My Sweet Vegan: Passionate About Dessert

The past few months have seen the release of a plethora of fabulous vegan cookbooks & My Sweet Vegan by Hannah Kaminsky is no exception! From the minute the book landed in my hands, I was drawn in by the beautiful layout which includes full color photos, taken by Hannah, for each & every recipe! Upon closer inspection, you find a collection of unique & tempting recipes such as Caramel Macchiato "Cheese" Cake, Lemon-Lime Sunshine Bundt, Turtle Shortbread Wedges, & Wasabi Chocolate Cupcakes, & as well as a selection of classic cookies, muffins, pies, tarts, & cakes! This isn't your standard vegan dessert book, Hannah's approach is a refreshing & exciting take on vegan sweets, yet it's approachable & easy to follow. Before reviewing this sugary sweet selection for you, I had to try out a few recipes to see if they taste as fabulous as they look on the pages. I am a fiend for marshmallow, so the Marshmallow Mud Cake was the first up to bat, a treat to share with friends as we celebrated the new year! This chocolate cake makes use of chocolate soy milk for extra flavor & is topped in a confectioners sugar & ricemallow blend that makes for a fluffy topping for the true sweets lover! I had a bit of an issue with my frosting slipping down the sides of the cake, but that didn't stop me from trying to load it as high as possible before drizzling the top with chocolate! I let my husband pick out another recipe to try & it was a peanut butter & chocolate combination in a cookie form; Peanut Butter Bombs. These are a chocolate cookie with a baked-in peanut butter center & a true treat! I was lucky enough to have him on filling duty, so these came together quickly & were immediately dipped in soy milk & consumed once they came out of the oven. I have no doubt you'll be seeing Lace Sugar Crisps, Black Bottom Blondies, Peach Melba Layer Cake, & maybe even a Mocha Devastation Cake from My Sweet Vegan coming out of my kitchen in the near future!

I own a ridiculous amount of cookbooks, vegan, vegetarian & otherwise and I bake at least every other day. This is without a doubt one of the best cookbooks for baking ever written. I've tried at least 20 of the recipes and have only been disappointed with the Lemon Lime Sunshine Bundt cake; it was pretty sweet & more dense/sticky than I envisioned. That said, it was far from a 'bad' recipe I've tried in other books, just not up to the caliber of her others. I'll admit, I haven't tried the brownie recipes (I was amazed there was a 2 star review & had to check it out), but now I'll have to try them for myself. My omnivore friends have started using vegan products because they tried the things I baked & got their own copy of the book. The Joy of Vegan Baking is excellent as well; ingredient weights are given, which would be great in this book. BUY THIS BOOK!!!

If it's true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then My Sweet Vegan may end up being the wordiest cookbook ever. Eighteen year-old Hannah Kaminsky, is both author and photographer of this creative dessert-lover's tome. The photographs alone could be the makings for a monthly desserts calendar. The only problem would be selecting only twelve of the over seventy mouth-watering photos. Hannah's goal was to create original recipes sure to please any palate, not just those of vegans. To that end, she includes a Food Allergy Index so that those with special dietary needs can find a recipe at a glance. Whether you're gluten-free, wheat-free, peanut-free, tree-nut free, or soy-free, there is a recipe for you. The Table of Contents (which reads more like a Recipe Index) includes Sweet Starts (such as Sweet and Simple French Toast, Golden Glazed Donuts, Power Hungry Granola), Cookies and Bars (such as Apricot Biscotti, Butterscotch Blondies, Whoopie Pies), Cakes and Cupcakes (such as Chai "Cheese" Cake, Pomegranate Ginger Cupcakes, Pina Colada Mini-Bundts,) Pies and Tarts (such as Baklava Tart, Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, Coconut Custard Pie), and Miscellaneous Morsels and Desserts (such as Matzah Toffee, Green Tea Freezer Pops, Five-Minute Coconut Fudge). Most of the ingredients are easy to come by and some of the more obscure ingredients like Matcha Powder, and Black Cocoa Powder are listed in the four-page Ingredients Guide. A few of the recipes call for corn syrup which I would replace with healthier brown rice syrup, and vegetable shortening which some might confuse with Crisco instead of non-hydrogenated shortening, which I believe is what Hannah means to suggest. As she completes her freshman year in college (and gives new meaning to the word "sweet" mate), Hannah joins ranks with some of the more formidable, seasoned vegan dessert cookbook authors; age notwithstanding, Hannah holds her own in this category. My Sweet Vegan is a fresh approach to baking and is sure to satisfy the sweet tooth of vegans and non-vegans alike. Be sure to check out Hannah's comprehensive blog at www.bittersweetblog.wordpress.com; also www.mysweetvegan.com; and www.godairyfree.com

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a pre-release version of this soon-to-be hot new cookbook and was overwhelmed by the beauty of the photography, and the selection of unique and creative recipes developed by this new author. It is stylish and rich in design, as well as in the breadth of desserts that are offered. I have also been the happy tester of quite a few of the final products and can vouch for the taste and presentation of each one! I am definitely getting a copy of My Sweet Vegan as a holiday gift for all of my cool friends. It will be loved by vegans and non-vegans alike.