MoFo Day 16! Party recap and three kinds of cupcakes

Last night was the 'We Miss You, KK' party. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of last night's festivities. I was having too much fun to drag my camera out of my bag. I do have some really, really terrible pictures of the cupcakes I made. Don't say I didn't warn you. Ugh. I don't know what was going on with the light in my living room last night, but it was gross. I promise they looked way, way better in person.

I made three different cupcakes: strawberry, cookies and cream, and gingerbread. All the recipes came from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. For the strawberry, I used the vanilla cake recipe and added extra strawberry flavoring. The frosting is the Raspberry Buttercream recipe, but I used replaced the raspberry syrup and extract with strawberry. I thought the icing looked too thick, so I added extra strawberry syrup. Unfortunately, I had a heavy hand, and it started to run. The cookies and cream use the variation of the chocolate cupcakes that's listed in the book. The gingerbread have Lemon Buttercream on top. Oh! Fred did most of the decoration. I had PT last night, and I didn't have time to make the icing and decorate and get ready when I got home. He's awesome. I love him!

The gingerbread were definitely my favorite. I was pleasantly surprised because I haven't been the biggest fan of gingerbread over the years. These were nice and mellow and include crystalized ginger. Yum! Also, I really love lemon-flavored anything.

The party was a lot of fun, and the food was great. And it was all vegan! I'm gonna do some bullet points, so the awesomeness doesn't get lost in one giant paragraph.

• The hosts, Matt and Kim (no, they don't like the band), made some awesome guacamole, and Matt grilled up a ton of yummy vegetables--mushrooms, zucchini, asparagus, potatoes, onions, etc.
• Jodi made a squash salad with roasted kabocha and buttercup squash, pomegranate, pepitas and arugula with an apple cider dressing. It was really delicious.
• Randi made oatmeal cookies. They fell apart a little, but tasted great. Sadly, Randi couldn't stay, because her dog was sick last night. I hope he's okay!
• Dave, one of our wine vendors, brought a bunch of wine for everyone to share (the hangover I've had all day tells me that I definitely partook in his generosity).
• Chris and Mandy made a seven layer taco dip with vegan sour cream and Daiya.
• Our friend Freddie, who quit months ago even showed up with a veggie tray.
• Kojak, aka Whiskers (seriously epic facial hair), made what we all dubbed 'Banana Dicks'. He drenched banana halves in an aged rum and brown sugar sauce, grilled them up and served them with vanilla ice cream for the omnis and coconut sorbet for me.
• One of my favorite dishes of the night was this shepherd's pie that Richard, my team leader, made. He used Uptown's seitan, Gimme Lean chorizo, cheddar Daiya, spinach, mushrooms and potatoes, of course. He likes to give me shit for being vegan, so I so stoked that he made that. Richard worked in a ton of kitchens over the years before he came to Whole Foods. I wasn't surprised it was delicious, but I didn't expect him to go all out with the substitutions like that.

Everyone seemed to have a great time. It made me miss work, if only for the company. I got to see so many people I haven't seen in a while, and it was so nice to catch up with everyone. I love everyone I work with, and I missed the people who couldn't make it. My friend Julie even showed up. She had my position before me, but transferred to another store to be closer to home. I was super excited to see her, because she's truly one of the most awesome people I know, and I've missed her ever since she transferred.

So, a lot of thanks and love to everyone who came! And thanks for such awesome vegan food! I love you guys!