Love Joy Peace Cuppiecakes!

We put up our Christmas Tree today and got into the spirit of the Holiday Season with these drippy chocolate cuppiecakes.

Used my all time favourite so easy to make and yum chocolate cake recipe that I have posted many times already  poured the batter into greased cupcake tins and baked them for 20 mins

Then I dipped their tops in this easy peasy melty chocolate ganache frosting from my post here

Wishing you all much Love, Joy, Peace and baked goodies this holiday season! 

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Orange Layer Cake with Orange Bavarian Cream for Diwali

Diwali fireworks are bursting around us as I type. We have all been sitting in the balcony with the little one who is enjoying the pretty starbursts with his great-grandmother, my Ammama. Although he does not like the noise too much and is now sitting on her lap with his fingers in his ears, staring at the sky! Ammama looks so happy, she has come to my parents home here in Coimbatore all the way from her beloved farm in Kerala, just to be with our little monkey. This moment is such a blessing.
  

Hope my Indian friends are having a wonderful Diwali filled with love and laughter and great food of course! 

Diwali is a Hindu religious festival celebrating the return of Rama and Sita after years of exile and is spread over five days. It is great that I was able to be in India during this time.You just cannot help getting caught up in the excitement. I enjoy the fireworks, beautifully bedecked women in their finest saris, jewelry and with jasmine in their hair, but most of all - sweets! It just would not be Diwali without the mandatory boxes of ghee and cardamom scented sweets that would arrive from friends. 

Cake is not typical to Diwali but I was inspired to make this cake yesterday- layers of soft, airy sponge with a touch of citrus zest and just sweet enough orange Bavarian cream with segments of fresh orange that burst as you bite them-citrus fireworks in your mouth!

The sponge cake is made with a lot of eggs but no butter. It is quite dry and slightly eggy-smelling on its own. But it absorbed the simple syrup I made with orange juice and sugar like a...well, like a sponge and becomes moist and tender with a filling and frosting. So for a layer cake, do not look past this simple sponge cake which is also quite easy to make and very easy to remember. If you are looking for a plain tea cake to eat on it's own, check out these instead. I was itching to add a dash of cardamom powder which  think would have been perfect with the orange but my kid brother (no longer a kid really) does not like cardamom too much so I controlled myself. Besides Diwali brings about a cardamom overdose anyway!Which ever way you try it -with or without the cardamom and for whatever reason you find to bake it, you will love it! Even if your Bavarian Cream does not set like me -I don't know why :( and is a little runny, it still tastes really, really good! 

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nutella ganache frosting roses & ruffles cake by you and me!

I have been having a bit of a blogging block lately. I have been cooking and baking and taking loads of pics with my brand new camera (!), and enjoying this wonderful summer bounty of  luscious berries and sultry peaches and enjoying trips to county fairs and bbq's, but just haven't been able to post anything for some reason or the other. 

But there is something I have been looking forward to for a long time, my mom will be here in two days! I am just waiting for her to arrive and hopefully do so much more this time than at her last winter visit. Looking forward to all the cooking we will be doing together too, and all that I will learn and have to share with you! And most of all, hand over the little monkey to the long awaiting hands of his grandmother :)
Then receiving this talented women blogger award by Femina Magazine what just the shot of motivation that I needed and I knew I had to post this cake that I have been meaning to for weeks and weeks. Since my birthday is long gone, this is the perfect occasion to post it!

 

I was so excited about baking my own fancy birthday cake with layers! and frosting! and filling! that I asked you for suggestions and what glorious ideas you all came up with! Each one was more tempting than the other. So instead of baking some 50 different cakes like I soo wanted to, I decided to control myself and combine all my favourite suggestions into one dreamy cake which was a true collaboration of ideas between me and you, and some of my favourite bloggers too!


Special thank you to those whose suggestions I just had to incorporate:


Cool Lassie: who suggested Red Velvet Cake, 
Aparna who suggested Martha Stewart's Ruffle Cake, 
Vimitha Anand and Divya Kudua who both know me soo well and said that birthday cakes are meant to be chocolate! 
Jardeeling who suggested an intriguing vertical layer cake! 

