Vegan Lemon Cupcakes

We are cruising past May with jest speed, last weekend was my birthday and Mother's day. We had a fun weekend getaway to Connecticut and a beautiful Mother's day party at a dear friend's house. Hope you guys had a good Mother's day. But make sure to appreciate your mom not just on her special day, but every day of the week -- she deserves it :-)

I made these cute little mini lemon cupcakes for Mother's day last weekend. It is a variation of the basic vegan vanilla cupcake recipe, but instead of vanilla flavored with lemon zest and pure lemon extract.

Read more »

Eggless Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Bake-a-thon 2015: Day 7
Bake of the Day: Eggless Strawberry Creamcheese Cupcakes
Did you know that yesterday, December 15th, was National Cupcake day? I didn't either, but it was on my daughter's calendar and that's how I found out :-) So here's a recipe celebrating the cupcake day.

I actually made these for my mom's 60th birthday couple of months ago. We also celebrated my daughter's 3rd birthday on the same day, hence the 60 & 3 toppers on the cake. I decorated some with fresh strawberries and some with fondant toppers. Base is my favorite vegan vanilla cupcakes stuffed with a piece of cream cheese which is in turn topped with strawberry jam.

Read more »

Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes

Bake-a-thon 2014: Day 7

Bake of the Day: Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes

Did you know that today is 'National Cupcake Day'. I planned to post another dish today, but then I saw that today is National Cupcake day on my daughter's school calender and I didn't want to miss this opportunity to celebrate the delicious cupcakes.

I had buttermilk in the fridge and wanted to make something with it. A quick search on King Arthur Flour site landed me on this Peppermint Fudge Cupcakes recipe. We are not big mint fans, so I skipped it and so these are just regular chocolate cupcakes with some quick vanilla icing.

Read more »

Boston Cream Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes back in February and it took me this much time to post the recipe. Recipe is from 'the big book of Cupcakes' cookbook. The pictures were too tempting and the thought of having one of my favorite donut flavors in a cupcake was very exciting. 

The creamy 'Boston Cream' part of the cupcake is made vanilla instant pudding mix, which makes it quick and easy to make. I made my basic Vegan vanilla cupcakes recipe and then filled them with the custard and topped them with chocolate icing. These cupcakes were a big hit with both kids and adults.

Read more »

Confetti Candy (aka M&M) Cupcakes with Fudge Frosting (Eggless Recipe)

Baking cupcakes at home has spoiled us rotten, now none of the store bought ones match up and fall short of our quality and taste standards. Recently my sister ordered cupcakes from a local bakery for my niece's birthday to give in her school. My niece didn't even taste the cupcake :-) The cupcake was a little dry and the frosting was too greasy with no flavor.

So moral of the story is to either stop baking at home or stop buying from outside. Today I've homemade cupcakes that I made for my daughter's 15th month birthday. After experimenting with a lot of recipes, I found my go-to recipe for vanilla cupcakes. This basic vegan vanilla cupcakes form the basis for a lot of variations. I've already posted the hazelnut-spice variation and today's confetti candy cupcakes are also a yummy variation to those.

Read more »

Hazelnut Cupcakes with Hazelnut-Chocolate Frosting (Eggless Recipe)

I think the biggest advantage of buying cookbooks instead of fiction books is once I read a novel and know the story I'm done with it and it just sits there collecting dust. Whereas a good cookbook can be used again and again. This is purely my opinion, I'm sure you might be reading the same novel again and again, I'm not judging you :-)

So point of the matter is if you are in the market to buy a book for a food blogger, it is a great idea to buy a good cookbook. With so many books available, it is also a good idea to keep the interests of the said blogger in mind. For example, Amazon shipped us a 'Paleo Diet' cookbook by mistake and asked us to keep it if we wanted it. I would have jumped up in joy if it was vegetarian/ vegan/ baking related. Paleo diet is completely foreign to me, so we sent it back. Knowing the interests is key.

