Red Velvet Cupcakes

Summer has been far to hot for baking. Now that things are cooling down in the Pacific Northwest I'm able to whip up plenty of vegan delights that will keep me working out for a lifetime.

A friend of mine recently had a housewarming party and she requested chocolate cupcakes and a red velvet cupcake. My first attempt for a vegan red velvet cupcake was a disaster, so I was eager to try again. I use the recipe from 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World' and paid close attention to everything as last time my cupcakes collapsed in on themselves. This time I had success, and I was quite satisfied with the final product. I also used Isa's old fashion frosting recipe which worked well for the cupcake, but the texture was a little grainy for my taste.

The cupcakes were eaten by unsuspecting omnivores who couldn't believe the cupcakes were vegan. The chocolate cupcakes I brought along with the red velvet were topped with a tasty whiskey butter cream.

More to come, I've been trying out a few recipes on my own and I'm looking forward to posting them.

Superb Vanilla Cupcakes

I've been working on creating a great vanilla cupcake for some time now. I've nailed chocolate but have had a lot of trouble getting a vanilla cupcake that wasn't sub-par. Finally (with help) I made a batch of perfect vanilla cupcakes. I do say that this is by far my favorite cupcake for summer. Its versatile and easy to make. For this first batch I made a delicious blueberry cream cheese frosting that was thick and creamy, contrasting the light airy cupcake. I also topped the cupcake with a few blueberry's as a garnish.

The cupcake is really simple and frankly pretty amazing.

Oven at 375

- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/3 cup almond meal
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract

Mix all ingredients well

add;

- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Mix again and bake for 22 minutes!

I usually rave about most of the cupcakes I make because cupcakes are a kind of crack for me, but these cakes are truly fantastic, especially with the blueberry.

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

These were an experimental batch that turned out really well. I used this killer chocolate cake recipe that I've used a few times in the past. I substituted half the water for coconut milk to add a little extra depth to the cupcakes. The cupcakes turned out pretty good, I left them in the oven for an extra few minutes and a few of them developed that hard cupcake top.

The frosting was a simple coconut butter cream frosting that I topped off with some toasted coconut.

Happy Birthday Dan! (Belated...)

I made these cupcakes almost a month ago for a friends birthday. Tres bien!

Cinco de Mayo Margarita Cupcakes (belated)

prinkling of sugar on top.


















We stayed home on Cinco De Mayo, but I made these cupcakes the following Saturday for a belated Cinco de Mayo party. I utilized 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World' as a base and updated the recipe for my liking. Lime plus tequila equals yum. The frosting is the same as the whiskey butter cream substituting the whiskey for tequila with a light sprinkling of blue sugar on top.

Employed

Now that I'll be re-entering the workforce I sadly will have little time to bake and blog. I'll shoot for at least one post a week.

Birthday Order

A friend of mine ordered a bunch of cupcakes for his big 45th! I made a combination of chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter and lemon. The vanilla cake was an experiment and I think it came out really well, I used a chocolate cake recipe in the last post but substituted the cocoa powder for almond flour.

Chocolate Cake with Whiskey Buttercream Frosting

James found this great vegan chocolate cake recipe on the internet and I decided to go with it for a friend's birthday cake. I was amazed to see how simple this recipe is, and its delicious! I made two 9in cakes and assembled them with a whiskey buttercream frosting, truly one of the best frosting's EVER! I have to say the cake pretty much KILLED at the potluck. Hurray.

My only critique is that I don't know how to decorate a cake well. I think I'm getting better, but its still a little on the sloppy side. Next time will be better.

Tangerine Zest and Oreo® Cookie Cupcakes

I had an order last weekend for a few Tangerine and Oreo® Cupcakes, they turned out really well. I took the leftovers to a family event. I got good reviews from everyone.

Vanilla Blueberry Gluten Free Cupcakes

I got a special request from a friend to make gluten free cupcakes for an party, we decided on doing a vanilla cupcake with blueberry frosting. Thankfully the frosting was already gluten free. For this cake I used the standard gluten free recipe that you can find in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, this book has a lot of good base recipes that you can build off of. For the frosting I used a standard buttercream recipe;

1/2 cup margerine
1/2 cup shortening
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 of freshly blended blueberries

You can substitute 1/4 of blueberries for soy milk, juice, booze or whatever to get your frosting to compliment your cake flavor.

I really liked this combination, the blueberries were delicious and the cake was even better.