Vegetarian Star

Jane Lockhart, owner of Sweet Lady Jane bakery in Los Angeles, California, baker to the stars and creator of the vegan, red-velvet cake for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi‘s wedding, has an exclusive interview with Radar Online where she shares her stories of baking for celebrities.

“Ellen and Portia’s cake-Portia came in with her mom, who was visiting from Australia and showed me the ring that Ellen had had made for her which was a beautiful, but simple vine design in diamonds,” Lockhart said. “We took that simplicity and elegance and continued that vine design on the cake. It was their favorite vegan red velvet.”

During an interview with Access Hollywood, Lockhart gave some secrets to the substitutes for baking vegan and the challenges she faced with Ellen and Portia’s cake.

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Chocolate Pecan Pie

This is for Veg Star’s fantastic graduate students out there, in the middle of another grueling semester.

When a writer at Riverfront Times wanted to conduct a, ahem, “scientific” experiment on vegan goods, she tested the hypothesis that “Vegan baked goods are always readily identifiable as being vegan.”

In other words, this skeptic wanted to prove that vegan desserts are cardboard, pasty, granola pyramids of disaster. Sure hope she didn’t bet her thesis on it.

Materials for vegan chef and author Bryant Terry‘s vegan dessert included a coconut pie crust made from coconut oil in place of butter, a chocolate pecan pudding filling with non-dairy rice milk, maple syrup and arrowroot powder, a fantastic thickener for pies, puddings, gravies and other dishes that doesn’t add fat.

Results: “I don’t understand how that is vegan.” (In non-scientific terms: How the heck does it taste so good?)

Conclusion, experimenter notes and recipe below.

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"Top Chefs Just Desserts" Zac Young

Top Chef: Just Desserts premieres tonight on Bravo at 11/10C. The pastry chef’testants will battle it out with butter over who can bring home the trophy for satisfying the judges sweet tooth.

Zac Young is a fine young man from Portland, Maine who’s strayed from his roots. He was born to a vegan mother, so he, “never had chocolate mousse, but knew all too well the flavor of a tofu and carob pudding,” according to the Huffington Post.

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According to a recent article in the Huffington Post, although Michelle Obama is gung ho about promoting her obesity campaign aimed at slimming America’s children down, it’s not all about whole grains and apples and she’s leaving room for some play time here and there.

The First Lady has agreed to let Twinkies get pass the security in the White House.

If you’re a health obsessed parent who’s decided to let your kids dig in on junk every once in awhile, congratulations.

It may very well save them from rebelling and stashing pounds of candy in the office drawers at work when they’re 35.

You can still take precautions during the wild ride on the sweet side and make healthier Twinkies without dairy, eggs or preservatives like the ones found at the grocery store.

Two recipes to get you started.

One, at Shmooed Food, involves barley malt powder mixed with vegan butter and sugar to get that cream filling.

The second calls for tofu, white chocolate and maple syrup to help form the gooey center.

Will your child be sharing Tofu Twinkies at the lunch table this week?

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Here’s the perfect opportunity to use those FAQs Erin McKenna has  recently compiled for her BabyCakes cookbook.

As previously reported, McKenna has added about 20 of the most common questions or problems people have had with the recipes.

The owner of the famous bakery in New York City offering vegan, sugar-free, and gluten-free desserts has a blueberry muffins recipe that she made on Good Morning America.

If you’re out of coconut oil, don’t despair.

According to the FAQs, any other vegetable oil can be substituted in the batter. However, if you were making frosting, you’d have to use liquid coconut oil.

Grab the recipe here, and to learn where to get your Bob’s Red Mill flour, visit the FAQs.

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If you stopped into the Oprah Winfrey retail store this week, The Oprah Store, you may have had the chance to sample some vegan treats from Karyn’s Raw Cafe.

Karyn’s goodies, which included bread pudding, squares of chocolate, and raw cookies, were some of the treats available in the store during a tea event with some of Chicago’s top bloggers.

Karyn’s raw is owned by Karyn Calabrese, who has appeared on Oprah’s show before on an episode titled, “Age Defying Woman.”

Karyn has an impressive CV: a raw foodist for over 20 years and a vegan for 30 years!

Karyn’s vegan empire in Chicago includes a Raw Cafe with a juice bar as well as cooked options, home delivered meals, beauty aids and health supplements and wellness classes.

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CNN has some great coverage of Global Vegan Bake Sale, an event that officially ends today.

According to the article, over 120 groups across six continents held bake sales to show people how delicious dairy, poultry and cruelty-free desserts can be.

Pictures of bake sales from New York, Romania, Australia and Ireland can be found in a slideshow on the site.

We think we spy some vegan peanut butter chocolate cups that look inspired by a recipe from Alicia Silverstone‘s cookbook, The Kind Diet.

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Food Network Magazine

Sweet and Sara and its vegan marshmallows are featured in the April 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine.

It’s about time vegan bakers help offset some of Paul Deen‘s usual recipe of the month of butter dipped battered ham and beef stack wrapped in bacon and drizzled with melted lard patties.

The company headquartered in Long Island City in New York is the home of vegan treats such as marshmallows without gelatin, vegan S’mores and other vegan desserts.

Sweet and Sara has been featured on the Food Network series “Unwrapped” and has also had one of its products named “Snack of the Day” on Rachael Ray‘s website.

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