Thursday, April 14

strawberry berfdays.

i work with a dude named wayne.
he's a pretty good guy,
and we get along for the most part.
what a rave review, huh?
well,
that may not seem like much, to you.
but,
for me, up here, in the worrisome woodsly goodness,
where hermitage and isolation are the rules to respect
when it comes to drug-free vegan weirdies,
mostly getting along with someone, especially a native son of the up-hereness?
that is kind of a coup.
anyway,
every year, on his berfday,
i fire up a strawberry vegan chee'cake.
and today, kids, is that very day.
yuuuuup.
...and a very happy berfday to the mountainiest manly man i met in these northern hills.
but, if he's such a burly bearded battle-beast,
why does he want such a delicate and delicious strawberry chee' delight?
precisely!
we're friends for a reason.
ha.
neighbors,
check the teleport:

c'mon.
it's got ALL the hottness.
it really does.
i've been freaking it off with lite firm tofu lately.
it makes the whole texture less runny and more cakey,
albeit by the babiest of margins.
a little sturdiness goes pretty far distances when it comes to chee'cake.
that's real.
also,
i use one and a half packages of the creamchee'.
i doo-doo that heavy-handed approach to flavors.
and i use freeze-dried, powdered strawberries in there, too.
they rehydrate themselves in the lightly-lemony 'batter',
and thicken it while they're at it.
it's concentrated berry boomfire,
and it's no F*ing joke.
you wanna make one?
ok.
do this-
prepare a crust. i don't care how you do it, or even if you do it.
you could just run it crustless, but it'd miss out on all the crumbly crawnch.
i used my own graham goodness,
with coconut and brown sugar and vanilla,
but y'know, do what you like.
the filling, tho.
that's the key.
a teaspoon of vanilla, a half teaspoon of lemon extract,
and a healthy squirt of lemon juice,
with a block (12oz?) of drained firm tofu;
one and a half packs of vegan creamchee';
3T of tapioca;
2T arrowroot or cornstarch;
1 T flour.
all of that, and a third of a cup of powpowdered sugars,
all food-processor pureed into one unified pulpy puddin'.
that's essential. it's GOTTA be mixed well, or it's gloppy, and bloppy, and sh!tty as heck.
no good.
so, mix it up,
and pour off half,
and add the strawberry dust.
i use the trader joe's packs of dried fruits,
and i crush 'em in a spice grinder.
that's the good stuff, and it really brings out the best in this batch of smooth sweet treatness.
real talk.
i bake it at 350F for maybe like 25-35 minutes,
depending on when the tiny cracks start to appear in the top.
after it cools, it gets berries on top.
after that cools, it gets frosting on top.
after that, it gets eaten by my big fat face, and wayne's bigger fatter face,
and whomever else needs some?
it's plausible to think they may even get some,
provided they say happy berfday first.
rules is rules, after all.
*
you can thank travis over at veganmagictime for stepping up the cooking scene,
and indirectly getting me motivated to record and provide some basics for y'all,
he's shouted me out several times,
while i'm over here blogging about tattoos or whatever,
...and maybe that's cool, or maybe it's not,
but for sure, a supplemental recipe here or there has got to help a little bit.
right??
right.
*
there's no time for wasting,
but there is unfortunately a wait between waking up,
and dawn's early light.
the hardest part of every day is the span from eyes open to high visibility.
as the mountains get painted pink by the sun's rays,
my day is well underway already.
taking photos, however, requires refined ambient energy,
refracted and reflected through the big picture windows
of the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress.
i'm waiting,
and the sun is slowly rising up.
by the time it gets here,
i'll be able to show you that 'cake up top.
it's a top secret delay, or it was until right now.
true stories, told truly, in the morning;
never quiet, never soft.....

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