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Well folks, this is my small contribution to V-Day. I've never really celebrated it and generally don't care much for it, regardless of being in a relationship or not, but these cakes are too good not to share, and being red, very sweet and heart shaped I suppose they can't not be associated with Valentines Day!

I saw this recipe on Whisk-Kid, which is the only food blog that I follow. Her photographs are incredible, her recipes are easy to make and I just enjoy the way she writes. These were so easy to make and were delicious. The silicon cupcake liners I bought yesterday from Aldi for $3 for 6. Sweet little things. I'd never made vegan cupcakes before and now I can't wait for our vegan friend Ash to come stay so I can make him eat 'em! Here's the recipe (with some slight alterations I made);

Vegan Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes originally from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

♡ 1 cup soy milk
♡ 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
♡ 1 1/4 cup flour
♡ 1 cup sugar
♡ 2 tbls cocoa
♡ 1/2 tsp baking powder
♡ 1/2 tsp baking soda
♡ 1/2 tsp salt
♡ 1/3 cup canola oil
♡ 2 tbls red food coloring liquid (I thought 2tbls was a lot, though I still followed the recipe and felt like it made the batter taste like food dye, next time I'd only use one tbls)
♡ 2 tsp vanilla extract
♡ 1/4 tsp almond extract
♡ 1 tsp chocolate extract

Preheat oven to 350F/180C and line a cupcake tin.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the soy milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle (this is to imitate buttermilk. It is an important step because the vinegar gives the baking soda something with which it can react!)

In another bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Add the oil, food coloring and extracts to the curdled soy milk and whisk well to combine. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet and fold to combine, mixing just until large lumps disappear.

Pour into liners and bake 18-20 minutes. Cupcakes should be springy to touch. Allow to cool completely before icing.

Makes 1 dozen.

Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

♡ 1/4 c margarine, softened
♡ 1/4 c vegan cream cheese, softened
♡ 2 c powdered sugar
♡ 1 tsp vanilla (I added a quarter teaspoon of almond essence too and it was great)

Cream together the margarine and cream cheese just until combined. Sift in the powdered sugar in half-cup batches, whipping thoroughly combined after each addition. Add the vanilla and whip until light and fluffy. Frost cupcakes. Keep in airtight container out of sunlight. Devour!

Again, original recipe posted at Whisk-Kid, all credit to her loveliness! Obviously, I don't have the photographing prowess of this lady, but I reckon the cakes are probably just as delish.

^ This is what the batter looked like after everything was mixed in. C said it looked like congealed blood.


^ These are the silicon cupcake liners I bought. They held their shape pretty well.


^ After I filled 'em up.


^ Fresh outta the oven. I was sceptical about how they'd turned out, but after icing they were grand.


^ The delicious icing. It was hard to keep my fingers out of that bowl.


^ Freshly frosted.


^ Trying to get a shot that does them justice.


^ I'm pretty sure I need a lightbox and a Canon EOS just for photographing cupcakes.


^ And so on and so on.


^ Currently in my Bart Simpson lunch box from high school in my fridge as it's 36°C/96.8°F today! Ick!

When I was in my last year of high school any one who was in the SRC (Student Representative Council) had to help out on Valentines Day - we had stalls the whole week beforehand and for about $5 you could buy ONE rose for your valentine (or like $20 for 5, good rates huh?) and we'd specially deliver it to them on V-day. As well as this, for varying prices you could buy a card that we'd deliver or... *shudders* ...a singing telegram for $8. Well, being school captain certainly had its perks, but it had some major downfalls, like... having to knock on classroom doors and sing 'At Last' a Capella to about a dozen different people in front of whole classrooms. Ha! As well as this, the day/night prior and all day V-day there was de-thorning roses, wrapping and delivering roses and writing hundreds of Valentines cards out for people! And, after all of this I got home to my boyfriend at the time who had slept all day and hadn't remembered it was Valentines Day and I even bought him a gift! Boo!

Also, just in case you were wondering what my cats are up to today - they're melting! That's what C calls what they do on hot days when their bodies spread out as far as they possibly can. I pretty much feel like doing the same thing today;


^ Mesca (do ignore the dirty floor).


^ Rigby (this one is the other one's daughter, and after a year living with the two of them I have recently learned to tell them apart).

^ If you love mail and you don't have this book, you need it!

Carolee and Jenny from Podpost did a wonderful how-to travelling mail art kit in Good Mail Day. I thought I'd show you what goes in my mail art kit when I go away (even for a day or two);


^ A reasonably sized, sturdy bag. This one was a gift from Chandlerguera, it's made by Blue Q.


^ A bunch of mail needing replies.


^ My replies book - to keep track of what letters I've written and what letters I need to write. Just in case you were wondering, '(en)' means I've made an envelope already, ha. C had no idea what this meant and said something like "Does it mean you write those ones in English?".


^ Some addressed envelopes I've already made up for my replies. I usually make an envelope up for a reply as soon as I've received a letter.


^ A couple of different sheets of writing paper and some index cards - they're good for writing short notes.


^ Date stamp, double sided tape, regular tape, glue stick, clear gum glue, letter opener, airmail stickers, stapler, some spare envelopes, two types of labels, post it notes, a few postcards, a red, blue and black pen, a marker.


^ Rubber stamps, stamp pad, scissors, stickers, fountain pen, scrap paper and some tea (I like to include some in my letters).


^ Packed neatly inside.


^ Zipped up. Big enough to fit all of my mail odds and ends inside, but small enough to fit neatly into a suitcase or my handbag.

Anything else you'd include (or exclude) in your own mail art kit?
I think it would be great fun to pick up some cheap supplies and make little mail art kits to send to friends.

Here's a link to Craftside's travelling mail art kit which I spotted via Good Mail Day's post.

Sorry for all of the posts in a short amount of time, I guess the fact that university is about to start is dawning on me and I'm trying to get in as much blogging and letter writing as possible! Today I think I'm going to post a few letters with the last of my change and watch Moulin Rouge (I've never seen it before). I hope you get some lovely mail today!

^ To Mr Cheng.

C and I have been up late watching season 2 of Breaking Bad (such a good show) and I've been dividing my time between keeping my eyes on the screen and writing words on a page and wrote three letters;


^ Made from a cut-up Oxfam brown paper bag. These detailed red pen envelopes sure take a long time, but overall I really enjoy making them. I've often been annoyed with myself that I can't seem to produce 'art for art's sake'. I can only draw up things like this when I'm making something for someone else, or if I have to submit something for a class. It feels self absorbed to want to create a piece of art for myself, I don't know how to fix this feeling. This envelope was made for the lovely Reread Design.


^ One of my last Kathie Olivas envelopes.


^ This one's a bit scary, so I hope Melody likes it. It's so full it's about to burst. I had to add extra tape. I really enjoy her letters.

Listening to: Feeling Yourself Disintegrate - The Flaming Lips
Consuming: Peanut butter off a spoon, classy.

Loosely following Paper Source's 'envaccordion' tutorial I decided to put together a multi-compartmented envelope for my reply to Missive Maven (which I am yet to write, but I wanted to show you the envelope). I anticipate that I will fill each compartment with a page from my letter, perhaps a postcard or two, some tea and other small bits and pieces (it has to be thin enough to be able to fold back up).

Quite image heavy I'm sorry!;


^ Gluing the envelopes together - I used three plain red envelopes and two shiny silver ones. An uneven amount is good. Gluing the back of the flap of one envelope to the front of another envelope, repeating.


^ Starting to decorate. Of course only the 'front' and the 'back' will be visible when it goes through the post, but as you unwrap it you can see the rest of the decoration.


^ Rigby started posing so C took a picture.


^ Colouring in.


^ Makin' it pretty.


^ Again, Rigby with her poses.


^ Sticking bits on.


^ Planning & stamping.


^ Rigby, crying out for attention.


^ Finished product (inside).



^ Finished product (outside).


^ Folding it up.


Of course the back flap will have to be secured in a way that is able to be detached easily without damaging the rest of the envelope. I'll probably just tape down the edges of the flap. Lol @ my blobby drawing of Australia.


^ All folded up, the front.

Just quietly, I may have another giveaway planned for sometime next week, stay tuned :)