first time (inspired by a few posts on the PPK). The recipe I veganized had too much mace (nutmeg), and was too dense. I’m going to try out a few more recipes before I settle.

For mother’s day, I decided to bake my mom something! I combined a few recipes together: the butterscotch bar is from family circle magazine, and I just veganized it. The base caramel recipe is from the Glad Cow Cookbook/dog hill kitchen, and I modified it to my liking. If you want to make extra caramel to ensure you have enough, the leftovers make awesome caramel candies.

Caramel Butternut Bars
for the bars

• 1/2c Earth Balance (melted)
• 1 3/4c packed light brown sugar
• Substitute for 2 eggs (I used Ener-g)
• 2c Self Rising Flour
• 1 teaspoon butter rum extract
• 1c chopped pecans

preheat oven to 350 F. combine all ingredients together in a mixer (note: when using ener-g egg replacer, I always use warm water, and wisk with a fork until frothy). smoosh batter into a 13 x 9 pan (or use an 8×8 for thicker bars), and bake for 25 minutes. While the bars are baking, prepare your caramel topping.

for the caramel

• 1/2c Earth Balance
• 1/2c white sugar
• 1/2c light brown sugar
• 1c soy creamer, or soy milk
• 1/2c light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

combine all ingredients, except vanilla in a medium sized sauce pan, and bring to a boil. cook over medium heat for about 20-30 minutes until sugar mixture reaches 248 F (243-5 F for softer caramel). Make sure the sugar mixture doesnt boil up too high; if it does, reduce the heat. Once at 248 F: Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, let sit for about a minute until mixture thickens a bit (The longer your caramel cools, the more it will firm up, so time it right to where your bars come out of the oven about 10 minutes before your caramel is done), and pour over butterscotch bars. use a spatchula or spoon to spread caramel evenly over the surface of the bars. sprinkle with chopped pecans, and allow to cool for a few hours, or overnight. cut and serve!