Absinthe Cupcakes!

Last night, my friend Greg celebrated his 29th birthday. He hates sweets (yes, he is crazy), but I discovered last year that he will eat cake if there's booze in it. Last year, I made Bacardi 151 cupcakes. They were a huge hit, but I didn't wanna repeat myself this year. So I scoured the internets for ideas and found a recipe for Vegan Absinthe Cupcakes:

Lucky for me, the people who used to live in my house left behind a bottle of Absente brand absinthe. I'm no fan of the stuff since I hate the licorice-y flavor of anise. But Greg prides himself on a prized bottle of absinthe that he snuck onto the plane back from Scotland a couple years ago. So I knew he'd appreciate these.

The verdict? Greg ate two, so he must have liked them. And the anise flavor wasn't overpowering like I thought it'd be. Not my favorite cupcakes, but not bad. Other people raved. You either love licorice flavors or you hate them.

On another sweet note, I woke up early today to make Lemon Bars from The Joy of Vegan Baking:

Food Awareness, our local veggie group, held a meeting and potluck today to discuss our plan to get vegetarian options on the menu for Memphis City Schools lunches. My contribution were these bars, and man, were they good! I adore lemon-flavored everything, and the buttery shortbread crust was to die for. I'll be making these again.

Two awesome surprises came in the mail this week - copies of Kittee's Papa Tofu and Amey's (of Vegan Eats and Treats) Gastronomus Maximus cookzines!

I had to re-order Papa Tofu since I gave my old copy away, and Amey was super sweet and offered to gift me a copy of her adorable little zine. I can't wait to make her borcsht and Kittee's stuffed tofu pockets and injera.