Friday, October 21, 2011

Quick and Easy Vegan Bake Sale, and a Giveaway for the Same!

Have you seen this super-pretty cookbook? If you haven't, you should seek it out. For example,


Made and loved: gingered chocolate chip (here, chunk) cookies.


Made and loved: carrot and pineapple scones.

Made and loved sweet and you will have to imagine it: sticky toffee pudding cake (omg). This is very worth imagining. Also, zebra cake and everything cookies.


Made and loved: savory herbed crackers. Some made with animal cookie cutters. Aren't they cute?

Made and loved savory and you will have to imagine it: savory "cheesy" biscuits (omg), mini sausage rolls (omg), pesto (omg), pea-tarragon-cream cheese tart, sun-dried tomato-olive-sausage pie, savory pinwheels, tomato and herb biscotti.

Want to make: individual baklava, green tea lattice cookies, creamy dreamy lemon mousse pie, spanakopita loaf, asparagus and roasted garlic quiche. I mean, to start.

This cookbook is so user-friendly and lovely. I don't even want to give you a publisher's blurb--I want to tell you about it myself. On the title page is a poem written by Carla's eight year-old daughter. First up: a bake sale guideline, then history and cooking equipment, conversion chart, ingredients, photos, troubleshooting, a guide to how to bake for newer cooks, adapting/resizing recipes, substitutions, presentation, storage, and a guide to baking throughout the year. Comprehensive. And that is just the first 50 pages! From page 50 to 252 are more than 150 delicious recipes. Lists for avoiding specific sensitivities/allergens (soy, nut, wheat) and child-friendly recipes are noted.

Here are the ten recipes chosen by testers (I tested!) as favorites: orange and almond biscotti, reindeer squares, chai chocolate mini loaves, lemon and blueberry biscuits, coffee and caramel cupcakes, zebra cake (yes!), no-bake apricot cookies, chocolate pie, mini sausage rolls (see?), and pea-tarragon-cream cheese tart (yum!). And now I want the pesto again. It is my favorite recipe for pesto ever. If you don't have this book, don't you wonder why not?

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Carla has generously provided a copy for the MoFo giveaways here! I hope I have tantalized you enough, because this should be on your shelf, and stained from use. It will still be pretty, and you (and the people who you live with/bake for!) will be really happy.


To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below. Tell me about a vegan bake sale you baked for, or a vegan baked good you bought at one, or a vegan baked good you can't live without, or anything at all. This giveaway is open to everybody everywhere, whether you are in Seoul, San Diego, or Sydney. The winner will be chosen by a random number generator and posted tomorrow below tomorrow's giveaway. If you win a giveaway on this blog at some point this month, please be kind and don't enter further giveaways--I'd love as many people to win something as possible!

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The winner of yesterday's Taza Mexicano Sampler giveaway is radioactivevegan! Congratulations! Please send your name and address to me at miso...@yahoo.com. (<---make sure to click on the . . . link for the rest of the email address. This is a spam avoidance thing.)

27 comments:

  1. I think my favourite bake sale I've baked for was part of an event organised by my friend Dawn for the rescue dog charity she works for. It was their 10th anniversary and lots of people who'd got dogs from them came along to the event with their dogs.

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  2. Oooh this is an exciting giveaway, I'd love a copy of this to use at all our bake sales! Our bake sales are always a great way to catch up with the local vegans and to introduce new vegans to the group :)

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  3. i've never ever been to a bake sale but if I won this book I guess I would have to arrange one!

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  4. OMG, such a great giveaway, and one of the rare worldwide ones to boot! This book has been on my wishlist for a while now, and everything from it looks absolutely delicious!
    Whenever we have an event at work to which people can bring homebaked goods, everyone (including omnivores) asks me to make my brownie recipe that has coffee and walnuts. I'd love to organize a vegan bake sale for an animal charity one day, and I'm sure with this book we'd be able to cater to everyone's tastes.

