A friend at work is having his first baby, well his gorgeous wife is and we threw him a baby shower.  This gave me an excuse to do a bit of thrifting around as I sadly had nothing to serve with for such a special occasion.  Look to the end of this post to see what I found at my local Sally Anne (Salvation Army) for the kingly price of $6.00.

I was put in charge of the dessert portion and at first I thought-cupcakes!  But then my really warped sense of humour came into play and I thought “why not Whoopie pies?” 🙂 

Get it?  Get it?  Ok, admittedly this amused me the most.

Now we had some health concerns for various guests so I decided the easiest thing to do would be to go vegan.

I searched a bit and found a great site.  Vanessa has some great ideas and I’ve adapted her recipe to fit my lazy baking practises.

Cream together; 1/2 cup margarine (I use Earth Balance all the time), 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup cocoa (get the really rich dutch stuff).

Add in 2 cups of rice milk (you can use soy too) that’s been soured for a couple of minutes with 1 tsp. of vinegar then mix in 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. baking powder and a dash of salt.

Use a small scoop and form 2 inch blobs onto a cookie sheet

and bake for 10 minutes at a moderate heat (330).  Let cool.

I’ve made a really simple buttercream (1 cup margarine, red food colouring to suit, beaten with a dash of vanilla and add in up to four cups of icing sugar).
Sandwich in between your chocolate pies.
Roll in sprinkles and put on a really pretty pedestal. 

Yep!  you guessed it.  That pretty plate is my $6.00 find.  It’s crystal with a cornflower pattern.
 Love it but even more so, can’t wait to meet this new, special little girl.

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