Cupcakes: The Ultimate Edition

Over the last six months I have taken up ultimate frisbee and I am loving it! Great exercise, exciting game and awesome people. Today was the end of the fall season and my team - Vodka Rain (don't ask) finished 3rd ... or 4th... Does it matter? I loved my team! I was happy to meet all these guys and be on the team - everyone was so much fun and at the same time we were actually really good! Here is our team picture. Again, don't ask.


My contribution to the team? Scoring half a dozen points and cupcakes. I am still to figure out where exactly I need to be and my forehands still wobble and flip, but I damn well know how to bake a proper batch of chocolate cupcakes! Even better - chocolate-mint cupcakes, which I took to the game tonight. These are so delicious and so infallably good I must have made them a dozen times! The recipe for the cupcakes, again from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the Cake (I love this book!) can be found here: Basic Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes. The frosting is simple buttercream which I have discussed in great detail here. To the buttercream I added a 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract and ~1/2 C crushed candy canes. The decorating style (described in the book in connection with the Tiramisu Cupcakes, yum too!) is simple, yet very pretty and I use it as often as possible: with a small knife cut out a cone from the top of the cupcake; put a dollop of frosting and press the cap back on; finally put a smudge of frosting on top of the cap. I sprinkled them with more crushed candy-canes (used a total of 4 candy canes) and red sugar. Very pretty! And Christmassy too! Enjoy!

Finally! Cupcakes!

A few weeks ago while biking with James, he told me about this great way to make butternut squash puree without the whole peeling and cutting torture - cut the squash in two lengthwise, remove the seeds, place cut-side down in a baking pan and pour in half an inch of water and stick in the oven for 1-2 hours at ~300 F, cool, scoop out the flesh, done. No, I am not kidding, we do actually talk about butternut squash and chocolate and white truffle oil and beans and mushrooms while we bike. Which explains why I end up eating three breakfasts on bike-ride days. Eager to try the idea, I applied it to a fairly big specimen of of the butternut family and now I have two boxes of pumpkin in the fridge. What to do with it? Pumpkin-chocolate chip cupcakes of course! These delicious winter treasures have been made a few times already and they go perfectly well with both a mug of hot chocolate or a mug of tea. The recipe below is tweaked to my liking from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing

1 C pumpkin
1/4 C soy milk (+some)
1/3 C canola oil
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 C chocolate chips
Icing
1-2 Tbs melted butter (or margarine to keep the vegan)
1 Tbs soy milk
1/2 C powder sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Notes: I prefer using vanilla soy milk - it adds to the vanilla flavor. I also used the home-made pumpkin mush, but canned pumpkin works just as well. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips. I wouldn't recommend that you use very dark chocolate because the cake itself is not very sweet and the chocolate makes up for that. I think I will try making these with brown sugar next time.

Heat oven to 350 F. Mix pumpkin, oil, soy milk, sugar and vanilla in a bowl. Stir well. In another bowl combine the dry ingredients - baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and flour and stir. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mix carefully stirring with a spoon or fork (not a mixer). The amount of liquid in the batter depends on how watery the pumpkin is so if the batter gets too thick splash some more soy milk in. You want the batter to be thick but not hard to stir. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Line a cupcake pan and divide the batter evenly. Bake ... I dunno... ~30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean (which is a little tricky because of the chocolate) or the tops spring back when pressed. Better underbake a little to keep them moist.

To make the icing, stir all the ingredients in a bowl. The icing should be thick and dull looking. If it is glossy, add some more powder sugar. Keep at room temperature. Drizzle generously over the cupcakes after they have cooled (use left-overs on ice cream). Or if you'd rather skip the icing, sift some powder sugar and cinnamon on them... or, whatever, just eat them like they are.

Coconut Addiction

Hello. My name is Iva and I am a coconut addict. No kidding. If you were to follow the trail of shredded coconut through our house, you will inevitably find me at the end of it, spoon in one hand, box of shredded coconut in the other. Yes, I said spoon. It is very serious indeed. Let's start again. Hello. My name is Iva and I am a cupcake addict. If you have ever met me you will know this is not far from the truth either. So to combine addictions, this installment is about coconut cupcakes - the Citrusy, the Fruity and the Chocolatey (a.k.a. the Zesty, the Sweet and the Very Tasty).

The recipes are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, the pictures are my own, taken inside our most famous fridge and the appetite was supplied by 2-3 dozen carefully selected applicants who licked their fingers after eating the cupcakes without my asking them to do so.

