Hey, kid, I'm gonna steal your vegan waffle!

We would not be enjoying delicious vegan waffles today if it weren’t for the waffle iron, so those of us in the U.S. extend our annual thanks to Cornelius Swartwout for filing the first U.S. waffle iron patent. He’d likely be impressed with how far things have come since 1869.

This day is also a perfect opportunity to share highlights from two additional vegan waffle parties.

Brian and Lise in Seattle, Washington hosted an August vegan waffle party including a beautifully decorated waffle. Isn’t it a great photo?

Yeah, he may be an adorable kid, but I still might consider snagging part of his waffle–I mean, is he really going to eat the entire thing? He’ll probably just eat the blueberries and frosting, and be left with a hairless, eyeless, non-smiley face. And that’s certainly no image you want a kid to grow up with. Civic duty calls me.

On a more serious but equally fun note, following is a brief description of their waffle party:

“I found the website while looking for a recipe as one guest is vegan.  I read about the waffle parties and decided to go for it…all vegan. We had fun.

I made the sweet yeast-raised waffle (did the overnight version) and the peanut butter fluff which I placed in an icing piping bag…decorate your own.  It was a sweet success!

The photo is of our nephew before he took a first bite.  The tongue says it all.”

First, it’s cool for multiple reasons that you decided to go ahead and make them all vegan. Secondly, I say to your nephew, quit chewing on your tongue and start chewing on that waffle before it’s mine, mine, mine!

Alongside this, I also got a late report on what has probably been the most media-covered vegan waffle event over the last few years–the Sweat Records party in Miami. The scoop from Lolo Reskin, Sweat’s entrepreneurial owner, who makes bright red hair look ultra-cool:

“Waffle Parties as a monthly event have been truly great for our shop.  We’ve expanded the amount of toppings and treats we offer and are enjoying huge turnouts at each one. People tell us all month long they look forward to it!  One of the greatest aspects of Waffle Party to us is that vegans and people looking to enjoy more veg foods can meet, network and make new friends.

Some press:
http://itsveganlicious.com/2011/06/27/sweat-records-vegan-waffle-party/
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/events/waffle-party-2838653/
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/citylink/events/sfl-best-bets-for-june-2228-2011-20110621,0,3310902.story
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/26/2186467/monthly-waffle-parties-draw-vegan.html

Here’s the link for the local New Times’ photo gallery of the last one: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/slideshow/waffle-party-at-sweat-records-33634245/

We’ve also had some sponsors come on board – last month we gave out Magner’s Pear Cider (the Apple isn’t vegan ) and before that So Delicious gave out scoops of coconut milk ice cream.”

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I love the diversity of types of waffle parties, ranging from small home events to some larger business and organizational events. Just these two events alone illustrate that. Congrats on the fun events, and thanks for sharing some highlights!

This was a very exciting year for the Global Vegan Waffle Party, with around 70 hosts signing up for events. Many thanks to all who participated, either by hosting, attending, telling a friend, or even simply joining the Facebook Vegan Waffles page.

Fresh fruit from Minneapolis vegan waffle party (Dallas R.)

What made this year particularly great was the variety of ways in which people hosted parties, and the variety of ways in which they had impact. Some of you truly raised the bar a few notches. There’s not room to discuss all of the events here, but following are some highlights that hosts have submitted. A few details on earlier parties are in earlier posts here and on the Facebook page. We’ll be featuring more of the photos here in the near future!

Amber M. and Cafe Green in Washington, DC leveraged their event to raise some funds for the Louisiana Gulf Response Involvement Team.

Dallas and the Animal Rights Coalition in Minneapolis wrote, “We rented a park building and had about 50 people show up. The line was out the door and we had to make multiple trips to the store to get more flour, soy milk, oil, etc, because people just kept coming and needing more waffles! We had a great time, this was the first vegan event for many people, and folks had a lot of fun.” She posted some party photos.

Derek G. of The Vegan Bus lamented that he “flaked on organizing a party, but did celebrate with a waffle date.” He made “Vegan Smlove Waffles” incorporating flavors from one of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s dessert recipes, and posted some mouth-watering photos on his blog.

Earl B. and the Tokyo Vegan Meetup reported, “The Tokyo Vegan Waffle Party was a success! We had 15 people in total and made some interesting waffles. The strangest one would have to be Wasabe waffles. Wasabe is a Japanese spice (very hot). We also made Taiyaki. It’s a traditional Japanese cake type thing. It’s usually not vegan but of course ours were. Ironically it’s in the shape of a fish.” He posted a Facebook album with some pics of the crazy fish waffles.

A Vegas vegan waffle (Elaine V.)

Elaine & Vegas Veg* Meetup hosted a Vegan Chick’n & Waffles Pool Party with several great recipes, and received a few compliments that the host “makes a mean waffle.”

Heather S-D and Leah F. in Fort Wayne, IN featured a range of activities at their outdoor event, and obtained several business sponsors to raise some funds. “We served around 200 people that day a breakfast of vegan waffles, tofu scramble, Rice Milk and vegan spring rolls. We also had 2 cooking demos to teach people how to make the tofu scramble and vegan blueberry muffins. It was a great day indeed. Looking forward to another great event next year!”

Ida, Noah, and Veg Out NYC featured a variety of waffles at their event, including Chocolate Beer Waffles, Yeast-Raised Cornmeal Chili-Dippin’ Waffles, Naked Vegan Waffles, and Sweet Yeast-Raised Waffles. They also tried some crazy topping/flavor combinations. Attendee comments on Meetup included, “The perfect hosts” and “This menu is blowing me away!”

Jess at Cruelty Free WA drew dozens of guests into their Western Australian shop with the sweet smell of freshly baked vegan waffles. Some of the photos feature guests with entertaining t-shirts. She reported, “We had a fantastic day, all up between 70 and 80 people came through the door during the four hour period. We met up with some regulars and chatted with a lot of new faces. The smell was fantastic and we had people from the Oxfam shop down the road come up for some waffles too…The waffles came out perfectly and we had a number of people ask if James had used egg or milk to get them like that.”

Sweat Records' vegan waffle setup (Lolo R.)

Lolo from Sweat Records Miami noted, “Our party was a huge success – probably around 35-40 came through throughout the day.  The Miami New Times did a review of it for their ‘Short Order’ food blog.” She also posted some Facebook photos.

Raelene C. in Richmond, CA got really fancy, serving mimosas at her last-minute “unofficial” vegan waffle party.

Waffle Frolic is a brand new cafe whose name essentially means waffle party! (We recently learned that “waffle frolics” were thrown long before your grandparents were born.) They hosted a Friday night event that included vegan waffle specials, vegan giveaways from a local bookstore, a vegan information forum, a vegan recipe exchange, and a “late night waffle jam” with a live DJ from 9 PM until midnight. I actually visited Waffle Frolic on a very recent trip to Ithaca, and had some great food there–more on that in an upcoming post.

I believe that Wes and the Austin Vegan Meetup were planning to use a deep fryer in creative ways at their vegan waffle party, and reported a good turnout, but I’m still waiting to hear whether they tried anything crazy like deep-frying the waffles.

The day after our local party, we also had a Vegan Meetup event at Waffle Shop, which featured some delicious cinnamon raisin vegan waffles all weekend. Dawn W. there said they plan to leave that item on the menu for a while.

I’ve also sent out a brief feedback survey to hosts, asking them for any lessons learned. I’m hoping that information will help to make future events even more fun and impactful.