Desk of the Day 21/05/13 - Little Baby Liberty

There's still a ton of shading work left to do (especially on the bottom half). And I'm not sure whether to give Little Baby Liberty some nipples, to me it just seems wrong to give a cartoon baby nipples haha. I also spent ages trying to think up ideas of how to have the baby holding a torch without it looking dangerous. So I added a smiley face the the flames to make it look more like a rattle.

This is a logo idea for the New York parenting blog - Parents and the City which is run by my friend Diana. I'm so excited to work with Diana on this project because she's such a creative person and is always great to bounce ideas off. She's also a very skilled writer, so it's going to be great to try and match a blog and logo design to her fun and witty writing style.

Indulgent Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

Chocolate fudge cake has always been a big favorite of mine. So of course, as soon as I turned vegan my main priority was to find out how to make it the vegan way! This recipe is a mix up of a few chocolate fudge cake recipes I've tried (yes, I have tried that many, maybe I have a problem). This cake is always a winner among my none vegan friends and family too.

The sponge is pretty much the same as my Chocolate Raspberry Coconut Cake.

Sponge Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup unbleached cane caster sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 cup thick coconut cream
1/2 cup coconut milk

Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup vegan butter/marge
3/4 cup cocoa powder
4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp soy/almond milk

raspberries to decorate  (optional)

Sponge Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Grease or l2 8 inch cake tins.

2. Sift all of the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Mix in all of the wet ingredients until it is all completely mixed.

3. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 25-35 mins (25 for fan ovens). To tell if the cake is done put a sharp object into the middle of the cake, if it comes out dry the cake is done.

4. Allow to cool before frosting.

For the frosting & decorating:

1. Mix the butter and vanilla extract.

2. Gradually add the icing sugar and cocoa powder while mixing. Add a little milk if the consistency is too dry.

3. Sandwich some icing between the two sponges and ice all around the outside. Add extra raspberries to decorate.

Desk of the day 18/5/13

I love seeing other artists and crafter's work in progress shots, and I'm always posting mine on instagram, but sometimes I wish I could take more time to take proper photos of what I'm working on. So, inspired by Cart Before the Horse who take the most wonderful work in progress photos, I've decided to start posting some better quality photos of the things I'm currently working on.

This isn't technically desk of the day, because it's yesterdays desk. I've been working on these Adventure time dolls for a while now, today they're finally ready for me to add the details and varnish them!

As you can see, the matryoshka photo shoot soon turned into a Tofu photo shoot. He's such an attention seeker!

My list of Vegan bloggers - Part 1

Seeing as it's the week of my Veganniversary, I'm pretty much taking over the blog with vegan posts (sorry to all my none vegan readers, normal posts will commence really soon!).

Since becoming Vegan I've met so many supportive people in the blogging community. So I wanted to pay their kindness back by introducing you all to their blogs! Here are a few blogs I think you should all check out:

My Mod Style - Jessie was the very first vegan blogger I got in contact with. She's so supportive and helpful! I love reading her blog because she spreads a crap ton of positivity. One of my fav features on her blog is The Vegan Project where Jessie is helping her friend Dan discover the pros of a vegan lifestyle.

Vegan in a Pretty Dress - Michelle started being vegan in February, she uses her blog to document her journey into veganism, and also share some really yummy recipes. Michelle is such a sweet person, she's a major animal lover and is even training to become a vet!

Adrian Loves Owls - I have a major blogging crush on this lady! She has the most awesome style, and the cutest dogs, and on top of that she's also vegan! I love seeing Adrian's dog posts, it's clear how much she adores her doggy family members.

Nerd Burger - Cazz is the queen of rad hair and comics! She thrifts really cool toys and looks like a superhero, she's also recently become vegan!

Say It Ain't So - Rae and her hubby have recently made the transition from vegetarian to vegan, and I love seeing the yummy stuff they get to try when they're on the road. Rae also has the most adorable pugs Phyllis and Priscilla.

Dreams Are Necessary - I want to give Claire a big mention too! She is so creative and shares her awesome felt creations on her blog along with a load of cat finds. Her post about going mostly raw is really interesting and has made me want to explore raw food some more.


If you're a vegan blogger let me know and send me a link to your blog! I'll be adding to this list as I find more wonderful vegan blogs. 

Don't forget to enter my Big Vegan Giveaway.

Vegan Business Cards

I can't remember how I came accross these vegan business cards, if it was one of you lovely lot please let me know and I'll give you credit.

I think they're a funny, yet functional idea. I'm so fed up of having to explain veganism to each and every person who asks me. Maybe someone could come up with a giant business card that explains why I'm a vegan so I don't have to explain myself to everyone? Or maybe I should just get it tattooed on my forehead?

Phoebe & Rei

Do you remember a few months ago I painted some Justin Bieber sneakers and Persian Cat Sneakers? I painted them for the Canadian Much Music host Phoebe Dykstra.

Phoebe is a super cool lady, she has rad fashion sense and she's such a sweet person. Plus she has an adorable persian kitty named Rei. I just had to do an illustration of them both!

This was my first time illustrating tattoos in one of my digital portraits, and I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Here's the portrait of Phoebe & Rei, If you'd like your own portrait doing check out my custom listing on Etsy.

And here's a couple of photos of Phoebe & Rei. Look at Rei next to PonyChops sneakers!

You can find Phoebe on Twitter, Instagram & Tumblr. And Rei even has her own Instagram now!

My 1 year Veganniversary Giveaway!

This weekend it's officially been a whole year since I became vegan! The first year has been a whole lot easier than I thought it would be, I seem to have discovered so many more delicious foods than I would have ever tried before. It's also forced me to cook from scratch much more often (especially cakes, as I can't just pop out and buy vegan baked goods where I live). I find myself craving cheese way less than I thought I would (I was pretty much a cheese addict before becoming vegan).

I feel like I've met so many awesome people through becoming vegan, especially vegan bloggers! The vegan blogging community is so supportive and helpful. I'll be sharing some love for a few of my fav vegan bloggers during the week to say a big thank you!

Because my readers have been super duper lovely to me, I figured this would be a great time to give something back to you all. So I'm giving away a 2 month large Ad spot, along with a few of my fav vegan friendly goodies.

Here's what's in my pack of Vegan goodies:

•  2 Barry M Nail polishes in Lilac & White nail effects (my fav colours!)
• A re-useable Bobble Bottle. I love the idea of wasting as little plastic as possible, so I think the Bobble Bottle is a great idea.
• Good Stuff Summer Peaches sweets - these are yumtastic!
• 3 Mini Moo Free Hunny Comb chocolate bars
• Forks over Knives - The cookbook. This is by far one of the best & healthiest vegan recipe books, it's great for none vegans too.

This giveaway will end on the 22nd May. Everyone is welcome to enter, you just have to be following me via Bloglovin!

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