Coconut Lime Cupcakes 1 C all purpose flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 1/3 C coconut oil 1 C coconut milk 1/4 C soy milk 3/4 C granulated sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp coconut extract 1 tsp lime zest 1 C unsweetened coconut

Lychee Cupcakes 2 C all-purpose flour 5 Tbs ground flaxseeds 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/3 C oil 1/4 C coconut milk 1 1/3 C granulated sugar (or less) 2 tsp vanilla extract 4 oz. lychee, well drained and chopped 1/4 cup lychee syrup

Toasted Coconut Cupcakes 1 C all-purpose flour 1/3 C cocoa 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 C coconut oil 1 C coconut milk 3/4 C granulated sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 tsp coconut extract 1/2 C unsweetened shreded coconut

The basic idea is that you mix all the dry ingredients (sans zest, fruit and coconut) in a small bowl, beat all the wet ingredients in a mixing bow and then add the dry ones in 2-3 batches until there are no lumps. Finally mix in zest/fruit/coconut. Coconut oil is definitely worth the splurge as a jar will last quite a few batches of cupcake but don't go overboard because it is rich in saturated fats. I use the Spectrum unrefined organic coconut oil. Note: melt it in the microwave before incorporating but make sure it is not scorching hot. I also use vanilla soy milk whenever necessary. Divide batter equally between 12 liners and bake at 350F until a toothpick comes out clean.

The coconut lime cupcakes made an appearance at a farewell party for a friend of mine (along side the chocolate-strawberry ones). The cupcakes are not too tangy but the Lime Butter-cream Frosting (recipe below) bears quite a punch. The best part is that they look all so impressive with minimum effort - frost, dip in shredded coconut, decorate with a thin slice of lime, and everyone will ask you where you ordered them from. I use coarsely shredded coconut to decorate these.

Lychee and flaxseeds don't make frequent appearances in my pantry so it took a while to get to this recipe as simple as it is. There is only one difference in making these - beat the ground flaxseeds with 6 Tbs of water before combining with the other ingredients. The batter is really thick but they do rise a lot and the end product is moist and light. They turned out less sweet that usual as I cut down the sugar (1 1/3 C sugar seemed ludicrous) but the coconut glaze - 2 C powder sugar + 1/4 C cocnut milk - took care of that. I keep thinking that these may work with other fruit too. Peach-coconut? Cherry-coconut? Any thoughts?

Finally, the Toasted Coconut Cupcakes made an appearance at a recent Labor Day BBQ. And oh, my goodness! How come I had not made these before!?! They were so good! Frosted with Coffee Butter-cream frosting and decorated with toasted coconut (and maybe chocolate covered coffee beans) these are to die for! The batter is a little thick and adding a splash of soy milk to un-thicken it won't hurt but may be unnecessary. These are going to be made again...very, very soon!

A word on Butter-cream. My butter cream frostings were beyond terrible until one day I read the recipe and followed it. It says: beat butter/shortening/margarine until fluffy, add powder sugar, BEAT 3 MINUTES, add everything else, BEAT ANOTHER 5-7 MINUTES. This makes it heavenly, like whipped cream, absolutely worth the partial deafness of holding the mixer for 10 minutes straight. Simple butter cream is just this:
1/2 cup butter (or 50/50 shortening/margarine)
+ 1 3/4 cups powder sugar
+ 1/2 to 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
(+ a splash of liquid, i.e. milk/juice)
For the Coffee Butter-cream frosting add 1 1/2 tsp coffee extract or 1 tsp of instant coffee and 2 Tbs coconut milk to the basic recipe. For the Lime Butter-cream frosting, add 1/4 C lime juice and 1 tsp lime zest. Other variations include Maple Butter-cream (maple syrup and flavor), Lemon Butter-cream, Rum Butter-cream, etc. Let your imagination run wild!

And while the topic is coconut I have to relate my favorite coconut story which revolves around a whole coconut my Mom bought when I was 8 or 10. Unfortunately, the coconut did not come with opening instructions and that was in the days before the internet and YouTube so we couldn't conveniently watch a How to Open a Coconut instructional video. My Dad spend the better part of a Saturday in the endeavour of opening the coconut and used a significant fraction of his tool box in the process. I think in the end the power drill and the saw did the job. After we scraped the meat from the inside my Mom glued the coconut back together and we had it as a trophy for many, many years (for all I know it is probably still at home). The End.