The Vegan Frontier

Welp, I finally have a night off and am seated comfortably on the floor of my bedroom, between my bed and wall. This is the spot in my house where my cell phone works best, fresh breezes carrying the scent of grass and shrubs and backyard blooms float in, and blog posts are typed.

I know, I know, I've talked about them several times now but the wait is finally over - vegan cupcakes are here! After 3 batches, a slew of solicited advice, and these new ingredients in my reserves,

they are ready for you! Keep these recipes handy for granolas, animal lovers, and anyone who can't eat dairy.


Jenni's White Vegan Cupcakes
Makes 18, can double or triple.

1 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 c almond milk
2 c unbleached all purpose flour
1 c white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c coconut oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 c or larger glass measuring cup
small bowl
medium bowl
silicone spatula
a small sauce pan, only if your coconut oil is solid
3 6-cup or 2 12-cup muffin pans
wire cooling racks

1. Line 18 mufin cups with paper liners and set aside (I used these - excellent quality!)
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
*If your coconut oil is still solid in its jar, scoop into saucepan and heat on low, constantly stirring until liquefied*
3. Add the vinegar and almond milk to a glass measuring cup, and set aside until curdled (about 5 minutes)

4. In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
5. In small bowl, whisk together coconut oil, vanilla and almond extracts.
6. Add the vinegar milk mixture to the small bowl and whisk again.

7. Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir JUST until combined with no dry lumps
8. Spoon batter into the lined muffin cups (a quarter cup measure works just about perfect for me!)
9. Bake for 18 minutes or before any browing occurs
10. Remove from oven and cool pan on wire racks completely
11. Remove cupcakes from pan and frost!
12. Use my frosting recipe below :)

Jenni's Fluffy Vegan Citrus Frosting
Makes enough to frost 18 cupcakes with a tip. If you will just use a knife, cut recipe in half.

1 orange
1 lemon
1 lime
1 c Earth Balance Buttery Sticks room temperature or slightly melted
6 c-ish powdered sugar (more if it's hot or your citrus is extra zesty!)
2/3 c almond milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
a citrus zester or the smallest side of a cheese grater (this is the BEST to zest!)
large bowl
silicone spatula
standing or hand held mixer

1. Wash your citrus well to remove all of the commercially applied wax
2. Zest your cirtus and set aside. Don't know how to zest? Learn here.
3. In large bowl, beat buttery sticks on high speed for 10 seconds
4. Add 2 c sugar and mix on low for 10 seconds, scraping down the side of the bowl as you go
5. Increase mixer speed to high and continue incorporating sugar until smooth
6. Add 1/3 c milk and mix for 10 seconds
7. Repeat steps 3 and 4
8. Add the vanilla
9. Repeat step 4
10. Add the citrus zest and mix on high for a last 30-60 seconds until evenly incorporated
11. Frost your cupcakes!
12. Serve to wedding guests ;)

P.S. For plain 'ole vanilla frosting simply leave out the zest. The frosting will actually set up a bit better and look more like this:

Strawberry pie will is next but now it's time to switch from yoga clothes to pj's, settle into bed with my book, and let the crickets and cicadas send me off to sleep. G'night!

An Autumn Fav for Every Altitude

Pumpkin Cookies
Courtesy of Mama, a.k.a. Shelley

For cookies:
2 cups light brown sugar
1 can plain pumpkin
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 large bowls
mixer (hand help or standing)
silicone spatula
short wooden spoon
baking sheets
quilon free, unbleached parchment paper (it’s biodegradable)
wire cooling racks

For glaze:
3 oz fat free cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBS milk
1 cup confectioners/powdered sugar
medium bowl
silicone spatula
hand held mixer

1. In large bowl, cream sugar, pumpkin, oil and vanilla together on low speed until smooth (don’t be scared, it will be kinda sloppy and oily).
2. In another large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together.
3. Add 1/3 of the dry mixture to the creamed mixture.
4. Blend with mixer until smooth.
5. Add another third of the dry mixture to the creamed mixture.
6. Blend with wooden spoon until smooth.
7. Add remaining dry mixture to the creamed mixture and blend until smooth (it's okay if its heavy and stiff).
8. Turn on over to 350.
9. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.
10. Drop spoonfuls of batter on to cookie sheets. Sometimes I mold it in my hands a bit to make them more rounded and smooth.
11. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes.
12. Remove sheets from oven at let set 2 minutes.
13. Move cookies to racks to cool completely.
14. In medium bowl combine cream cheese, vanilla, milk and sugar.
15. Mix on medium speed until smooth.
16. Dunk the top of each cookie into the glaze and then let dry on wire racks (some WILL drip off so make sure you make these on a surface you can easily mess and then clean up :)

Lesson Learned
If your cakes or cookies get cracks in them it means they're too dry. This time around, my cookies simply had too much flour. Lesson learned? I didn't need to up the flour amount to 4 and 1/3 cups. Oh well, they were still FALLtastic!

