This week I visited a friend who happened to be baking Oreo cookies stuffed into chocolate chip cookies and baked in muffin cups. She got the idea from a cookie her son brought home from a high school bake sale. Because they were cookies within cookies, they were named after the movie Inception, which is [...]
Cookie Madness
Tag Archive: Vegan
It’s safe to say coconut oil is my new favorite baking product. It won’t replace the flavor of butter, but I love how coconut oil makes pie crusts flakey, gives cookies crispy edges, and adds a dense, soft, moist quality to quick breads. And wouldn’t it be nice if its purported health benefits were true? [...]
Cookie Madness
Hey guys!
There are currently vegan bake sales for Japan happening worldwide! Get in on the action! The vegan community is so tight-knit and it’s amazing to see people band together time and time again as a positive force, raising money for aid, and really making a difference. The Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale is also coming up at the end of the month, and it’s a great opportunity to send the proceeds to a charity providing relief to the earthquake victims in Japan. If your city doesn’t have one planned already, get some friends together and make it happen! Here is a list of tips on the website for organizing one.
I’d like to bring attention to the bake sale that is happening this Sunday, April 3rd from 12-5pm at Greenheart at 1911 W Division St in Chicago, THIS WEEKEND. Chicago is actually having TWO vegan bake sales over the next couple weekends to raise money for relief in Japan. In addition to this one. More info can be found on the Facebook page.
If you can volunteer or bake for the sale (or the one on April 10th), add yourself to the Google doc. I will be there from 1 to 4:30-ish, so I hope to see you there!
Here are Jessica Laskaris’ words from the Facebook page:
“I’m organizing a vegan bake sale for Japan, all of the money will go towards a charity in an effort to aid relief for all of the people suffering right now. The one I had last year for Haiti was really successful, and I would like for this one to be as well! I need lots of help to get baked goods made, to have bodies to help out at the bake sale, as well as lots of people spreading the word so that this raise a lot of money. I haven’t decided on a charity yet, I’m leaning towards donating to red cross, but I’m taking suggestions! Please post about this on your facebooks/blogs/twitters/whatever and invite everyone to the bake sale please!
It’ll be Sunday April 3 (also my 21st birthday, so come and celebrate with me by buying delicious cupcakes and cookies and the like!)
12 -5 at Greenheart on Division!
Contact me at jessicalaskaris@gmail.com if you’d like to help bake/volunteer/whatever or if you have questions! I’ll be making a google document to keep track of who’s baking what and all that jazz! Thanks in advancePS- I might have people selling prints/tshirts for the bakesale to help raise money as well. If you want to design something, lemme know!”
Finally, the long-awaited bake sale post! I attended one of Chicago’s Vegan Bake Sales for Japan at the beginning of the month and even as a baker, it was one of the few times in my life being surrounded by hundreds, maybe over a thousand cookies, cupcakes, brownies, cakes, and everything in between. The picture above is what I brought: sugar cookie lollipops, vanilla cupcakes, and tropical rum and coke cupcakes.
This bake sale was seriously decked out, and raised an amazing 26 over the course of 5 hours. There were several other bake sales going on the weekend of April 3rd, as well as throughout the month, and continuing in May. Vegan bake sales around the country easily raised over ,000 just that weekend, so imagine how much is raised as bake sales are being held regularly, especially with the recent surge of sales in the aftermath of the Japan tragedy. Between the tight-knit nature of the vegan community and the desire to be positive and help when disaster strikes, vegan bake sales are just one way the vegan community is actively making a difference everyday. High five!
Before we get to the cookies, I wanted to touch on an issue that presented itself before this specific bake sale, and was a topic of conversation that day. When the announcement for this bake sale was posted online, it received a disproportionate amount of hateful, ignorant comments that ranged from comments like “sorry. I hate catastrophic earthquakes, but I hate vegans even more” to stupid vegan jokes to the absurdity of a vegan bake sale because it’s not possible to make vegan lemon meringue pie. In general, just argumentative comments about the bake sale being vegan. As if it were crazy to raise money for a humanitarian cause and not exploit animals in the process. Or have baked goods that both vegans and non-vegans can eat.
