We have had a great winter of cooking and flowers and weaved throughout that was Martin-Lane performing in 12 performances of the Washington Ballet's Nutcracker. She had a fabulous experience and it was awesome to watch her! Her final performance was last night and after the theater we invited another dancer and some friends back to the house to celebrate.

We made a big bowl of curry with lots of condiments, served champagne and for dessert–cookies.

Martin-Lane took the lead on design and chose many shapes that were Nutcracker related, we had fun assisting! We used vegetable dyes as coloring for the icing...these are vegan but that does not mean that they are not full of sugar and delicious– consume with care.

Sugar Cookies– Chocolate and Vanilla

1 cup non hydrogenated margarine (earth balance)

1 cup vegan sugar

1/4 cup pureed soft or silken tofu

seeds from the inside of 3 vanilla beans (vanilla flavored cookies only)

3 3/4 cup all purpose unbleached flour (for chocolate substitute 3/4 cups of flour for cocoa powder)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons tofu sour cream

In a mixer cream together the margarine and the sugar. Mix in tofu and vanilla (if using vanilla). Gradually add the flour (cocoa powder if using), baking powder and tofu sour cream. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll cookies and out to about 1/4 inch, cut with cookie cutters or with knife and bake until bottoms just turn golden brown (or are dry to the touch with the chocolate flavor). Cool before frosting.

Vegan Cookie Frosting

3 tablespoons non hydrogenated margarine (earth balance)

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

approximately 2 teaspoons non dairy milk

In a mixer cream together margarine, salt and sugar. Add non dairy milk slowly until you get a spreadable but not too loose consistency. To make different colors separate frosting into separate bowls and color with vegetable based food coloring. You can use plastic baggies as pastry bags by filling them with the frosting and poking a small whole in one corner.