Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes with Cinnamon "Cream Cheese" Icing (Vegan)

It's funny what ends up happening when I run out of milk and therefore can't eat my Kix for breakfast, and can't make any baked good with milk for that matter. Vegan cupcakes to the rescue!

I decided to adapt the pumpkin chocolate chip cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World to try to make things just a little bit healthier. So, I substituted agave nectar for some of the sugar and whole wheat pastry flour for some of the white flour. Because of the extra liquid in the nectar, I was also able to cut the oil in half. I also used less chocolate. Not too shabby, huh?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes
Makes 12

• 1 cup pumpkin puree (use the Libby's canned, the Trader Joe's organic canned has a totally different texture)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light agave nectar
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 1 t vanilla
  
  
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/3 cup chocolate chunks, chips, or a cut up chocolate bar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease or put liners into 12 muffin cups.
   
2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the first set of ingredients (all the wet ones).
3. Now, gently stir in the dry ingredients with a fork. Don't over stir and don't use an electric mixer.
4. Fold in the chocolate.
5. Evenly distribute the batter into the muffin cups and bake for 23 minutes.
6. Let cool in the pan for 3 minutes, then take them out and place them on a cooling rack.
   
7. Now, I am supposed to tell you to let them cook completely before frosting but I think a warm, muffiny-like cake such as this dipped into the creamy frosting would be just fine.

Cinnamon "Cream Cheese" Frosting
Frosts 12 cakes generously (could make less)

I've made this basic recipe many times and trust me when I say that it tastes JUST like real cream cheese frosting. I think it actually tastes better. You never even have to tell folks it's vegan.. I usually don't.

• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine, I use Smart Balance Buttery Sticks
• 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, I use Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
• 2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted if lumpy
  
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t nutmeg

1. Easiest with a KitchenAid Mixer, cream together the margarine and cream cheese until just combined.
2. Mix in the sugar 1/2 cup at a time until smooth and creamy.
3. Mix in vanilla and spices.
4. Frost as you wish!! Store tightly covered in the fridge.
   

If you want to know how to make the cute little fondant flower.. that's in the next post. : ))

Cupcake Tower!!!

I have been inundated with emails about my tower, peeps are just waiting with bated breath to find out what happened. Just kidding, I've just gotten one blog comment from my friend Katharine.

The story is I made about 90 cupcakes for a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago. It was a much bigger effort than I anticipated. And, not everything went smoothly. The two main recipes, vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, literally flopped. I think it was because I used my KitchenAid Mixer to mix in the dry ingredients which over-beat them, because many of the cupcakes were both burnt around the edges and totally sunk in the middle. In the end, I threw out a bunch and frosted the rest to hide the imperfections. I won't recommend either`of those recipes for now. I will recommend the third recipe I made: coffee cupcakes!!! I used Chockylit's Vietnamese Coffee Cupcakes. This recipe is awesome!! I did not make the pudding/filling or the whip cream, but instead I frosted some with the Chocolate Ganache Frosting (found half-way down the linked page, my new favorite chocolate frosting) and some with cream cheese frosting. I also did not make real Vietnamese coffee, but rather just brewed regular 'ol Folgers with double the coffee. Seriously, these were so good.

Icing the cupcakes was my favorite part. I used some diferent piping tips, colors, and homemade gumpaste flowers in a white/brown/teal palette. I also made some mini cakes and some larger ones. Peeps really digged the mini's, probably because it feels less like you're pigging out, even if you eat 5 of them : )

Mini chocolate with chocolate ganache frosting.

Chocolate with buttercream frosting

Aren't they so cute?? There was one guy at the party that was just oggling them all night. Kind of weird actually. Would I do it again? Maybe. But if I do, I will definitely test the recipes out ahead of time. : )

My First Gumpaste Flower

Gumpaste? What IS that?? Well, basically it is like play dough made out of sugar and a few other things. It sticks to your hands (at least my hands) when you're trying to work with it and so far it's a pain in the butt. I was trying to work in the food coloring and it made a huge mess. Folks use it to make everything from fancy flowers to little dots or whatever you want to decorate a cake. Hopefully it will be easier next time. At any rate, here are my very first flowers.

It's heeeeeeeeerre!

The word "obsessed" is so played out. It's joined the ranks of "amazing" and "surreal." So, how shall I put this? I am fixated, preoccupied if you will, with cupcakes. I mean, when my boyfriend is talking about something totally non-related to cupcakes, a typical response from me is "That peanut butter and jelly cupcake from Yummy cupcakes had peanut butter cake, right?" (that actually happened).

So, you an imagine my pleasure when the postman dropped off my new WILTON CUPCAKE TOWER!! Did I really NEED this? no. But in a way I do. I offered to bake up to a 100 cupcakes for a friend's birthday party, and you know a sister needs a tower for that!

Also, I went and bought Wilton's gum paste flower kit. It will help me make pretty, delicate flowers for all my sweet cakes. Don't worry, I will keep you posted.