All I have to say to that is…shut up and start your own non-vegan bake sale if you really care. Jessica, the organizer of this bake sale, got in contact with a few of the naysayers and told them that very same thing, or offered to collaborate in the future to make an even bigger bake sale and raise more money for a good cause. Were they responsive? Nope!
In lieu of lemon meringue pie (I’ve never had lemon meringue pie…am I missing out on something earth-shattering? Though maybe we’ll find a recipe in Isa and Terry’s upcoming pie book!), here is the Chicago Vegan Bake Sale for Japan:
Red velvet whoopie pies!
Root Beer Float Cupcakes (from My Sweet Vegan, I’m guessing)
Bleeding Heart Bakery cupcakes
S’mores Cupcakes
The Ste Martaen vegan food truck came by with some real food to quell our sugar high. This is the Carolina BBQ sandwich.
Here’s what I ended up bringing home with me. Clockwise from upper left: scotcharoos, apple pie turnover (atop a red velvet whoopie pie), green tea raw cheesecake, red velvet cake balls, Bleeding Heart peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes, cookie dough cupcakes, green tea mini cupcake, and raw coconut bar.
Frosting cupcakes with cookie dough is pure genius! Yum yum yum.
Great job, everyone! Can’t wait for the next one!
Speaking of bake sales, there are TWO that are coming up soon in Milwaukee.
Cookies for Kids’ Cancer Bake Sale & Silent Auction – Milwaukee
Saturday, May 21, 2011
1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Best Place At The Historic Pabst Brewery
901 W. Juneau Ave.
More info: www.mkefoodies.com
Facebook invite: http://on.fb.me/gQWLAo
Donation page: http://cookiesforkidscancer.kintera.org/mkefoodies
Cookies for Kids’ Cancer: www.cookiesforkidscancer.org
This sale isn’t exclusively vegan, but there will be many clearly labeled vegan goodies available! So far, I know that my friend Amy and I will be there with baked goods. The awesome organizer, Lori, called out for vegan bakers a few weeks ago, so I’m sure there will be lots more! Come out and support a great cause! See, vegan and non-vegan bake sales can co-exist!
The next Milwaukee vegan bake sale will be on…
Saturday, May 14, 2011, from 10 AM – 5 PM at
Urban Ecology Center
Riverside Park branch
1500 E. Park Pl.
Milwaukee, WI 53211
Plan to come out to the next bi-annual Milwaukee Vegan Bake Sale, and check out the website to sign up on the google doc to donate baked goods.
I know that I’ve been very absent from the blog (and Seitan Beats Your Meat) lately. That’s mostly because I’ve been absolutely slammed with final projects lately. My semester is ending in less than two weeks, so when I’m not in the studio shooting for final photography projects or writing papers, I’m trying to get a few hours of sleep at night, or trying to relax a bit. My writing would have probably reflected my current mush of a brain right now, so I waited to tackle these blog posts! I just finished a huge research paper, so the next couple weeks will be busy, but a little more manageable! The work on the blogs I’ve done recently has been very little things here and there (as well as guest posting on other blogs), and I’m currently working on logos and re-vamping them, so good things will be coming eventually!
Weaved into all the school busy-ness, I am trying to figure out how I’m going to spend the summer (besides 13 hour school days twice a week for summer school…yes, I’m crazy), writing recipes, and maaaaybe starting work on a new book. I’m already in the works of planning to bake for my school’s union in the fall, and may be having a preview bake sale at the very beginning of May. I don’t have details ironed out yet, but it will probably be very last minute, so keep updated on Twitter and Facebook if you’re in the area.
To go along with that, I am going to work on selling baked goods locally, offering catering services, and selling online more frequently. Yay! There’s a lot of work that goes into that with deciding on packaging, health codes, ordering ingredients, promoting, designing, business cards, and so much more, so it’ll be a good project to tackle soon! With wedding season coming up, I was thinking about making cookies like the monogrammed V hearts above on a larger scale, or selling online. What would (local and not-local) vegans like to see in the upcoming months?
Another shout out for Mad City Vegan Fest in Madison, WI on June 19th! Mark your calendars! Amongst the awesome lineup of speakers and food demos, I’ll be doing a baking demo.