Soma who suggested a chocolate cake with a strong coffee flavor (aaahh!my own idea of Heaven! )

I chose these not because the other suggestions weren't awesome as well, but because I ( the birthday girl afterall) had a hankering for nutella and needed to narrow it down to the ones that would complement and not overpower the nutella. I tried making a ganache frosting with nutella and chocolate and it was  totally awesome! It is now my favourite frosting, the one of my dreams and just soo easy to whip up with just 3 ingredients: Cream, Chocolate and Bliss Nutella!

And now finally on to the recipe that I am truly sorry for having kept from you for so long!

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Apple pie cake aka Marie-Helene's Apple Cake from Dorie Greenspan

Did you all have a fun weekend? I did! We took the little monkey to our county fair and he was mesmerized ( and just a little scared ) by the crowds, the heat, the colourful spinning rides, the animals- (including two llamas!), the music and the fireworks from friday night on, which he insisted on NOT watching, covering his eyes :( Tonight, though I was super thrilled to catch the fourth of July fireworks, from over the Golden Gate bridge, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year! Whoa! I love the Golden Gate bridge, love seeing it in the distance, parts of it disappearing under  the thick fog so that it looks magically suspended in the clouds, and I still ( after two years) always feel really excited when we drive over it, so catching the fireworks over the Bay was just a special treat. 


Something else I love? I love the smell of apple pie baking in the oven. The delicious aromas of baking apples, pastry and cinnamon fills the entire house and announces the arrival of good things, and seriously what could be better than a slice of warm, freshly baked apple pie topped with a scoopful of salty caramel ice cream? Nothing, except maybe this cinnamony apple pie cake :)


Yes, you read it right: its apples and cinnamon, but baked into a cake, so no need to bother with that fiddly pie crust. It's quite amazing. It is so full of apples and the texture is not really like a sturdy cake but veering more toward an apple y  bread pudding, and the flavours are unmistakably that of apple pie so that's why I call it apple pie cake and I'm sticking to it!

This was the first thing I took out of the new oven in the house we moved to last month. I didn't get to post because this chocolate Oreo cake too its place. And yes, some days, special days, you need a fluffy frosted cake covered in Oreos, or a barely chocolatey cake covered in Nutella frosting roses and ruffles ( yes the birthday cake, that's coming here soon!) but not everyday. This apple pie cake however, I would be very happy to eat everyday :) Its perfectly easy to make, all the equipment you need is a bowl and a whisk- no food processor, mixer or rolling pin needed.

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Flourless Orange Cardamom Almond cake (Dairy-free, Gluten-free)

..a walk through a sunny orange orchard, breathing the zesty air!

It was a very special blessing to live so close to an orange orchard since I love all things citrus. The sight of all those bright sunny oranges never failed to cheer me up and truly California is sunnier with all those orange and lemon trees everywhere!

You would have seen many citrus desserts on this blog, but nothing quite like this cake, made with whole oranges, boiled in their thick orange skin and flour less and butter less to boot! Sounds pretty crazy right? I thought so too!

I was introduced to these at that bakesale we had taken part in. There was a sea of colorful baked goodies- iced sugar cookies in all shapes, gorgeous layer cakes under glass domes, cupcakes piled high with frosting.....but what caught my eye were these tiny clementine mini muffins with a very intriguing ingredient list: Whole clementines, eggs, almonds, sugar, baking powder. No flour? No butter?! Curious, I bought a bunch to share with friends and wow! was I rewarded! 

Each little bite was  incredibly tender and moist, more like pudding than cake, with a heady citrussy flavor and fragrance. I loved them so much I had to have the recipe which the lovely Andrea who baked for the sale, mailed to me. They are made in the food processor or mixie and are quite easy to make too. 

They are perfect to nibble on with a cup of tea or strong coffee ( in my case) and simply perfect for the Mad Tea Party today. What could be madder than a flour less, butter less cake I say ?!

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Chocolate Oreo Cake with Quick Fluffy frosting- Happy Birthday Ria!

"Birthdays are Nature's way of telling us to eat cake ;) Here's one filled with wishes for you Ria! Hope the year ahead is as awesome as you are!"

I am always looking for an excuse bake cakes. And what could be a better reason to bake a moist chocolate cake and slather it with fluffy clouds of marshmallow like 7 minute frosting ( which takes about 10 mins to make by the way) and crumbled Oreos than a galpal's special day! 

