Saturday, February 11, 2012

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Valentine's Day wouldn't be right without a) cinnamon hearts, b) things that are red and white, and c) chocolate. I decided to combine a and c into Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcakes with cinnamon frosting. Red and white? This hearkens back to Cupcake Challenge 1.0 - making Lush products into cupcakes. The red and white goody I'm converting from bubble bar to cupcake form is Magic Mushroom.
It's a strawberry vanilla scent that smells positively edible, so lends itself particularly well to this project. Also, I figured that I needed to do 2 batches this week since I didn't get any done last week.

I apologize in advance for the instagram photos. The good lens was with Ian (okay, so he DOES own it, but really, leaving my the wide angle? Why not just slap with a polaroid. Yeesh.) so I had to make due. I think they're still cute.

Batch One: Mexican Hot Chocolate with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
I'm a little over piping monstrous swirls of icing on top of cupcakes, for the time being. So I made only a half batch and used my trusty off set spatula to make a nice modest layer instead, and I'm pleased with the results. You get to focus on the yumminess that is the cake instead of being concerned with a half pound of sugar and earth balance getting all over the place.



























Cupcakes - adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World - Basic Chocolate

1 c non dairy milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
1/3 c canola oil
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp chocolate extract
1 c flour
1/3 c cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp (or less) cayenne pepper

Preheat to 350. The magical temperature at which all baked goods bake. Line your muffin pan with cutesy liners. Or plain ones. The choice is yours.

Mix the milk and vinegar and let sit for a couple of minutes to curdle. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the oil and sugar. Add the milk mixture and whisk until good and foamy; add the extracts and mix till fully incorporated.

Sift in the dry ingredients (depending on your sifting apparatus, you may not be able to sift the cayenne. Just dump that in). Stir until no lump remain. Divide up into your tin and pop in the oven for 18 - 22 minutes. Remove and let cool in tin a few minutes, then take 'em out and let them cool fully on a rack.



























Frosting

1/4 c room temp Earth Balance
1/4 c room temp cream cheese alternative (I use tofutti because it's the only one I've ever seen)
2 c icing sugar
2 tbsp non dairy milk or creamer (today I used french vanilla Silk creamer)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Beat the cream cheese and Earth Balance together until light n fluffy. Add half the sugar and half the milk. Beat until well combined, then add the other half of the sugar and milk, along with the cinnamon and vanilla. Beat until you're tired of doing so and it looks spreadable and stuff.

Taken with a real camera. On a chair.




















Magic Mushroom Cupcakes - Based on VCTOTW vanilla cupcakes

1 c non dairy milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
3/4 c sugar
1/3 c canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp butter flavour
1 1/4 c flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

What's that magic number? Oh yeah, 350. Preheat. Line tin mini tin.

Mix milk and vinegar and wait a few. Then whisk that with sugar, canola, flavourings. Sift in dry ingredients.

Put 1 tbsp of white mix in each cup. When that's done, add 1 tsp strawberry flavour and enough red food gel to make it, well, red. Put 1 tbsp of that on top. There may be some left over. Sorry.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes. Remove and cool before frosting.




























Frosting - same as the one on the other cupcakes, just with different flavouring

1/4 room temp Earth Balance
1/4 c room temp Cream Cheese
2 c icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp strawberry flavouring
2 tbsp milk or creamer

Beat the butter & cream cheese. Add in 1 c of sugar and 1 tbsp of creamer. Beat in. Add in the rest of both of those plus the flavouring. Beat until everything is smooth and awesome. I took out a few tablespoons of white and set it aside to do the dots, then used gel colouring to make the rest red. You can do whatever you like.

We're so cute!



















What, you may ask, was Dash doing while I was baking / frosting? Why, a picture speaks 1000 words, so let me show you.

Stolen cereal from the cupboard! Wonky fish eye look because of wide angle lens! Yay!


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