Lemon Cupcakes and Recipe Suggestions

I've posted recipes for lemon cake and cupcakes before, but this is my favorite (so far). The texture meets the traditional cupcake texture and it doesn't have that "gluten free flour taste" that can be unpleasant. This was Lance's favorite by a slim margin over the Lucuma Banana Cupcakes. These cupcakes do not have a trace taste of banana that the lucuma cupcakes do.

Lemon Cupcakes
makes 18
6 oz Teff Flour
1 oz Arrowroot Powder
6 oz Brown Rice Flour
6 oz Sugar
3 T Chia Seeds (ground)
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Salt
3 oz Cashews
2 Meyer Lemons, juiced
3 Meyer Lemons, zest
1 large, ripe Banana
3 oz Agave
2 oz Coconut Oil, melted
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Instead of a traditional sifter, I use a fine sieve and use a whisk to break up extra chunks. Strainers are much easier to wash. Zest three Meyer lemons and add the zest to the dry ingredients and stir. Put the cashews, lemon juice, banana, coconut oil, and agave in a high speed blender. Blend until smooth and fluffy. Pour all at once into the dry ingredients and fold in with a spatula, combining thoroughly. After you put cupcake papers in your tin and your oven is preheated, add the apple cider vinegar to the batter and mix vigorously to combine well. Spoon the batter into the cupcake papers until they are a little more than 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.


Please feel free to post any recipe requests in the comments section. I'm trying to widen my repertoire of recipes, but I'm not sure what people are most interested in. Muffins for a quick breakfast? Healthy entrees? More desserts? Any feedback is appreciated!

Lucuma Banana Cupcakes

Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit indigenous to the Andes. In its fresh form, the flesh is very dry and the fruit is very high in B vitamins and beta carotene. The fruit is gaining popularity globally, but is generally only available in powdered form in North America and Europe. On its own, lucuma is very sweet and reminds me of vanilla cake batter. It's a very popular ice cream flavor in Peru, and considered a low sugar sweetener that has more nutrition than some of the empty sweetener substitutes used today. Because lucuma reminded me of cake batter, it only made sense to make cupcakes with lucuma.

Lucuma Banana Cupcakes
Yield: 16-18 cupcakes
4 oz Teff Flour
1 oz Arrowroot Powder
5 oz Brown Rice Flour
3 oz Lacuma Powder
6 oz Sugar
3 T Chia Seeds (ground)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
3 oz melted Coconut Oil
2 small, ripe Bananas
6 oz Water
1.6 oz Cashews
3 oz Agave
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all of the dry ingredients (including the ground chia seeds) in a sifter. Put the coconut oil, bananas, water, cashews, and agave in a high speed blender and blend until fluffy and smooth. Fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients. Put the cupcake liners in your tin and right before you are ready to bake the cupcakes, add the apple cider vinegar to the batter and combine thoroughly. This helps the dough rise and have little air bubbles that make the texture like traditional cupcakes.


One of the pleasant side effects of using lucuma was that it made the top of the cupcake a little bit crunchy, reminding me of a cookie.


I buy my lucuma powder through rawvegansource.com here.

"Marshmallow" Frosting

Frosting is so delicious and proof that vegan food is not always healthy. This recipe goes extremely well with my chocolate cupcake recipe.

Vegan frosting can be really tricky, as I found out for myself this morning. You need warm water to help break up the palm oil for mixing, but not so much you end up with a soup. Finding the right balance is key - if you slip with the hot water, the amount of powdered sugar needed goes up exponentially.

Marshmallow Frosting
3 oz Palm Oil (room temperature)
3 1/2 c sifted powdered sugar*
2 t vanilla bean powder
3 T agave
2-3 T very hot water
pinch salt

Put all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix with a stand mixer or hand mixer until the frosting is a blended, thick consistency with peaks forming as the mixer turns. You may need to add more sugar. This morning I slipped up and added more than a 1/4 cup of hot water and burned through 6 cups of sugar in no time. Not good.

The trick to the flavor of this frosting is really the dehydrated vanilla bean. I purchase mine through rawvegansource.com, which is fortunately located in my area so I can physically go to their store. The owners are really great and visit most of the farms they source from.

* Allergy and Vegan Note: I tend to use Wholesome Sweeteners brand because they have powdered sugar with tapioca flour instead of corn starch. Most readily available powdered sugars have corn starch and use bone char as a filter during processing. Wholesome Sweeteners sugars are also vegan; the company does not use the bone char filters.