Yesterday was my friend and awesome blogger Ria's birthday and of course I immediately wanted to bake her a cake. Even though she lives at the other end of the country and would only get to see the cake, while I get to eat it, on her behalf of course :P  I then proceeded to happily spend all day looking for the perfect cake recipe and thinking of a pretty pink girly cake. As I called to wish her I asked her if she had any preferences, the birthday girl revealed that she would like chocolate. We got to talking about one of our favourite cakes to bake, which I know as my sis-in-law's easy but perfect chocolate cake, and which Ria knows as the Hershey's Perfect cake. 


The interesting thing about this cake is that it is made with oil instead of butter. Now there are lots of arguments about butter being the vital ingredient in cake and oil is like a dirty word when it comes to baking.  I agree that butter imparts a lot of flavor, but the thing about oil based cakes is that apart from being easier to make without all that creaming of the butter etc., they are incredibly moist and stay moist longer too. I have dabbled quite a bit with butter-less cakes since this discovery. 

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Dorie's Perfect Party cake- Lemonized for a bright sunny Thank you!

The trees in my grandmother's little village in Kerala must be bursting with golden mangoes and purple mangosteen, with me too far away to gorge myself sick on them :( Here in California though, I see sunny lemons and oranges everywhere, and its almost like everyone has a lemon or orange tree in their back yard, except me. So of course I am compensating by buying loads of them every time I go grocery shopping leading me to squeeze lemons over super easy baked chicken and potatoes, lentils, or bake with them. I'm hoping all these citrusy desserts I've been having is boosting my stock of Vitamin C and not just going straight to my hips.

A few days ago I had posted some creamy, mouth puckeringly tangy lemon curd. Some of it went into this lemony cake which then went into my tummy, but it was meant for all the wonderful Kerala Kitchen members who contributed 54 brilliant entries to our roundup for last month! I wish I could send you all a slice, but hope you'll get to enjoy it atleast virtually for now :)

The cake is an extra lemonized version of  Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party cake which I have been longing to make ever since I saw it on the Daring Baker's challenge archives. The original cake is filled with raspberry preserve and has a buttercream frosting and is covered in a cloud of sweetened shredded coconut, but I decided to instead use lemon curd as a filling, as well as to flavour the easy-peasy lemon squeeze-y whipped cream frosting. The cake can be made ahead and frozen for upto 2 months. Infact if you are cutting it into layers it is easier to do so once the cake is frozen. Lemon curd can also be frozen for upto 2 months, and then thawed overnight in the fridge before using it the next day. So why not make one well in advance and freeze it, so you are ready for a party anytime!

Dorie herself describes the cake as "..a just-right cake for any celebration.The cake is snow white, with an elegant tight crumb and an easygoing nature: it always bakes up perfectly; it is delicate on the tongue but sturdy in the kitchen" 

Perfect for any party, you can make the frosting and filling of your choice or even have it plain as a wonderful light tea cake. What better cake to celebrate 54 delicious entries to our Kerala Kitchen last month!

This goes to: Ria of Ria's collection my partner in crime and host of this month's Kerala Kitchen, as well as the wonderful members who took part this month:

Cool Lassie of Pan Gravy Kadai Curry, Sarah  of Spoonful of delight, Anita of Sliceofmylyfe, Divya Kudua of Easycooking, Priya Sreeram of Eq-myblog, Sadhana of  SensibleVeg,Sneha of Inspirational Art Of Cooking,Zareena of My Experiments with food, Nashi of Plateful , Najila of Foodie Corner,  Anzz of Anzzcafe, Vidhya of Vidhya's good eats , Maria of Maria's Menu , Sonali of Only fish recipes, Usha of My Spicy Kitchen, Shabs of Shab's cuisine, Bharathy of Spicy Chilly, Nags of Edible Garden, Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes, Swapna of Swapna's Cuisine, Home of cupcakes from mypotpourriofrecipes and Karishma of Cook with Kary as well as all our other wonderful members who could not take part last month, but I hope will join us this month. 

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Low fat Chocolate Truffle Mousse from Alice Medrich

I promised to post a couple more dreamy desserts I made from the book I'm currently madly in love with "Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts" by Chocolate guru Alice Medrich and just in time for Valentines day I present to you this decadent, versatile chocolate mousse.
It's rich, silky, extra chocolate-y with bittersweet chocolate and cocoa and has less than half the fat of regular mousse because it is lightened with egg whites and contains no cream! It can be eaten as it, or used as fillings and in the coming days I'll be showing you the many delicious uses I put it to :)

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Alice Medrich's low fat Buttermilk Pound cake and a warm thank you!

