Carrie’s Carrot Cupcakes

[tweetmeme source="VeganChickie"]I’m happy to welcome my friend Carrie as our guest blogger this week, who is here to share her carrot cupcake recipe with us. Carrot cake is my absolutely favourite cake so I’m really looking forward to giving this recipe a try. Thanks for sharing this with us Carrie!

Vegan Carrot Cupcakes

½ cup (115g) Nuttelex
1 cup soft brown sugar
¼ cup apple sauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ cup soy milk
1 cup carrots, finely grated
1 ¼ cup plain flour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and flour a muffin tray or line muffin tray with cupcake papers.

Cream nuttelex and brown sugar until smooth and creamy. Add apple sauce, vanilla extract, salt, baking powder, spices and soy milk and carrot and mix together well. Add plain flour and stir until combined.

Spoon batter into muffin tray and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until cooked through. Cool completely before icing.

Vegan Cream Cheese Icing

¼ cup Nuttelex
¼ cup Tofutti
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
lemon juice to taste

Cream together margarine and cream cheese. Add the icing sugar in 2 batches. Mix until smooth and creamy, then add the lemon juice.

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Banana, Raspberry & Choc Chip Muffins

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”]Wow, these muffins are so good that I don’t think they’ll last through the night! I’m pretty impressed with this recipe actually, especially since it’s the first time I’ve attempted a muffin. The recipe below will make 12 muffins – or, if you are like me and choose to make them smaller, then you’ll end up with 18 or 19. I prefer my muffins to be cupcake sized.. I’m weird that way! Making them larger will be just as delicious though, just make sure you keep them in the oven for an extra 5 minutes or so.

Banana, Raspberry & Choc Chip Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 ripe bananas
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or 1 1/2 of extract)
1 cup vegan choc chips
1/2 cup raspberries chopped

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together in a medium sized bowl
3. In a large bowl, mix the sugar and oil together, then add the banana. Mash the banana with a fork, combining with the sugar mixture as you go.
4. Stir in the water and vanilla and mix until well combined. Stir through the choc chips and raspberries.
5. Fill each muffin tin halfway with the batter. Bake for approx 30 minutes, until they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

NOTE: I think this recipe would also be great as a banana cake or loaf.. you would just have to adjust the cooking times to suit.

Enjoy!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

[tweetmeme style="compact" source="VeganChickie"]This vegan chocolate cupcake recipe is soooo good that even the non vegans of the world will love them (that means you Tennille!!).

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
(Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World)

Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond or chocolate extract (I prefer chocolate – almond extract has quite a strong flavor)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil,  and vanilla extract and other extract, to the soy milk mixture and beat till foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to the wet ingredients and beat till no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are okay!)

3. Pour mixture into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cupcake comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before icing.

For the icing, I just used a plain chocolate icing: 2/3 cup of cocoa powder, 3 cups of icing sugar and enough warm water to make a paste.. ice your cupcakes and sprinkle with some 100s and 1000s and you’re all done!

Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes

During the week we bought ourselves a little treat: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
I have been very excited about this cookbook, being a huge Veganomicon fan, today wasn’t the first time we have tried one of these recipes, but it’s the first time trying one of these recipes when we own the book so that is a little special in itself. I am a lover of carrot cake so it was natural that this would be our first mission.. we weren’t disappointed! (I love you Isa & Terry!)

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
(Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

Ingredients:
CUPCAKES:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup soy yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup finely grated carrots
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup raisins

VEGAN CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
1/4 cup nuttelex
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

FOR THE CAKES: Preheat oven to 180°C. Line muffin time with 12 cupcake liners. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together sugar, vegetable oil, yogurt and vanilla. Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, spices) and mix until smooth. Fold in carrot, walnuts and raisins.

Spray the cupcake liners with non stick baking spray. Fill the liners 2/3 full. Bake for 26 – 28 minutes, until a toothpick inserted through the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool.

FOR THE FROSTING: Cream together nuttelex, and cream cheese until just combined. Use a handheld mixer to whip while adding the confectioners sugar in half cup batches. Mix until smooth and creamy, then mix in the vanilla.

Once cakes are fully cooled top generously with cream cheese frosting and top with a crushed walnuts.

Vegan Cupcakes

This afternoon chef and I tried our hand at vegan baking for the first time. The recipe is from ‘Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World’ (another cookbook from geniuses Isa Chandra and Terry Hope Romero) but I actually got the recipe from my new muse Kel, and her ‘achey bakey heart’ wordpress blog. Kel’s cupcakes were much prettier than ours but we are proud of them none the less! They were very tasty, so good in fact that the first thing I did after eating a single cup cake, was jump online to my favourite online bookstore – book depository – and buy ourselves a copy of the book.

I won’t type out the recipe.. (here is the link if you want it: Hazelnut cupcakes), but I wanted to share some photos of our adventure: