I’m celebrating the launch of the book by sharing the cake balls recipe my boys and I made.  Sweets are not normally my thing, but some how celebrating with my boys demanded a treat.   Don’t they look festive?

I started on Sunday by baking a small cake.  Now that I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 6 months, I find myself becoming more curious about vegan cooking.  So, I decided to give baking a vegan cake a go.  I didn’t want to do a big huge cake recipe, because I don’t need a lot of sweets and that means the boys will be the ones eating them.

One thing I’ve learned is that massive amounts of sweets and homeschooling don’t go together well.  Any mom of boys can tell you that 5 and 6 year old boys have enough physical energy without being, as my boys so eloquently (LOL) call it, “jacked up”.

So, I went with a cupcake recipe that was inspired by non other than the Cupcake Wars winner, Chef Chole.  Now for those of you who don’t know her, let me give you a little back ground.  Chole is a vegan who was featured in Cupcake Wars on The Food Network.  Last fall (right before I went veg) I said glued to the screen watching her kick EVERYONE’S butt and win the whole thing.  Guys, this wasn’t vegan Cupcake Wars – she was up against people using butter in baking and took the whole show!

So, Sunday, my boys and I whipped up a Vegan Quinoa Cake, and I nervously awaited the results.

Now, not only have I never baked a vegan cake before, but I adapted the recipe to add a little bit of quinoa flour and I took out the sugar and used agave nectar instead.

The result was an ultra moist cake that wasn’t too sweet.  It smelled delicious!

Now, I got the ideas for the cake balls here.  I got an email with this as one of the recipes while Alex, (my 6 year old) was sitting with me.  His nickname is “the commander” because he has this way to get what he wants, especially with me.  He’s such a sweet kid that wants to please and when he asks for something it is really hard to say no.  Plus, he keeps asking (in a sweet way) until I cave.

The boys had fun crumbling the cake.  How often does your mom let you destroy a cake she has just baked?

I mixed in the frosting.  (You can use any recipe, I used this one.) Then, they went overboard adding the sprinkles.

I put the mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Then formed it into tablespoon sized balls which went back into the freezer for another 15 minutes.

I broke the chocolate into equal sized pieces and melted it the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds.

Then dipped the balls in the chocolate and put them into the refrigerator to harden.  Meanwhile, the boys asked me every 5 minutes when they were going to be ready.

But, the wait was worth it….Success!