Nut-free Egg-free White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Tiramisu

White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Tiramisu

Alright already! Don't get all excited!! I know this not a real tiramisu but surely, it looks like one! It is made up of layers of egg-free vanilla bean sponge cake, soaked in Baileys liqueur....mmmmmm!!!...and sandwiched with egg-free white chocolate mousse (insert more 'mmmmmm!'s here), and dusted over with pure cocoa powder.....mmmm..mmmm...MMMMM! Totally sinful and delicious! Time taken to make it is a little lengthy but believe me, it is worth it. Excellent dessert for a party due to the do-ahead factor, presentation and decadence value. Hope you enjoy this recipe.

A slice of heaven

Nut-free & Egg-free White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Tiramisu

For Sponge Cake:
Dry ingredients:
160 gm self-raising flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
70 gm fine sugar

Wet ingredients:
190 ml water
67.5ml /4 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil
1/4 vanilla bean, split and seeds removed

White Chocolate Mousse
White chocolate melts - 200gm
Cream - 200ml
Cold Whipping cream - 400ml

Baileys Chocolate Liqueur - 4 tablespoons
Cocoa powder - 1 tablespoon

Method: For Cake: Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line 2 6" cake pans with baking paper and spray lightly with canola cooking spray. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl and add all the wet ingredients in and mix together with a whisk. Stop once batter is lump free.Divide between cake pans and bake for 15 - 20 minutes till done. Remove from oven and cool on rack. Once cooled, remove just one cake from tin, leaving the other cake in its tin.

For White Chocolate Mousse: Place white chocolate melts in a heat proof bowl. Warm cream in a separate pan till bubbles form around the edges, and pour over the chocolate melts. Stir with a wooden spoon till chocolate is completely melted. Cool and chill till completely cold. Whip whipping cream carefully till gentle peaks form. Fold in the cooled ganache into the whipped cream. Keep chilled till needed.

To assemble dessert: Sprinkle each layer with 2 tablespoons of liqueur. Then cover the cake layer still in tin, with half the chocolate mousse. Place the second layer of cake on top. Cover the whole with plastic wrap and return to the fridge for 2 hours. Remove after 2 hours, remove from tin and cover sides and top with remaining mousse. Sift cocoa powder over the top of cake and return to the fridge till ready to serve, at least 2 hours. This desert easily serves 6 insane or 8 sane portions!

Nut-free Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes with fondant Cheetah topper

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

Prince Pee-Wee is presenting his first ever videoblog on baking! Kiran felt that lately, he had suffered through enough baked goods in flavours that just did not sit well with him, namely, chocolate :)! So into the kitchen we went to present a very easy peasy ;) recipe for vegan vanilla cupcakes with a cheetah-face topper made of fondant. Kiran has an egg allergy and this recipe is his favourite, next to lemon cupcakes. We'll save that one for another time! Watch this video. It's really child's play!!!

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

Dry ingredients:
1 1/4 cup self-raising flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/3 cup fine sugar

Wet ingredients:
3/4 cup unflavoured soda water
4 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method: Place all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and whisk or sift together to blend thoroughly. Add all the wet ingredients into the dry and give it a quick whisk to mix everything together. Scoop into cupcake liners and bake at 180 degrees celcius or 350 degrees fahrenheit. Makes about 8 regular cupcakes.

Vegan Vanilla Frosting

1/2 cup vegan spread
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method: Beat all the ingredients together in a mixer at medium to high speed. Use to frost cupcakes.

Nut-free, Egg-free Eggplant Patties

                                          

I'm soooo not a fan of eggplant. But when I made these for my husband, it was love at first bite!! The eggplant flavour is not overwhelming and the patties came together beautifully. A healthy option as these patties are not fried but baked. They're perfect made into croquettes or mini burgers for parties. They taste great and are really quick to put together! That spells perfect in my world!

