Rosh Hashanah Redemption Cupcakes

Last year, when Rosh Hashanah came around, I wanted to do something special involving cupcakes, apples, and vegan honey (aka agave syrup).  No brainer, right?  Who doesn't like themes?  Or excuses to make cupcakes?  But, the execution left a little to be desired.  I tried to bake cupcakes while also cooking a Jewish New Year feast and didn't really have time to do exactly what I wanted.  Also, my basic idea didn't have the adventurous spirit that's so important for cupcake baking.  What was I thinking??  Needless to say, I definitely had something to prove when Rosh Hashanah came around this year.  No doubt I got it right this time - delicious apple, mouth-watering spices, topped off with cinnamon frosting.  Redemption achieved.

Apple Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting

 

For the cupcakes:

3/4 cup soymilk (I use vanilla)
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp blackstrap molasses
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch cardamom
1 apple, grated (about 1 cup)

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.  
In a small bowl, whisk together the soy milk and vinegar until frothy and set aside.  In the meantime, gather your ingredients.  In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar, molasses and vanilla.  Add the soymilk and mix well.  Sift in all the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.  Add in the apple and mix until everything is well combined.  Fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full, or almost to the top and bake 18-20 minutes until slightly golden on the edges.  Cool for 5 minutes in their tins and then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.  

For the frosting:

3/4 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
2 - 3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 - 3 Tbsp soy milk (again, vanilla)
2 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the shortening so its not a clump like what came out of your measuring cup.  Sift in the sugar, tasting for sweetness.  Add soy milk if the frosting gets too thick.  Add in the vanilla and sift in the cinnamon, mix until all well combined and the frosting is nice and fluffy and delicious.  Top the cupcakes.  Get excited!

To garnish:

1 apple, sliced
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp brown sugar

Mix the apple with the lemon juice and let sit for a few minutes.  Pour off any extra lemon juice, add in the brown sugar and mix to coat.  Let sit another few minutes, then top each cupcake with a yummy apple slice.  

Smile - these cupcakes are amazeballs and now you have 12 of your very own!  

Happy Vegan MoFo and Happy New Year!

It's here!

Woohoo!  So exciting - there are so many awesomely talented and creative vegans out there, you should see what everyone's posting!  Yes, I am drooling just thinking about it.  Check out the full list of posters at veganmofo.com.  

This year, in a moment of unbridled confidence I decided to throw my humble little cupcake blog into the mix.  I am certainly not as established or talented as many of the other bloggers, but I love cupcakes and baking and I just can't help myself!  So, here we go!  I have been baking my 7-months pregnant and now not so little butt off, so get ready for a month of jam-packed (pun intended), lip-smacking goodness!

Guess what other time of year it is!  Its Rosh Hashanah time!  Yes, the Jewish New Year is here again.  This year, I have decided to improve on the apple cupcakes that I made last year (stay tuned) AND I am trying something new - with pomegranate!  In case you are not aware, there are a number of different foods that are traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah for different symbolic reasons.  Pomegranates are a popular Rosh Hashanah food, they are eaten so that our good deeds in the coming year will be as plentiful as the seeds in the pomegranate.  Yeah, I don't know if you've noticed, but pomegranates have a lot of seeds.  So, onto the cupcakes!

Pay It Forward Cupcakes

Pomegranate-Orange Cupcakes with Pomegranate Frosting

I feel like a freaking girl scout for coming up with this goody-two-shoes cupcake name, but it is the New Year so I should be on my best behavior.  Plus, veganism is all about compassion, so have some for me, this pregnancy has turned my brain into (vegan) jello!  Plus, one bite of these cupcakes and you won't give a crap what they're called as long as you can call for more!  

For the cupcakes:

3/4 cup soymilk (I use vanilla)
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
2 tsp vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp orange zest

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners. 
In a large bowl, whisk together the soy milk and vinegar until frothy.  Set aside while you gather the rest of your ingredients.  Add in the oil, sugar, pomegranate juice and vanilla and mix until well combined.  Sift in the dry ingredients.  Mix until just combined.  Add the orange zest.  Mix well until there are no lumps.  Fill liners 3/4 of the way full, or kinda almost to the top - just use all of your batter, its fine.  Bake for 18-20 minutes until the edges are a little golden/brown. Let cool for 5 minutes then move to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract


In a small saucepan, combine the pom juice and sugar and heat over medium heat until boiling.  Continue to simmer about 15 min until the sugar is dissolved the the juice is reduced.  Let cool (just throw it in the fridge until its at least room temp).  In the bowl of a stand-mixer, cream the shortening so it gets nice and smooth.  Sift in the sugar about 1 cup at a time, mixing in between to combine until the frosting is nice and thick.  Keep a spatula handy to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add in the vanilla.  Add the pomegranate juice a little at a time until the desired consistency is reached.  Mix until well combined.  Taste, adjust sugar if necessary.  To be honest, I didn't really measure the sugar, I never do.  I just sift it in until it looks and tastes right.  So you can keep alternating a little juice and then sugar until the frosting tastes and looks how you want.  I like mine pink and with plenty of that pom tang.  Now, fill your piping bag and frost those bad boys up!