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  5. What a great looking book! I haven't had the opportunity to participate in a bake sale. Not even sure if they do them here in my city! I think my favourite baked good is a brownie... or maybe it's anything with coconut in it, tough decision!

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  6. I love cupcakes! And peanut butter cups...I made some yesterday for the first time to take to a farewell and they were de-freaking-licious!! I'm a sucker for sweets though, I love them all...peanut brittle, yum. And chocolate chili cookies!

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  7. I made apple pie bars and dog biscuits for a vegan bake sale we had out here in LA. So much fun!

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  8. I love the way you talk about the actual recipes you have tried and had success with - so many times I feel like reviews of cookbooks are just of the book itself, rather than from having actually made the recipes!

    As for baked goods, I am on a perpetual quest for the perfect vegan cinnamon roll (including frosting). I have yet to find it, particularly the frosting, but I keep trying!

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  9. I really like muffins, but sadly enough, I barely ever bake any.

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  10. mmmm....i love to bake! (and my coworkers definitely appreciate it!)

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  11. I made a few dozen (vegan) cupcakes for a Haiti Benefit Bake Sale for a local college to sell. I heard they were gone right away and everyone was really excited to have so many vegan options! I would love to win this book! Thanks so much!

    Kaycee

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  12. I love the bakesale we do at Mooshoes in NYC every year for the WWVBS. I usually make twinkies!

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  13. I love the bake sales that happen around Portland. My two staples that I always make for them are Newman O Brownies and Pizza Rolls.

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  14. I probably haven't bought anything at a bake sale since I became interested in vegan baking (not many options at bake sales I've seen). But, I have really enjoyed trying interesting vegan cupcake recipes and there's always room on my shelf for more vegan recipes (especially for sweets!)

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  15. Open to everyone, yay! The book sounds so so good. I haven't participated in a vegan bake sale yet but would love to hold one at my university. I'm definitely a fan of baking and getting more adventurous with trying savoury baked goods and pies too :)
    Emma
    http://coconutandberries.tumblr.com

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  16. I always buy cinnamon rolls. I love them but its something I never get around to baking myself.

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  17. In Boulder, I used to completely dig into the house-baked oatmeal currant muffin (vegan from day one) at the local wild oats, they were quite popular, without loads of sugar, good stuff to fuel the day

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  18. Cookies, especially crunchy ones, are my favorite baked goods. With spices or the digestive kind.
    I'm sure I'd be enchanted with this baking book!

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  19. I baked for several vegan bake sales that benefited pigs peace sanctuary. My favorite was when I made peanut butter cookies because they gave some leftovers to the piggies and they love peanuts.

    bittofraw@gmail.com

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  20. I love pretty much all vegan baked goods, but if I had to pick one that I couldn't live without it would probably be either cakey brownies or oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Thanks for the great giveaway!

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  21. I'm not gonna be a greedypants and enter the giveaway but I just wanted to say that those scones and chocolate chunk cookies look PHENOMENAL!

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  22. Hi Celyn!

    I made the chocolate chip banana muffins a few times from The 30-day Vegan Challenge. Best danged thing I've ever baked. Honestly.

    Would love to win a copy of this new book, especially as the colder weather is upon us. Something about cold weather makes one want to bake things, doesn't it?

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  23. Ooooh I'd love to win this! I organised Brighton's first vegan bake sale for the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale this year. I baked a tonne of stuff including Zuccini Muffins, Gluten Free Banana Breads, Cupcake, Cookies & Brownies!

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  24. I would be oh so very sad if I had to live without vegan blueberry cream cheese muffins...they fill me with happyjoyousness! :)

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  25. Favorite baked good is caramel rolls! These are my go to, feel good recipe.

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  26. This is an exciting one!

    I have fallen in love with lemon bars thanks to Veganomicon. They're one of my favorite baked goods.

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  27. I super puffy heart this book! When we used this at our baking swap, everything was amazing. I really need to make that raspberry clafouti tart again.

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