Vegan Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes With Raspberry Jam Glaze

One of our best friends was in town for the weekend to celebrate her birthday. I asked her what kind of cake she would would most like and she said "I love lemon and raspberry anything".

Lemon and raspberry are flavours I often do not bake with so I went searching for a cupcake recipe. I like the way this one turned out but I wish it would have had a stronger lemon kick. P and I are also trying to get away from using refined sugar which always leaves me stumped for good non-chocolate icing ideas. This time I thought why not use raspberry jam as a glaze. I think the glaze was my favourite part about these cupcakes it was so yummy.

Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes - Yields 18 cupcakes

½ cup vegan margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
⅔ cup soy milk
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Zest from 2 lemons
1¾ cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup diced raspberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease or line a cupcake tin.

Beat together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, then add vanilla, soy milk, lemon juice, and zest.


In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Combine flour mixtures with wet ingredients just until mixed. Do not overmix. Gently fold in diced raspberries.

Fill cupcakes about ⅔ full with batter and bake immediately for 16–18 minutes or until done.

Raspberry Glaze

1 cup raspberry jam (I used a no sugar added type)
2 Tbsp lemon juice

In a small pot heat jam and lemon juice until it is liquid. Set aside to cool slightly. When cupcakes are baked and cooled spread glaze over each cupcake. The glaze will cool and stiffen. Serve cupcakes with a little lemon zest as garnish.

Vegan Falafel

For my November Secret Recipe Club I was assigned the blog Pepper & Sherry. Juls' blog is full of these awesome Polaroid-like photo's of all her food. And each recipe is laid out so nicely making sure you know not only what ingredients you need but also what equipment you will use as well.

If you are a meat lover than Juls' blog is for you. Although there were lots of yummy vegetarian dishes to try as well. I decided on this falafel recipe because I had never made it before and it sounded really comforting. I followed the recipe pretty much to a t except that I made the mixture in a blender and not a food processor so I had to add some water to facilitate the blending process. My mixture was probably a bit softer than Juls so instead of shaping the fafafel into patties I just scooped it straight out of the bowl with an ice cream scoop then flattened them in the pan.

 If you have never made home made falafel I hight recommend it. Absolutely delicious. I served mine with some crisped up pita, baba ganoush, tabbouleh, and a tomato & artichoke salad.

Falafel
14 oz can of chickpeas, drained
3 smashed garlic cloves
1 roughly chopped red onion
3 tablespoons gram or plain flour (gram flour is a gluten free chickpea flour)
tablespoon parsley
1 teaspoon hot chilli flakes
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water (If using a blender)

METHOD:

1. Put all the ingredients in a food processor (or blender) and process to your desired consistency.
2. Heat up about 2 tablespoons of oil in your frying pan. 
3. When the pan is hot, scoop out small patties using an ice cream scoop. Place into pan and using the back of a spoon flatten out slightly. 
4. Cook the patties for about 3 minutes on either side.

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes Stuffed with Cinnamon Cookies & Topped with Cinnamon Buttercream

I don't know why but I had a craving for cupcakes that contained a cookie. I didn't know how these would turn out. Would the cookie be crunchy or soft? Could you even tell it was there?

I broke the cookies up a bit before adding them to the batter but I think you could even live dangerously and keep them whole. When you bite into the cupcake the cookies are soft and almost melted into the cake. They leave these delicious sugary cinnamony streaks. Add the cinnamon buttercream and you you have a winner.

Vanilla Cupcakes Stuffed with Cinnamon Cookie

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups almond milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut oil, warmed until liquid
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 - 2 cups of cinnamon cookies, broken up slightly (I used 1 package of Lucy's Cinnamon Thins)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 2 muffin pans with 20 paper baking cups. 

Measure the apple cider vinegar into a 2 cup measuring cup. Fill with almond milk to make 1 1/2 cups. Let stand until curdled, about 5 minutes. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond milk mixture, coconut oil and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until blended. Add the cookie pieces and spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly. 

Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool then frost with cinnamon buttercream.

Vegan Cinnamon "Butter"cream Frosting

1 cup soft vegan margarine
1 lb powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp cinnamon

Combined all ingredients and mix for 5 minutes. Keep covered in fridge until ready to use.

