Baby Shower Bites

Last weekend my mom and my good friend Paula threw me a baby shower. This was just ONE of the food tables! The cake with the giant cupcake on top of it in the pic above my mom ordered from a bakery, but despite the fact they were both skeptical that I'd want to make anything, I insisted on making vegan cupcakes, of course. And, in what's becoming my go-to wower for parties, I whipped up some of SMBP's black & white truffles.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

Soft, chocolate, Kahlua-spiked cupcakes, filled with melty chocolate, covered in vanilla Kahlua marshmallow icing, drizzled with more melted chocolate, and topped off with a Dandies marshmallow. I call them Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, and they definitely warmed up the guests at my holiday party!

HoHoHoliday Party

Time for another vegan dinner party! Although, this one was filled with so many sweet holiday treats, I'm not sure it's technically accurate to call it a dinner party.... salted caramel corn, ginger spice cupcakes, "Mexican hot chocolate" cupcakes, pretzel bites, spiced Nog, mulled wine, and more!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffles & Vegan Halloween

Happy Halloween! What better way to end Vegan MoFo than with a deliciously sweet spread. We had a Halloween party Saturday night, and yep, I did my crazy hostess thing yet again.... This time, I made bourbon cinnamon cupcakes, candy corn, and pumpkin cream cheese truffles.

4th of July Treats

A bit late on my fourth of July post, but we are getting ready for a move around here so it's been busy! I made a slew of vegan treats to take to a BBQ for the 4th, and they were a total hit (especially, as usual, the cupcakes). Read on for the details!

Cookie dough cupcakes and *alternates*

I don't know about you, but I don't go to many 1 year old's birthday parties. But, I went to one this weekend and I thought- what better treat to bring than COOKIE DOUGH in CUPCAKE FORM??!

Speaking of this weekend, we were *supposed* to have been in Mexico Saturday. Yes, instead we were at a birthday party filled with screaming children. How did that happen? And how else might one vary these cupcakes? For these exciting topics and more, read on! ;-)

Beer Cupcakes!

This idea came through Pinterest: Blue Moon cupcakes with a light, airy frosting. Since the original recipe, from Miss Make, wasn't vegan, I altered things quite a bit, but man on man what a great idea! These cupcakes are light and fluffy, with a hint of that Hefeweizen wheat flavor, paired perfectly with orange. Mmmmmmmmm Blue Moon, sweetened and in cupcake form.

Banana-Stuffed French Toast Cupcakes

I love making cupcakes. I made these for a friend's baby shower, and they were a total hit. I was even told they tasted better than Kara's (a local favorite).

Just what is a banana-stuffed french toast cupcake, anyway? This idea was inspired a little bit by the most epic brunch I have ever had: banana stuffed french toast, ordered in as room service after my first marathon, eaten in bed. Epic, I tell you.

So I decided to bring a little brunch into dessert...

Chloe's cupcake!

I love cupcakes. I've been making mini ones the center of parties for a while, and so I was pretty excited to try my first batch of vegan cupcakes during my "vegan month". But how to pick a recipe? If I'm committing to making a full batch of cupcakes and bringing them to a party, I want to make sure they are really delicious. What better vegan cupcake to pick, in that case, than the one that beat them all in Cupcake Wars? I decided to make the beautiful Chef Chloe's equally beautiful vegan Tiramisu cupcake.

To sum things up, this is an 100% vegan cupcake with a vanilla cake base, hollowed out a bit in the center and filled with a soaking liquid of amaretto and espresso and raspberry sauce, and topped off with a buttercream frosting that's hinted with amaretto & espresso. Is your mouth watering yet? The result is a very sweet, grown-up cupcake, reminiscent of Tiramisu but not overpowering.

Despite having no egg, and almond milk rather than regular milk, these cupcakes came out perfectly... they have a hint of vanilla flavor and are incredibly moist and just a little spongy. A great base cupcake.

I'll defer to Chef Chloe's site for the recipes/instructions for all these components, and just list the ingredients in case a link changes at some point!

Ingredients I used in the cupcakes: 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt, ¾ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (T.Joe's brand), ½ cup canola oil, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Next came the raspberry filling. At first I thought I had made it too thin (I used agave syrup rather than sugar, as the recipe calls for either), but after letting it cool in the fridge, the consistency was perfect for a filling. (OR, I'm thinking this would make a great topping to icecream- vegan or not). There's a hint of citrus and cinnamon in the raspberry filling that makes it just awesome.

Ingredients I used in the raspberry sauce: 1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen), a little less than ½ cup agave syrup, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, dash of salt

I pretty much followed the recipe to a T, other than I only made 6 regular sized cupcakes- with the rest of the batter, I made 24 mini cupcakes, since people at parties tend to be scared off of committing to a full-sized cupcake (even though they will eat 2 or 3 minis!)

The results:

These are the mini ones only:


Soaking liquid ingredients: 1/3 cup amaretto and 1 Tablespoon instant espresso

Frosting ingredients: 1 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening, 3 cups powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons water, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Add to taste: 2 tablespoons instant espresso powders mixed wiht 2 tablespoons amaretto.

Some notes:
-Definitely take Chloe's advice and don't add all the espresso mixture to the frosting at once. I might have used about half of it in total to get the right consistency and flavor.
-The frosting is REALLY sweet. I'm wondering if some of the sugar could be cut back...
-Overall, a really delicious, sophisticated cupcake. They do take a bit longer than your average cupcake to make, but the result is worth it!
-I just might have eaten the scooped out parts of the cupcakes that Chloe says to 'discard'.... hey, you have to make sure they taste ok, right? ;-)