Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Vegan Cupcakes

Another winner from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I was doubtful at first that pumpkin cupcakes would taste like cupcakes and not a muffin. Then the chocolate pumpkin mix made me wary. I should just assume VCTOW knows what they are doing, they normally do.

The cupcakes came out great! Moist and sweet. In fact I think I'll eat most of mine without much icing (although the cinnamon icing is a nice touch). Plus pumpkin cupcakes are so perfect for this fall season. I even made a non-chocolate version for my dog (don't worry just a small piece, I won't over sugar my best friend)

If you love cupcakes seriously think about checking out VCTOW cookbook.....Trick or Treat :)








Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing
INGREDIENTS
1 cup canned pumpkin
1⁄3 cup oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Cinnamon Icing (recipe below)
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil, sugar, soy milk, and vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt. Stir together with a fork— don’t use a handheld mixer, as it will make the batter gummy. Once well combined, fold in the chocolate chips.
3. Fill liners two-thirds full. Bake for 22 to 24 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let fully cool before icing.
TO ASSEMBLE:
1. Take a small plastic sandwich bag and cut out a tiny hole in one edge or fit a pastry bag with a small holed decorating tip. Fill the bag with icing and pipe it out Jackson Pollack-style onto the cupcakes. You may also opt to pipe it in zigzags, lines, or swirls. Let the icing set at room temperature or refrigerated.
Cinnamon Icing
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons margarine, melted
1 tablespoon soy milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS
1. Place sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add the margarine, soy milk, and vanilla and stir with a fork until smooth. Keep at room temperature until ready to use. The mixture should look opaque and honey brown. If it’s glistening a lot or looks too liquid, add a little extra confectioners’ sugar.
Makes 12 cupcakes

Lychee vegan cupcakes with coconut glaze!

Oh my goodness we agree! ....As I've posted before, normally my husband prefers the least sweet cupcakes with some spice and I prefer the intensely sweet variety. After I made this lychee cupcakes though we both agreed these were our new favorites or at least top 3 :). Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, has another winner.

For me it was love at first batter taste. As I scraped the excess batter from the bowl, it was pure happiness. An extra bonus of vegan cupcakes is you can eat the raw batter all you like with no fear of getting sick, no eggs!

After tasting them post bake it was even better. The lychee flavor really comes out in the cupcakes. You can't taste the flax seeds at all, which is good. Plus I can convince myself the cupcakes are healthy because they have flaxseeds ie Omega fatty acid goodness in them. The coconut glaze works great as well, just the right amount of sweetness. * * * * * (out of 5)!

Lychee Cupcakes (makes 12 cupcakes)

2 cups unbleached flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/3 cups granulated sugar
5 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 can (4 ounces) lychee fruit, drained and chopped, syrup reserved
1/4 - 1/3 cup lychee syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. In a separate medium bowl, beat ground flaxseeds and 6 tablespoons water with a fork until gelatinous. Add oil, coconut milk, chopped lychees, and lychee syrup to the flaxseeds and mix to combine.
4. Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients, mix to combine. Fill cupcake liners full.
5. Bake 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Coconut glaze:
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk
directions for glaze:
Mix powdered sugar and coconut milk until smooth. Drizzle over completely cooled cupcakes.

Pineapple Right-Side-Up Vegan Cupcakes

There is an ongoing joke (full of truth) between my husband and I that if you took my list of my favorite vegan cupcakes in order and reversed it you would have his list in the correct order. He tends to prefer less sweet and more spicy cupcakes like the vegan chai latte cupcakes I frequently make. Whereas I prefer really sweet cupcakes with heavy frosting.

I tried out another recipe from the cookbook: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World..... Pineapple Right Side Up vegan cupcakes (click here for the recipe). The recipe is cool, the only liquid comes from pineapple juice and oil. The "frosting" is more pineapples and juice boiled with sugar and arrowroot powder. You serve these cupcakes chilled.

True to form, I didn't care for them much. However my husband said they might be his new favorite...... ::laughs:: I recommend trying them if you like cupcakes with a fruit essence. Or even just for experiment's sake.

Apple Pie-Crumb Cake Muffins (vegan)

Another instant favorite from 'Vegan with a Vengeance', * * * * *. These muffins are really good, the perfect mixture of spice and sweet. They moved into 1st place in my fiancee's vegan baked goods list (I still prefer cupcakes with extra sweet icing for 1st place). They make a great naughty breakfast treat or semi-healthy dessert.