I was recently introduced to the idea of jalapeños in baked goods when I made the Chocolate Jalapeño Cake from ExtraVeganZa. Jazzed by this discovery, I was excited to come across Chocopeño cookies in a Twitter post, and even better, they turned out to be completely vegan. The Chocopeño cookie company, based in New Jersey, just released the product and graciously sent me samples upon request.
These crispy little spicy cookies come in individual snack packages, which would be great for on the go. I’m usually not a fan of mass produced packaged cookies because they often lack flavor and freshness, but these were unique, yummy, and had a spicy kick. I like how the jalapeño pieces scattered throughout the cookie were tiny, so I wasn’t biting into a chunk of pepper at any point. That was my biggest complaint with the cake I made. I’d love to see giant, soft-baked jalapeño cookies from this company in the future. Yum!
I will be absolutely swamped with work over the next few weeks as my semester comes to a close, but I hope to get a post up about the Chicago Vegan Bake Sale for Japan from a couple weekends ago! I took home quite a collection of goodies from the sale and have lots and lots of pictures to show!
Also, I’ll write more about this in detail later, but check the events page for Mad City Vegan Fest in Madison, WI coming up in June! I’ll be doing a baking demo at the event and the speakers/demos planned so far makes for an awesome lineup including Terry Hope Romero, Jasmin Singer, Kenny Torrella, Erinn Morris, and Donnie Smith! It looks like it’ll be a great event, so definitely plan to come if you’re in the area!
I don’t have any new cookies this week, but I swear I will get my ass in gear and get some brand new cookie recipes put together soon!
For this post, I’d like to showcase the amazing work of my good friend, Andi Woodward. She did an interview with me about cookies and veganism and made a short film for her sound and image class, and here it is, featuring cupcakes, VwaV, and profane alphabet refrigerator magnets!
You can view Andi’s other work here.
Kelly Peloza: Vegan Cookie Connoisseur from Andi Woodward on Vimeo.
I have quite a few AWESOME announcements to make. They are all also listed on my Events page!
First off, signed copies of the book will be available for sale directly from me on the blog within the next couple weeks, or less!!! Click here for all the info (it’ll be up soon!) and to buy your very own copy. Right at the top of the blog is the “Buy the Book!” link!
Next up, I will be doing a book signing in Milwaukee at Boswell Book Company on November 28th at 2pm! RSVP on the Facebook event. Hope to see you there, Milwaukee area residents!
Thirdly, I will be in NYC next month, the weekend of November 20th to be specific, for a book event!
Melisser and I will be doing a duo book signing at the newly opened Champs Family Bakery in Brooklyn!! Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 20th from 7-9pm and click here to RSVP on the Facebook page to come meet us and buy your own copies of The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur and Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life!
Also in attendance will be Isa Chandra Moskowitz, John McDevitt, Terry Romero, Louzilla, Evan/Rayray, Jess Scone, and Isa’s mom! You don’t want to miss this event and wonderful group of people!
P.S. I will be in town from Friday until Monday, so I’ll have a decent amount of time, and it’ll be my first time to NYC (I know!). Where should I DEFINITELY hit up??
I’m extremely pleased to announce that I will not only be attending, but speaking at next year’s Vida Vegan Blogger Conference in PDX! It’s an incredible honor to be on the speaking panel amongst so many wonderful vegan bloggers. Check out the list of speakers here!
Mark your calendars and plan to come out to PDX next August 26-28th, 2011 for this event! Registration is now open. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!
In the meantime, become a fan of the Vida Vegan Facebook page and follow them on Twitter!
Whew, that was a lot. I hope you guys can make some of these events! Don’t worry, there are many more in the works!
Thank you so much for your support!
MoFo is over (just in time for my finals) so this blog will be getting a little more love (and updates!) like SBYM got throughout November.
Thanksgiving break was absolutely crazy! I think the whole weekend comprised of working and homework. It was fun, but I was ready to pass out after it all. I was on the Milwaukee news on Black Friday (video here), then spent the rest of the day in Chicago (nomnomz Diner).
Sunday was a book signing at Boswell Book Company, an awesome local bookstore with a great selection run by super nice people. Support your local bookstores!
For the event, I made hypnosis lollipops, cashew cappuccino nanaimo bars, and thin mints, all in the book of course.