"Top 4"

Super Summer Citrus Sweet Cakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes – Two hour work time, makes 36

Even though it was in the upper 90’s on Monday, I spent almost the entire day in the hot, hot kitchen baking for my beloved Acorns and new found Havin A Ball-er friends. I had been slacking in the baking and blogging arenas so thought it was about time for another round of cupcakes. The problem was buttercream frosting and or something super rich seemed completely unappealing and just wouldn’t jive with my un-air conditioned kitchen and the record breaking heat. So after running errands on my random day off and splurging on baking supplies at the grocery store, Bed Bath and Beyond, AND Sur La Table (I’m obsessed with this place!!!), I worked until my hands cramped on these delightful Summer Sweet Cakes. VOC intern Sean Buck said they were #4 on his all time favorite list. Thanks Sean!

For cakes:
7 whole large eggs, room temperature
2 egg whites, room temperature
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
3 oranges for 4 TBS orange zest
3 lemons for 3 TBS lemon zest
3 limes for 3 TBS lime zest
3 and 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp coarse salt (I used sea salt I ran through a grinder)
1 and ½ tsp vanilla
2 cups sugar
zester or metal grater with a super small or “fine” option
whisk
silicone spatula
3 small bowls
1 medium bowl
standing mixer with large bowl
muffin tins with enough room for 36 cakes

For glaze:
3 cups powdered sugar
3 TBS fresh orange juice
2 TBS fresh lemon juice
1 TBS fresh lime juice
silicone spatula
citrus juicer
1 medium bowl
3 small juice glasses
*Allow PLENTY of time when attempting this recipe.

1. Take your eggs and butter out of the fridge and set on counter. For best results do not use until they reach room temperature.
2. Fill 36 muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.
3. Whisk flour and salt together and set aside.
4. Using the super small or “fine” side option of a metal grater, zest your oranges into a small bowl. I recommend doing all of this on a towel while wearing an apron. If I owned some sort of safety glasses I would have worn those too – holey spraying citrus! Repeat with lemons and limes. I set up my zesting/juicing space like this:
5. Turn on oven to bake at 325 degrees or convection at 300 degrees. I tried both and the convection setting yielded more shapely cake tops.
6. Place butter and sugar in large bowl and beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes or until uniformly light and fluffy. Scrape down side of bowl as needed.
7. Add citrus zests. Scrape down side of bowl as needed.
8. Reduce speed to medium and add vanilla. Scrape down side of bowl as needed.
9. Add 3 whole eggs and beat until fully incorporated. Scrape down side of bowl as needed.
10. Add 4 whole eggs and beat until fully incorporated. Scrape down side of bowl as needed.
11. Add 2 egg whites and beat until fully incorporated. Scrape down side of bowl as needed.
12. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in thirds, scraping down the bowl after each portion to make sure everything is fully incorporated.
13. Evenly divide between muffin cups filling 3/4 full. This batter is heavy and dense enough to require much more batter in each cup than other high altitude cupcake recipes. I didn’t know this on my first batch and they turned out like this:
14. Bake for 10 minutes.
15. Rotate pans and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
16. Take out of oven and place all pans on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes.
17. Turn out cakes onto wire racks to cool completely. Turning them out before a full 10 minutes has passed does not give the cakes enough time to fully set up, resulting in your Sur La Table green and white dot paper liners pulling away from the cakes, looking messy and sloppy! Grrr…
18. Juice your zested oranges and pour into a juice glass. Repeat with lemons and limes, adding each kind of juice to its own glass.
19. Add measured juices and powdered sugar to medium bowl. Whisk together, scraping down sides of bowl as you go, until smooth. I used my standing mixer for speediest of results.
20. Dip tops of cakes in glaze and return to racks for glaze to set. You’re done!