Lovely outdoor wedding, and vegan cake!

 Great eco-wedding at the Brickworks (Toronto) - in front of the hills and the pool -- and then, a great reception - the cake is  vegan coconut lime cake! from LPK's culinary groove.

Vegan chef wins cupcake competition

Vegan chefs and their cakes are pretty mainstream, now - but Chloe Cosarelli is making waves by winning traditional cooking contests - you might enjoy her blog, and the news about her tiramisu and chocolate cupcake prize-winning recipes (as well as her Mango fusion curried cauliflower panini). She's even featured in the NY Times.

Conscious Food Festival Toronto

Conscious Food Festival Toronto's Blog |
This celebration of local food and sustainability will be held Saturday August 14th and Sunday August 15th, 2010, at Fort York National Historic Site, Toronto.

The Conscious Food Festival is the first ever Canadian collaborative event to help promote the growing sustainable food movement while introducing thousands of people to food that is local, natural, healthy and delicious. The Conscious Food Festival brings city dwellers, rural neighbours and visitors to Fort York National Historic Site to experience a range of activities such as tastings, exhibits, seminars, debates and an urban farm, that will connect local restaurants, local farms and local food suppliers to your table.
One speaker is Jeff Crump, Author of “Earth to Table: Seasonal Recipes from an Organic Farm” as well as the Executive Chef at Ancaster Old Mill, Jeff is a Canadian Slow Food pioneer and an advocate of local, sustainable gastronomy. Jeff has developed his talents at a number of the world’s top restaurants: Lumeire in Vancouver, Chez Panisse in Berkeley California, and The Fat Duck in the UK.

Red Mango, Red Velvet

We had a great wedding this week at the Hotel on Rivington - (on the penthouse floor, with a great view of the fireworks for the Manhattan bridge!) And yummy wedding cupcakes from Red Mango - red velvet and double chocolate vegan, with cream cheese icing. Red Mango is located in Brooklyn, on Albany, but they are wholesale, and you can pick them up many places.

Vegan / Vegetarian Catering directories

Cross posted from Ethicalceremonies -
Lots to think about in Vegetarian catering - from wines to food to garnishes to "anchovy-free Worchester sauce" ...

Here are few resources: HappyCow It's a nice directory, but rather limited. If you know any vegan cooks or caterers, suggest they enquire about adding their profiles. You have to email the directory for details, so not sure if there is a cost for listing. Lots of CA, some Florida, and a Torontonian...

Veg.ca is a Canadian directory. Coded for Veggie/ Vegan, and localized.

Lots of UK sources, of course. Veggies.org is a place to start

Vegan gardening?

I'm distracted, thinking about planting. I've got heirloom tomatoes and leeks and mung beans sprouting in the windowsill... But as a former sheep farmer, I just hit this website about 'manure-free' (or animal-free vegan permaculture) and was fascinated with the concept of "stock free farming" - meaning, no manure. Of course I know about sea kelp and compost, but no manure? Hmmm

If you live in the UK, The Welsh College of Horticulture runs courses on stockfree organic farming; VON provides bursaries for animal-free farming. (tmi: I once did some graduate courses in Aberystwyth - and loved it!). Read more at stockfreeorganic.net.

Vegan shoes - paint your own!

OffbeatBride has a great article on how to prettify vegan shoes. The author took a pair of cheap Payless shoes (red! lovely!) and did her own freehand paint job. (Her husband designs and paints sneakers, so she had a place to start). Painted shoes also echo 18th century brocade and flowered silk shoes, so you can look at a few museums shots to get inspired. (Here's a discussion of a 17th century Venetian shoe from the Bata Shoe Museum, in Toronto)

Vegan Wedding Shoes

Still looking for vegan bridal shoes. There are some beautiful shoemakers in the UK, such as Elegant Wedding Shoes (pix at left), "Elegant Wedding Shoes are a small team of lifetime experienced shoemakers supplying quality shoes to highstreet retailers. Based in the North of England, we make children's to ladies weddings shoes and boots. Our boot range also includes the traditional Victorian and Edwardian boot styles some of which are available in wide fittings...All our ranges of shoes and boots are our own designs, we offer a bespoke service which means we can make our styles from materials supplied by you the customer...As a specialist service, we can make our shoes and boots to meet the requirements of vegetarian and vegan principles. We use only the finest satins and silks and swarovski crystals to add sparkle to our designs where required.

But I'm struggling to find some in the US, where most Vegan shoes are casual. Here are black and brown pumps on VeganShopping (US) and also a blurb pointing out why they won't sell non-leather shoes from China. So be careful when you find sites that offer 'vegan' shoes, to make sure they aren't just dumping Chinese vinyl.
Mooshoes has some dressy items. But their white "synthetic patent leather" is made in China. Beware.

Let me know if you supply dressup vegan weddings shoes. (Esp anything other than sandals).

Fun: Vegan Perfume Bar for a Bridal Shower

From StrawberryHedgehog, here is how to set up a "Perfume Making Bar" for a bridal shower, using essential oils and extracts.

Wedding Cakes, Vegetarian and Vegan

Everybody's making vegan cakes these days, especially the bakeries that used to make Kosher cakes and allergy-free cakes. You can probably find a source in most cities, and you'll soon know if they really run a Vegan/Vegetarian kitchen. You need to ask if they same equipment is used for both Vegetarian and Vegan prep and cooking (that's why a Kosher kitchen is useful).

We wrote a post about hidden non-vegan items in menus, and of course they apply to deserts:

* The cake: does the icing contain animal products, such as egg whites? While this will be OK for veggies, any vegans among your guests will not be able to eat it.
* Honey: this is avoided by most vegans.
* Gluten-free (optional)
* No eggs
* No gelatin (for the fondant, use agar-agar)
* No dairy - no butter or milk
* No cheese (again, no dairy, so a cheesecake alternative is out, unless you make it with tofu)
* Often no sugar - but this varies by practice.

Here is another discussion of substitutions by a vegan chef
The most common Vegan cake is carrot/zucchini cake or a variation of the wartime chocolate cake made with cocoa and oil. If you eliminate eggs, you have no binders or leavening, really, so says the PostPunk Baker, though bananas, flaxseed, tofu and yoghurt sometimes work.

And course the ingredients should be organic AND Fair Trade and the business should have good labor ethics.

Because the number of merchants would be huge, here is a list of recipes, instead. Take these to your local kosher, health food, organic baker, and see if they can replicate them. Or do what we did, simply bake it yourself. You can buy the nested pans from any baker supply. Vegan cakes are usually heavy, and need a lot of support for the layers, so my husband made wooden dowls, but you can be creative.

Here are some recipes:

Vegan Wedding Carrot Cake
Vegan Lemon Genoise
Black Forest with flour
Raspberry Lemon Wedding Cake Flour, sugar, maple syrup
Vegan Chocolate Devastation with Tofu and Maple syrup
German Chocolate Cake with Apricots, oat/soy milk

Here's an out-of-date list with vegan cake makers in different states.
And here's a short list of some Vegan Cake Recipes (including Yellow Cake).