Law-Inspired Cupcakes

Clockwise starting at the top right: Abbot Labs, Lujan, Chevron, Erie, State Farm, Mead.

These cupcakes were super fun to decorate. This idea started when I was thinking about the "bubble" theory in Chevron and thought it would be fun to try to draw that out on a cupcake. It grew from there to thinking about how to represent a case in a single icon that I could actually draw using icing tubes. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

This experience solidified my need to get proper icing tips and to make my own vegan buttercream frosting. It was really hard to get the drawings the way I imagined in my head when I was using commercial icing canisters and tubes (and you notice I really only had blue and orange frosting to work with). I'm only a little concerned since if I go down this path I think the time I spend studying would diminish greatly.

I've also been watching lots of YouTube videos on cupcake decorating and practiced making flowers. I wanted to try making roses but the tips and icing I had available would not make roses but rather gooey blobs. Another reason to get the icing tips...

Japan leading charge against bluefin ban

The Associated Press: Japan leading charge against bluefin ban

Recent press is suggesting that the proposed ban on bluefin will not pass. France has come out and said they don't want the ban even though the EU voted for it. And also China had agreed to support Japan's effort to block the ban. It's hard to judge the climate of the talks from only newspaper articles, but it looks like CITES may suffer a another blow with bluefin. This convention has been focusing on marine animals, and the proposal on sharks and stingrays failed.

CITES Convention Starts Saturday March 13

I'm so glad to see major newspapers like the New York Times have articles about the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) every week. It really shows how important this CITES convention is.

I'm particularly interested in seeing the result of the bluefin tuna negotiations. Last month Dane Klinger and I wrote a piece for Foreign Policy Online about the need for an Appendix I CITES listing for the fish. Populations of bluefin tuna have diminished to 10-15% of their pre-fishing sizes. And 80% of bluefin tuna catches go to Japan where otoro, the fatty flesh of the bluefin, is particularly prized as sushi.

No surprise, Japan has made clear that they will not sign on to any resolution banning international trade of bluefin tuna. However, recently the U.S. and EU have agreed to support such a ban. Although Sweden proposed a bluefin tuna ban at the 1992 CITES, that proposal failed because of the lack of support by the U.S., Canada, and Japan. Now, the tide seems to be turning this time around.

Since we know that Japan, as the primary purchaser of bluefin, will not agree to the ban, the critical negotiations will be in convincing fishing nations to stop fishing for bluefin. If supporters of the ban can succeed there, it won't matter that Japan wants to import the fish since there would be no fish to import.

P.S. For a great guide to seafood (and sushi) to eat and avoid, check out Seafood Watch, a program overseen by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I was shocked to see freshwater eel (unagi) listed as a food to avoid. I love unagi so much. However, turns out that baby unagi are caught in the wild before they can procreate, fattened up in unagi farms, and then served to us. This is very unsustainable for unagi populations since there are fewer and fewer unagi in the wild to procreate.

Non-dairy Chocolate Banana Flaxseed Muffin Recipe

Last week I made non-dairy chocolate banana flaxseed muffins which turned out great!

Recipe:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour

1/4 cup ground flaxseed (I grind flaxseed in a coffee grinder for a few seconds)
1/2 cup Sucanat (you can use regular sugar too)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups mashed bananas (about 3-4 ripe bananas. Bananas are the source of moisture for the muffins)
2 tablespoons corn oil (any vegetable oil will work)
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 semi-sweet chocolate ships


Blend dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine egg, vegetable oil, and soy milk. Stir until just blended. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Fold in bananas and chocolate.

Fill well -greased muffin pan. Bake at 400 degrees F for 18-20 minutes or until poking a toothpick in the center of a muffin yields no wet dough. Makes about 15 muffins.

I like a bit of crispness to the bottom and sides of the muffins so I take the muffins out of the muffin tin and then flip them over so the bottom of the muffins are exposed in the tin to bake the underside for a couple minutes.

This recipe is my adaptation to one I found at http://mjmuth.blogspot.com/2007/03/whole-wheat-banana-flax-muffins.html

Welcome!

Hi there! For this blog, I hope to post things I find interesting in areas such as the environment, law, sustainability, technology, travel, and non-dairy cooking and baking. Thanks for stopping by!