My sister definitely knew my interest in baking and she recently bought me 'Betty Crocker's - The Big book of Cupcakes' cookbook. I like to bake cupcakes more than regular size cakes. They are easy to decorate and so much more easier to eat. Portion control is also easy :-)

This past weekend was my sister's birthday and she wanted a nutty cupcake like this Pistachio-Rosewater cupcake. I found these hazelnut cupcakes in the book she gifted me. The recipe is basically spiced up vanilla cupcake with chopped hazelnuts and topped with hazelnut-chocolate frosting. Original recipe had egg in it, so I used my basic vegan vanilla cupcake recipe and added the spices to jazz them up. Here's how I made these cupcakes.

Ingredients: (Makes 12 cupcakes)

All purpose Flour - 1¼cups
Cornstarch - 2tbsp
Baking Powder - ¾tsp
Baking Soda - ½tsp
Salt - ½tsp
Soy Milk - 1cup
Apple cider Vinegar - 1tsp
Canola Oil - 1/3 cup
Sugar - ¾cup
Vanilla extract - 1tsp
Ground Cinnamon - 1tsp
Ground Nutmeg - ½tsp
Hazelnuts - ¾cup, toasted and skin removed

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
• Whisk soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.
• Beat together the soy milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon and nutmeg and mix until no big lumps remain.
• Stir in the chopped hazelnuts.
• Fill cupcake liners 2/3rds of the way full and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Transfer to a cooling rack and let them cool completely before frosting.

Hazelnut-Chocolate Frosting: This is a super simple frosting with semi-sweet chocolate chips and Nutella (or other chocolate-hazelnut spread).
Ingredients:
Semisweet Chocolate Chips - ¾cup
Butter - ¼cup
Nutella or other hazelnut spread with cocoa - 2tbsp
Whipping Cream (heavy cream) - 3½tbsp

Method:

• In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients and heat over low heat, about 10~15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chips are melted and mixture is smooth.
• Cool until the frosting thickens. To speed up the cooling process, refrigerate the mixture for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened. 
• Once the cupcakes are cooled completely, frost the cupcakes. Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts.

Sending these over to Valli's 'Cooking from Cookbook Challenge'.

Update December 2013: Sending these cupcakes over to Valli's Cake Mela.

Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes and a First Birthday celebrations

This post has been due for over a month now. My daughter turned 1 last month and I wanted to share the pictures with you. But September was dedicated to 'A-Z dishes from Andhra' and with the other things that were going on in  couldn't post this earlier. It is better late than never, so here are with some pictures of my little one's first birthday.
Since it was a late Summer birthday I wanted a backyard party. We were lucky to have a perfect day weatherwise. I wanted to have a Minnie Mouse theme -- just because I wanted too :-) Our friend N did all the decorations. Only thing we made (actually it was my idea, but the whole project was done by my husband) was the time-line garland with the pictures of the birthday girl from every month (in the first pic)

Time-Line garland with birthday girl's pics from 1st to 12th month

This was the 'Focus' wall

Minnie Mouse Cupcake Stand

Read more »

Basic Vegan Chocolate Cupcake

After these Vegan Vanilla cupcakes, the other cupcake recipe that is made quite often in my house is this vegan chocolate cupcake. This recipe is also from 'Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World'. I tried other eggless cupcake recipes, but this recipe has always given me consistent results. The cupcakes are moist and fluffy and they hold up to butter cream frosting.

I made these cupcakes for my son's birthday and sent them to school. His class has kids who have very severe peanut allergy, so I always make sure that all the ingredients I use are peanut free.

Read more »

Basic Vegan Vanilla Cupcake

Today's post is for 'Cooking from Cookbook Challenge', an event started by Valli @ Cooking4allSeasons. This basic vegan cupcake is my go-to recipe and I was surprised that I haven't posted it here yet. I have made these a number of times and they have never failed me. Recipe is from 'Vegan Cupcakes take over the World' by Isa Chandra & Terry Hope.

I made these recently for my son's birthday and took pictures to post them. This is a multipurpose, no-nonsense cupcake that is great to bake for birthdays, bake sales and baby showers.

