While Valentine’s Day is not my favourite holiday, it is one of my favourite holidays to bake!
It is a reason to make cutesy desserts, whip out the lace, sprinkles, and frills, and indulge in comforting and romantic homemade meals that would make anyone swoon.
It is also one of the only times of the year when I don’t feel like a 7 year old girl for loving the colour pink.
[Nadia’s Heart-shaped Oatmeal Pancakes]
Some of you might remember back in 2009, I hosted a Valentine’s Day contest. It was a lot of fun and many of you submitted some awesome Valentine’s Day recipes!
Here are some of the wonderful dishes that were submitted…
Lindsey’s Valentine’s Day Ravioli dessert took the US prize:
Hayley won the Canadian prize with her Raspberry Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast:
I loved the presentation of Karen’s I Love You Brownie:
and Diana’s Mmm-Mmm Cupcakes were show stoppers:
[For the recipes above (and others), see this post.]
This year, I’d love if you could share with me your favourite vegan recipes that would be great for Valentine’s Day. Or perhaps, you have a non-vegan recipe that you’d like me to try to tackle and revamp making it free of animal products.
Whatever the case, type out or copy and paste your full recipe below in the comment section. Eric will be selecting a couple for me to try out (or maybe he can make one too?).
You can submit as many as you like and it can be a dessert, breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack recipe. The sky is the limit so get creative!
Those recipes that Eric selects for me to feature on the blog, will win a $25 Gift Certificate to Glo Bakery just as a small token of my appreciation (US and Canadian residents only).
Deadline to submit your recipe in the comments below is Feb 7th. I will also be featuring some of my own Valentine’s Day recipes on the blog, from now until V-Day, so stay tuned for the recipes!
XOXO.
I bet Eric wishes it weren’t a virtual contest so he could sample these recipes — I know i’d love to sample them!
I’ll see if I can devise something — contests are fun!
Ok, this is kind of more an Easter thing, but I saw them with the Valentine’s Candy this week! Could you veganize a Cadbury Creme egg? They’re the best! Maybe make a strawberry/raspberry/pomegranate filling and shape the egg into a heart?
that would be INSANE!
love this idea!
Me too! Creme eggs are my favourite part of Easter. I see much potential on this idea (I’m tempted to give it a go myself)
making them without powdered sugar would be impossible, but converting this to a vegan slightly healthy version is no problem! i too am a huge cadberry cream egg fan…
http://www.food.com/recipe/cadbury-cream-eggs-20733
What a fun idea, Angela! I’ll definitely be searching through my recipes over the next week! Love how your bring out the Valentine’s festivities:)
oooohhh how fun! <33
ooooh, this i have got to try. must dig through my family recipes and veganize some! I want that Glo Bar certificate! :) this is going to be fun. mua ha ha ha.
Fun idea!!! Thanks for running this contest!!
Here’s mine! These are fig and caramelized onion crostini. The fig and caramelized onions are both red, so they fit the Valentines Day theme well! A sexy little appetizer, I think!
Link to the recipe (also below):
http://cakesandale.typepad.com/cakesandale/2010/10/opening-night-crostini.html
Fig and Caramelized Onion Crostini
12 slices French bread
1 sweet onion, cut in half cross-wise, and then thinly sliced
1 pint fresh figs, chopped
3 T. sugar, plus 1 tsp. extra
juice of one lemon
In a saucepan, combine figs, lemon juice and 3 T. sugar over medium heat. Simmer about 20 minutes, stirring frequent, until the figs have deconstructed and turned into a jelly. (It’s ok if it’s chunky – it looks more rustic on the bread that way anyway.)
Meanwhile, place onions in a skillet over medium heat (make sure they aren’t piled up, but have enough room to be spread out a bit.) Let them be about 10 minutes, til they start to get brown. Then, add 1 tsp. sugar, stir and continue to cook another 5 – 10 minutes, til they are nice and brown and caramelized.
Heat the broiler. Place bread slices on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil. Toast a few minutes per side, until golden.
Top the bread slices with fig spread, then onions. Serve!
What are those delicious looking chocoalte heart shaped cookies?!! I hope and pray that recipes is coming soon. Very soon.
Love this contest!!!! I cannot wait to see all the delicious recipes I can make for my ‘single’ self ;) (I may force feed them to my brothers too…show them they dont need to eat desserts with eggs and butter ahhaha)
I have never seen you make a vegan ‘cheesecake’ before! I think it would be interesting to see your take on it! (and come up with a spicy valentines day flavour…maybe cinnamon dark chocolate? raspberry-caramel? salted-maple?)
http://www.veganbaking.net/vegan-recipes/cakes/cheesecake.html
and for dinner…how about vegan chinese ‘take out’ !?
un-fried rice/cauliflower rice, veggies, legumes!? I would love to see the flavours you could come up with!
http://accidentalvegetarian.blogspot.com/2008/01/raw-fried-rice-cauliflower-for-people.html
That’s a fantastic idea.
