Mini Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes

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Sunday is my baking day.  Today is Sunday.  So, naturally, I had to bake something today, or face the wrath of my floormates.  But today I had baker’s block.  Nothing sounded like fun.  First, I was thinking cinnamon rolls, since that’s on my to-do list.  But I’ve never done a yeast dessert before, and I don’t have a pastry brush to brush on the filling (lame, I know, but give me a break).  Then,I thought RAVIOLI!  I got a pasta roller a few weeks ago, and I’ve been wanting to make pasta for forever and a day.  But, if I wanted to make ravioli, I would need a sauce, and had no way to get my hands on some onions for a sauce.  Idea number two, slashed.  So then I thought homemade OREOs, but that sounded like way too much work.  Then I thought about a whole slew of different cupcake ideas, nixing each one because they weren’t creative enough.

Then it hit me.  Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes.  I always loved fall because of the coffee drinks that hit for the holidays.  I haven’t had a holiday season as a vegan yet, so I don’t know the low-down on all those floofy holiday drinks and whether or not they’re vegan.  BUT, I do know how to make vegan cupcakes.

BAM.  Problem solved.  (I also really wanted an excuse to take pictures with this mug…)

 

COFFEE CUPCAKES

• 1 c. soy milk
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. canola oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/3 c. all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2-3 tablespoons of instant ground coffee (note:  don’t you dare skimp here; the coffee flavor bakes off quite a bit, so the batter is stronger than your cupcakes will be)
• If you want, you can add in a couple tablespoons of pumpkin puree, but not too much because you don’t want to overwhelm the coffee flavor.

Preheat oven to 350°F and prep your mini cupcake tins.  Mix wet ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until combined.  Scoop into your tins and bake for about 10 minutes.  Let them cool and then top off with pumpkin frosting (Just a regular buttercream or cream cheese frosting, but substitute pumpkin puree for the soy milk).

Rainbow Cupcakes

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Why rainbow?  I don’t know.  I had a whole list of reasons of why I made these cupcakes:  it’s been raining this week, but now it’s sunny; I’ve had a really awesome Friday (got a financial hold taken off my student account, one of my classes was cancelled, and I got my first student paycheck totaling $454).  But when it comes down to it, I saw a picture of a rainbow cupcake a few months ago and I’ve been wanting to make one ever since.  There really isn’t any method to my madness. Sorry about that…

But when you consider how awesome these cupcakes are, it doesn’t matter that I’m totally crazy.  These are just plain old white cupcakes.  Let me preface this with a little disclaimer:  I’m not a huge fan of white cake.  Don’t get me wrong, I love cake.  But if I have a choice of chocolate or vanilla, I’m totally going for the chocolate.  BUT – these cupcakes are an exception to my rule.  Taken from “The Joy of Vegan Baking,” these cupcakes are AH-MAZINGLY yummy.

VANILLA CUPCAKES

• 1 1/2 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1 3/4 c. nondairy milk (looking at the recipe now, I realized I did 1 1/4 cup instead of 1 3/4 cup – my cupcakes turned out great anyway, and I think the extra 1/2 cup might even have made my batter too runny)
• 1/2 c. water, divided
• 1/2 c. nondairy margarine, melted
• 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (I always eyeball, and I also added a splash of almond extract)
• 2 1/2 c. unbleached AP flour
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375° F.  Prepare your cupcake tin.

Beat the egg replacer with 2 tbsp water until “smooth.” (Don’t ask me what that means, I just beat it for a minute or so)  Add the milk and 1/4 cup of the water.

In a large bowl, cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and remaining 1/4 cup of water and beat to combine.  Add the dry ingredients and the milk mixture.  Beat until combined.

Now, let me give you the low-down of how to construct these cupcakes:  mix up the ingredients to make the batter, then divide it up equally between five small bowls or cups.  Add food coloring (I’m not going to dictate what colors, because I think we all know our colors, and I don’t want to put a damper on your creativity)  Then layer the colors in the cupcake liners.  I just bought a brand new mini cookie scoop, and that worked great, because it was quick and mostly mess-less.  Stick ‘em in the oven, bake ‘em for about 20 minutes (or exactly 20 minutes, if you’re me), then let cool and top off with some buttercream or cream cheese frosting.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

It’s October, right?  And October is the month of Halloween.  I’m not a huge fan of the holiday, honestly.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love dressing up like a weirdo and the sugar-induced coma that comes the day after.  But I don’t like being scared.  Don’t like rollercoasters, scary movies, creepy costumes – nope, no way, nuh-uh.