Read more »

Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes for Wilton Course 1 - Class 3

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 4/ Day 6
Theme: Miscellaneous - Wilton Decorating Course 1 - Class 3
Dish - Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes

For Class 3, we were asked to bring 6 cupcakes and butter-cream icing ready to use in piping bags. So by 3rd week, I realized that this decorating course definitely needs quite a bit of prior preparation. It took me  about 3-4 hours spaced out in 2 days to prepare the cupcakes, make the icing, fill the bags and get everything else ready. So if you want to take the course make sure that you have some free time to prepare for the class. We started out with 3 students in the first class, we were 2 in second class and I was the only one in the last 2 classes. It was good in a way that I got 100% attention from the instructor, but I would have liked to see how others did in the class as well.

Week 3 is about decorating cupcakes, using various tips to make flowers, leaves, scrolls etc. What I learnt was different consistency icings are used to make different shapes, for example medium consistency icing is used to make the flowers and swirls (pink & blue icing in the pics below) and thin consistency icing for leaves.

Read more »

Eggless Zucchini Chocolate Cupcakes

For the 3rd day of BM# 23 under "Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes & Muffins", I made Zucchini chocolate cupcakes with a fudge chocolate frosting. Even though these cupcakes are not technically considered "healthy", they sure pack a healthy amount of shredded zucchini. By substituting the white flour with whole wheat flour and reducing the sugar a little bit, these cupcakes can definitely make a healthy and delicious breakfast food. Since it is the holiday season, I didn't make any healthy substitutions.

Read more »

Eggless Chocolate Vanilla Cupcakes with Mocha frosting

Today's "Eggless Chocolate-Vanilla Cupcakes" are a result of contradicting requests from the kids. When you ask kids what flavor cupcake they want, half of them scream "VANILLA" and the other half want "CHOCOLATE". But most of the time we only have time to make just one type of cupcakes and these two-in-one cupcakes seem to satisfy everyone.

Read more »

Eggless Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins

Today we begin the 3rd week of blogging marathon, BM# 23 and my theme for this week is "Egg less Chocolate Cupcakes & Muffins". With a chocoholic 5 year old at home, its almost impossible for me to not take up this theme, so now you know who is happy at home!!!

As I was thinking about this week's theme, I realized that I haven't posted many recipes that are eggless. Even the eggless bakes that I have posted usually use store bought egg replacer powder or some other ingredients that are not commonly available in an Indian household. So for the next three days, I'm going to post recipes that use ingredients that are very commonly available in any pantry, even those that don't bake much.

Read more »

Vegan Banana-Chocolate Chip Cupcake

VeganMofo Day 8: This is going to be a quick post with a delicious Banana-chocolate chip cupcake recipe. I wanted to use up some of the very ripe bananas that I had on hand and found this recipe. Though I was only able to use only of the 1 of the said bananas, I was happy I tried the recipe. These cupcakes are moist with subtle banana flavor and the almond extract totally complements the flavors.

Read more »

Jazzed up Vanilla Cupcakes made from Cake Mix

After making a breakfast & an entree from ready to cook stuff, I decided to make a dessert using the same. I was debating between making an Indian dessert of Western cake. Since I had to make something for the kids for a party last weekend, I decided to make these vanilla cupcakes from store bought cake mix; this way I had a dish for the marathon and kids had something that they like.

It has been years since I bought store bought cake mix. After making the cakes at home from scratch, it somehow does not feel right buying store bought mix. I know they are very convenient, but all the additives in the mix, makes me not want to buy any.

Well for this challenge, I made an exception and since I was running out of time and options to make something for the kids, I decided to buy a cake mix anyway. I used only half the box since the full box (18.5oz) makes 24 cupcakes and I only wanted to make a dozen. I weighed the mix and halved it by weight.

