Sew You Think You Can Cook is 3 years old!

This past year has been a whirlwind in my personal life between welcoming a second baby boy to our family and moving across the country.

Blogging-wise I have continued to grow. I have 43 more followers by e-mail and 270 more Facebook fans. I’ve become more active on Twitter and Instagram with a total following of 423 and 530, respectively.

In this fourth year I hope to find the time to delve into monetizing the blog and gaining some sponsored posts. That’s if my two busy boys allow me to do so! I did however, finally pay to own my domain name! As my “birthday gift,” take a look up at the top of your browser and you’ll notice something a little different. The “dot wordpress” is no longer there! I hope your finger memory (and mine!) adjusts quickly when you type in sewyouthinkyoucancook.com.

For Mother’s Day 2016 my husband got me a macro lens for my camera and I have enjoyed taking photos even more! I’m even breaking out the tripod these days. Now when I recreate a recipe from my blog for dinner, I try and reshoot the photos. Updated photographs can be found on Balsamic Glazed Beef Roast, Baby Baked Beef Burritos, and Sweet Potato Waffles.

I hope you’ll continue to follow along with my journey here on the internet.

It has become my tradition to share something new to me on this milestone. For my 1st year, I baked with olive oil. For my second, I made marshmallow for a cheesecake. Keeping with the sweet side of experimentation, this year I’m sharing a vegan cupcake!

Why vegan?

We have friends here in California that we knew in Ohio as well who follow a vegan lifestyle. They have a daughter who is 4, a son who is only 2 weeks younger than Firecracker, and are expecting a third child in a month-ish. We did a play date with them and Firecracker was insistent about wanting to bake cupcakes with “Emmer.” I found a recipe that didn’t require any strange ingredients (borrowing almond milk from them) or coconut. The kids did a fabulous job making these cupcakes and the dozen didn’t last long. Icing didn’t come to fruition though and instead I ended up with a glaze. But it’s a glaze that was fantastic! No one felt bummed or cheated by not having a beautiful frosting peaked top.

We will be having a joint birthday celebration for the 2 year olds next week and I’ll be remaking the cupcake base. Now to find an actual frosting – if you have a recipe for coconut free vegan frosting please share it with me in the comments!

This recipe makes 1 dozen cupcakes.

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 C flour
• 1 C sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 C almond milk
• 1/3 C olive oil
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake tin with liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the almond milk, olive oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Mix until just combined.
3. Divide batter in cupcake tin. Bake 18-20 minutes. Allow cupcakes too cool in the pan for 1 minute before removing to a cooling rack.

*This recipe is adapted from Alison at http://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-vanilla-cake/*

Vegan Maple Glaze

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C powdered sugar
• 1/2 C almond milk
• 1/2 C canola oil
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Using a hand mixer, whisk together all ingredients until smooth. Poor over cooled cupcakes.