What I do like about Halloween is the candy.  My family always had the best candy, too.  My mom would always buy these chocolate eyeballs, and every year I would steal as many of them as I could get my hands on.  They were fudge, caramel, and PEANUT BUTTER filled chocolate eyeballs.  YUM.  And then there’s the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.  But, sadly, neither of these candies are vegan.  Solution?  Cupcakes!  Duh…

I have a confession.  I cheated on these cupcakes.  I used a recipe that I’ve already posted on my blog for the cakes.  Whoops.  But I think you’ll forgive me after you’ve tasted them.  Just trust me on this one, ok?

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

• 1 1/2 c. AP flour
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp/ vanilla extract
• Almond extract – use your judgement
• 1/3 c. canola oil
• 1 tbsp. white vinegar
• 1 c. cold water

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Prep your cupcake tins.  Combine dry ingredients.  Combine wet ingredients.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet.  Mix just until combined.  (the batter might be a little lumpy – don’t worry, they will turn out great!)   Bake for about 15 minutes on this one.  This made exactly twelve cupcakes for me.

 

PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING

• 1/2 c. plus some peanut butter
• Vanilla extract
• Soy milk (don’t kill me, I didn’t measure!)
• 4 c. powdered sugar

Cream peanut butter and vanilla, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time.  After each addition, I had to add a little soy milk.

 

Top off your cupcakes and enjoy!

Maple Cupcakes

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This is my protest against this month’s Cupcake Hero.  I would be okay with a theme ingredient that was dairy – because you can use soy milk and it’s still milk, or almond-based cheese and it’s still considered cheese.  But honey?  You can’t sub for that without removing the innate honey-ness of it.

Let me clarify.  I’m not a huge bee-rights advocate.  If a recipe unequivocally, undeniably calls for honey or I’m having a bad day and absolutely craving honey-dijon kettle chips, then I’ll break down and use the gosh darn bee regurgitation.  And I have to have my burt’s bees chapstick.  But honey?  As a theme ingredient?  No.  I can’t bring myself to construct a cupcake of honey and then post it on my vegan blog, and then still claim to be vegan.

So I decided to make a cupcake of the vegan version of honey.  No, not agave nectar.  That’s lame.  And I’ve never actually used it.  Nope, I’m using maple syrup – it’s plant based, it’s vegan, it’s delicious, and it’s fall-ish (fall-y?  fall-esque?  fall-like?)

Simple, yummy, sweet cupcakes that smell AWESOME right out of the oven.

Can you say “om nom nom”?  No, say it out loud.  Come on now, say it with me “OM NOM NOM.”

There you go.

MAPLE CUPCAKES

• 2 1/2 c. AP flour
• 2 tsp. bakingpowder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/3 c. canola oil
• 1/2 c. light-brown sugar
• Egg replacer for 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 c. maple syrup
• 2 tsp. vanillaextract
• 1/2 c. buttermilk (lies.  this is what you do:  put 1/2 tbsp. of vinegar or lemon juice in a half cup measuring cup, then fill it up with soy milk and set it aside for a few minutes to let it thicken up.)

Heat oven to 350̊F. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. (Note:  this is total crap.  I never sift, and my cupcakes always come out fine.  I just throw it all in the bowl at the same time, and it saves you having to lug out another bowl.)  Whisk the oil and sugar together.  Add in the egg replacer, syrup, and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture by thirds, alternating with the buttermilk (end with the flour).  Scoop into cupcake tin and bake for about 20 minutes.

Makes 24-ish (Ok, fine.  24 exactly with enough left over for my roommate to have some decent bowl-lickin’ time.  But I don’t like saying how many a recipe will make because it never makes what you say it will make.  This recipe was supposed to make 18.  Case in point.)

Another note:  These cupcake rise more than normal ones.  Usually, I do one and a half cookie scoops-worth, but these only needed one scoop.