Signing bookz
Over 20 books were sold during the hour-ish and a great mix of people came out to the signing.
Awesome! Thanks, Boswell!
For a new segment of Milwaukee’s Vegan Cookies, I have more East Side Ovens cookies I picked up at the bakery of Outpost Co-op over the weekend.
Chocolate Pecan Sandies
These may be my favorite ESO cookies that I’ve tried. They were decadent, flavorful, and nutty, and didn’t taste “healthy” at all, which is something I’ve noticed in some of their other cookies. They’re still awesome, but I’m partial to the most hedonistic desserts I can find.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
These were pretty good! Lightly flavored, and bursts of chocolate.
Speaking of co-ops, the Riverwest Co-op in Milwaukee has amazing food. And I’m going to be doing a book signing there this Sunday, December 12th from 11am-2pm! If you’re in the area, I’d love to meet you, so c’mon out, get some delicious brunch, cookie, samples, and a book!
I keep the “Events” page at the top of the blog updated with upcoming events, so check it out! I hope to see you guys in Chicago later this month! (And I’ll post about New York with Melisser once finals week is over and I’m not dead!)
I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with Melisser Elliott quite a bit over the past few years when she visited Chicago. Last time, we did a photoshoot for her article in Vegetarian Times, and also talked about plans for our upcoming books. It’s nearly a year later and in less than 2 weeks, we’re joining forces in NYC for a book signing at the newly-opened Champs Bakery in Brooklyn!
In fact, she has a whole US tour going on right now for her fabulous new book, The Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life! My copy arrived in Illinois last week and I’m anxiously awaiting my trip home in a few days when I’ll get to see it!
Melisser is a kickass vegan lady, my book label-mate, and a good friend, and I have for you guys an interview with her!
Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life is coming out in just a few short weeks! Yay! Where will it be available for sale?
The book is available at www.vegangirlsguide.com, as well as on my upcoming book tours! Of course, fine retailers such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other book shops will have it as well.
What can we expect to find inside?
I tried to touch on as much of veganism as possible, not only for people looking to go vegan, but for those of us who’ve been vegan for awhile and want a handy guide or a book to pass on to people curious about veganism. It has the who-what-where-when-why of veganism, lots of little tips to take the learning curve out of everything, interviews with vegan ladies and businesses from around the world, plus recipes and crafts!
Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life will be quite exciting and unique, with so much of your experiences to share as well as contributions from other people in the vegan community! What was your motivation to write it, and what was the process of making it happen?
I wanted to show people that veganism can be easy and it really is what’s best for the animals, environment, and your health. I started by outlining everything I could think of about veganism, then started to fill in the blanks. I asked others what their questions they had early on and what they wanted to know more about. I probably could have written a few more chapters, there’s so much to say!
How long have you been vegan and how has that decision impacted your life? What were you doing in your exploration of veganism and in your kitchen before you started The Urban Housewife and your book?
I’ve been vegan over 3 years now and I was vegetarian for 6 years. I’ve always been compassionate towards animals, hence going vegetarian, but I didn’t really know about veganism and the evils of the dairy and egg industry. Once I learned about it, I had to go vegan, and it’s now a huge part of my life. I’ve met wonderful people all over the world and have become active in the fight to save animals. Before I was vegan, I was working as a makeup artist for magazines, but not really doing anything for others. I actually started The Urban Housewife right before I went vegan to blog about all the baking I was enjoying, I never knew it would evolve in to veganism, tons of new friends, and a book deal!
Traveling is obviously a huge part of your life. Is this something you always wanted, or expected to be doing? What has been rewarding about visiting places all over the world?
My family never travels, yet I always found myself wanting to see new things. As soon as I had my own money, I started to check out new cities, but I didn’t expect to be regularly traveling the world. It’s something I’m really passionate about and I’m so fortunate to have experienced other cultures, amazing food, and a lot of fun. I basically spend every spare penny on going somewhere and have managed to travel very inexpensively!
What are your favorite cities to visit? Where are your favorite vegan eats? Where have you NOT been that you would love to visit, and why?
