Vegan Cherry Cupcakes

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I made some excellent cherry cupcakes. Tada!

I took them to work and everyone said they were great.  So on to the recipe then…

Vegan Cherry Cupcakes:

1 cup vegan sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup rice milk

1 tsp. vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cherry extract

1 tsp. almond extract

1 1/4 cups flour

2 tbsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

about 8 maraschino cherries rinsed and dried well. broken in to big chunks.

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put paper liners in your muffin pan.

In a glass measuring cup, add rice milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. Note that rice milk does not curdle the same way soy milk does, or as well. So use soy if you would prefer. I like the taste of rice better and the texture it produces. Leave the mixture about 7 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl mix together sugar, oil, extracts and milk mixture until smooth.

Sift in all dry ingredients and mix until all the big lumps are gone. Do not over mix.

add large chunks of cherries and fold in to mixture. I found if I made the pieces of cherry too small it messed up the texture of my cupcakes. One cherry should equal about 3 chunks.

spoon batter in to liners about 3/4 full. Bake for 20-22 minutes.

I used the vegan butter cream recipe I posted a few entries back. I just added some almond extract and instead of water I used the juice from the cherry jar. Hope everyone likes these!

Vegan Cupcakes!

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you had a fabulous New Year’s Eve. Mine was very pleasant:-) I made some cupcakes for a party and they were AWESOME. I seriously considered not sharing my recipe because it’s so tasty. I decided that would be pretty crappy of me though. They are double chocolate cupcakes with vegan buttercream. This recipe also works really well for cakes because it will reallllllllly rise. So be sure not to fill your cupcake liners more than half way full. My first batch were extra puffy and I think smaller mounds just look neater. I just piped the flowers on and then ate like 3 in a row. soooo good.

Double Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes:

1/4 shortening

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup vegan chocolate syrup(Hershey’s Syrup is vegan)

4 tsps. unsweetened applesauce

2tsps. of vanilla or other extract of your choice

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/4 cups rice milk

3 cups self rising flour

pinch of salt

3/4 cocoa powder

12oz. vegan chocolate chips

Method:

1. Cream together shortening, sugar, and both kinds of syrup.

2. In separate bowl dissolve baking soda in soy milk.

3. Add applesauce and extract and beat until well blended.

4. Sift flour, salt, and cocoa together in separate bowl. Alternately add the shortening and milk mixtures to dry ingredients until well blended.

5. Fold in Chocolate chips and bake at 325 degrees from 25-30 minutes.

Vegan Buttercream:

1 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup vegan margarine

3 tsps. water(+more as needed)

1 1/2 tsp. extract of your choice. I like Vanilla and almond mixed.

2lbs. confectioners sugar

Method:

1. Cream shortening and margarine together until light and fluffy.

2. Add water and shortening and mix to combine.

3. Sift sugar and add slowly to shortening. Fully incorporating it before adding more. If you are using a hand mixer be aware that you need to do this slowly or you will burn out your mixer. I know from experience. Add water a tsp. at a time while mixing, but be careful. It can get too thin for piping really quickly.  Once well mixed and to the consistency of your choice you can add color.

These little cupcakes are rich, moist and oh so tasty. I know it is a long recipe, but so worth it. Happy Baking!