To those who believe that you can’t enjoy food when you’re a vegan, take a look at this. I’m not at all missing out. Lamingtons, are of course completely vegan, and made to order from Socially Vegan Cakes, and the ice cream is none other than the Chocolate Bliss from So Good.
Another delicious update from our friends at Socially Vegan Cakes.
Katy sent us an e-mail, asking for something to delight her non-vegan, chocolate loving family. We assured her that our mud cake would do the job. And we’re so delighted that she liked it. Katy ordered the cake with a slight variation, having these sugar daisies on here as well. Adds a lovely touch, to the cake.
Also, I love the wonderful marble effect of the chocolate of this one.
The New Peanut Buttercup from Socially Vegan Cakes
And stop by Vegan’s Choice to grab some delicious treats for you, and a friend.
More birthday cupcakes for you to ogle over! Same delicious chocolate cupcakes as before. But just because they’re vegan, doesn’t mean you can’t decorate them whichever way you want! For my birthday, I went for a youthful Super Mario mushroom inspired design. I really liked how they turned out.
I once promised a friend that I’d give him a cupcake for his birthday. I’m one of those people that like to keep really random promises.
So, for his birthday, Socially Vegan Cakes and I made five dozen deliciously moist chocolate cupcakes to ice and decorate. I took them in to work, where everyone went crazy for the cupcakes. I was really happy with the feedback. One of my favourites for the day was “These cupcakes are amazing! Not just amazing for vegan, but amazing; full stop.”
So, got someone’s birthday coming up? Why not give them a gift of cruelty free, loving, eco friendly, but most importantly, completely delicious cupcakes?
Hey Kath, welcome to Socially Vegan, and congrats on being our very first interview!
Thanks Zara — happy to be here!
So, to someone who has no idea what your book is about, and has stumbled upon it on a bookshelf, describe what it’s all about, and why that person should take that book home for themselves, even though they’re at a friend’s bookshelf.
Firstly, best to ask your friend before you take the book home as they may become an ex-friend after they begin to notice your tendency to casually journey on home with their books. Or not, depending on what the arrangement is.
So, here goes the sales pitch to this person checking out their friend’s “library”:
Forever 21: The Empowering Guide To Reclaiming Your Youth, Beauty, Health, Happiness and Spirituality is about reaching your potential on all levels. If you have an interest in health,
if you care about the future of our beautiful planet and you want to be all round awesome, you should check out this book.
Forever 21 has a series of interviews I did with some amazing people who are consciously working at helping people achieve their full potential. For example, there is an interview with vegan naturopath Robyn Chuter who works with people to reverse many health conditions that are otherwise thought to be incurable such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and arthritis. All the people interviewed in the book are vegan and therefore (naturally) awesome.
A highlight for me is the chapter on vegan athletes. These wonderful individuals illustrate the amazing benefits of a vegan diet. Long distance runners, cyclists, personal trainers and extreme athletes all come together in the one book to talk about how eating vegan gives them the edge over their competitors. Great stuff!
How many times did you think about writing a book before you finally caved into the peer pressure you’d created in your own head?
I never really thought about writing a book at all. I wrote a status update on Facebook which a few people thought was pretty cool and I just kept expanding on it until one day I woke up and realised I had written the equivalent of half a book. I then started contacting and subsequently interviewing people for the remainder of the book. It was a pretty cool process that seemed to naturally unfold.
While you were writing your book, did you find yourself swept up until all hours of the night writing it? How often did sleep win out over writing the book?
The short and honest answer is I don’t think there were many occasions where I found it necessary nor desirable to sacrifice sleep to complete the writing. I love my sleep!
How has your life changed since you became vegan, that people wouldn’t usually link to veganism?
1. I find food more interesting than I did when I ate meat. There seems to be more variety with vegan food and always something new to try and experience. I love that about the vegan lifestyle.
2. According to my friends and random people I meet, I am looking younger by the day. I think that can be attributed to the healthy vegan diet.
