Promise to my son

So, it was Rowan's birthday last week.


It must suck to be a vegan kid sometimes. Obviously, Rowan is still too young to feel peer pressure, but I don't look forward to the day when some kid realizes that Rowan doesn't have a bologna sandwich in his lunch box.

So, I made a promise to Rowan - his lunches will not only vegan, and healthy, but also fun, and will cause all the other school children to want to be him.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Rowan just turned one, and won't be going to school anytime soon. So here is the addendum to my promise...

Rowan will always get delicious vegan cupcakes on his birthday!

I think he likes this idea.

The recipe I used is the chocolate and vanilla marble cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (my bible.) I wasn't sure it was going to work out, the chocolate batter seemed much runnier than the vanilla and I didn't know if they would cook evenly, but they did!

One tip is to swirl it a LOT more than you think you should. I swirled them together, and they looked pretty good from the top...

  

But once you opened up the wrapper, the effect was kind of lost..

                            

                                 Not very swirly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For icing, I just used my chocolate pudding recipe, and stuck it in the fridge til I was ready for it.

Rowan loved it! Yay!

Warning: Terrible singing ahead.  I know I'm tone deaf. Poor John.

Happy birthday, dear Rowan! Happy birthday to you!

You don't win friends with salad!

... You win them with delicious cupcakes!

John and I haven't been doing too much cooking/baking lately. Everything we've made has been along the lines of "what do we have in the fridge?". A lot of stirfrys, and perogies.

But the other night I was feeling antsy, and had a bit of a sweet tooth, so I made some cupcakes!

This recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which is the greatest cookbook (bakebook?) to ever exist. Even if you only make cupcakes once a year, you should buy this book.

I did edit it a bit though, so I will put my edited version on here. If you want the real version, buy the book!

Banana Cupcakes

1/2 C. very ripe banana, mashed well (you don't want any lumps. I mashed mine with an immersion blender)
1 1/4 C. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 C. granulated sugar
1/3 C. canola oil
2/3 C. rice milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl. In a seperate, smaller bowl, whisk together the oil, rice milk, vanilla, almond extract, and banana. Create a well in the dry ingredients and fold in wet ingredients, mixing to just combine.
3. Fill cupcake liners two-thirds full. Bake for 20-22 minutes.
4. Cool completely before icing.

I haven't quite figured out how to make a vegan AND soy-free buttercream-style frosting. I didn't want boring cupcakes though, so I made a chocolate glaze... I put 1/4 C soy milk in a little sauce pan over the stove, until it was gently boiling. Then I took it off the heat, added 2 Tbsp. maple syrup, and chocolate chips. I didn't really measure the chocolate chips, I just poured them while slowly stirring with a spatula until it was nice and thick. I probably used about 150 g. Then I poured in about 1/2 oz. of coconut rum! 

You can make the glaze while the cupcakes are baking, then set it aside, because you want it to be cooled down when you use it.

When the cupcakes are ready, spoon the glaze generously over top. I topped my cupcakes with a slice of frozen banana! (Fresh works too.)

These were really good. I made them at about 10 pm... They didn't make it through the night.