Ingredients for Eggplant Patties

Egg-free Eggplant Patties

Eggplant - 2
Onions - 2, chopped
Garlic - 2 pieces, chopped
Grated Mexican-style cheese - 250gm
Soft bread crumbs - 2 cups or more
Taco seasoning - 2 tablespoons

Method: Split eggplants lengthwise in half. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 30 - 40 minutes till the insides are soft. Leave to cool. Then scrape the soft flesh out into a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. If the mixture is a little too wet, add more breadcrumbs. Form into patties or if preferred, into croquettes. Spray over lightly with canola spray or butter-flavoured spray. Bake in hot oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 10 - 15 minutes. Cool and serve in hamburger buns or on their own with salad.

Egg-free Eggplant Patties

F1 Musings in Singapore...revving down memory lane...

Formula 1 cake for Team Renault 2008

The F1 night race in Singapore is on for this weekend and I'm really excited! I've been an armchair follower of the happenings on the circuit for over 10 years! Bit of a departure here, on this blog, from the usual subject matter, but hey, I do have some Formula 1 cake stories and photos to share around.

Presenting Fernando Alonso with cake

I have been a follower of F1 Driver, Fernando Alonso for a very long time and when I was given passes to a pre-race launch by Renualt (this is 2008, I'm musing about, folks!), naturally I jumped at it. While watching the qualifying rounds of the race, I played around with some fondant and shaped the 2008 Renault Formula 1 car. ........I'm remembering that moment when Alonso clocked the best time during the qualifiers!

The smile and thank you!!

So here I had a sugar crafted car, that needed a cake as a base. Fast forward, a Chocolate fudge cake with dark chocolate frosting, covered with pale yellow fondant featuring a checkered flag motif was created to be taken to the party. A grand one it was and I had my moment in the sun, when I was asked to present Fernando Alonso with the cake.  He accepted it with a sweet smile and a thank you........4 years on, I'm still basking ..........

F1 Ferrari cake with hand painted prancing horses

Nut free & Gluten free Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

The first attempt

The Real Deal

Here is the promised recipe for my Gluten free Vegan Choc fudge cake. This is a wonderfully moist cake that is oh-so-delicious! Even the non-gluten allergy sufferers loved it and it was demolished in short order. They could not tell the difference. Feel free to adjust the cinnamon in it as some may find the quantity used in the recipe a little overwhelming! 

Gluten free Vegan Chocolate Cake

The dry:
1 1/4 cups gluten free self-raising flour
1/4 cup pure cocoa
3/4 cup soft brown sugar
3 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

The Wet:
1/2 cup mashed banana
1/4 cup apple sauce
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3/4 cup plain rice milk
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon flax meal mixed with 3 tablespoon hot water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Method: Mix everything together with a hand whisk till well combined. Pour into an 2 6" shallow pans or 1 7" pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 180 degrees celcius. Check for doneness with a toothpick, after 20 minutes. Remove to rack and cool in tin. I prefer to chill the cakes in the pan before turning out. Turn out and frost as you wish. I used my Non-dairy frosting from my chocolate cupcake recipe, for frosting this cake. Enjoy!

A piece of cake!

Casein allergy

A glass of milk

Baking this weekend for a gluten and casein allergy sufferer. I have been baking gluten free cupcakes for a while now but this will be my first attempt at a layer cake. What's the big deal right? Well, the deal is, I'm afraid that the cake will crumble while assembling or after. So I'm trying to work out the best way to go about it. While I'm processing that in some corner of my mind, I'm checking out this casein thing. With a lot of help from the internet, this is what I gathered in a nutshell.......I think I'm beginning to sound archaic. Must be the early hour. It's just after 5am here, so a little hard to sound hip at this hour. Again an age thing.
Casein is a milk protein and it's found in a whole lot of stuff including some supposedly non-dairy spreads - how scary is that? Whey is the other culprit for dairy allergy suffers. So we have to read the list of ingredients very carefully to make sure that there is nothing toxic hidden under fancy words on the list. Stuff like lactalbumin, which is albumin found in whey, is a no-no! See, this is really hard work. In fact, it scares me so much, that I make sure I recognize everything I read on the back of a package. And fewer the number of ingredients, the better as its less processed and closer to the real deal.