I have a tattoo devoted to my favorite cities, so I’ll start with the ones on my arm; San Francisco, NYC, Berlin, London, Tokyo / Kyoto, Stockholm, and Vienna. I also like the food in Portland, Austin, Chicago, and Los Angeles! There are SO many places I want to go! In the US; Denver, Atlanta, Omaha, Asheville, Minneapolis, Nashville- if it has good vegan food, I want to go there! I’m excited to check out Philly, DC, and Boston for the 1st time on my tour. I’d really like to go to Canada finally! I plan to travel all over Europe now that I live in Vienna. I’m also hoping to see India, Thailand, and China someday, and I wish Australia and New Zealand were closer to me.
How are your vegan adventures and your awesome trips correlated? Tell me about your upcoming book tours and how they came about!
It may sound silly, but I plan trips around awesome food. If I hear about some fun new vegan dining option, I want to go! As for the book tour, I was asked to speak at Northeast Florida Veg Fest and agreed to before I moved overseas. Once I had moved, I decided if I was going to fly across the world, I should make it worthwhile, so the book tour plan was hatched. It’s gotten crazier than intended with dates being added as recently as last week. I’m only home 6 days in November, due to all the travel, plus I’m hitting a few spots in Europe the 1st week of December. Here are my book tour dates:
November 6th Jacksonville, FL Northeast Florida VegFest, talk at 1:30pm, signing to follow November 7th Washington DC at Cafe Green, 4pm to 6pm
November 10th Philadelphia, PA at Grindcore House, 6pm to 8pm
November 12th Manhattan, NY at MooShoes, 7pm to 9pm
November 16th Syracuse, NY at Strong Hearts Cafe, 7pm to 9pm
November 17th Boston, MA at Peace O’ Pie, 7pm to 9pm
November 20th Brooklyn, NY at Champs Bakery, 7pm to 9pm
November 21st Montclair, NJ at Go Lightly Eco Store 1pm to 3pm
November 28th Paris, FR at Paris Vegan Day, book signing and talk
November 30th Manchester, UK at The Thirsty Scholar, 6pm to 8pm
December 2nd Brighton, UK TBA
December 4th London, UK at Vx, book signing and talk 2pm to 6pm – 5% off all Vx purchases at the event!
December 5th London, UK at the Animal Aid Christmas Fayre, talk at 3:15pm, signing to follow
Tell the story of how you got Strummer! Is she going to be joining you on the book tours?
The story of Strummer is a pretty crazy one! On the day before Fathers Day in 2008, we were taking a walk to our co-op, partaking in our usual routine of fawning over every dog we see. As we approached two men and a tiny chihuahua, I couldn’t help but comment on how adorable their puppy was. Next thing I know, I am being told to take the dog, as they didn’t want it and claimed to have found it on the sidewalk. Totally shocked, we walked away with a shivering, flea ridden, hungry 1.5 lb puppy. We spent weeks looking for lost dog signs and posting ads online, but no one claimed her and we already had her shots and she had started puppy classes, and so the era of Strummer began! As for the book tour, I wish Strummer was coming with me, but the road is not the place for a 2lb chihuahua who hates cars, buses, and planes!
Tell me about your other endeavors: The Urban Housewife blog, Sugar Beat Sweets, and Cruelty Free Face!
My brain doesn’t shut off, so I have a million projects. My longest running one is The Urban Housewife, my blog about my daily life with a focus on vegan travel. Sugar Beat Sweets is a vegan bakery I started in San Francisco in 2007 and has now grown to a 5 vegan lady collectively run bakery, with a storefront opening early next year! Cruelty Free Face is my site for all things vegan beauty. I was a makeup artist for 10 years and wanted to use that knowledge to teach people basic makeup skills and also where they can find cruelty free cosmetics.
What’s next? Do you have ideas for new projects lined up, or what do you hope to accomplish in the future?
Sleeping! hahaha. You know, I always have something up my sleeve. I have a few book ideas, I’m always looking for new ways to spread compassion for animals and get people involved in activism. I’m sure you’ll see me with a crazy new project soon!
There is a huge blog post about last week + VeganMania to come, but in the meantime, I made a video blog to announce a few things!
Post comments, questions, suggestions!
*Buying books from the blog
*Chicago VeganMania 2010
*Vida Vegan Conference 2011
*Boswell Book Company book event
*And more!
To add to the awkward/awesome, this is what happens in the kitchen behind the scenes at VeganMania!
