Last week I donated a cake to a raffle to support Sister Kate, Seattle’s vintage chorus girl troupe, and thought I thought I would share the results. I took a similar direction to wedding cake I made for my friend last fall, using chocolate rosewater layers with a rosewater butter cream with fondant. This time I just used excess fondant for the decorations rather than making more modeling chocolate, but still added pearl dust for a little sparkle.

This past holiday season i received both Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (full review forthcoming) and a bag of vegan white chocoate chips. These seemed like a natural combination, and as I finally began to deplete the masses of holiday sweets filling my house I began to contemplate a cookie making endevor. When I think white chocolate my mind always turns to the classic white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie. The combination of smooth white chocolate and butter macadamias baked into a slightly chewy cookie always hits the spot. My natural inclination was to take my newest cook book for a test drive, but to my shock, these classic goodies didn’t make the cut for the book. OK, I know that these cookies are just your classic chocolate chip with white chocolate instead of your classic semi sweet and macs instead of walnuts or what have you, but I was still shocked that they didn’t receive a mention as a variation. I also acknowledge that I could have used the chocolate chip recipe from VCIYCJ, but due to some irregularities in the formula, I decided to go with a tried and true recipe as long as I was using such pricey ingredients. You may notice a striking similarity in recipe to to my chocolate toffee chip cookies because, well, it is the same cookie recipe.

You may not be able to find vegan white chocolate at your local grocery store, but it is readily available from online retailers like Food Fight. I would really call most of them imitation white chocolate, as they have a higher percentage of vegetable oil than cocoa butter, and tend to use artificial vanilla. They still do the trick though (I also have used them to make flowers on wedding cakes). You can also try making your own with this recipe, but cocoa butter isn’t much easier to come by.

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup Earth Balance
egg replacer to equal 2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
2 cups vegan white chocolate chips
1 cup macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 375°.
In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream together Earth Balance, sugars, egg replacer, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer and mix just to incorporate. Add white chocolate and nuts and mix just enough to mix through.

Scoop dough into balls with a cookie scoop or a spoon. Place balls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat and lightly flatten, leaving about 2 inches between cookies. Bake 8-10 min, until cookies are lightly browned around edges. Allow to cool for a few min on sheet before transfer to a cooling rack.

After making toffee, I eventually had to think of something to do with it (besides eating it in the middle of the night or sprinkling it on ice cream). I needed something quick to bake for a friend’s going away party, so I decided to jazz up some chocolate chip cookies. The toffee melts during baking making a delicious, if a little ugly, cookie. You will need batch of vegan toffee for this. To crush into pieces, place some larger pieces of toffee in a plastic bag and just whack it against the counter or pound with a skillet until they are the size you want.

Chocolate Toffee Chip Cookies

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup Earth Balance
egg replacer to equal 2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
2 cups chocoalate chips
1 cup toffee pieces

Preheate oven to 375°.
In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream together Earth Balance, sugars, egg replacer, and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix just to incorporate. Add chocolate chips and toffee and mix just enough to mix through.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat, leaving about 2 inches between cookies. Bake 8-10 min, until cookies are lightly browned around edges. Allow to cool for a few min on sheet before transfer to a cooling rack.

Over all I was pleased with how it turned out. I still have some testing and revising to do on the fondant recipe. I’ll probably post some recipes and tutorials eventually, but I want to get a few things ironed out. You can click the photos below to view the full images.