Earl Grey Cupcakes (and some lost recipes...)

Joy the Baker.  She's a favorite of us all, right?  Right.  And Sundays with Joy are such a good part of my week (or -- now -- every other week).  I try a new recipe from her book and then we enjoy something that is pretty darn amazing.  If only I kept taking pictures to keep track of it all...

Like carrot cake pancakes.  Those were fabulous.  But other than my word, there is no proof I tried the recipe. There was supposed to be proof.  I put some in the fridge to save to take pictures as we ate them for dinner.  Carrot cake pancakes for dinner?  Shouldn't that be breakfast or dessert? One might think so.  No regrets.  Except the fact that those pancakes in the fridge waiting for the light of day got forgotten about until two weeks later, when they were no longer beautiful but fuzzy and green.

I did, however, remember to take pictures of the whole wheat honey and goat cheese drop biscuits.

It's just that I never got around to posting them.  Guess I was to busy eating them to post something.  That's because they were delicious in every way.  Not gritty like most whole wheat, not stinky like some goat cheese.  Just lightly sweet and fluffy and all around tasty.

This time I decided to make sure I did it all... Baked. Photo'd. Posted.  So what if I am a week behind the group's schedule with the posting part?  In the end the result is the same: a completely new treat that we enjoyed immensely.  And that's the whole point, right?

Joy's version was chamomile, but I like earl grey, so that's what we went with.  I followed Joy's recipe to a T (ha ha ha, I'm a knee slapper ;) ) except for the type of tea I used.  The rest however went just as she said, even down to 'share with lady friends over tea'.  Thank you for the suggestion, Joy.  I did, we all enjoyed, and now I have one more baking recipe I can file away in the 'I really can bake!' category.

To get the recipe for Joy the Baker's Chamomile Tea Cupcakes, visit her blog or go buy the book.  Either way, you will be happy.

Carrot Coconut Cupcakes... HAPPY EASTER!

Carrots, coconut, walnuts.  A teeny bit of orange juice, and a whopping bit of fresh cream cheese frosting...

... here are some cupcakes that every Easter Bunny, big or small, can enjoy this year :)

Whether you are hunting for eggs or singing in the choir at church, I hope today is a very special one for you.  Happy Easter!

Recipe from Everyday Food, May/June 2003

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut, plus more for garnish 
• 8 ounces bar cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a standard 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners. In a bowl, combine sugar, vegetable oil, orange juice, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and eggs.
2. Stir in baking powder, baking soda, allspice, and salt. Add flour; mix. Stir in carrots, walnuts, and coconut.
3. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 25 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.
4. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.
5. Frost cupcakes, and garnish with shredded coconut.
   
   

   COST: $5.72        COST PER CUPCAKE (12): $0.48

Red Velvet (from beet juice) Cupcakes

It is the week of L-O-V-E!  And you know what?  I couldn't care less about Valentine's Day, honestly.

I know, I am such a February Grinch.

But you know all those years that you didn't have somebody to celebrate with except your girlfriends, going out together pretending that you would rather be with them than with some hot dude, all knowing you were lying to each other, but for the sake of the holiday, that lie must go on?  Yeah, that was me.  Forever.  And so at some point between passing out little grocery-store cards in elementary school and getting dressed up to pretend celebrate in college, I just gave up.

Of course, now I have my Valentine, and a forever one at that.  It does make the day seem a little more appealing... except all those people all trying to make dinner reservations for the same night, and all those expectations of roses and candy and cards and... AH!  It makes my head hurt.  Besides, Valentine's Day is celebrated on a completely different day in Brazil, so my husband would never even remember anyway.

But you know what we do remember, every single year?  President's Day.

Think about it: no crowds and you (or at least WE) get the whole day off, and it is close enough to V-day that you don't feel totally like a love-grinch.  And so, we celebrate President's Day.  I know, how romantic. ;)

In the spirit of President's Day - slash - Valentine's Day (for the rest of you), I give you kinda-red velvet cupcakes with no artificial coloring.  Ta-da!

For Sundays with Joy this week we were supposed to make her red velvet marble cake.  That sounded good and all, but I really wanted cupcakes, and not marbly ones.  And all that food coloring really just turned me off.  So I set out to see what I could do instead.  Google kindly informed me that beets were my go-to pigment changer and I just so happened to have some in the fridge, straight from the farmer's market.  Even though I didn't follow Joy's recipe, she did inspire me to create one that is amazing.  Very little sugar, no added colors, and a most-excellent taste.  PERFECT.  And just in time to celebrate President's Day... or Valentine's Day, if you are into that sort of thing.  :)

My Valentine.  (Ok, I guess I am not a total grinch!)

Red Velvet (from beet juice) Cupcakes
adapted from the Bake Cakery Blog

ingredients

• 2 large beets
• 3 tablespoons cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 heaping teaspoon plain greek yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Wrap beets individually in tinfoil, unpeeled.  Bake on baking sheet for one hour or until you can pierce with a fork.  When finished, peel beets and cut into large chunks.  Reduce oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put beets, lemon juice, and vinegar in blender and blend until a puree.  Add other wet ingredients and blend again.
3. Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl.  Add beet mixture to dry ingredients and beat with cake beater until well mixed.  
4. Pour into cupcake liners (2/3 full) and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until fork inserted in the middle comes out clean.

