Whole lotta love

 

 I made this wedding cake on Friday for our lovely vegan friends Ana and Andrew. The cake is chocolate, the filling is chocolate mousse, and the icing is chocolate buttercream. I was so honoured to make this for them, and it was lovely to hear the comments of many of the non-vegan party guests, who were blown away by the idea of a decadently delicious vegan cake!

I've found a great trick for making buttercream that's less sweet and less fatty than usual - I've started adding Instant Clear Jel. It's amazing stuff. I'm still finding my way with it, but I'll post a lower fat, lower sugar buttercream recipe here soon.

 

Yesterday evening was our bi-monthly vegan potluck dinner, and it was also our gorgeous friend Linda's birthday. I wanted to make something special to mark the occasion, but knowing Linda isn't so keen on sweets, I thought I'd try a savoury cake. This is it! The base is cornbread and the 'frosting' is pureed kumara (sweet potato). I added a little tomato paste to improve the colour of the kumara (and a little Instant Clear Jel to make it a pipeable consistency - yes, I'm hooked on that stuff!). I cut one of our home-grown stripey tomatoes into a heart shape for the centre, sprinkled it with chopped peanuts, and put tiny basil leaves around the edge.
It's very appropriate that Linda's birthday is so close to Valentine's Day, because she's the most loving person I've ever met. Check out her website.