Friday, March 21, 2008

Birthday Week

I haven't posted this week, but it's not because I haven't been cooking. Here are some of the highlights:

Coconut Curry Tofu. On Sunday I taught a class on cooking leafy green vegetables and had 3/4 of a can of coconut milk and 1/2 can of diced tomatoes left over. So I mixed them together with some ginger, garlic, lime juice and red pepper flakes and marinated tofu in it overnight. The next day I baked the tofu until crispy, added the marinade to steamed potatoes, carrots, kale, and onions, and served it all over brown rice. I was so impressed that the kids liked this one. It was really rich from the coconut milk and very filling.
This is out of order, but these are the rockin' good pancakes we had on Saturday after our maple syrup tapping adventure. After seeing all that sap, we really needed some pancakes!
I baked these cupcakes for the Cupcake Hero contest. The cupcake batter contains brown rice crisp cereal and the topping is basically the marshmallowy goo that would hold together a rice crispy treat. I call them Rice Crispy TreatCakes. They're gluten-free, too! I used RiceMellow cream for the marshmallows.

And last but not least: My birthday cake.
I didn't decide what flavor I was making until half-way through my birthday. I was thinking about an Italian Cream Cake, but wanted some chocolate somewhere in the cake. Then I saw an apricot almond cake recipe that looked good. So this is kind of a combination of all three ideas.
Vanilla cake with chocolate-cream cheese filling, apricot jam filling, and vanilla-coconut cream cheese frosting.

It was everything I wanted in a birthday cake. And don't feel sorry for me because I baked my own birthday cake- Getting to bake the cake was like a birthday present.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!!
Your cake is gorgeous. I made cupcakes for my birthday, it's so much more fun and you can make what YOU want. =)

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

Happy birthday! that cupcake is incredible idea! and your cake, well... making one's own cake IS a privilege, and pretty much ensures that it'll be perfect. like that one is!

J said...

Those pancakes look yummy!

Oh wait, there are cupcakes too! It looks so good. I want one!

Happy Birthday!

That cake sounds fantastic. If you have any leftovers you can send them my way...... :-)

Sarah said...

You went maple syrup tapping? Where? Everything looks amazing, and that cake looks so sophisticated!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday! Your cake looks delicious...do you wanna share the recipe?! I hope you indulged in some of those fabulous sounding cupcakes on your birthday too--wow!

Courtney

Veggie said...

Happy Birthday!

Your cake looks just perfect.

Liz said...

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone! I still have 1/2 that cake left and I'm trying to cut down on sweets. It's not really working so far.

Tempered Woman said...

Yay! Make sure to send us a recipe or a link to the post that officially unveils your Cupcake Hero entry. I think you are the first person to make a rice crispie connection~ love it!
You should also consider entering it in the Go Ahead Honey it's Gluten Free roundup! Birthday baking perfection...
http://linda.kovacevic.nl/archives/163-Go-Ahead-Honey,-Its-Gluten-Free-Announcing-the-new-theme!.html

Anonymous said...

oh my goodness liz. this post looks crazy good. i am literally drooling.

can you post the bday cake recipe? i know, it was kind of made up, but not everyone is that creative, and it looks soooooo gooood : )

Anonymous said...

OH and my begging for recipes aside... happy bday!!