(almost) Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
Starting out with this recipe for vegan chocolate cake, which I modified using 1/2 c of white sugar 1/2 cup turbinado, apple cider vinegar and 1 cup of coffee instead of the water, I made some cupcakes for my friend’s birthday. She is aiming to be vegan & gluten-free, and I pretty much managed to get the vegan part down, but I don’t know enough yet about alternative flours to feel comfortable experimenting at the last minute.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
- 1 cup water
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9x5 inch loaf pan.
- Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add the oil, vanilla, vinegar and water. Mix together until smooth.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Then I used this recipe as a basis for the frosting:
- FOR THE FROSTING:
- 1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
- ½ cups Vegan Margarine
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ cups Powdered Sugar
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Now the thing is, I didn’t have actual vegan margarine, and looking at the margarine I had, turns out there was a little bit of whey in it, as one of the last ingredients, which is why I’m calling these “almost vegan”. But you can see how they are easily vegan if you have the right ingredients! (On a side note, margarine kind of freaks me out, is the vegan stuff better than the non-vegan? Not something I have much experience with…)
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I also didn’t have a food processor like the recipe called for, so I did my best with egg beaters and the frosting came out kind of lumpy. I was going to try and pipe it on the cupcakes with a sandwich bag, but it was just coming out in blobs. So I decided to go for flowers on top.
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I think overall they came out pretty good for some first time winging it! Well, not totally true, I’ve made many eggless cakes before. Just maybe not cupcakes, and this was the first time of this combo of ingredients & frosting. :-)
Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies
I’ve been wanting to bake but trying to “be good” or something like that, so when my roommate came home from a camping trip, stared at the pantry and said, “I want something sweet..” I said, “I could make cookies!” We have a lot of peanut butter, so peanut butter it was. These would be amaaaazing with some chocolate chips, but they are definitely tasty!
I cut the original recipe in half (which is reflected in the measurements below), used butter instead of shortening and coconut milk instead of buttermilk. I still got a ton of cookies and they came out in different degrees of brown because I spaced out on the timer thing on the 2nd two batches. All pretty good though! :-)
Oh and I think next time I would use less of the baking powder/soda…
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease cookie sheets.
Mix the shortening, peanut butter, white sugar, brown sugar and buttermilk until smooth and fully combined.
Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to the peanut butter mixture and mix until well blended.
Drop cookies 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Flatten with a fork that has been dipped in flour. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 10 to 12 minutes.
