My Sweet Vegan

My Sweet Vegan was honored by a recent feature in the news for the Humane Society’s Factory Farming Campaign.  The article is below, posts of the recipes to come in time for Valentine’s Day!
 
January 23, 2008  ~ My Sweet Vegan is full of delicious vegan dessert recipes.

“Nothing says Valentine’s Day more than chocolates and sweets. And Hannah Kaminsky knows something about desserts.

Her new cookbook, My Sweet Vegan: Passionate About Desserts, is winning the hearts of countless people who are falling in love with her amazing culinary creations.

What’s just as remarkable as Hannah’s desserts is the fact that she has achieved such success at only 18 years old.

Hannah also does her own photography, and each recipe is accompanied by a beautiful image so readers can anticipate what their dessert will look like.

She also maintains a popular blog, Bittersweet.

For treats to share with the sweetheart in your life this Valentine’s Day, Hannah offers her recipe for Cashew Crème Peart Tart and Strawberry Love Muffins, which she says are perfect for breakfast in bed.

Hannah Kaminsky whips up delicious vegan desserts in her kitchen.

From the Heart

When it comes to making compassionate food choices, Hannah says, “A love for animals is truly my primary motivation. It was unbearable to read about the cruelty that so many animals suffer.

I knew that if I could help others create delicious vegan foods to replace even a fraction of their traditional diets, the impact could be quite tremendous.”

And there’s a lot to love in My Sweet Vegan. When asked about people’s favorites, Hannah says that everyone adores the whoopie pies and that they are wonderful for sharing.

A personal favorite of hers is the green tea tiramisu, and she is also partial to the pumpkin pecan pie.”

After a recent feature in the Connecticut Post, Hannah had a reporter come to her house for an interview and dessert sampling for the Fairfield Weekly … 

Hannah Kaminsky’s sweet veganism, Fairfield Weekly ~ By Starre Vartan

“Most 18-year olds are so busy crashing parties and figuring out where to go to college they can barely feed themselves, relying on chips-and-dip or a fast-food session before they fly off to school or work or wherever.

Hannah Kaminsky of Fairfield is different. She’s got a cookbook, My Sweet Vegan to her credit and a second on the way; this petite vegan spent much of high school in the kitchen instead of the mall, testing and refining recipes, creating vegan versions of classics and inventing new treats along the way. Anti-authoritarian views and a sweet tooth led her to creating her own desserts: “I hate other people telling me what to do and I can’t follow recipe directions, so I have to make my own.”

Hannah also creates crafts and takes pictures; her pursuits are detailed on her blog, Bittersweet (www.bittersweetblog.wordpress.com). It’s a fun, well-written site about the creative force that drives her, featuring posts about knitting, to sharing news of kitchen implements she’s discovered, or a new animal-free ingredient she’s trying out. There’s recipes, too.

It’s the recipes that got Hannah her book deal, which she worked on throughout her senior year and finished last summer before setting off to UMASS-Amherst.

Hannah was inspired by her vegetarian friends, who filled her in on animal-rights issues. First she went veggie, soon after began eating vegan, and hasn’t looked back since. And while she favors animal-free recipes and blogs, she reads about all kinds of cooking. “I subscribe to over 300 blogs, from Post-punk Kitchen to Have Cake Will Travel to the Fat Free Vegan,” she says. “I have a huge notebook and I’m always coming up with ideas. Sometimes I have dreams about recipes!”

These days, it’s not hard being a vegan baker, and Hannah uses all sorts of veg-based substitutions found in area supermarkets. “Eggs are the trickiest.” Apple cider vinegar gives moisture and lift to cakes and cupcakes. You can use bananas or apple sauce to add moisture. I like agave or maple syrup rather than honey.”

Some recipes required some real experimenting in the kitchen. “I sometimes have to try things four, five, or six times before I get it right,” she says. Visiting her family’s home in Fairfield recently, I enjoyed a top-secret treat: a vegan lemon meringue pie. She wouldn’t tell me how she created the light, usually egg-white based meringue topper, but the recipe will appear in her next book. In the vegan cooking world, it’s sure to create a stir, as this has been a sought-after, but heretofore hard-to-find recipe. As she writes in her book’s introduction: “It was unacceptable in my eyes to serve a good vegan pastry; it needed to be delicious by anybody’s standards.”

Hannah will be at Borders, 1499 Post Rd., Fairfield, on Feb. 2 from 2 to 4 p.m”

Hannah Kaminsky will be “meeting and greeting” store patrons of the Borders Bookstore in Fairfield, CT on Saturday, February 2 from 2pm to 4pm.  Stop by to say hi, have your copy of My Sweet Vegan signed, and to trial one of her delicious dessert samples.

View location details here.

With the opportunity to select some tunes, Hannah is staying up until the wee hours tonight to co-host at WPKN radio.  She may even field a question or two on baking, veganism, and good food.  You can listen in on your computer via Real Audio or any MP3 player that plays streaming media.  The show will run from 2am – 6am EST (11pm – 3am PST).

Hannah Kaminsky, author of My Sweet Vegan was visiting the Barnes & Noble in Westport, CT when a surprise camera crew from Channel 12 news arrived to do a story … 

It is great to see the media so interested in the rising popularity of veganism!

To keep things current, we will be updating this blog with recipes from Hannah, plus news, events and reviews related to My Sweet Vegan and Hannah’s other upcoming books / projects.  If you have any inquiries, questions on recipes, etc., feel free to contact Hannah.