3. I save a lot of money. Being vegan is very affordable and great if you are on a tight budget.
4. I have made a lot of amazing new friends. My vegan friends are loving, warm, compassionate and fun. I love the vegan community and the friendship it offers.
What’s your favourite movie character, and why? Doesn’t have to be of all time, you can name something recent.
The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland because he lives by his own rules, not harming anyone but having lots of fun in the process.
So now that you’re famous, and that gorgeous designed book of yours is available at amazon.com, will you be blogging as much on vegansarecool.com?
Yes, I will still be doing what I do on vegansarecool.com. I have so much fun meeting and interviewing cool vegans from around the planet. That is where I got started with interviewing and it is still a passion of mine that I want to continue with.
Oprah has recently done her vegan challenge. Would you be available to go on her show to talk about your experiences as a vegan author?
Oh, let me think about it for a minute… YES! DEFINITELY!
It is really touching that Oprah and her staff went vegan for a week and I would be more than happy to go on the show and continue that process with them.
If you had to choose between going on Oprah and Ellen, what would you do?
Well, I am hoping not to be in that position as it would be beyond amazing to go on both. There is no way I would want to choose one over the other. I love them both!
For more information about Kathy and her book Forever 21, please see kathydivine.com
Gabrielle approached me the other day, asking whether I baked a lot, and whether I made cakes to order. To her delight, I answered yes to both questions. She explained that she has a friend that’s “vego,” whose birthday is coming up soon. Well, happy birthday Hayley! As a present, a group of friends got together to order this vegan cake for them. Chocolate cake, with chocolate “cream” icing, sugar lettering, cream decorations, and strawberry tops.
So gorgeous and delicious! I wouldn’t mind being that friend.
Restaurant Name: Loving Hut, Canley Heights
Address: Shop 3/237 Canley Vale Road, Canley Heights, 2166
Phone Number: (02) 9727 0356
Website: Loving Hut, Canley Heights’ Facebook Page
Zara’s Pick: Veg Kabob, with your choice of either “Chicken” or “Beef” seitan, around $7. There’s an amazing vegan mayonnaise sauce in it that will blow your mind.
Vegan’s Choice is an amazing vegan specialty foods… place in Newtown. They sell absolutely everything! If you’re ever in need of anything especially vegan, give this place a look first. You can even buy online. They sell anything from pies, cupcakes, ice cream, soy “meats,” vegan non-dairy cheeses, to about anything else you can think of. I mean, they even sell a gorgeous range of Loving Earth Vegan Chocolates!
Vegan’s Choice
113 King St, Newtown
(located right next to their Newtown restaurant, Green Gourmet)
T: 02-9519 7646
M: 0400 350 063
E: orders@greengourmet.com.au
Opening Hours
Open 7 days
From 11:30am – 8pm (Sun close at 7pm)
Public Holidays – closed all day (please ring to confirm)
Our lovely neighbour (I use the term loosely) Helen makes these amazingly delicious and light rice paper rolls. She uses fresh ingredients, mostly raw, and a light sauce to make them so epicly delicious.
Ingredients:
Rice paper sheets
Carrots
Capsicum (bell pepper) green and red
Cucumber
Lettuce
Cashews
Your favourite herbs
Tomoto sauce / Ketchup
Mushroom “Oyster” sauce
Instructions:
Boil some water. Place the water in a bowl or large plate. One sheet at a time, submerge the rice paper roll into the water. Then lay onto a flat plate.
Grate carrots. Cut capsicums, cucumbers, lettuce into long thin slices.
Chop cashews into small pieces.
Mix tomato and mushroom sauce together.
Compile a roll with a little bit of everything. Add some sauce and herbs.
You can always add any kind of seitan, soy meat, tofu. But the fresher the ingredients, and the more watery, the lighter it will be. Therefore more refreshing and awesome. Or, make your own little sauce. Experiment and see what you like.
