Vegan Cornbread Mini-Muffins with Real Corn

In preparation for Sweet Inde Bakery's first event at the Women with Disabilities: A Healthcare Workshop at the Disability Empowerment Center on June 3rd, 2010 from 1-8pm, I have created a new vegan cornbread mini-muffin recipe. I will be facilitating a baking demonstration from 4:15-5:15 of the cornbread to complement a mexican meal. I was asked to create a healthy and easy to make recipe.

Here is the recipe:

Pre-heat oven for 450 degrees

1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup of whole wheat flour
4 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup naturally sweetened whole kernel corn
2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal mixed with 6 tablespoons of water
1 cup of soy milk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 sugar (optional)

Mix all dry ingredients in a small bowl. Mix all wet ingredients in a different small bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix ingredients with a spoon. Prepare mini-muffin pans with mini-muffin liners. Pour the ingredients into the mini-muffin liners and fill the liners almost full. Bake for 10 minutes. To see if the muffins are done, stick a knife into the middle of one. If the knife comes out clean, then they are done!

Tips on Making an Easy Piano Cake and a Bit About Sweet Inde

Michael suggested that I begin to write about my baking adventures...that makes sense I suppose since we are starting a nonprofit bakery. In writing about baking, I will also update you about Sweet Inde!
So..Michael hosted our friend Paul's birthday party yesterday. Paul is a pianist, so Michael suggested that I bake a cake and find some kind of a piano and music themed sculpture to place on top of the cake. I failed on finding a piano sculpture, so I googled "piano cake". I found so many pictures, but it seemed that all of them used fondant..and that seemed like too much work for a PhD student to do during finals week. So, I thought, "why not just use white and dark chocolate for the piano keys?" I bought two types of dark and white chocolate bars, Ghiradelli and Lindt. I learned that Lindt chocolate is smoother for shaping into piano keys. I cut long thin pieces of the white chocolate for the white piano keys and cut 1/2 size pieces of black chocolate for the smaller black piano keys. I used a chocolate frosting for the cake on two round cakes. I frosted one of the cakes for the bottom half of the cake, then cut the top round cake in half and placed it on the frosted round cake. I prepared the piano keys and used frosting to hold the white and black keys together. I then placed the prepared piano keys on the bottom cake layer (as seen in the picture). Easy as pie! It's simple, but quite elegant and appreciated by the birthday boy! So, I learned that baking "fancy" cakes does not need to be as complicated as fondant! ;0)

A bit about Sweet Inde.. I learned today that the logistical issues of starting a nonprofit are quite complicated. We need an attorney to consult with as we prepare our application. We must also become an organized "corporation" in the state of Arizona (which can take a month) before applying for 501(c)3 status. It's exhausting. If you read this and you know an attorney who might be able to support Sweet Inde in this process for pro-bono or a reduced rate, please contact us. Thank you!

Sweet News

It has been a while since I have written, but it is because the Sweet Inde team has been very busy and productive..

I am so excited to announce that Sweet Inde Bakery has been chosen for an ASU Challenge Innovator grant for $2000.00, which will provide us with enough funding to achieve nonprofit status and start Sweet Inde this summer. I found out Friday night while driving to Michael's house via the email function on my blackberry.. the email included a list of 10 winners of the grant and Sweet Inde Bakery was the 8th of the list! I screamed in my car when I found out and screamed again when I informed Michael at his doorstep!

Sweet Inde has also been chosen to be highlighted in an ASU newsletter, Pulse. Please read "My Story: Everyone Can Learn and Become Independent" at: http://entrepreneurship.asu.edu/newsletter/2010/04/29/my-story-everyone-can-learn-and-become-independent. This was an amazing opportunity to tell the story of what inspired the creation of Sweet Inde Bakery!

These two amazing advances that Sweet Inde has made are a dream come true. I am still taking it all in, but at the same time, I know that there is still so much to do and am excited to get started! Sweet Inde will now begin applying for nonprofit status, develop bylaws and choose a Board of Directors. Keep following the Sweet Inde story, as there will be a lot of exciting news and baked goods on sale soon!