If you have some fresh pomegranate seeds, they would make a lovely garnish for the tops of these cupcakes.  Plus, they would be helpful if you're sharing so people won't see the pink frosting and think its raspberry.


Last: Eat the cupcakes and think about all the good deeds you are going to do this year.  I've already done mine by sharing this recipe with you. BAM!

 


   

It's a Miracle! Eight Day Olive Oil Cupcakes

So, I went into the kitchen to make these cupcakes and only had 1 Tbsp of olive oil.  But, miraculously there was enough oil for the entire batch!  Ok, that's not what really happened... I shop at Costco so I have plenty of oil.  But, that is what happened many years ago when the Maccabees won the war against the Greeks and lit the Menorah in the Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple).  They only had enough oil for 1 day, and it would take 8 days to make more oil!  Divine intervention kept the oil burning for 8 whole days, and Chanukah was born!  To commemorate this miracle, one of the traditions is to eat food fried in olive oil on Chanukah, like potato latkes and jelly donuts.  To this wonderful tradition I humbly submit my contribution: Olive Oil Cupcakes.  

Cupcake Menorah!

These cupcakes are delicious!!  The texture is amazing and the flavors go together so well.  They have a great sweetness and you can really taste the olive oil, orange, and rosemary - separately and together!  Seriously, this is one of my favorite recipes so far... which means a lot more when I tell you I have made many more cupcakes than I have posted so far.  I have to save something for lazy times!

When I had this idea, I looked around online to see who else is making olive oil cake (I couldn't have been the first one to think of this).  I found out its a traditional cake made in Italy.  Michael Chiarello makes his with orange, rosemary and anise - works for me!  That's also the most searched for Michael Chiarello recipe on Google... millions of search engine users can't be wrong.  But I didn't have anise in my house - so these cupcakes are with rosemary and orange.  Feel free to add in the anise if you want - let me know how it is!

Eight Day Olive Oil Cupcakes

1/2 cup soy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp orange liquor (I used triple sec)
2 tsp orange zest
1 and 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground anise (optional)
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Fill a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, mix together the soy milk and apple cider vinegar.  Set aside for a minute or two.  I always do this part first, then let that sit while I collect the rest of the ingredients.  Add in the sugar, olive oil, orange juice and liquor and mix really well.  Mix in the orange zest and mix again.  I whisk it for about a minute.  Sift in the dry ingredients and mix to just combine.  Add in the rosemary and mix well until no lumps remain.  Taste the batter - isn't it delicious??  Hold yourself back from eating the uncooked batter with a large spoon.  Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full.  Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned.  Cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Fluffy slightly orange frosting

3/4 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
2-4 cups powdered sugar (depending on your taste)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp orange zest
1 Tbsp orange liqueur (yes, triple sec again for me!)

Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream the shortening until smooth and fluffy.  Sift in the sugar 1 cup at a time until you reach the desired sweetness.  I like to make frosting just sweet enough to cover that chalky flavor of the shortening.  Once you can't taste the shortening anymore, you're good.  Add in the vanilla, orange zest and liqueur.  Mix until well combined, add more sugar if you think it needs it.

Frost the cupcakes.  Devour the cupcakes.  Smile because you can't help it.

These cupcakes will come out really good if you sing Chanukah songs while you are baking them.

Happy Chanukah!

Palate-Pleasing Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes  

With 2 different baked-in fillings

 

The pumpkin season is upon us!  Yes its true!  That wonderful time of year filled with crisp fall air, cozy sweaters, changing leaves and of course, pumpkin everything.  I have been making pumpkin puree like crazy - and baking up all sorts of delicious sweets!    Including pumpkin cupcakes of course! 

Hello Fall!

This pumpkin baked so nicely - the skin just popped right off in the oven!  I just lifted it right off with a fork... easy as pie! oops, er, cupcakes :)

To me, these cupcakes are everything that is good and pure about Thanksgiving.  And trust me, after eating them you will have plenty to be thankful for!  Specifically, each bite... and that bit of frosting left on your finger after you're done devouring this little bit of November-themed heaven.

The special part of these cupcakes is the baked-in filling.  Its such a nice surprise when you get to the middle.  I made a batch of half with baked-in cranberry sauce and half baked-in pumpkin pie filling.  Feel free to make whatever you like!  But I really recommend trying both, I think you might be surprised by what you like best.