Vegan Chocolate Almond Butter Pie

This pie was made and eaten in the span of about 2 hours. It was so tasty. The filling is quite thick and very creamy. If you like you can add more milk to the mixture for a lighter filling.

Graham Cracker Crust
10 graham crackers
1/3 cup Earth Balance, melted

In a food processor (or by hand with a ziploc bag and rolling pin) grind graham crackers until they are crumbs. In a mizing bowl combined graham crumbs with butter and mix. Press mixture evenly into a 9 inch pie plate and bake in a 375 oven for 5 minutes. Set aside.


Vegan Chocolate Almond Butter Pie
200 grams dark chocolate
2 cups almond butter
1/2 soy sour cream (Or cream cheese)
3/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup maple syrup (optional)
1/2 cup almonds, chopped

Melt the chocolate in a double broiler. Meanwhile, using a hand mixer, blend the almond butter, sour cream, and soy milk together. Add melted chocolate and mix thoroughly. Taste to see if you need to add the maple syrup. (I don't like my desserts to sweet). Pour mixture into prepared crust and top with almonds. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until filling is firm. Cool and serve.

Salmon Chowder

I love the fall. I can start wearing sweaters and scarfs and layering outfits. Plus it means yummy soups and stews. My dad was visiting us with his new lady friend and I decided I would make something with salmon. But the fish monger also had some really beautiful scallops and mussels. I couldn't choose between them so I made this chowder with all three!

Salmon Chowder

Olive oil
1 large leek, sliced into rounds
1 onion, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1/2 head of cauliflower, chopped
2 - 3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
Broth
2 ears of corn, kernels removed with knife
1 can of coconut milk
1 fillet of salmon, skin removed, cut into 1 inch cubes

8 medium scallops
10 mussels, cleaned
Fresh herbs (I used basil, thyme and oregano)

In large pot cook the onions and leeks in a little olive oil until onions are translucent. Add the garlic, carrots, cauliflower, and potatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add enough broth to cover the veggies by about an inch. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked. You may want to add a bit more broth depending on how thick you want the chowder. Add corn kernels, coconut milk and salmon. Simmer for 3 minutes. Add scallops, mussels and fresh herbs and simmer for another 3 - 4 minutes or until all seafood is cooked. Serve piping hot with these potato biscuits.

Vegan Potato Biscuits

These biscuits are a cinch to make when you have left over mashed potatoes and are really delicious.  The inspiration for these comes from a non-vegan recipe in The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book. I happened to have a little Daiya cheese in the fridge so I topped each biscuit with a little before cooking. Super tasty but I think they would be just as good if you skipped the "cheese".

Vegan Potato Biscuits
1 cup soy milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup cold Earth Balance, cubed
3/4 cup mashed potatoes
Handful of fresh herbs, chopped (I used basil, rosemary and thyme)
1/2 cup Daiya shredded cheese (Optional)

Dust rimless baking sheet generously with all-purpose flour; set aside.

Mix together soy milk and apple cider vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cayenne pepper. With pastry blender, cut in butter until crumbly, with a few larger pieces.

In a separate bowl, whisk soy milk mixture with potatoes until smooth; pour over dry ingredients. With fork, toss together until soft ragged dough forms. Turn out onto floured surface; knead 3 or 4 times until dough holds together.

Pat out and with a round cookie cutter cut out biscuits. Arrange on prepared pan,sprinkle with cheese if desired. Bake in centre of 400°F oven until golden, about 18 minutes.

Vegan Rice Pudding

Sorry for the long delay in blogging. It's been a busy month. But I am back with a  very yummy recipe.

 

This is my first month participating in the Secret Recipe Club and my assignement was to make something from Apron Strings Blog. There was a lot of yummy stuff and I was having trouble deciding what to make. But then I saw this rice pudding recipe and I was set. I didn't have pistachios to garnish so I used sesame seeds, acia berries and cashews. I found the recipe a bit on the sweet side so next time I would reduce the sugar.


CARDAMOM RICE PUDDING

2/3 cup basmati rice
3 cups water
2 cans (12 ounces each) coconut milk
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 cup sugar (I would reduce the sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Diced pistachios for garnish

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, bring to a boil the rice, water (or milk), coconut milk and salt. Reduce heat to simmer the mixture very slowly. Simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thickened to the consistency of oatmeal.

Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients. Serve chilled or at room temperature with garnish of your choice.