Gluten free Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

Here is the egg free, dairy (casein) free, gluten free chocolate fudge layer cake I baked this weekend. I will follow up with the recipe really soon. Cheers!

A slice from the above cake

Flax seed in Gluten free baking

Whole flax seeds

Previously, I only knew flax seed as a powerhouse of nutrients, great for a gazillion things, from fighting heart disease to cancer to diabetes, naming just a few - flagship of natural foods, so to speak. It was when I started exploring gluten free baking that I came across it as an essential player in replacing eggs and acting as a binder to keep cakes from crumbling. In fact, dare I go so far as to claim that it is a blessing to gluten free bakers? It certainly is for me!

Ground flax - Flaxmeal

Flax seed is a plant-based source of omega-3. Ground flax seed (aka flax meal) acts a binder in baking and is a natural egg substitute. It is commonly referred to as flax egg and gives a slightly nutty flavor to baked goods. Mixing 1 tablespoon flax meal in 3 tablespoons hot water will give the equivalent of 1 egg.

Flax egg

There are 2 common types - golden and brown flax seed. There does not appear to be much difference between the 2, nutrition wise. It's more in the appearance. Both work the same way but it may be better to use the golden flax seed in light cakes like a gluten free vegan vanilla sponge. Then when the cake is cut, it won't have a speckled appearance.....hopefully. I buy whole flax seed and grind it in the spice-ginder attachment of my food processor. Works out more economical than buying pre-ground flax meal and as has the added advantage of being fresher as I grind only what I need, when I need it.    

My Grandmother's Rice Milk recipe.

A glass of rice milk

Rice milk is so easily available now in most grocery stores and has been hailed as a vegan replacement to milk. It is a godsend for many dairy allergy sufferers too, provided rice is acceptable to you. Here's a little secret about rice milk. It has been a part of the poor man's diet, in Asia for centuries as a  frugal source of nutrition and not as a vegan alternative to dairy milk! Even to this day, the poor of India drink the water that rice has been boiled in as they consider it strengthening. It helps to stretch out their consumption of rice as well. It is also the poor mans' electrolyte! Yup, you read that right! Especially for babies. Babies are too small to be given commercial electrolytes and I fed my babies when they were ill, with home made rice milk as it is safer option. It's just some rice boiled in water till very soft with a little salt added to it. Sipping home made rice milk, when you are suffering from stomach flu, helps replace important nutrients in the body and prevents dehydration. I do this for my family when anyone of them is ill, throwing up and purging. Some commercial brands of rice milk add fats to give more body and mouth-feel to their rice milk as well as vitamins. Well and good, but I like my rice milk the old fashioned way - how my grandmother taught me to make it.  

My Grandmother's recipe for Rice Milk

1/2 cup long grain rice, brown or white
3 to 4 cups filtered water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method: Put rice in a dry pan. Lightly toast it over a low flame for a couple of minutes till its lightly brown. Pour in the water and cook till the rice and water has mushed up completely. Add salt. You may have to add more water if the water level runs low before rice is porridgy. Cool and sieve through a mesh sieve. Can be processed in a food processor as well. You now have your rice milk! Store in the fridge. Does not have a long shelf life as its preservative free so it has to be consumed fairly quickly.  

Nut free Gluten free Vegan Brownies

Nut free Gluten free Vegan Brownies with glace icing

The very first gluten free recipe I tried making was brownies. Figured that it will be the most forgiving one. So it has proven to be. But since that first one, my recipe has undergone several revisions. I tried replacing xanthan gum with guar gum and found that it gave the brownies a slightly weird gel-like feel in the mouth. Too strange. I read up further on guar gum and found that it works best in cold foods, presumably ice-creams and such. It thickens without heat and a little goes a long way. Well, here's the recipe for gluten-free brownies. It contains xanthan gum, as I used a gluten free self raising flour mix to which xanthan gum had been added already. Feel free to use any flour mix of your liking in its place and add 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum to the recipe. I have used all rice flour and it turns out just fine. As I said, it is a very forgiving recipe.

Nut free & Gluten free Vegan Brownies

The Dry
1 1/4 cup gluten free self raising flour
1/2 cup pure unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/4 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
3/4 cup light brown sugar (increase the sugar by a 1/4 cup if you like as these aren't very sweet)

The Wet
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/4 cup rice milk
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 3 tablespoon hot water (aka flax egg)
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
1 tablespoon rice milk - extra

The Glaze
1 cup pure icing sugar
1 - 2 teaspoons cool water

Method: Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius. Mix wet ingredients with the dry using a spoon or your hands. It will be crumbly, almost like a cookie dough. If it's very dry, add 1 tablespoon of water or rice milk. Press into an 8"x7" rectangular pan and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Check with a toothpick after 10 minutes. When ready, remove pan to a wire rack to cool. When cool, mix the glace icing and drizzle over brownie. Chill for at least 2 hours before cutting into squares. For glace icing, slowly mix water, teaspoonful at a time into icing sugar, till a thick sugar paste is formed. Use a fork and dribble over brownie.

Kinda' Gluten free, Nut free Vegan Cornbread

Nut free & Gluten free Vegan Cornbread

Cornbread? Perfectionists may not think this should be called cornbread but then, my version did start out as rice pancakes and evolved! Sorry but I do tend to make these huge fantastical leaps of faith and and mostly end up in a muddle. But this time, perhaps I got it right. This recipe contains cooked rice, rice flour and cornmeal to which I added corn(obviously), peppers and herbs to liven things up and mask the obvious gluten-freeness of the recipe. The full recipe follows so have a look, a try and bring on the comments and suggestions, please!

Chockfull of delicious herbs and veg!

Gluten free vegan cornbread

The wet
1 cup tomato juice
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sunflower or coconut oil
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 tablespoon flax meal mixed with 3 tablespoon hot water (aka flax egg)
1/4 cup soft cooked rice

The dry
1 cup fine cornmeal
1 cup white or brown rice flour
2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon fine sugar

And the Wild
1 cup cooked corn kernels
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1/4 cup finely diced red pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions

Method of madness: Place the dry and the wet in a food processor and blend till well mixed. Then add the interesting stuff and mix by hand till well combined. Pour into an 8"x5" rectangular pan or muffin cases and bake for about 25 minutes at 180 degrees (medium oven) for the pan and about 15 minutes for the muffins. Test with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before turning out and cutting into whatever shapes you like. I grilled the leftovers in a grill pan and they were great the next day.

As muffins.....

Btw, these can be baked in muffin cases as well, for great easy to grab-and-go corn muffins. Brekkie and lunch box friendly.

More trials.....half a loaf is better?

Yet another Gluten-free Bread attempt 

Here's the next episode in my on going gluten-free bread-making saga...lots of hyphens there and more to come! I'm trying to make a (here it comes!) gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free, yeast-free, corn-free  (no xantham gum), soy-free and gelatine-free bread using a gluten-free sour dough starter. Till now, my sour dough starters have been non-starters (sorry,couldn't resist). At last, in my latest attempt, the starter turned out the way I perceived it should. I was so excited! Then I got into the actual mixing and baking. For this loaf, I used a store bought gluten-free bread mix. It was a premix of rice, tapioca and potato flour with xantham gum added. I know I keep going on about xantham gum having corn in it but I figured I'll give the premix a go to see if I could actually make a reasonable tasting gluten-free bread. The bread flour with the sour dough starter mixed up fine. I kept it in my oven with just the light on to let the bread dough rise. Then when I carefully transferred the beautifully risen loaf to a heated pan, poof! My bubble burst......literally. The dough started sinking and I ended up where I started.......with a bookend! Back to the drawing board..........sigh. 