I had an exciting time playing host to my first ever event- Kerala Kitchen. It was so much fun and such a learning experience! I love that I now have a readily available collection of brilliant Kerala dishes some familiar and some completely new (well atleast to me), for whenever the Mallu food mood strikes!

Most of all it was so wonderful to connect with you amazingly talented and lovely ladies :) So this post is a warm thank you to to all those who graced the very first Kerala Kitchen-

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Light Lemon Cake- Vegan & Dairy-free

I know, I know, yet another lemon cake. What can I say? I'm obsessed! I have to also say this one is my current favourite. I like the fluffy texture of this one the best, but then it's not vegan. It's also not as easy to throw together, and this one slides right out of my calphalon bundt pan so very satisfyingly! 
We are just settling down after a delightful family get-together for Jelly Bean's Christening. Now our little apartment suddenly seems large and empty without the 3 boys and my adorable niece who was completely besotted by Jelly Bean  declaring "she's so cuuttee!". She's only 3 and hasn't quite grasped the complicated concept of genders yet. She solved the dilemma by addressing everyone and everything as "she" (including the sofa) possessiveness indicated by "she's"! I got to bake to my heart's delight and this cake was a firm favourite with the kids and adults alike.

Lemon Cake
Recipe source: This is an adaptation of lemon gem cupcakes from Veganomicon posted on Food.com here
Ingredients

• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 1/3 cups sugar, plus
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups rice milk (I used soy) 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest

Frosting (Optional-I didn't frost mine)

• 1/2 cup vegan margarine, softened (non hydrogenated)
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

Method:
Prep Time: 15 mins Total Time: 35 mins

• Preheat oven to 350°F.2
• If making cupcakes line two 12 muffing tin with paper liners or else grease a cake pan.
• Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• In a separate bowl, combine oil, sugar, rice milk, vanilla, lemon juice, and zest.
• Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until smooth.
• Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full.
• Bake cupcakes for 17-20 minutes.
• Remove cupcakes from muffin tin, and place on wire cooling rack.
• Frost when fully cooled.

For the frosting: 

• Beat the margarine with a hand mixer until fluffy.
• Stir in soy milk and lemon juice.
• Add confectioners sugar and mix until smooth.
• Frost cupcakes.

Verdict: Light, just the right moistness and a wonderful lemonyness that bursts in your mouth as you take your first bite! The texture is like a good pound cake and it's not too sweet but sweet enough to not require the frosting. Would make a wonderful accompaniment to your cup of Earl Grey tea.

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Cardamom Carrot Cupcakes- Vegan Dairy-free and Gooood for you!

A few days ago a friend asked me if I had a good carrot cake recipe. I didn't have one that I had actually tried and since then I have been dreaming of carrot cake. So this post is for her, for me and also for all those mommas out there who have kids (or hubbies) who don't eat their veggies. Here is the answer- put those unloved veggies in cake! Then sit back and watch them being devoured.Oh and devour some yourself-they taste fantastic!
I see myself doing this a few years from now when Jelly bean can but wont! eat his veggies. I will sneak zucchini in chocolate cake and make these tasty, healthy carrot cupcakes very, very often.
This genius, deceptively simple recipe is again from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World.
Being Indian and because I love carrot halwa I had to play around with the spices so the changes I made were to add cardamom (elachi) and cloves in addition to the cinnamon in this fantastic recipe. I'm so glad I did. The whole house is filled with the aromas and I had to restrain myself from scooping up and eating all of the batter. I might also add some shredded fresh or frozen and thawed coconut next time.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Recipe source: Adapted from 

Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World

 from here


Dry Ingredients

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger ( I overlooked this, maybe next time)
• I also added: 
• 1/8 tsp clove powder 
• 3-4 elachi powdered ( I just put the seeds on a paper towel, folded the towel over and whacked them with the back of my metal measuring cups until crushed and sort of powdery)
• 1/2 cup shredded fresh or frozen and thawed coconut ( Didn't add this time but will next time)

Wet ingredients

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup soy yogurt (plain or vanilla) 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 cup finely grated carrots ( I thawed frozen carrots for 2 mins in the microwave then pulsed them in my food processor on the chop setting. Don't pulse for too long lest they turn mushy)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts ( I didn't add these)
• 1/4 cup raisins (I hate raisins in cake so didn't add this either)

Frosting: I used the cream cheese frosting from here


Method

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.
• In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the wet ingredients sugar, vegetable oil, yogurt, and vanilla. 
• Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices), and beat until smooth.
• Fold in shredded carrots, walnuts and raisins.
• Spray the cupcake liners with non-stick baking spray. Fill the liners 2/3 full. 
• I also pushed in a cashew on to the top due to my carrot halwa hangover.
• Bake for 26-28 minutes ( I had to bake for 40 minutes and it was still a little gooey), until a toothpick inserted through the center of one comes out clean.
• Once fully cooled, top generously with cream cheese frosting.

