VeganMoFo Day 12: National Coming Out Day Treats

Did you celebrate National Coming Out Day yesterday? Did you come out as gay? trans? asexual? genderqueer? pansexual? bi? questioning? none/all/some of the above? Awesome! Whether you choose to come out or not is completely up to you, but today is a day to celebrate who we are. Regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, I welcome you to join me in celebrating queer life. 

Oh, and also...rainbows. I'm a sucker for themes, so I celebrate Coming Out Day with rainbows.

First up is  Chocolate-Covered Rainbow Marzipan AKA "Unicorn Poop"

This idea comes from the wonderful Louzilla, a genius when it comes to all things rainbow. If the rainbow marzipan isn’t enough to convince you, check out her Dumbledore Gayke.  ::swoon::

For her Unicorn Poop, Louzilla made her own marzipan. I didn’t have enough time for that, so I bought tubes from the local supermarket (I needed two tubes to make enough of each color to fill sandwich-sized plastic bags). All in all, these were a lot of work, but the deliciousness made it well worth it. I brought them to share with some of my favorite queers and they were all devoured in an instant.

Next up is Lemon Rainbow Ice Box Cookies, a slightly modified version of the Grapefruit Icebox Cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (original recipe here)

½ cup non-hydrogenate margarine

¼ cup vegetable shortening

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon corn starch

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Food coloring (I use Wilton’s gels)

In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer on medium speed, cream together the margarine and shortening. Beat in sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Add flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt, and beat until a soft dough forms.

Separate the dough into 6 equal-sized pieces. Tint each piece a different color of the rainbow. On a piece of wax paper, pat the purple dough into a rectangle, about ¼ inch thick. For the blue and subsequent layers, you want to be careful that the layers don’t run into each other, so it’s easiest if you pat down the dough one small section at time starting at the corners and working your way in, filling in the blank spots as you go.

Once you’ve got all the colors layered, fold the wax paper over and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight (I put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes)

Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove dough from fridge and slice the block into ¼ inch thick slices and place on parchment-covered cookie sheets. The edge slices are going to be wack, that’s ok, just make a few weird looking cookies. Bake 10 minutes (depending how wide your rectangle was), edges should be lightly browned. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies are best eaten while reading excerpts from Cats and their Dykes aloud to your cat

**Bonus points to anyone who realized the multiple layers (hehe) of meaning with these treats. Both treats have to "come out" in a way, because they are not what you'd assume them to be upon first sight. The unicorn poop just looks like normal chocolates at first until you take a bite and reveal the gayness. And most people assume the rainbow cookies are plain sugar cookies until they take a bite and taste the lemon. Deep!