Experiment #3: Natural Food Coloring

In Experiment #2, I learned to use turmeric to add a yellow hue to vegan lemon curd. Well, I made a cake and wanted to add a few flowers with leaves to the top. I was looking around my pantry and found a couple more items to experiment with. Yay! After whipping up a fresh batch of vegan cream cheese frosting, I frosted a cake and reserved a bit for the color experiment.

First, the flowers. I sprinkled a pinch of paprika at a time into about a half cup of the reserved frosting. After each addition of paprika, I tasted the frosting to make sure the flavor didn't change, and I kept adding paprika until I got to a rosey hue I was satisfied with.

Next, I did the same with the rest of the reserved frosting, this time using spirulina powder to turn it green for the leaves. Spirulina is a salt water algae and vegan friendly. The powder didn't alter the flavor, but I accidentally poured too much in at once, turning the frosting a dark gray, almost black. I had extra frosting to try again, and I got a greenish color I was happy with. In both cases, though, you can see teeny tiny specks of the powder in the frosting if you look closely. The specks are so tiny, they don't bother me at all.

As you can see in the picture, the paprika and spirulina powder don't make for the bright, vibrant colors you see on cakes at the grocery store, but the colors look more natural, and I just think it's rad to "repurpose" items you already have in the pantry. Next time I use berries for baking, I'll reserve the juice for more color experiments. I'll also try beet powder if I can find it in small enough quantities since it's kind of pricey.

Experiment #2: Vegan Lemon Curd "A"

I've never actually eaten lemon curd, but I saw this tasty looking lemon cake at Whole Foods with a mound of lemon curd on top and a cute little bee made from a chocolate straw and 2 almond slices. Eeep! I found a ton of veganized recipes online and tried this one from vegansaurus! first:

1 cup fresh lemon juice (I used organic lemons.)

1/2 cup water

1 1/2 cups evaporated cane juice

4 T cornstarch

pinch salt

zest of 2 lemons

1/3 cup plain, non-dairy creamer

2 T Earth Balance

Blend the lemon juice, water, evaporated cane juice, cornstarch, and salt until smooth. Transfer to a saucepan, add lemon zest, and whisk over medium heat until it boils. This took me 15 minutes. Stop whisking and boil for another minute. Remove from the heat and add the creamer and Earth Balance and stir until melted. Voila! Not let it cool a tad before putting it in the fridge in a glass jar or other container for safe keeping.

The lemon curd was a great consistency, and whoa was it lemony! I think it's just too strong to cover the top of a cake, so next I'm going to try a lemon pie filling recipe I found online that calls for almost half a cup of orange juice and less lemon juice and sugar. It'll be milder and better in larger quantities. For the time being, I plan to fold this lemon curd into lemon poppyseed muffins for breakfast. That recipe will follow soon.

Color---Vegan lemon curd comes out a lot paler than the non-vegan version since it doesn't use egg yolks. I added about a half to a full teaspoon of turmeric to the finished product to make it look more lemony, and it worked great without altering the flavor of the curd.

What I learned from this experiment:

1. I need a milder lemon filling to use on top of a cake. Search for lemon pie filling recipes.

2. Turmeric works great as a natural food coloring and won't alter the flavor as long as it's used in moderation.

3. Try folding the curd into muffins or pound cake.

Experiment #1: Rose Water

Went back to Austin for a visit with the twinster and had rose lemonade (plus an oatmeal cookie sandwich) at my new favorite vegan hotspot, Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse on South 1st. When I got back home, the roses were in bloom, so I picked 5 to try my hand at making rose water myself. I picked the petals and put them in a saucepan then poured enough water in  to just cover the petals. I simmered the water over medium heat, stirring continuously, until the petals turned translucent then strained it.

Oh, it smelled quite delicious and boy was it potent. ALLERGY ALERT! But when I looked closely at the water, I discovered I had inadvertently murdered dozens of tiny little bugs in the boiling water! The roses in our garden are pesticide free (very important for making rose water), and the bugs were so tiny, I didn't notice them when I picked the petals. So I did it all again but washed the petals very carefully before I started. Next time, I'll pick 'em in the morning when they're still covered with dew and lightly rinse them outside if I need to. I prefer to leave the tiny little bugs outside where they belong.

Oh, but this time I stepped away from the stovetop to answer a call, and when I returned, the water was boiling. Nooooo, this time the water wasn't nearly as fragrant although it was still a nice addition to this lemonade recipe I got from http://www.food.com/.

So from this experiment, I learned:
1. Use pesticide free roses, and pick 'em in the morning when they're still covered in dew.
2. Don't boil the liquid!!
3. Oh yeah, the darker roses make the prettiest, pinkish water. Yellow roses make the water look like, well, yellow liquid.