Or you could do what I did-poke a hole in the middle of the bottoms of each cupcake with my index finger, then using a medium round icing tip, fill with frosting.
I didnt have pastry bags so I tried using instead, an extra medicine dropper we had from the pharmacy, with which I sucked up the frosting and squeezed it into the centers. Worked quite well.

Verdict: 
Ease:  * * * * *
Taste: * * * * * 


I made one biiig mistake with this recipe. I didn't double it.and that makes me sad because these are so gooood. Tender, moist, aromatic, chewy, slightly sticky interior and crunchy top yummyness! I only made 12 and they are almost over already. I'm just eating carrots I rationalize. Adding this to my mental list of favourite recipes and I highly recommend you do too. And also lay your hands on Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World and try out all the other vegan and awesome recipes. I have posted a few here too. Look in the recipe index or click here

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Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes Vegan & Dairy free- Help! the cupcakes have taken over!!

We were invited to dinner by baby T's mom so of course I had to make cupcakes, again. Whether you like them or not, if you invite me over for dinner, I will bring cup cakes. Soon if you even look in my general direction you will probably be force fed cupcakes. Because, my friends, they have taken over. More specifically, Vegan Cupcakes have taken over my world.
This is another recipe adapted from that amazing book that I just cannot say enough good things about.
This time I also solved my how to gift-pack cupcakes dilemma:

1. Bake cupcakes leave them to cool. Do not frost

2. Pick out cute gift bag like these ones from retailpackaging.com or be creative and make one yourself

3.Pack cupcakes into zip lock bag

4. Make frosting and scoop it all into another seperate zip lock bag so that your gift-ee can just snip one end of the frosting zip lock and pipe it over the cuppies herself. Much less messier.
5. Put both zip lock bags, with other goodies like a card?, something hand knit? a bottle of wine maybe? into the cute giftbag
6. Ta-da! Super nice hostess/Teacher/Sorry-I-split-coffee-on-your-pretty-skirt-but-heres-a gift gift.

Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes- Vegan & dairy free
Recipe source: Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World from here
Makes about 12 cupcakes


Wet Ingredients

• 1 cup soy milk
• 4 Earl Grey teabags or 2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea (I used Twinnings and next time I will use 5 bags since the taste was too mild for me with 4)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup plain soy yogurt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

Dry Ingredients

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda ( Think I will up it to 1/2 tsp baking soda next time)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Method

• Preheat oven to 375º and line tin with 12 greased cupcake liners (Grease well since these cupcakes have a tendency to stick to the liners)
• In a saucepan or in the microwave, heat soy milk until almost boiling, add tea bags and citrus zest, cover and remove from heat.
• Let sit for 10 minutes.When ready to use, stir teabags and thoroughly squeeze to make sure as much tea is dissolved in milk as possible.
• In a large bowl or in your blender, mix together oil, yogurt, sugar, vanilla and tea mixture until all yogurt lumps disappear.
• Sift dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Mix until large lumps disappear; it's okay if some small lumps remain.
• Fill tins full (since these don't rise much) and bake about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Ingredients for frosting
(I didn't frost mine, just sprinkled some sugar and orange zest over my cuppies)

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted vegan butter (The Earth Balance brand is the best)
• 2 cups powdered sugar (Or you could just whizz reqular sugar in your blender until fine and powdery)
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method

• Cream the butter until smooth, gradually beat in the powdered sugar until the mixture is very fluffy.
• Zest the lemon over the bowl into the frosting, add the lemon juice and stir until smooth.
• Spread or pipe the frosting on top of the cooled cupcakes. If you frost the cupcakes while they are still warm, the frosting may melt and become runny.