Apology-note:  These cupcakes are perfect for Thanksgiving... unfortunately, I have posted this too late for you to eat them on Thanksgiving this year!  I was too busy baking and eating to worry about blogging!  But that's ok - pumpkin is good all the time.  So don't worry about the details and just try these delicious cupcakes!  Plus, its a great way to use up any leftover cranberry sauce you might have... or maybe an excuse to make more! (Cue evil laugh)

 

Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

1 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup soy milk

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

Pumpkin pie filling:

I used Isa's pumpkin pie filling recipe and just tweaked it a little bit... worked out great.  As usual.  Thank you Isa!

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 Tbsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp soy milk

3/4 tsp canola oil

2 tsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp guar gum

heaping 1/4 tsp cinnamon 

heaping 1/4 tsp ginger

pinch nutmeg

pinch salt

smaller pinch cloves

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. 

Delicious cranberry sauce:

I found this recipe... who can say no to Emeril?  And just tweaked it a little based on what I had in the kitchen.  I'm not going to lie, I almost took a spoon and ate it right out of the pot... 

2 cups fresh cranberries

Juice and zest of 1 orange (I used my handy zester)

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp bacardi or other liquor/liqueur you have around

1 Tbsp corn starch

Agave syrup, if needed

In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries, orange juice and zest, water, sugar, cinnamon and booze.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat, simmer until cranberries are tender, most of them will pop open.  In a small cup dissolve the corn starch in 1 Tbsp water, then add to the cranberries.  Continue to mix until thickened.  Taste for sweetness - I added about 1 Tbsp agave at the end and mixed it in... perfect :)

To make the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.  Prepare whichever filling you want (or both!) and set aside.  Mix together the cupcake ingredients and fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full.  Spoon 1/2 Tbsp filling on to the batter in each liner.  Use a measuring spoon to do this, then use the back of the measuring spoon to work the filing into the batter.  Take care not to mix the filling with the batter, just gently work it down so its not sitting right on top.  Bake cupcakes for 18-20 minutes (I found 19 minutes was perfect).  Let cool fully before frosting.

Hot and fresh out the oven!

Pumpkin-pie cupcake!

This is a picture of Thanksgiving

Frosted!

I also made Triple Pumpkin Cupcakes - pumpkin cupcakes with the pumpkin pie filling and pumpkin cream cheese frosting.  Holy Pumpkin Batman!  The frosting was a little softer than I wanted, but they tasted amazing!!

Pumpkin yumminess!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup pumpkin puree

In a stand mixer or with a hand mixture, cream together the cream cheese and margarine.  Add in the pumpkin, mix well to combine.  

Now go buy a pumpkin!  It's worth it!

Oktoberfest Cupcakes... and welcome to Blogger!

So... what are we doing here??  Lately, I have been feeling way too long winded for Tumblr... its a great site, and I really love the photo-blogging trend it has inspired... But to me, food is love and when I love something I need to talk about it!  So I have decided to extend my reach into the interwebs once again and join Blogger - Welcome!  Please continue to visit my Tumlbr page at adventuresincupcakery.tumblr.com for additional photos and my first few cupcake adventures (which I copied here).  Anyway, enough accounting.  On to the good stuff: cupcakes!   

It’s fall, and you know what that means… Oktoberfest of course! (What, you thought I was going to say pumpkin? pshaw) In case you grew up directly beneath a large boulder, Oktoberfest is a 16 day celebration of beer held in Munich, Germany that has been lovingly adopted by malt and hops enthusiasts across the globe… Myself included.  In honor of this haze-inducing holiday, I have baked!

Oktoberfest Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

For these cupcakes, I recommend using an Oktoberfest beer that has a good beer flavor - nothing too malty, the beer taste won't come through once they're baked.  I used Heavy Seas Marzen - delicious to drink and great for baking!  I poured out the beer and let it sit for a little while before I baked it to release some of the fizziness... but not too much!  

1 cup Oktoberfest beer
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp each allspice, nutmeg, cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill 12-cup cupcake tin with liners.
Mix together the first 5 ingredients until sugar dissolved and frothy.  Sift in the remaining ingredients and mix until combined and there are no lumps.  Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way (it works out to a tiny bit more.. just use all your batter and make them even).  Bake 18-20 minutes.  Drink the rest of your beer.  Let cool before frosting.

Yum!!

These came out delicious!!  You smell the beer as soon as you peel off the liner, and they have a great sweetness and spice.  Also, you get the beer flavor, but not too much - yumerlicious!