What a fun contest. Try out these fun to bake cookies I developed with my love of the colour red! I can’t wait to see your results and compare theme to mine.
Ash’s Red Valentine Velvet Cookies with Coconut Frosting
Cookies:
1 cup maple sugar/organic sugar/palm sugar
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup vegan Earth Balance spread at room temperature
1/2 cup cooked red organic beet puree
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa/cacao powder
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
1) To make beets, peel and boil until soft. Remove from heat and allow cooling. Puree beets.
2) In a large bowl, combine Earth Balance, coconut oil with sugar and beat until fluffy and well combined.
3) Beat in the beets, vanilla extract and agave nectar until well combined.
4) In a smaller bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder. Add this to the large bowl and mix until all combined.
5) Chill batter in fridge until firm (preferably overnight).
6) To bake, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. While preheating, line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll into balls about 2 inch and place on prepared cookie sheets a couple inches apart.
7) Bake for about 10-12 minutes or just until puffed. Try not to overbake.
8) Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan a few minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool. While cooling, prepare to make frosting.
Frosting:
1 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup almond butter
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp coconut milk, or more if needed
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa/cacao powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp coffee extract
1) Whisk together all ingredients in a medium bowl until very smooth. Add more cocoa powder if the frosting is not thick enough, or more coconut milk if too thick. Let stand for 5 minutes.
2) Place frosting in a pastry bag (or even a ziplock bag and cut hole on one corner) and pipe decoratively atop the cool cookies.
3) Top with 2 dried goji berries angled outward shaping into a heart. Can make several onto of the frosting.
I really, really associate Valentines Day with chocolate!
We use this recipe as fondue first, then store it in the fridge as mousse.
Chocolate and Pomegranate Mousse
Ingredients
16oz dark chocolate chips or chocolate bar
400 mL coconut milk (full fat)
1 pomegranate
1 Tbsp coconut oil
Directions
1. Place chocolate in sauce pan and heat on low, stirring often
2. Once completely melted, add coconut milk and coconut oil
3. Continue to stir on medium-low heat for 5 minutes
4. Remove from heat, let cool and place in fridge in glass bowl for 1-2 hours
5. Remove from fridge
6. Add seeds of pomegranate to chilled chocolate and stir
7. Serve
Hmmmmm… let the thinking/ baking/ cooking begin! :D
Please make this vegan! i have been dreaming of making these for a while, but am afraid i will completely ruin them. i got this recipe from yumsugar.com great site to get some tips/ideas
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies With Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes 10 medium cookie pies (cake recipe adapted from My Baking Heart)
1-1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
5 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1/2 c + 2 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c buttermilk * (you can make buttermilk by combining 1 Tbsp white vinegar or Lemon Juice. and pouring in milk til you reach 1 cup. Let sit for 5 min = buttermilk!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
Beat butter with the sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, food coloring and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until smooth.
Place heaping tablespoons of batter 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
Spread a teeny bit but not too much, otherwise you’ll end up with pancakes. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.
Once cool, frost half with cream cheese frosting and sandwich the rest together.
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
1 stick of butter
2 cups of confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Soften the cream cheese and butter slightly and beat. Add in the vanilla. When combined pour in the confectioner’s sugar stirring throughout.
Mmmmm! I’m excited about valentines now!!!
The Valentine’s Day ravioli is so creative! All of those desserts look fabulous! I’m not very experienced with vegan baking, but I’m excited to try!
*cries about the US and Canadian readers only part*
Ah well, I look forward to seeing what you Northern Hemipshere folk come up with!
*cries about the US and Canadian readers only part*
Ah well, I look forward to seeing what you Northern Hemipshere folk come up with!
Fun. I am posting this on my blog next week, but I will give you the first look!
Peppermint Chocolate “Truffles”
1/2 cup black sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflowe seeds
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup coconut
whizzzzz all of those in a high speed blender or food pro
1/2 cup nut butter (whatever you have or a combo)
1 cup dates soaked over night to soften with soaking liquid
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
blend together
mix the lot and form into balls or hearts – these are soooo rich and lovely!!
I hope you try these out! We have been eating far too many of these this week. mmmm.
I’ve no recipe to contribute yet but I’m going to get to work thinking of one! :)
I just wanted to comment about my “I Love U” brownie! I had so much fun doing that and sending you the pictures. Ah, back in the good old days of this blog . . . I can’t believe how long it’s been!