Finding a new use for old ingredients.

The title of this entry is obviously a favourite of mine. There is just something so thrilling about having the ability of taking something old dish and making it into something even more amazing than the last. Case in point: leftover couscous from my asparagus and double couscous salad. Having not made a ton of couscous in my life, little did I know that a little goes a long way. Since I didn’t want my salad to be overly carby, I decided to save half of the couscous for a later use. Days go by and it’s still sitting there. What do I do with that? I pull a Giada de Laurentiis and make her recipe for couscous cakes.

Tofu “cheese”cake?

A long time ago, I made a delicious tofu “cheese”cake that was “almost vegan”. I hated explaining that it was “almost vegan” because it had contained chocolate. I think that recipe isn’t even posted on here at all — it was way before Umami & Me’s time! But ever since then, I have been on a mission to make a completely vegan tofu cheesecake and I think I have finally created it. And not to mention this one is not only vegan, but it is also gluten-free AND (for the most part) sugar-free as well! Oh. My. God.

I would like to introduce to you my banana coconut tofu “cheese”cake.

Crumby cookies.

I’ve found a new use for leftover cake: cake crumb cookies. Now, these are not to be confused with dehydrated cake crumbs that have been folded into cookie dough, this is straight up leftover pieces of day old cake that I had made into cookies. The result was actually pretty satisfactory.

The best chocolate cake ever.

And what’s even more exciting about it? It’s vegan, gluten-free AND raw. Yes, folks. Probably the best thing ever created. This pure genius idea was brought to you by Chocolate Covered Katie, one of my favourite dessert blogs ever. She makes all the traditional desserts into delicious, healthy ones that you don’t end up feeling guilty about!

This was the first recipe I’ve tried out from her website and I haven’t looked back since. Her raw chocolate banana fudge cake is to die for.

It’s been a blueberry summer.

Living in Richmond, I’ve been lucky to grow a number of produce in both my backyard and frontyard. Apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, chives, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, alpine strawberries, yellow oregano, chives, mint… So blessed. The first half of summer was filled with raspberries and strawberries and the second half, cherries. Not a big fan of pitting cherries nor am I a fan of all the worms that we’ve gotten inside the actual cherries — it’s safe to say that I’m not a cherry lover. In fact, there’s still a huge bucket of cherries in my fridge just sitting there! Help?

Luckily, my friend G who owns a farm out in Abbotsford has been so generous to provide me with 10lbs of blueberries over the past couple of weeks. It’s been a mission of mine this year to use as much fresh produce as I can — and with blueberries, I have yet to disappoint.

And this next dish definitely exceeded my own expectations: blueberry trifle.

Why I hate cake pops.

I’m not sure why everyone is so fond of cake pops. Sure, they’re fun and cute-looking but to me, they are little sweet balls of ANNOYINGNESS. Now, I know that is not a word but let me explain why. It’s pretty simple. Cake pops are:
– Too time consuming.
– Too sweet.

I’ll elaborate after the jump.

Feeling a bit crumby.

Crumby. Not crummy. Vacation is calling my name in less than week, for god’s sake!

Cake crumbs. Probably the easiest thing to make when you have leftover cake bits or crumbs from leveling a cake off. Crazily addicting, crunchy, and sweet. And you can do so, so much with them… Let me show you how!

Let’s make a cake.

Baking a cake can be super simple. It may seem intimidating at first but really, it’s just like a giant cupcake…with a layer of frosting in the middle and on the sides. It’s also one of those dishes that when you have the final product just standing in front of you, it is soooo rewarding.

I recently ran a contest last month for Dolce Delights in which participants create a flavour that they’d like to see on the new seasonal menu and in return, I would be bake them a 6″ layer cake…for free! This contest was aimed to create interaction on the DD social media platforms and also a chance for my employee to play around with cakes. Unfortunately (but fortunately), I had to make the cake as it was the contest winner’s wedding anniversary and I wanted to make it extra special. And also an extra 2″ larger. What was the end product? A banana nutella layer cake that I not-so-secretly wished were mine.

Quick breads.

I read quite a bit of food blogs and a favourite that seems to pop up (atleast on the blogs that I read) would be quick breads. And honestly, I never really knew what that was. “What exactly is a quick bread?”, I thought. I saw savoury, sweet, ones filled with fruit, ones that you could pull apart, but it never occurred to me to actually look the term up. Til today:

“Quick bread is a type of bread which is leavened with leavening agents other than yeast. Quick breads include many cakes, brownies and cookies, as well as banana bread, beer bread, biscuits, cornbread, muffins, pancakes, scones, and soda bread.”

Motherfuck. Seriously? THAT’S IT?!?! I’ve made so many quick breads it’s not even funny! Geez. And this whole time I thought it was something way cooler than that… Way to burst my bubble, Wikipedia.

And to celebrate this new found (not really) knowledge, I have made you a pear, apple, flax, oat and almond quick bread.

Finally, a cake recipe.

…and not just any cake…a MOMOFUKU MILK BAR-INSPIRED CAKE! Yes. YES. I attempted to make a healthy(er) version of Christina Tosi’s fabulous apple pie layer cake and it turned out to be pretty bomb-fucking-tastic. And this is why people need to have birthdays more often. Or cake in general.