A Note About Palm Oil

There is an environmental crisis going on in Indonesia because of the palm industry. Unconscientious farmers are destroying millions of acres of rain forests using uncontrolled fires to clear the land and proactively killing animals that wander onto the farm land. In '98, more than 8,000 Orangutans in Borneo burned to death because of this practice, not to mention the ongoing destruction of the population because their habitat is rapidly disappearing. Palm oil is a huge source of income for the population of Indonesia, so it has become increasingly important to reward the farmers that are farming in a sustainable manner. The Round Table of Sustainable Palm Oil is launching a logo in early 2011 to help consumers differentiate between the sustainable farmers and the farmers using practices destroying the environment. I tend to remain somewhat skeptical of associations run by companies in the industry, but I think this is a positive move by the industry. Right now I use Spectrum Palm Oil because it is farmed in Columbia and the manufacturer is fairly reliable in my limited experience.

Product Review: If You Care Baking Cups

Gluten is a protein found in many grains, and it helps give baked goods elasticity. It functions primarily as a binder, so those of us who are gluten free and do not use egg as a binder have to use other ingredients to help meld the batter/dough together. Unfortunately, that oftentimes translates to cupcakes that stick to the paper cups and crumble apart as the result of ripping the paper from the baked good.

If you look closely at the photograph, you can tell the paper
has intermingled with the dough along the sides. Not tasty.

Many times I also wonder what else is sticking to that piece of cupcake or muffin I still really want to eat when I see paper fibers. The cups I was using were low cost and colored. I started thinking about the dyes and chemicals that must go into the paper, as well as the bleach. When I saw If You Care baking cups at my local food grocer, I had to try them.

I wasn't sure what to expect of a natural product. Unfortunately, "natural" sometimes you are sacrificing positive attributes in exchange for getting rid of nasty chemicals. This product really pleasantly surprised me. Recipes that previously clung to cheap paper don't cling to this product. I also don't have to worry about throwing the cups into my compost bin, which I usually won't do with any paper products because of the bleach and coloring chemicals.

Long story short: I would definitely recommend this product.

Vegan Mofo Day 13 - Chocolate Tease Cupcakes

This has been a recipe I have been toying around with for a while. My friend, Noble, is the creator of the original Chocolate Tease Banana Bread, which had milk, eggs, and gluten. She made a gluten free version that went over really well at a gluten free party we had. She sent me the recipe and I've been tinkering around with ingredients and ratios. I have 2 recipes from her original recipe - a loaf and a cupcake. I actually went around handing out samples to friends and family today throughout the day. It went over very well, and no one noticed the banana flavor, and there's only a slight hint of chocolate.


Chocolate Tease Cupcakes
1/4 c Olive Oil
2 ripe Bananas (the riper the better)
1/2 c Maple Syrup
3/4 c Water
1 scraped Vanilla Bean
1 tsp Cinnamon
3/4 c Brown Rice Flour
3/4 c White Rice Flour
3/4 c Teff Flour
3 Tb Tapioca Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Coconut Vinegar
1/3 c Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the olive oil, maple syrup, bananas, water, vanilla bean, and cinnamon in a blender and blend until smooth. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk to mix together. Add the liquid ingredients and stir until combined. Add the chocolate chips and coconut vinegar after you have put the cupcake liners into the cupcake pans (or alternatively greased and floured the cupcake pan) and the oven is ready. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out nearly clean. Overcooking will cause them to dry.

Straight out of the oven, these cupcakes are amazing. They dry out a bit after 24 hours, so it's best to enjoy them the day of baking if possible.

I am still working on a suitable frosting combination. Perhaps the maple chocolate would be tasty...although I am toying with spicing up a version and going with a chai frosting.

Tonight I have big plans. I want to make an apple pie, bake my pumpkin and brainstorm on what I am going to use that for (perhaps combine with a little carrot and apple in a thick soup?), and cook up some quinoa flat-bread for "sandwiches" and Brussels sprouts for dinner. I also want to get to my new vegan cookbooks...

Vegan Mofo Day 12-ish - Maple Peanut Butter Frosting

It's a few minutes past midnight and I'm happy because I just spent time with a great friend, ate some fabulous food at Cafe Flora, and watched an interesting movie. I'm sad because I just missed my deadline for posting a recipe! So I guess you'll get two recipes today. One now, and one after I wake up tomorrow. Well, knowing me, well after I wake up tomorrow.