Animal Safari fondant decor workshop

Busy at work with the animal toppers

Ong Sansan and her two boys, Nathaniel and Immanuel have been such staunch supporters of my cakes from the the early days of my baking career, with Foodinfinity. I have been making their birthday cakes for them for over 3 years. Last year, we did things a little differently! All of us together, baked and decorated the birthday cakes for the boys. A real family effort with just a wee bit of input from yours truly. 

Beautifully decorated cupcakes!

Here are the pictures from our latest cake decorating venture together. A few weeks ago, I did a decorating class for Sansan. There were 6 kids including Sansan's two sons, and between the lot of them, we had a whole gamut of allergies. The cupcakes I baked for the class were egg-free and dairy-free chocolate cupcakes with dairy-free icing. They were nut-free as well.

Animal Safari cupcake toppers

"Animal Safari" was the theme for the fondant decor and the toppers for the cupcakes were a reflection of that. There was an elephant, tiger, lion, monkey, snake and hippo.I did a set of toppers so that the kids could have some idea of the finished result. But apart from the basics, I left it to them to make their own toppers as they saw fit. We had a great time, and so did my hired hands - the Princess and Pee-Wee. Thank you Sansan, for bringing together your wonderful kids, their cousins and friends for the 'Animal Safari' theme workshop 

A very pleased little cutie with her elephant cupcake

Gluten-free Egg-free Dairy-free Chocolate fudge Cupcakes

Gluten-free Egg-free Dairy-free Chocolate Cupcakes

After playing around with several recipes, I hit on this combination that works, at least, I think so! First of, let me tell you, that here in Singapore, it is very difficult to find ingredients which are properly labelled and certified as being free of this and that, namely egg, dairy, gluten and nuts. Make no mistake. You can get a whole range of stuff but just can't be sure if there are traces of any of the baddies in them. So I work with what I have available and whine about what's easily available to the rest of the world. The recipe had to be egg, dairy, gluten and nut free. I did not want to use xantham gum, because of my issues over its origins and I'm not crazy about the overwhelming taste many gluten-free flours have. So this is what I came up with. Cocoa and cinnamon do a great job in gluten-free recipes to add flavor and yummy aromas while masking the "graininess" of the millet and rice in the cupcakes. I used guar gum as the binder. The cupcakes did not crumble after baking so I think that works as a xantham gum substitute. Maybe, next time I'll try them without guar gum, add more applesauce and ........well, lets see where I go with this....I'll let you know. Current recipe, as is, follows. Let me know what you think.

Gluten free Egg free Dairy free Choc Fudge Cupcakes

Dry Ingredients: 1/2 cup rice flour 1/4 cup millet flour 3/4 cup light brown sugar 1/2 cup pure unsweetened cocoa 2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon guar gum 1/2 teaspoon fine salt 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder  Wet ingredients: 1/4 cup extra-virgin coconut oil sunflower oil 1/4 cup rice milk  1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal mixed with 3 tablespoon hot water 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon unsweetened apple sauce

Frosting: 1/2 cup non-dairy spread 1/2 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 tablespoon cocoa 1/4 cup melted gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate

Cupcake Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2. Mix wet ingredients into dry and beat with a whisk until well combined.
3. Half-fill cupcake cases.
4. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Check with a toothpick after 8 minutes.
6. Remove to a wire rack and cool.
7. Top with egg-free, dairy-free choc fudge topping.
8. Makes 6 to 8 cupcakes.

Frosting Method:

1. Beat all ingredients together till smooth.
2. Swirl on the top of cooled cupcakes.

Millet is my Mantra!

