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Sunday, April 29, 2012

Kickass Cupcake King!

With 'Sticky Fingers', health junkies, and immigrant take-out places, D.C. is a pretty swell place to be vegan....that is if you're one of those people who's willing to pay $8 for a cupcake that could be made with that Crisco frosting that leaves a greasy aftertaste in your animal-loving mouth.
So your next bet is to turn to come good ol' fashioned cake mix. You use your trusty fake-egg substitute and soymilk instead of the real milk. (Maybe you get fancy and throw in a few dashes of vanilla extract-but I don't know you so maybe you don't. I do) And you pour your heart and soul into les petites gateaux and...they flop. They freaking overflow the pan and then make forlorn little pancake hats and end up tasting like shit.
It's not your fault. Blame the heartless institutions that assume we're all non-vegans and call for eggs and milk in their cakes. Maybe you feel the need to tag their buildings with rude anti-corporation slogans and sad faces. Now I'm not telling you to vandalize but I'm on the other side of the screen and really can't stop you if that's what you feel like doing.
So once you get home and wash the spray-paint off your hands, why don't you give it another try with these beauties?
Photoshoot with the strawberry sisters=success!

You will need the following:
1 1/2 cups coconut milk diluted to the consistency of soymilk (slightly thicker than water) OR vanilla soymilk
3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles

The Procedure
 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24-cup muffin tin with paper or foil cupcake liners. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the coconut milk and vinegar. Set aside.
In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix together (I use a whisk for dry mixtures). Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar, oil, and vanilla. Stir in the coconut milk mixture. Mix. Slowly add the dry ingredients and stir until it's all smooth and batter-y looking. Stir in the sprinkles. These are optional but comeon, THEY MAKE YOUR CUPCAKES INTO FREAKING FUNFETTI!!!!
Pour the batter into the prepared cups, filling them up about 2/3 of the way and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with cake all clumped to it or clean and the tops should be a TINY bit golden brown-about 20-25 minutes.
Let them cool before frosting cuz otherwise your beauteous frosting will melt and be stupid.
Now you can take your pick from any of the frostings bellow! Do a double recipe of the frostings though cuz they're all made for one dozen cupcakes and you just made 24.

Chocolate Frosting:
2 cups of vegan confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup dutch-press cocoa powder
1/2 cup of margarine
2-4 tablespoons chocolate soymilk

Whirl everything together in your electric-beater thingy until it resembles frosting. Add the soymilk gradually until the frosting reaches a soft-peak stage. Use to frost cool cupcakes. Add sprinkles if you wanna be classy ;)

Like this, man. Easy peasy
lemon squeezy.
and speaking of lemons...
Lemon/Lime Frosting
2 1/4 cups of vegan confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup of margarine
1 tablespoon lemon or lime zest
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice

Whirl everything together in your electric-beater thingy until it resembles frosting. Add the soymilk gradually until the frosting reaches a soft-peak stage. Use to frost cool cupcakes. Add sprinkles if you wanna be classy ;)

Vanilla Frosting for you boring mofos
2 cups vegan confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whirl everything together in your electric-beater thingy until it resembles frosting. Add the soymilk gradually until the frosting reaches a soft-peak stage. Use to frost cool cupcakes. Add sprinkles if you wanna be classy ;)

Minty Fresh Frosting for date night
2 cups vegan confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1 teaspoon mint extract

Whirl everything together in your electric-beater thingy until it resembles frosting. Add the soymilk gradually until the frosting reaches a soft-peak stage. Use to frost cool cupcakes. Add sprinkles if you wanna be classy ;)





Saturday, April 28, 2012

Magic Little Dust

Noooo it's not cocaine...it's a hellava lot better
are you ready?
I don't think you are...
so this might scar you a little bit
but I don't really care
not that much at least....
are you ready? It's....
NUTRITIONAL YEAST!
(that obviously wasn't meant to be a poem)
I kinda wanna take this, decant it into some cute orange bins, and go around selling it as "I Can't Believe It's Not Cheese!'* Like I took some bread, spread on some Smart Balance, sprinkled this shiz on it and IT TASTED LIKE CHEESY BREAD! So many doors are opening up for me right now...spaghetti, bread, vegan mac and cheese, 'cheesy' vegan cornbread.......*sigh* oops! Sorry, got lost in thought for a sec.

Anyhoo, this is amazing. Sorta strong and tangy...a little like parmesan for those of you who remember it. Plus it's NUTRITIONAL, I mean-how can you go wrong if it's freaking good for you? Sure, it may not have been the best choice to have 5 slices of bread with margarine and this on it in one sitting but I'm sure I'm all nutritional so it must be ok.

So go out to the store and yet some Nutritional Yeast right freaking NOW! You won't regret it. Go. Go. Now. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......
hmmm, I've been trying to do hypnosis for the last couple of days but it doesn't seem to be working. Oh well. Read my footnote and be on your way :)




**'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter' isn't vegan btw

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Sinful Cake Brownie

Well you know how sometimes my style of cooking is just sorta throwing a bunch of yummy things on the stove and seeing if together they make one new big yummy thing? (My logic is flawless.) Well I DIDN'T do that this time! I actually used knowledge of ratios and stuff! I deserve to be promoted into Smart Kids' Math.
So this time I made what I call 'Sinful Cake Brownie.' Except it's not sinful cuz nothing needs to die or be hurt to make it! Kidding! Not really. Heh. Vegans.
And it's kinda good for you!

You will need the following:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (I like dutch-press but any kind'll do)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups vegan sugar
1/2 cup vegan margarine
3/4 cup coffee (room temp. or cooler)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 squares chopped Baker's semisweet chocolate or 1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips
1/3 cup oats
1 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

The Procedure
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil (I sprayed it with PAM but they also have Smart Balance PAM stuff or you could smear it with some margarine in a pinch) a cake pan (go with a deepish one if you can. Otherwise do a normal 8-inch brownie pan)
In a large bowl mix your flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In an electric mixter cream the sugar and margarine. Slowly add the coffee (make sure it's cooled or it'll melt the butter!) and vanilla extract. Then fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate, oats, and chia.
Scrape the batter into your prepared cake pan and bake for 40 minutes. A good way of telling if it's done is prick the center with a fork and if the tines come out with clumped cake-y stuff on them it's good. If the tines come out with oozy batter on them then keep baking. If the tines come out clean, then, well, I'm sorry. Your cake is overcooked and will be dry. Not my fault.
If you want to serve the cake brownie to others then wait for 30 minutes before cutting into it or else it'll crumble.
If you're eating alone then just wait until it's cool enough to not burn your tongue and have at it because let's face it-you just made a damn good cake brownie. Keep telling yourself the oats make it good for you, that'll allow you to rationalize seconds ;)

I like to pour chocolate soymilk over my cake to cut the richness and if you're being fancy then maybe you can pour the soymilk around the sides while serving slices on petite little saucers. So you're fancy AND a good cook AND a vegan-basically the whole package, sister.