Read more »

Chocolate Cupcakes with Oreo Frosting

For Day 4 of the Blogging marathon, I have these sweet little cupcakes that I made for our picnic last weekend. These are rich chocolaty cupcakes with some oreo cookie frosting. I know I had to make these cupcakes when I saw the drool-worthy pictures on Kirbie's cravings blog. I was very excited when my host told me later that the kids really enjoyed these cupcakes with the frosting ending up on all their faces. :-)

I wanted to pipe the frosting neatly on the cupcakes, but as luck has it, I didn't have any heavy cream in the fridge and by the time I ran to the store and bought, we were almost ready to go to the picnic. So I ended up smearing the frosting on the cupcakes. So make sure you have enough time to frost the cupcakes beautifully like Kirby did.

Here's how I made these:

Ingredients:

Bread flour - ¾cup

Unsweetened chocolate - 3 oz. chopped

Dutch processed cocoa - 1/3 cup

Hot, strong-brewed coffee - ¾cup (or use ¾cup of hot water instead, but using coffee is advisable since brings out the chocolate flavor better)

Sugar - ¾ cup

Salt - ½tsp

Baking Soda - ½tsp

Vegetable oil - 6tbsp

Eggs - 2 large

Vanilla extract - 1tsp

White Vinegar - 2tsp

For the Frosting:

Heavy cream - small ½ pint carton, about 250 ml

Confectioners sugar - 3-4tbsp

Oreo cookies - 6

Vanilla extract - 1tsp

Oreo Cookies - 12, for topping

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the muffin baking tin with paper liners.
  
• In a large mixing bowl, add chopped chocolate and cocoa. Pour the hot coffee/ water and mix well until smooth. Set aside to cool completely or refrigerate to cool. I set it aside for about 15-20 minutes on the counter.
• In the meantime get all the other ingredients together for the cake batter. Whisk bread flour, salt, sugar and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside.
• In a measuring cup, whisk together oil, eggs and vanilla. Pour this mixture on to the cooled chocolate and mix well.
• Finally add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and mix well until smooth.
• Divide the batter evenly in the prepared muffin pan, pouring to about ¾ full.
• Bake for 17 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out only with very few crumbs.
• Remove from the muffin pan after 5 minutes and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
• For the frosting: Blend the oreo cookies in a food processor into very fine powder, make sure that there are no pieces visible. Whip the heavy cream with confectioners sugar in a stand mixer with whip attachment or with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.
• Add vanilla and the oreo cookie powder, mix very gently to incorporate.
• Put the frosting in a piping bag with a decorative tip and pipe on to the cupcakes (or if you are like me just smear using a spatula or bread knife).
• Decorate with extra oreo cookies on top.

Notes: Make sure that these cupcakes are kept as cold as possible in the picnic. Since the frosting is made of cream, under the sun frosting can easily melt.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up for Day 4 of our BM#6.

Orange Pudding Cupcakes

I'm celebrating my 200 posts and my son's monthly birthday with vegan orange pudding cupcakes with chocolate ganache from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World (VCTOW). As I already mentioned before I make a cake/ cupcake for my son’s monthly birthdays. I guess it’s just a reason for us adults to indulge a little bit.

I borrowed VCTOW book (it’s a small book, fits perfectly in my purse) from the library and I look at the pictures and read the recipes like a little girl. I'm now thinking of buying the book so I can have it all to myself.
I made carrot cupcakes from the book twice already, my son loves these. It’s so cute to watch him sit and lick little crumbs & icing from his dad’s fingers. This is why I wanted to make something fruity, so my little one could enjoy.
Orange pudding cupcakes sounded just perfect and I took up the challenge of making them on a weeknight. I baked the cakes and made pudding during my afternoon break and assembled everything in the evening.


