Sorry I’m a bit late getting this up. This past Halloween, Chris and Crystal from Food for Lovers hosted a Vegan’s Rock Austin Halloween party- the food was catered by the amazing Chefs/owners of Madeleine Bistro in LA, Dave & Molly! In addition, I catered the dessert table!

Let’s get down to the food! Here’s the spread from Dave & Molly:

Everything tasted SO good- I’m not joking when I say it’s probably the best food I’ve had in a while. Austin is really missing a vegan fine dining restaurant. My favorite thing I ate was the blini with crème fraiche and smoked mushrooms. I actually ended up getting to help them assemble and plate some dishes, which was a total honor. It’s always awesome to work with people who’s work you respect!

Now, onto what I made: Blackberry raspberry hand pies, caramelized fig tarts filled with frangipane and homemade fig jam, pistachio gianduja truffles, orange ganache truffles, and rocky road mousse cups! The mousse cups were a big hit- they were layered with chocolate cookie crumbs, chocolate mousse, whipped cream, chocolate ganache, sliced almonds, and dandies vegan marshmallows.

Thanks to Chicago SoyDairy and Uptons Naturals for sponsoring this event, Chef Dave and Molly who flew out to provide us with delicious food, Ross from Vegans Rock Austin for taking pictures, and Chris and Crystal for organizing this event! Happy Birthday, Crystal!

Confession: I am not a fine artist. I went to college for web and graphic design before culinary school, and even took some animation classes in high school, but the reason I never quite felt at home with that career path is because I can’t draw very well. I have good ideas, but putting them on paper is a challenge for me. I refuse to believe that there is something I can’t do when it comes to pastry (positive mental attitude, y’all), so I figure the best way for me to improve is by practicing as much as possible. Piping words and freehand drawing on cakes is definitely my weak spot, so here goes nothing.

6″ Descendents Cake:

Sprinkles: You can’t have cake without it. I’m pretty sure that’s a universal law of some sort. They make everything more colorful, and some people (…me) even convince themselves that things taste better with sprinkles. Nonpareils, jimmies, dragees, confetti… you name it, I love it.

But vegan sprinkles? What would be in sprinkles that would be remotely questionable? Ever seen “confectioner’s glaze” on a label?

“Pharmaceutical glaze is an alcohol based solution of various types of food grade shellac. When used in food and confections, it is also known as confectioner’s glaze, resinous glaze, pure food glaze and natural glaze. It is also known colloquially in the manufacturing world as beetle juice due to shellac’s derivation from the lac insect Kerria lacca (which is not a beetle, but a scale insect).” -Wikipedia

Shellac? So, the same thing they finish hardwood floors with? mmm! It’s even in sanding sugar!! WHAT?

I spent about a year looking online and in stores for sprinkles without confectioner’s glaze. I am here to tell you that most sprinkles on the market (Cakemate, most Wilton sprinkles, etc.) contain it- the kind I was looking for, anyways. I even considered dropping the baking gig and going into vegan sprinkle manufacturing (I’m only half kidding).

I know what you’re going to say: “You can buy vegan sprinkles at Whole Foods!”. Yes, I am aware that there is a brand named “Let’s do… Sprinkelz” that are available and do not contain confectioner’s glaze. However, the colors of the nonpareils are pastel and very boring. I like to dream big, so I was on the hunt for sprinkles with bright, rainbow colors! These sprinkles are great in a pinch, though- I’m always thankful for a vegan option. India Tree is another out there that, from what I can gather, used to have a lot of options… but last I checked, I found confectioners glaze (and they’re pretty pricey).

A friend of mine and co-organizer of Texas VegFest named Angela recently introduced me to some sprinkles that did not contain confectioner’s glaze, weren’t overpriced, and looked normal! Angela travels a lot for work, and just so happens to travel to Florida, which is apparently the land of kosher grocery stores that sell tons of accidentally vegan products.

The easiest brand to buy is Lieber’s, which you can buy online here! You can buy rainbow jimmies, rainbow nonpareils, and chocolate jimmies there! Be aware that not all of the sprinkles in that online store are confectioner’s glaze-free. I have a few other sprinkle brands that she gave me (including one for confetti sprinkles), but they are all off-brands that are harder to source. I will post more as I find them.

I’m writing this post in order to raise awareness, and not point fingers. Most people aren’t even aware of what confectioner’s glaze is. Also, please feel free to share any information regarding sprinkles and confectioners glaze with me. Now I just need to find birthday candles that don’t contain beeswax.

Biscoff cookies (Speculoos, in Europe)- “Europe’s favorite cookie with coffee” just so happens to be vegan, and much like Chick-o-Sticks are all the rage within the vegan community. Once hard to find in the US and highly coveted, Biscoff cookies are now making appearances in several spots around Austin. I think they taste like cinnamon teddy grahams (they are essentially cinnamon and brown sugar flavored), which also happen to be vegan, but the fact that Lotus also makes a Biscoff SPREAD that is literally made of ground up cookies makes it easier to use in pastry. That is, if I don’t eat it all straight from the jar before I use it.

I was going to wait to post these, because I wanted to do a few other items made with biscoff spread, but I got anxious. These are vanilla cupcakes with biscoff buttercream.