Millet Risotto and Meatloaf  with Millet

Yup! That's right. You have not imagined it. Millet is my mantra. I love millet in all its forms. I love the taste of cooked millet. I use millet flour in a wide range of gluten-free baking. Millet tastes amazing in risotto replacing rice, or in millet tabbouleh in place of cous cous or bulgar wheat. I use it in my meat loaf as a binder instead of breadcrumbs or eggs (junior is allergic to eggs and I suspect, is gluten intolerant as well). My gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free meatloaf turned out brilliantly. The kids did not have a clue to the actual contents. They have a tendency to object to anything new on the principal that it is new....I cooked my millet with half tomato juice and half chicken stock in place of water till it was stodge and mixed it in with the rest of the usual meatloaf ingredients. Used about half cooked millet and half meat to form the meatloaf, without the inmates cluing in. I'm trying to cut back on the amount of meat we eat at home, you see. The sleight of hand worked. The millet based meatloaf was vanquished. Not a crumb was left over and even the picky eaters were happy. That was a success story.   

The trials and tribulations.....gluten-free bread.

The Lemon

I've been sporadically trying to make gluten-free bread these past months, but success has been elusive. Worse, my resultant gluten-free bread has been disastrous. There are dozens of success stories on the internet (and they have the pictures to prove it) but mine have ranged from bread which can be used as book-ends or door-stops. If  thrown at someone, be forewarned, you might be charged with causing GBH! I'm sure you get the picture. Well, like all the success stories out there, I decided to post the picture of one of my recent attempts at gluten-free bread. Looks pretty good, right? Well, it was a lemon.....literally. I made a sour dough starter, prayed over it for about 3 days, used rice, urad (type of dhal)  and millet for the gluten-free flours and then had the "brilliant" idea to add a pinch of citric acid in the hope that it will improve the leavening effect.....sour-dough with citric acid? Bad idea. Really bad. Might give this a whirl again without the citric acid. Apart from that, the bread was actually quite soft (an improvement from my door-stop days) and the texture was not too gummy. I did not use any xantham gum as I'm still leery about the corn content in it. Maybe I will add some guar gum instead and see what happens. I'll keep you posted. 

Father's Day and Gingerbread - Once upon a time........

Egg-free Gingerbread

With Father's Day round the corner, I kept checking with my two what they were doing for Daddy. Finally, we figured that I will bake a cake, the Princess will cook breakfast and Pee-Wee will butter toast (he figured everything else was too difficult and besides, he had made his dear ole Dad an Angry Birds card! Reckoned he had done enough). Mulling over what flavour of cake to bake, I settled on old-fashioned gingerbread. My grandmother used to bake gingerbread when I was really little aand I can still remember the taste and smells from way back when.....This was my first go at making egg-free gingerbread and the resulting cake turned out moist, fine-crumbed and down-right delicious, if I do say so myself. I think the picture speaks a 1000 words, all of them good, yes? Now I'm working on making it gluten free and dairy free. That will be great.

Cupcake decorating class for kids at IBM, Singapore

Tables prepped for kids decorating class

We did a couple of cupcake decorating sessions for 50 kids at IBM, Singapore. Each child was given 4 egg-free and dairy-free chocolate cupcakes to decorate. The sessions were completely egg, dairy, nut and gelatin free so that at least 4 of the main allergies were covered.

Animal face toppers 

Easy-to-do animal face toppers for the cupcakes were chosen for the decorating workshop, as the kids were ranged in age from 4 to 12. They were taught to make the faces of a pig, cat, bear and elephant (see picture above).

Messy fun!

The elephant was the star of the day. The children came up with some amazingly creative forms of the animal faces shown them. One of them made an incredible elephant face with heavy eyebrows which so reminded me of Snuffulufagus from Sesame Street!

Making animal face toppers for cupcakes

A great deal of free artistic expression was going on, I tell you! A lot of fun was had by all!