**For the frosting, I used this buttercream recipe and added the beet juice that pooled inside the tin foil to make it pink. 

**My cupcakes came out dark, but adding more lemon juice is supposed to make it brighter.  You can play around with that.  The color was bright pink batter, but dark pink/brown when baked with my amount of lemon juice. The taste was fabulous, though.

COST: $2.52   COST PER CUPCAKE (12): $0.21

Brown Sugar Banana Muffins with Avocado Buttercream

Friends, I have turned a corner.

A baking corner.

I used to be terrified of baking.  TERRIFIED.  But the other day I did it, just for fun.  

No 'Sundays with Joy' recipe to tackle, no friends coming over, nada.  I was just sitting on the couch, about ready to mutter those ugly words of "I'm bored!", and decided to do something about it before that phrase could escape my lips.

Even before I flipped through a cookbook I thought about all of those delicious pictures I have pinned and repinned on Pinterest and decided to just go through, one at a time, until I found one that I had all the ingredients on hand.  After three recipes, I found it:  Brown sugar banana muffins with avocado buttercream from How Sweet It Is.

I know, mine didn't come out as pretty as hers.  It's OK.  I made avocado buttercream!  And it tasted good.  Once I got over the color being on top of a muffin/cupcake (which I must admit, is actually growing on me...) I decided I liked it.  A lot.

And so did my friend Myra.  She told me I had enough and took the rest of them home with her yesterday.  Proof that avocado plus sugar is a good idea.

Bananas & avocados.  Two fruit that stand in solidarity, side by side, yet nobody knew...

For the recipe, please visit How Sweet It is HERE.  And then you can laugh at how ugly my frosting looks compared to hers ;)

*She used sour cream, which I didn't have, so I used buttermilk -- which I also didn't have.  I actually 'made' it by mixing milk with a little bit of vinegar and a tad of melted butter.  As far as I can tell, it worked just fine!
** My batched yielded 12 muffins, so I cut the avocado buttercream recipe in half.

COST: $4.95    Cost per muffin (12): $0.42

Sundays with Joy: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

I am so incredibly proud of myself right now.  For the first time in my life I have made cupcakes from scratch.  Not from the box, from scratch.  Vegan cupcakes, at that!

Yes, the ingredients are a little unusual.  Avocado, white vinegar... not your typical baking supplies.  But you know what?  They totally worked.

My ingredients were even a little more unusual.  Last October I did the October Unprocessed challenge and I started buying this unbleached flour and organic sugar, and I liked it.  Yeah, the graininess of the sugar is a bit different, as is the color, but it works just fine.  So not only are these cupcakes vegan, but they are unprocessed as well.  Except for the frosting.  Silk soy milk doesn't really fall into that category last time I checked.

Then I added a little bit more of the cocoa powder because, well, I like chocolate.  Now, adding way more avocado then called for... yeah, that was just an accident.  Somehow the 1/4 cup looked like 3/4 cup to me... whatever.  It totally worked.

And since I learned my lesson last week, I checked all the expiration dates.  Not only was my baking powder expired, but so were some of the other items.  Oops!  Guess I need to bake more often so they don't sit around in my cupboard for so long!  (I was going to put coconut in my cupcakes and on top of the frosting, but shreds were dried and long past their date.  Yes, I was very sad.)  I tossed all that old junk out and headed to the grocery store where I spent some time in the baking aisle filling my basket with supplies.  What a difference the fresh ingredients make!

I tried to be all fancy and use my cookie press/decorating gun to make a beautiful top, but that didn't turn out so well.  So I pulled out a knife and just spread that frosting on there.  At one point I took the gun and pretended to be Sydney Bristow... you know, and take out all the bad guys.  My husband just stared at me.  Then he threw up his hands and said with a smile on his face, "Why does this not surprise me?"

Yay for being with someone who knows you are weird and is more than OK with it! :)

To make things a little different, I turned the frosting into minty-buttercream (once I figured out my super coconut idea was not going to be working out).    End result?  Delicious!  These cupcakes are light and airy, very fresh, and just the right amount of sweetness.  I have had two, he has had three.  Or four.  The truth is you would never be able to tell they were vegan unless you were told. 

But you better mash you avocados well unless you want your husband asking why there is a booger in his cupcake... ;)

Recipe adapted from the Joy the Baker Cookbook.

VEGAN CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH VEGAN MINT-CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
Yield: 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cup unbleached flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup raw, organic sugar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup mashed avocado (about 1 avocado)
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

(for the buttercream)

• 3/4 cup vegan butter in sticks, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 2 tablespoons soy milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375*F.  Line cupcake pan with liners.
2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.  Set aside. 
3. In large bowl, mix sugar, oil, avocado, water, vinegar, and vanilla.  Add the flour mixtures and mix.
4. Pour into cupcake liners, filling 2/3 of the way.  Bake for 18-20 min.  Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
5. For the buttercream -- place "butter" in mixing bowl and mix on low until soft.  Add the cocoa powder and sugar and stir to incorporate.  Add the vanilla, peppermint, and soy milk.  Mix on medium speed until fluffy.

Store cupcakes, well wrapped, in fridge for up to four days.

Cost: $6.90                 Cost per Cupcake (12): $0.58