The Vegan Bake Sale

A few weeks ago I heard The Toronto Vegetarian Association was having their Annual Vegan Bake-off so I signed up ! I've done a few bake sales before but never a baking competition and I was really eager to try one.  They needed my entry right away and raw food was a category.  I made this really yummy no bake raw coconut banana cream pie over the summer and I thought that would be easy to make and delicious, so I entered it :). A few weeks passed and the bake sale date rapidly approached. I bought my supplies over the weeks and set them up close to my brand new food processor.

Finally bake day came!! I started with the crust and made 6 batches. As I moulded the crusts into a minnie cupcake tin I realized how many 100 samples actually is...a lot. It took me and hour and a half just to make the crusts. I put them all in the freezer and started making the whipped topping. I feared that the desserts may turn mushy and I knew freezing sliced bananas made them slimy and unappetizing.
So I decided to wake up early on the day of the bake sale to fill the pies with coconut whipped cream and banana slices. Probably not the best idea. Slicing took way longer than I thought and I had to dip all the sliced bananas in lemon juices because they started turning brown. This is when I began to FREAK OUT. I ran out of bananas and I was meeting my friend in less than an hour to drive us downtown to the bake sale. I assembled most of the samples and then packed them, a knife and some lemon juice in my car and sped off. I ran into Whole Foods bought two bananas, picked up my friend and raced to Toronto. In my car before the event I sliced the remaining bananas and finished my dessert! I ran into the building where is was being held and set up my entry. Of course I panicked for no reason because there was only one other entry there.

Before the event began Raw Key Lime Pie and my Banana Cream Pie

 My treats were set up and finally I could enjoy the event :). As a baker, I received one ticket for free, so I got to choose which category of treats I wanted to try. My friend and I walked around the room and looked at all the samples. The categories were raw desserts, donuts and pastries, gluten free, professional vegan classics, professional gluten free, brownies and bars, cookies, cakes and cupcakes, and pies and squares.  We ended up testing the cakes and cupcakes.

The cupcake and cakes sample I ate MMMMM

 All entries looked as yummy as they tasted. I didn't stick around for the winners announcement ceremony but on monday night I received an email saying I came in second in my category !!! SO happy :)

The Raw Desserts sample platter
1. Raw Vegan Blueberry "Cheese" Cake
2. Zesty Sexy Key Lime Pie
3. Coconut Banana Cream Pie (me!)
4. Fruit Sushi
5. Tijana's Tropical Treat

Raw Desserts.. I wish I could have tasted them !

I went to the Toronto Vegetarian Assocaitions main office and picked up my prize. I won the coolest vegan cookbook Chloe's Vegan Desserts by Chloe Coscarelli.

This is when I got MY IDEA. My goal is to bake every recipe in this cook book and I am going to document it all on this blog.

SO excited. Hopefully I'll get out one recipes a week.

xoxo tash