Taking the -ISM out of VEGANISM: Cupcakes.

One of my nearest and dearest has recently decided that it's about time she release herself from the bonds of the American diet and try something a little more Mediterranean--pescatarianism.  Between a few health scares and some foreboding pork tacos, she turned over to the dark side.

Now it's certainly a learning process.  Whilst coming over for a baking adventure, she came in carrying a pound of shortening which, as I told her, she is better off eating meat than eating that.  She gave me some gruff about it, but was eventually subdued.

There are a lot of haters out there about veganism and vegetarianism for sure, and yeah, that's pretty understandable because it seems to go both ways.  An old friend of my once complained to my boyfriend and myself about our beloved city's obsession with hotdogs and then proceeded to stand up and pull two VEGAN hotdogs out of a pot.  Yeah, no joke.  No short time later did he refuse to hang out with us while we performed the disgusting act of eating delivered pizza.  So yeah, if you're being subjected to that type of vegan (which, unfortunately, you probably are), I don't blame you for hating them.  The reverse can also be said about people who eat meat and just can't seem to understand those crazy vegans and they will eat meat if they damn well please.  No society without war, right?

So in effort to prove one of those HATERS wrong, she decided she called me last night and asked me if I could make some vegan cupcakes with her in the morning in anticipation of seeing a hater.  I want to remind people that you don't have to be vegetarian or vegan to have a happy and healthy diet, but what will keep your heart pumping for a long natural life is keeping an open mind.  Yes, you can bake vegan. No, baking just doesn't have to have butter.  Yes, you can eat vegetarian for a week and then get trashed, black out and wake up in the Burger King line.  It doesn't have to be black and white and you are no better or worse for eating vegan or eating meat.  Unless you're a total prick about it and refuse to accept that America produces horrible awful goods like spinach with salmonella on it and mad cow disease, then I hope you live to the ripe age of 30 and have a kale/beef induced heart attack.

Anyway...

You decide for yourself how you want to die, but these babies are goooood:

[VEGAN] HORCHATA CUPCAKES


What you'll need:


1 cup vegan horchata (you can find this in a grocery store in the rice milk section, or you can make your own which is just essentially milk, sugar and cinnamon)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp almond extract (optional--We did not use this)
1 1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp corn starch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt


Admittedly, we got the recipe from--dare I say it?--the PETA website.  That fact alone made me very skeptical of this recipe because, you know, PETA.  I also looked at the ingredients and had to think a lot about what was going on there---this is actually another reason why I really can enjoy vegan baking.  It requires you to understand what makes the baking process happen.  It's an interesting little lesson in what ingredients really do to each other while they're hanging out in the oven making things happen.

Also, I'll give a nod to PETA because this recipe came out PERFECT and needed no altering.  I was very impressed, indeed.

Here we go:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Put your horchata and apple cider vinegar into a bowl and let sit for a minute while you get everything else in order.

Mix your oil, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.

In another bowl, mix together all of your dry ingredients.  Now that I look back, I'm not even sure we put the salt in....weird.

Anyway, when you're done getting that stuff in order, mix your horchata and sugar/oil mixture together. Slowly beat in your dry mix.

And that's pretty much it.

Grease your cupcake pan thoroughly with some Earth Balance (vegan margarine) and powder with a little flour.  I've noticed that vegan baked goods tend to stick more so than non-vegan, so I like to take precautions by really greasing up the pan good.

Fill each cupcake thingy about 2/3 of the way and then pop those bad boys in the oven.  This recipe is supposed to make 12, but we got about 9 1/2.

Of course, we didn't take many pictures in the process but we did, however, watch a friend's new adopted doggie:

Doggie doggie doggie.

While your cupcakes are baking, mix your frosting together:

[VEGAN] HORCHATA FROSTING


1 stick or 8 Tbsps Earth Balance [vegan margarine]
1/4 cup horchata
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 cups powdered sugar


I usually don't condone making a frosting that is the same flavor of the cupcakes, but this actually works out great, so I'll stick to the recipe.

Mix your Earth Balance, horchata, cinnamon and vanilla together.  Slowly beat in powdered sugar a cup at a time.  This is going to make you a nice sweet buttercream.  When it is as a stiff but spreadable consistency, you can pop it in the fridge for a little bit and let it sit.  Then take your cupcakes out when you can stick them with, well, a stick and it comes out clean:

Not too bad.

We let them cool for about 10 minutes and we decided to frost them nicely with a homemade pastry tube, which you can easily make out of parchment paper...and then we started decorating:

And decorating:

And decorating:

And then we sprinkled them with a little bit of cinnamon and we ended up with these:

Oh yeahhhhh...that's right.

After these cool down and the edge starts to crisp, they sort of begin to taste like churros and I'm reminded, yet again, why I live in the Puerto Rican side of town.

And my baking partner approves:

Time to get your vegan on.