Maple Peanut Butter Frosting
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup palm oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
pinch salt
2 Tb very hot water

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add hot water and combine well with a hand mixer. Taste test often and adjust peanut butter and maple syrup ratios as needed. I don't tend to like things very sweet, so I prefer this to the previous peanut butter recipe I posted. This goes well with the chocolate cake recipes I've posted. If it's too runny, stick it in the freezer for 20 minutes or more.

Today was a stressful day work wise, but things improved greatly afterwards. I received a care package from my sister-in-law with some awesome new books, including Skinny Bitch's new book! She is so thoughtful, especially considering she was just about to give birth to the newest addition to the family. Baby and mom are doing well! We try to keep in touch via the parents, knowing that sleep and spare time are luxuries they are probably doing without.

I went to dinner at Cafe Flora, as I mentioned, and once again had the autumn root roast and sweet potato fries (sans dipping sauce). The sweet potato fries were delicious without the dipping sauce and had a great spice combo on them. The autumn root roast was still delicious. Loved the parsnip puree and the chanterelle mushrooms were flavored and cooked perfectly. The waitress was very considerate. It was a great experience overall. Last time Lance and I went there the waitress was a little spacey, but the food was great so it's going to be a favorite of mine.

My friend and I went back to our house and I was out of chocolate cup papers, so I got out an old cake tin, poured chocolate in the bottom, raspberry filling in the middle, spread cherries in the middle as well, and topped it off with a layer of chocolate. Pictures to come in the next day or so.

Lastly, we watched New York I Love You. It's a series of skits that are slightly intertwined. Each piece has a different writer and director. I really enjoyed it, but it was a bit on the artsy side for Lance.

I'm really tired so it's time to wrap up today's blog. At this point, it's just a random flow of semi-consciousness. Which reminds me, I need to work on improving my photography and may give the blog a bit of a face lift.

Good Night! :)

Vegan Mofo Day 4: Double Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

My husband's birthday is today, so I had to figure out a special cake for him. His favorite flavor combination is chocolate and peanut butter. We're both in a sugar coma right now, but everything, especially the frosting, tasted delicious.

Double Chocolate Cake
1 - 10" cake

3/4 cup Teff Flour
3/4 cup Tapioca Flour
3/4 cup Sorghum Flour
1 scant cup Cacao Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Agave
2 large over ripe Bananas
1 scraped Vanilla Bean
1/2 cup Olive Oil
1/4 cup Water
1/2 cup Enjoy Life or other Vegan Chocolate Chips
1 tsp coconut vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use a fine mesh strainer to sift the cacao powder to break up any large chunks. Combine all of the dry ingredients with a whisk. Combine the bananas, agave, olive oil, and water in a high speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold everything together with a spatula.

Put a little palm oil on a paper towel and wipe down the interior of a 10" cake pan. Put a little teff flour in the pan and rotate the pan, patting the sides to evenly coat the pan with a very light layer of flour. When your pan is ready and the oven is preheated, add the chocolate chips and vinegar to the batter, stir vigorously, and then pour the batter into the cake pan. Use a spatula to smooth the top of the cake.

Bake the cake for about 30 minutes, or until the middle of the cake is firm. A toothpick shouldn't come away completely clean because you want some moisture.


There is a slight hint of banana to the cake. If you do not like banana, you could easily add a little more cacao to mask the flavor. Banana, chocolate and peanut butter is a great combo, so we didn't mind (and honestly I think the peanut butter masks the flavor even more).


Frosting
Enough for a little more than 1 - 10" cake

1/2 cup palm oil shortening
1/2 cup "creamy" peanut butter
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar*
2 TB hot water

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl and add the hot water. Combine with a hand mixer until it is smooth.

*Vegan and Allergy Note: Not all sugar is vegan. Many manufacturers use bone char during processing to make the sugar white and use the bone char as a filter. I run turbinado sugar through a blender to make powdered sugar, although the texture isn't always perfect and doesn't add to the presentation (it's a little lumpy, as you can see in the picture). Wholesome Sweeteners produces sugar without bone char, but they add 3% "corn starch or tapioca starch" to their powdered sugar. If it were just tapioca, I'd consider it, but I'm very allergic to corn. Trader Joe's has powdered sugar with tapioca starch, but it's not on their vegan safe list. Looks like I'm sticking to the blender, but I'll keep checking labels.

I am going to go have a cup of tea and some miso soup to help balance out the sugar swirling through my system. I need to get some sleep so I can go to work tomorrow.