Verdict

Ease:  ❤ ❤ ❤ ♡ ♡

Taste: ❤ ❤ ♡ ♡ ♡

I was a little disappointment that they didn't rise very much. The next time I will try increasing the baking soda to 1/2 tsp instead of 1/4. Also I used Twinnings tea bags and the earl grey taste was very,very mild. Will increase to 5 or even 6 tea bags for a stronger flavor. I was very happy with the packaging though. Felt very Martha Stewart like :)

If you like this you should totally check out my other favourite cupcake & cake recipes here

All my dessert recipes are here

All my favourite Vegan recipes are here
Earl Grey Tea

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Dairyfree, Vegan Red Velvet cupcakes for Father's day

Yes this is one more awesome cupcake recipe from VCTOTW! They are egg-less and dairy-free but oh so freakingly delicious! I've always wanted to taste those gorgeous red velvet cakes but ever since I went dairy & egg free, the Geek has been dragging me away from bakeries so that I won't be disappointed that there's egg or butter or milk in everything I want to try. Why aren't there vegan bakeries near me?? Thank God for the vegan food bloggers who have shared their goodies with me and helped me keep my sanity ( and love handles)

I've been waiting for a special occasion to make these pretties and with Father's day around the corner I thought "Must make these for T!" and ran to the store to get apple cider vinegar and toffutti cream "cheese" (Looks like cheese, tastes like a creamy cheese- but is tofu!) for the frosting, and of course red food colouring. Lots of it. After all, the red velvet just wouldn't be the same if it wasn't so violently, breath-takingly red.

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe source: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World from Mac & Cheese

Makes about 22 cupcakes

Wet Ingredients

• 2 cups soy milk
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 ounces red food coloring ( I used 1 tsp red food gel which is more concentrated. You could add other colours instead or omit- doesn't affect the taste)
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder (I use and like Ghirardelli)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Add vinegar to soy milk, and set aside about 10 minutes to curdle. ( I didn't really taste any sourness but went ahead and assumed it had curdled by then)
• Sift dry ingredients in a large bowl.
• Add vegetable oil, food coloring, and vanilla extract to the curdled soy milk, and mix well.
• Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix until combined.
• These rise well so fill cupcake liners ¾ full to leave room.
• Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 20 minutes or until done.

Frosting Ingredients

• ½ cup margarine, room temperature ( I didn't add this)
• ½ cup Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract ( I added only one and added one tsp butter flavouring)
• 4 cups confectioners sugar (I just put regular granulated sugar and whizzed it in my blender until fine. Without this the frosting will taste gritty)

Method

• Cream margarine, cream cheese, and vanilla extract.
• Slowly mix the confectioner’s sugar into the creamed sugar, and then beat until smooth and fluffy.
• If its still too runny and liquid y, you could add more sugar or keep it in the fridge and it will harden a little
• Frost only once cupcakes have cooled else it might melt and become runny.

I also used this cute little mini bunt pan. Isn't it simply adorable? It was non-stick and I just greased it thoroughly with canola oil and got it nicely into all the little grooves. Once done I was surprised by how easily the cute little cakes just popped out.

Verdict


Ease: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ♡
Taste: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

This is the third recipe I've tried from the amazing book Vegan cupcakes take over the world and if you are dairy/egg allergic or vegan or even if you are not, this book is going to take over your world.

As with the orange cupcakes T loved them and could not believe they didn't have eggs or butter. We have been popping several mini cupcakes and I'll be sad when they are all gone.

The frosting can be omitted but gives a nice mouth feel as the creamy silkiness brushes your palate.

I limited myself to 1 tsp of red gel so mine were not virulently, traffic stopping red as you can see, and also since there was a lot of coco powder, slightly brownish.

I did notice something about that reaction of coco powder and vinegar that somehow enhances the redness. I would recommend leaving the batter for a while as mine got even redder after a few hours.You could omit the food colouring but if you do it'd just be another chocolate cake. Tasty still, that subtle chocolate y-ness which depends upon the amount of coco powder used and is in no way affected by the redness, but without it, visually not as appealing.


If you like this you should totally check out my other favourite cupcake & cake recipes here

All my dessert recipes are here

All my favourite Vegan recipes are here

I am sending these cupcakes off to What's for lunch honey?'s monthly mingle"Special Sweet Treats" hosted at theapartmentkitchen.net

I'm also sending them to the Sizziling summer contest hosted by Spicy Tasty

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