Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, Marlowe and Company, 2006
Wheeee! Cupcakes! When the cupcake craze exploded, vegans were right there with them showing those omnis that cruelty free cupcakes are the way more delicious option. And there was this book, the definitive vegan cupcake book. How many of us have made cupcakes from here to share with friends, families and coworkers, and watched their faces light up with delight at the delicious noms. This is a little, square paperback book, with some lovely colour photos throughout. Not one of every cupcake, it is true, but remember that Flickr thing I mentioned? Go there. Chapters include How To Make Kick-Ass Cupcakes (ingredients, tools, troubleshooting and decorating), Basic Cupcakes, Classic Cupcakes, Fancy Cupcakes and Frostin's and Fillin's.
Who wants a cupcake?
Peanut Butter Chocolate Heaven Cakes
Heave in a cupcake. The centre of this little cupcake is stuffed full of peanut butter icing and it is topped with chocolate ganache. Everyone knows that PB and chocolate is one of the greatest combinations! This cupcake inspired the peanut butter chocolate engagement cake that I made for my friends.
Chocolate Orange Cupcakes
Chocolate and orange are also one of the great flavour combinations. This chocolate cupcake has orange extract added to the batter, then is topped off with an orange buttercream. Yummy!
Peanut Butter Cupcakes
More peanut butter and chocolate, but this time with peanut butter as the base. Beautiful PB flavoured cupcakes are topped with chocolate ganache and chopped peanuts.
Chocolate Mint Cupcakes
I made these one year for a work function, and people still talk about them to this day. Chocolate and mint flavoured batter with mint icing, chocolate ganache and a vegan M&M on top.
The Elvis
Peanut butter also goes very well with banana. In this variation of the Banana Split Cupcake, a plain banana cupcake is stuffed and topped with vegan buttercream, and decorated with chopped peanuts, banana chips and a chocolate chip, just for fun.
Apricot-Glazed Almond Cupcakes
These are very cute, and very tasty. Apricot preserves are baked into the centre of each cupcake, and then they are decorated with almonds. Jojo over at Vegan In Brighton made some of these just the other day, and hers are way cuter than mine!
Lemon Macadamia Cupcakes
These are very beautiful, delicately flavoured cupcakes. Chopped macadamias are mixed into a lemon batter, and then the finished cupcakes are topped with some lemon buttercream. The lemon buttercream makes a nice, small amount, so these cupcakes have the sort of icing to cake ratio that I like! You can mix some white chocolate chips into the batter, if you are into that sort of thing.
Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
My first recipe from this book, and it was a good one! Coconut milk, cocoa, corn flour, almond meal, cinnamon and cayenne combine to make a delicious cupcake with a unique crumb. The topping is sifted icing sugar, cocoa and cinnamon.
Coconut Lime Cupcakes
I am quite horrified by how bad this photo is. What was I thinking trying to photograph them like this? *sigh* Oh well, these are some tasty cupcakes, despite the horrific photo. The cupcakes themselves are sublime! But this recipe makes a lot of icing, it ended up being almost more icing than cake! I would cut way back on the icing next time.
Chai Latte Cupcakes
Isn't this the sweetest? A lovely chai-inspired cupcake is topped with a frothy delight. First dust to top of your cupcake with plain icing sugar, then cut out a template and dust with the topping mix in the book. Do this right before you serve, though, otherwise it will go soggy. The topping mix makes more than you need for the cupcakes, but can be used in many places - including on top of hot chocolate. Yum!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Pumpkin-based baking does not come easy to me, as I don't have access to tinned pumpkin puree so have to make my own. It is worth the effort though. I love pumpkin and chocolate chip baked goods! These have a cinnamon glaze on top. I had lots of fun piping different patterns on top of the cupcakes, but it was a but runny so next time I wouldn't add as much liquid to the glaze.
What is your favourite flavour of cupcake?
Cute Kitty Photo of the Post
I promised you happy kitty tales. This is Abby. She's a chocolate Burmese lady who lives at the clinic. Abby was a long term boarder with us, and then her parents moved overseas, so they bequeathed Abby into our care. Now Abby is the lady of the clinic, she lives free range in the clinic and has a pretty strenuous life of sleeping on her sofa, sleeping on the deck, sleeping on her poof or demanding pats of clients. Abby was a diabetic, but she has gone into remission - yay! She also was the first kitty who took part in my diabetic remission study. She is a good girl. She has really cute, fat toes. I will have to take a photo to share with you!
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