Special note: The card pictured is part of a special Pride series created by Ink Meets Paper, an LGBTQ+ founded company.
Why It's Important to Celebrate Pride
Cooking is one of life’s necessities, but baking is a very unique form of cooking used to share love and celebrate. The power of baking to bring people together is part of what inspired our brand in the first place.
Our founder’s mother, Maxine,
baked for celebrations like birthdays, Christmas, and other family gatherings. And just like we updated her original cookie recipe to match what we know about healthier eating, we also have think its important to create moments to celebrate things that weren't so celebrated back in Maxine’s time.
Living as an LGBT person in Maxine’s day brought plenty of challenges and discrimination. During the “lavender scare” of the 1950s and 60s, many LGBT workers faced mass dismissal from their jobs. Thousands of lesbian and gay workers were also barred from even applying to government jobs when President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450 in 1953.
All of this discrimination finally came to a head in 1969, during the now-famous Stonewall riots. Patrons of the Stonewall Inn and other nearby gay bars fought back against a violent police raid. Tensions between the New York City Police and gay residents of Greenwich Village eventually erupted into more protests the next evening and again several nights later. Within weeks, residents organized into activist groups and demanded the right to live openly, without being discriminated against for their sexual orientation.
The very first gay pride marches took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco one year after the uprising, to commemorate the original Stonewall riots. To this day, LGBT Pride events are held annually in June to honor the original riots.
We still have a lot of work to do to create true equality and freedom for the LGBT community. However, it’s much easier and safer these days to live openly.
We believe someone sharing who they are with you deserves a celebration, so to help celebrate LGBT pride and life’s modern moments, we wanted to share this vegan dessert pizza recipe featuring a variety of rainbow fruit:
Dessert Pizza with Rainbow Fruit | Full Recipe
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Chunk Crust:
For the Vegan Cream Cheese Topping:
- 8 oz vegan cream cheese
- 1/4 cup vegan whipped topping
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- A pinch of salt
- Assorted sliced fruit (we used strawberries, cantaloupe, banana, kiwi and blueberries)
- Chopped pistachios (for decorating)
Directions
To make the cookie crust, process the chocolate chunk cookies in a food processor until coarse and crumbly. Transfer to a large bowl and add in the olive oil. Mix together by hand until the cookie crumbs come together into a malleable dough. Spread onto the base of a ten-inch springform pan and chill for 1 hour.
To make the whipped cream cheese topping, mix together the vegan cream cheese, the whipped topping, the maple syrup, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Top with crushed pistachios. Spread across the cookie crust, leaving a 1/2 inch border.
Top the pizza with the fruit, making concentric circles with each color if desired. Slice and enjoy with extra maple syrup, if desired.
Celebrate Your Modern Moments with Maxine's Heavenly
Being able to live openly and enjoy life’s modern moments with who you choose is always a cause for celebration. Thanks for celebrating with us here at Maxine’s Heavenly.