MAPLE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 1 8-oz package Toffuti cream cheese
• 1 stick non-dairy margarine
• 1/2 c. maple syrup
• Almond and vanilla extract
• 4 c. powdered sugar

Just like any other frosting.  Cream the tofutti, margarine, vanilla, almond.  (The recipe says to add the maple syrup here, too, but I would wait until the end because my frosting was a smidge on the soupy side)  Then add the sugar about a cup at a time.

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

Mmmmmm… brownies.  The ultimate comfort food out of a box.  Make them cake-y, make them fudgy, make them with black beans instead of the eggs and oil and water for “healthy” brownies…

-OR-

Ditch the box altogether and make these awesome pumpkin swirl brownies.  First of all, let me apologize for all of the Martha Stewart spinoffs recently, but also tell you that this is one too.  Oops.  You may not like the lady, but she’s got some delicious baked goods up her sleeve, and the fact that I can veganize them makes them even better.  The chocolate batter is dark and rich, the pumpkin batter is cinnamon-y and lighter, and the two combine to make a super-rich brownie.  One tiny square is all you need to satisfy your sweet tooth.

 

PUMPKIN SWIRL BROWNIES

• 8 tbsp. (1 stick) non-dairy margarine, plus more for pan
• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used cocoa powder:  1 oz of bittersweet chocolate=3 tbsp. cocoa + 1 tbsp vegetable/canola oil)
• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 3/4 c. sugar
• Egg replacer equivalent for 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 c. solid-pack pumpkin
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 300̊F.  Butter a square pan, line the bottom wiht parchment paper, then butter the parchment paper.

Melt the butter (and chocolate, if you’re using the bittersweet stuff).  If you’re using the cocoa powder and oil method, just mix those in after butter is melted.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, and then set aside.  Put the stgar, eggs, and vanilla in another bowl and beat (with electric mixer) until fluffy and mixed (note:  it doesn’t actually get fluffy, just so you’re not beating and beating waiting for it to get fluffy.  It jsut doesn’t) – about 3 to 5 minutes.

Beat in flour mixture.

Divide the batter between two bowls.  Add the chocolate mixture to one bowl and pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and oil to the other.

Ok, at this point, Martha tells you to layer the two batters.  With all due respect, Martha is a liar.  The chocolate mixture is waaaaay thicker than the pumpkin, and doesn’t “layer” the way Martha tells you it should.

Start with about half of the chocolate batter, and plop it in little scoops on the bottom of your pan.  Then pour half of the pumpkin over it, smoothing it out a little.  Then plop the rest of the chocolate batter on top of that and the pumpkin on top of that (I sprinkled some chocolate chips in between the first pumpkin layer and the second chocolate layer for extra yumminess).

Then, run your knife through the mixture, swirling the batters together (but not too much, you still want to be able to see the two different batters).

Bake until set, 40 – 45 minutes. Let cool in pan.  Martha also tells you to sprinkle the brownies with nuts – I’m telling you that I hate nuts in my baked goods, as do a lot of people, so I sprinkled more chocolate chips on top when they came out of the oven.

Let cool, then cut into little squares and enjoy!

 

Pumpkin Cupcakes

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I have a friend from Texas who doesn’t like pumpkin pie.  WHAAAAT?  How can you not like pumpkin pie?  When I asked her how she could be American, she answered, “sweetie, I’m not American, I’m Texan.”  Fair point.  Anyway, I guess if you’re from anywhere besides Texas you’ll love these.  And even if you are from Texas, maybe you’ll be able to find a place in your heart for these little cakes –  adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe.

It took all I had while I was making these not to just eat the batter right out of the bowl.  It tasted just like pumpkin pie.  And when you top them off with cream cheese frosting?  It’s almost enough deliciouness to kill you.  Om nom nom.

PUMPKIN CUPCAKES (makes about 24)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) non-dairy margarine, melted and cooled
• 4 large eggs-worth of Ener-G egg replacer
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 350̊F.  Basically, just mix together all wet ingredients (except the pumpkin).  Then add the dry ingredients, then the pumpkin, mixing just until it’s all incorporated.  Bake for maybe 20 minutes or so, until they pass the toothpick test.  Top off with some cream cheese frosting and you’re good to go.