Ingredients for Muffins:

1 1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup apple cider

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup grated apple (about 1 apple)

1/2 cup apple, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces (about 3/4 of an apple)

For Topping: 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 allspice pinch salt 3 tbsp canola oil

Topping -> Mix all dry goods together in small bowl. Drizzle oil while crumbling with fingertips. set aside

Preheat oven to 375*F

Muffins -> In large bowl, sift together/process flour, sugar, b-soda, b-powder, spices, salt. create a well and add cider, oil, and vanilla. Mix. Fold in both apple types.

Fill each muffin cup 2/3 fill. Sprinkle crumb top over each muffin. Bake approx. 22 minutes.

Happy Naw-Ruz! Vegan Chai Latte Cupcakes

Happy Naw-Ruz, first day of Spring and the end of my 19-day fast :)

To celebrate I made vegan Chai Latte Cupcakes. Another recipe from the best cupcake book ever, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The texture is more moist than the chocolate cupcakes, almost spongy but in a good way. The spiciness of the cinnamon, cloves and ginger took me awhile to get used to. Plus, I tend to like super sweet things. However my fiancee LOVED them. He also likes the fact that no icing is called for, just sift powdered sugar mixed with cocoa powder. These cupcakes go well with a warm cup of tea or coffee. As a couple we give them * * * * * (out of 5).

Recipe for vegan Chai Latte Cupcakes

Vegan chocolate cupcakes taste freaking awesome, Bisquick is vegan and nutritional yeast gravy tastes bad

A long title for my 3 hour cooking session.....

Menu:

1. Baked Tempeh
2. Bisquick biscuits with soy milk
3. Stir-fried Broccoli
4. Nutritional yeast gravy
5. Vegan chocolate cupcakes with cookies and cream icing

Reviews:

• The tempeh was alright. I made it mostly because I was bored of tofu etc.
• Bisquick and I are now best friends. I had no idea packaged biscuits could taste so good, be so fluffy....And so easy -> just add soy milk, mix then knead.
• The gravy was bad. Really bad. And it's not the vegan butter's fault, it's the nutritional yeast. For months I've tried to fake a friendship with this inactive yeast that has a high B12 concentration and weird cheesy taste. But the truth is I don't like it. It taste sort of good on eggs (when I used to it those) or popcorn.
• "Vegan cupcakes take over the world!", a well deserved title. The chocolate cupcakes were freaking awesome. The cookies and cream icing was good in the beginning. However, I'd recommend not putting all the crushed cookies in the icing. They get soggy after awhile.

Recipes:

Baked Tempeh

• Boil strips of tempeh in water for 10 minutes. This will help the marinade seep in.
• Drain, then marinate (I used soy sauce, apple cider vinegar and pepper) for an hour
• Bake at 350 until well browned

Nutritional yeast gravy

VCTOW's Chocolate cupcakes

Cupcakes!

My first official act as a vegan was to visit BabyCakes in the lower east side (LES) of manhattan. I am OBSESSED with baked goods. I used to visit Magnolia Bakery monthly. I would say at midnight "I want something sweet" and next thing I'm baking a full on production of cakes/pies/cookies. So by far the hardest thing for me and this vegan thing is baked goods. In my mind if I could find great vegan baked goods I'd be ok....My decision would not be so dramatic.

We got there at 10:58 pm and they close at 11 pm. It was fate. I got two cupcakes: red velvet and chocolate, both made using spelt flour. My fiance got a carrot cake cupcake, gluten free variety. I'm not going to lie. Magnolia's cupcakes taste better. They have the "crack factor" on their side ie butter and heavy cream. But the cupcakes were very good. The chocolate cupcake was my favorite. The red velvet one was too heavy. The icing on the red velvet one was lovely though. Mmmm. My goal was achieved, I found cupcakes that made me believe I could make the vegan choice.

Since I don't like trekking it to the LES. I reserved from the library what I think is seen as the "Holy of holies" in vegan cookbooks better known as Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World! After the 30th great review from people on a short name basis with the cookbook (VCTOW). I was convinced. I'll be trying out recipes this weekend :)