Don't judge a book by it's cover

For a BBQ a couple of weeks ago I decided to make some sweet things to take. I made lychee cupcakes from VCTOTW and strawberries in rose jelly from veggie chic.

I started making the cupcakes and then realised that quite a few people in blog land had tried them and thought they were not so good. This is one of the guest recipes so I should have known better. One person recommended adding more lychee syrup and thankfully I listened to her.

The jelly recipe asked for vegetarian jelly so I used agar agar. I've used agar agar before to make jelly with no problems and it smelled and looked great (the pic doesn't quite capture it).

Unfortunately, the cupcakes however looked pretty horrible, there were flaxseed lumps all throughout it and the icing was pretty transparent and really running (see the pic below). However they thankfully tasted fine, there were kids at the BBQ and they kept coming back for more. I always think if I managed to get both adults and kids to agree I've done ok since most kids are so fussy. If you do plan on making them I strongly recommend that you triple the amount of lychee syrup and replace the flaxseed with another egg replacer.

The jelly on the other hand was the worst ever. It was tasteless and the texture was not right, it was like rubber. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't cook it long enough or if it is because vegetarian jelly is different or if the recipe just sucked. I stupidly didn't try it before the BBQ and so I had to try to convince people not to eat it and they wouldn't listen and I'm never felt more embarrassed ever, one of the kids spat it out and the rest of the adults politely ate it and pretended to like it. I'm glad that the majority of the people of the party didn't know I was vegan so they didn't have this horrible association with tasteless rubber vegan food.

Agar Agar Rocks



My lunch today:peach and orange agar agar kelly, pasta salad topped with nutritional yeast and temeh strips with beetroot dip in my new bigger tiffin.

Claire inspired me to try agar agar after she made agar agar vodka and lychee shots for her birthday party. They were yummy and she also said they were easy to make.

So I set about yesterday determined to make some. I googled and found a few recipes and combined them to make up my jelly cups.

I combined orange juice(2 cups) with the agar agar powder(2 teaspoons) if you are using agar agar flakes use 2 tablespoons and then cook it until it boiled and poured it into the moulds filled with different types of fruit.

I tried blueberries, banana and canned peaches. Peaches were by the far the best but next time I will try it with apple juice instead of orange juice.

Although a word of warning, some fruits unless cooked will not set in agar agar including: kiwi fruit, pineapple, fresh figs, paw paw /papaya, mango and peaches. I used canned peaches which are precooked so it was fine.

Agar is high in iodine and trace minerals although apparently the powder is not as good as the flakes.