I confess, the frosting on the cupcakes in the picture was my attempt at a brown sugar frosting which I thought would have been a great pairing with the cupcake.  Unfortunately, I tried veganizing this recipe and it didn't quite work out as planned.. I think either my margarine was too soft or I messed up the roux or there was just too much liquid - the frosting refused to hold together - but it tasted delicious! I will try it again and make it perfect :)  I recommend a simple vanilla buttercream anyway - I made them this weekend and it was great!  The frosting tasted good but didn't compete with the beer flavor or the cupcake... so we will have to find something else to top with the brown sugar frosting - I guess I will have to make more cupcakes!  Will the atrocities I endure never end??

Thank you to my beer geek husband and my friends at Growler and Gill for inspiring beer-baked-goods!  Also, they will be selling these cupcakes at their Grand Opening celebration next weekend!  With the delicious vanilla frosting of course...  I'm so excited!!  I will definitely bake those batches with some extra love... Get 'em while they're hot!  (Obviously they'll be cooled by the time you buy them... its just an expression...) 

Pink fluffy goodness makes me smile

Whew!  What a week… I was so excited for my first cupcake adventure, I couldn’t wait until Thursday!  Like 90% of America I am usually counting the minutes until 5 PM on Friday, but this week Thursday night held the coveted spot at the end of my countdown.  I have cupcake fever.  After getting home from work, eating dinner, then running back out because I realized I needed more powdered sugar (which as it turned out I did not need - of course, isn’t that always how it goes?), I was ready to bake!


I had a plan: for Neapolitan Cupcakes I wanted a layered cupcake, so it would look just the like the ice cream - a chocolate than vanilla layered cupcake with strawberry “butter”cream frosting.

First, I cut up some strawberries and put them in a saucepan over medium heat with a little water and a good squeeze of agave syrup.  I didn’t really measure anything here… I figured on about 1/4 cup strawberry puree for the frosting, so I just eyeballed what looked like enough.  I knew I wouldn’t need a lot of agave b/c buttercream has enough sugar already… so i just put in a little to make everything happy.

Next I made 2 batters - one vanilla and one chocolate.  In future adventures I am going to attempt all my own recipes, but I figured, its the first one!  I need to pace myself, right?  No need to start off sprinting… so I used my favorite cupcake recipes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (do you have this book?  If not, you need to get it, it is redonculous).  Luckily, they both have mostly the same ingredients (except one has cocoa powder and one doesn’t - duh!) so I just made the batters simultaneously side-by-side.  I filled the cupcake liners, first with the chocolate batter and then with the vanilla.  This was the hard part b/c they all have to be even - but I just eyeballed it and it worked pretty well - it was messy though!  I am definitely going to invest in a batter dispenser soon…


And now for my favorite part!  Into the oven goes some batter, out comes beautifully formed and perfectly moist cupcake nirvana!  Well, hopefully… 350 degrees for 22 minutes - I think I turned on my oven light at least 10 times to see how my creations were doing.  And finally they were done!

There was some mixing of the batters which is not what I planned, but they baked up nicely.   And, they had a great layered look looking from the side.



While the cupcakes were cooling - onto the frosting!  Sometime during my batter mixing the strawberries cooked up and softened, so I turned off the heat and left them there to cool.  Once the cupcakes were in the oven, the strawberries were room temperature and easy to work with.  I pureed them in my Ninja and then strained out the seeds.  It was an awesome red color and tasted fantastic!  I used my own recipe for the frosting.  The instructions are for a standing mixer, but you could easily use a handheld:
Scrumptious Strawberry Frosting
1 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
2 1/2 - 3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4-1/3 cup strawberry puree
Put the shortening in the bowl of a standing mixture and mix until smooth.  Sift in the sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing until smooth in between. Make sure to scrape the bowl a couple times also, especially the bottom. After the first 2 cups, taste for sweetness and continue to add sugar as needed.  Once mixed, add the vanilla and 1/4 cup strawberry puree - mix until fully incorporated.  If you think the frosting needs a little more moisture, or a pinker color, or more strawberry flavor, or all three, add the rest of the puree and mix 2 minutes on high until smooth and fluffy. 


Of course, when I went to make the frosting, I realized that what I needed was shortening (not powdered sugar like I thought), and I only had about 3/4 cup. I just adjusted down the rest of the ingredients and it tasted delcious.  After piping on the frosting I ran out before I finished all the cupcakes, so I just spread it on the last of them - crisis averted!




The inside was not what I expected at all! But that’s cool… and they tasted delicious!!  The cake was perfect and fluffy, and I could taste vanilla, chocolate and strawberry in every bite!  Some wonderful vegan goodness - it was a tantalizing treat for my tastebuds for sure.  1st cupcake adventure = success!

Yummers!  If heaven has a cupcake bakery, these are made there for sure.

(original post at adventuresincupcakery.tumblr.com)