Recipe from VCTOW.
Ingredients:
For the Pudding:
Freshly squeezed orange juice – ½ cup
Soy milk – ¾ cup
Sugar – ¼ cup + 2tbsp
Arrow root starch or cornstarch or tapioca starch – 3 tbsp
Turmeric – 1/8 tsp for color (optional)
Vanilla extract– 1 tsp
Orange zest – 1 tsp

For the cupcakes:
All purpose flour – 1 1/3 cups
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Baking soda – ½ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Canola Oil – 1/3 cup
Soy milk – ¾ cup
Freshly squeezed orange juice – ½ cup
Sugar – ¾ cup
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

For the topping:
Orange Marmalade – ¼ cup
Rich Chocolate Ganache*
Method:

• To make the pudding: Whisk orange juice, soy milk, sugar, arrow root starch, vanilla, turmeric in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. On medium heat, cook for 2 minutes whisking continuously until heated through and steamy. Reduce the flame to low and cook for 5 more minutes stirring continuously. You may have to use a fork after a while as the mixture thickens considerably. When the mixture is thick and pudding like, take off the heat and remove it into a bowl. Let cool for 10 minutes, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The mixture will thicken further as it cools.
• For the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the cupcake pan with paper liners.
• Whisk orange juice, soy milk, sugar, vanilla and 1 tbsp of flour in a medium bowl.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in 3 installments, making sure that everything is well incorporated after every addition. Fold in the orange zest and mix to incorporate.
• Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 to ¾ of the way full.
• Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched and the cake tested inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Remove from the cake pan and cool completely on a wire rack before filling.
• To assemble: Snip a corner off a Ziploc bag and insert the widest tip possible. My tip squeezed out into the second cupcake I was filling, so I went ahead without a tip and it worked just fine.
• Using a finger, poke a hole in the center of each cupcake and by sticking the tip into the cake squeeze as much of the pudding as it can take. Cupcakes will swell a little like a small balloon, don’t overdo or the balloon might burst. :0)
• Wipe the top clean with the back of a spoon or just use your finger. Then spread ¼ tsp orange marmalade on each cupcake.
• The next step is to add about 1 tbsp of chocolate ganache on each cupcake. Refrigerate the cupcakes till everything sets, about an hour. I filled and topped the cupcakes on the wire rack and I put the whole rack in the fridge for convenience.

The cupcakes were a big hit with my family and I can see my son licking on the pudding already.

* For the Rich Chocolate Ganache:
Soy milk – ¼ cup
Bittersweet chocolate – 4 oz. chopped
Maple syrup – 2 tbsp

Method: Bring the soy milk to a slow boil in a heavy bottom sauce pan. Remove from heat and immediately stir in chopped chocolate and maple syrup. Stir till smooth and keep aside until ready to use.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

My first attempt at making the carrot cupcakes from vegan cupcakes take over the world was a major disaster. I later found out from my colleague that there is a typo in the recipe and the amount of flour needs to be increased from 2/3 cups to 1 2/3 cups. So I tried again and they turned out pretty good. My husband and son are enjoying them everyday since.

Vegan baking seems to be much simpler than baking with butter and eggs. There is no need to cream the butter until light and airy, no need to add eggs one at a time or even worry about the shells getting into the batter.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour – 1 2/3 cups
Grated Carrot – 1 cup (from 1 large carrot)
Sugar – 2/3 cup
Canola oil – 1/3 cup
Soy Yogurt (plain or vanilla) – 1/3 cup
Pure Vanilla – 1 tsp
Baking soda – ¾ tsp
Baking powder – ¼ tsp
Ground ginger – ¼ tsp
Ground Cinnamon – ¼ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Chopped Walnuts – ¼ cup (I used cashews instead)
Raisins – ¼ cup

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tins with cupcake liners.
• In a medium mixing bowl, mix in sugar, oil, yogurt and vanilla.
• Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda & powder, spices, salt) on the wet ingredients and using a wooden spoon mix until well combined.
• Stir in grated carrots, walnuts and raisins.
• Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into the muffin tins. Bake for 26-28 minutes or until the cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove onto a wire rack; cool completely and frost them with vegan cream cheese frosting.

Cupcakes for My Little One.

My little fella will turn One in an hour (its 11:00PM now). This past year has been a blur of events with lot of laughs, cries, kisses and hugs. Wish you many many Happy Returns of the Day D.

These are the cupcakes I made for the kids in his daycare.. vanilla and chocolate. I also made carrot cupcakes for the 3 of us at home, but they were total disaster. I have no clue what went wrong. So we are going to buy a small cake to cut at home..