Chai Latte Cupcakes

You might be tired of seeing recipes from VCTOTW by now, but I can't promise you that you are going to read anything different in this post. The chai latte cupcakes are simply delicious. I like that they are fairly low in fat and aren't super sweet. While I love drinking black tea, I decided to instead steep four bags of chai tea in the almond milk to really pump up the flavor of the cupcakes. I piped the vanilla bean frosting with my favorite Wilton 1M tip again. For Christmas, my mom got me a cinnamon grinder that I finally put to good use! It's pretty neat. While I have seen tons of pepper and salt mills, I hadn't seen one with cinnamon in it before.



I can't promise that you aren't going to see more cupcakes this week. It's like my cookie phase dissipated as soon as New Years hit and was replaced by the urge to bake cake. Maybe in a few weeks I will be on to something more exciting like pie?! Do you get into baking phases too?
I am currently experiencing another phase, buying tons of random dishes from thrift and discount stores. Note the plate above. I am sure my housemates would be happy if that phase subsided quickly as well, seeing as I already take up so much kitchen space!

A Whole Lotta Cookies in the Cookie Jar

Today I have a guest post over at Great Sage's blog. I discuss my favorite (and least favorite) recipes from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. If you don't live in the Maryland-DC area, you might not have heard of Great Sage. They are a terrific, all vegan restaurant located in Clarksville, MD. If you have the opportunity to stop by, I highly recommend their ceasar salad and their adult mac-n-cheese!

Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cupcakes

I don't think that I can do an adequate job describing these cupcakes. I generally am not a fan of cake. I think it's often too sweet, and though I like piping beautiful mounds of frosting, it isn't something I generally desire to eat. These cupcakes changed that for me. The first time I tasted this flavor combination was over the summer, when my friend Sheena made a batch for a friend's birthday. I knew I had to recreate them. Using the basic chocolate cake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, I made the batter with chocolate extract and a mixture of dark cocoa and Valhrona cocoa powders.
The almond butter frosting is what takes these to the next level however. I used a raw almond butter with a smooth texture. I am not sure how much the consistency of almond butter varies among brand, but mine was very, very thick. If yours is thin, you might need to add quite a bit more powdered sugar to achieve the desired texture. Also, these were piped with a Wilton 2D tip. If you look closely, you might be able to tell that even the smooth almond butter had enough almond pieces in it to clog the tip.


Almond Butter Frosting
(adapted from VCTOTW peanut buttercream frosting)

1/4 cup Earth Balance
2 tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)
1 cup powered sugar

Cream butter and shortening. Add almond butter and vanilla bean paste. Mix until blended. Slowly add powdered sugar. If not the desired consistency, either thicken with additional powered sugar or thin with almond milk.


Have you ever tried a nut butter frosting? Peanut is pretty common, but I love the almond version. It's not very sweet, and I even used the leftover frosting to flavor my oatmeal the next morning. I have used cashews to make creams, but I wonder what a cashew frosting would be like? Or hazelnut? A chocolate hazelnut cupcake might be like eating nutella?!

Funfetti & Rainbow Cupcakes

In the winter everything feels so whitewashed and pale, which might be why I have had the urge to make everything around me bright colors. It certainly is true for these cupcakes. I have seen lots of homemade made funfetti cake recipes across the blogosphere in the past and felt like it was time to make use of my giant stock of sprinkles. Typically, boxed confetti cake mixes are not vegan as they use a “white cake” that generally contains egg whites. But making your own is as simple as adding 1/4-1/3 cup of sprinkles to your cake batter. I added 1/3 cup to a batch of batter that made 16 cupcakes. If you think there are too many color splotches in mine, simply add your sprinkles in tablespoon increments until you see the amount of speckling you desire. Also, the larger sprinkles work better than nonpareils. I used rainbow sprinkles, and if I were going to make these again I might go through and pick out all the white sprinkles next time. To me they look like little pockets of unmixed flour or baking soda. Also, if you wanted to make your cake a little paler, you could also try using a colorless extract.

For the frosting I mixed together Wilton blue and green color gels until I got to the desired shade. I was given a box of gel colors, which I generally add using toothpicks or the tip of a reusable chopstick. The dyes with squirt tops are something that I envy, and would buy if I ever make it through the set that I have. These were piped with a Wilton 1M tip.
If you wanted to make a funfetti frosting to match the cake, you could either use nonpareils or maybe chop the larger sprinkles a little if you are planning on piping. Otherwise you will clog your tip!
While you have your dyes out, you might also want to try making some tye dye cupcakes! You basically just separate your batter into four or five small bowls and dye each. Then add them to your cupcake liners in varying amounts and patterns and bake. They are so simple, and yet really cute.


I know that dyes aren’t something I want to be a part of my everyday diet, but I think they are worth breaking out every now and then. Do you have any other recommendations for simple, colorful cakes?

Baked Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Donuts

As I told you over the weekend, I got a lot of use out of my thrifted donut pans. The recipe that I have been using the most of one from Vegan Yum Yum. However, I add an extra teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and only add the tiniest shake of cinnamon to the batter. For a chocolate cake donut, I simply replaced ¼ cup of flour with cocoa powder. I made one batch of chocolate and two batches of vanilla bean. Each batch made about 10-12 donuts for me.


I played a lot with different toppings, to try and allow for a lot of various flavors. I made a simple glaze from powdered sugar and water to dip the chocolate donuts in. For the vanilla bean donuts, I dipped a few in a pink sugar glaze and threw on some sprinkles to create a ‘Homer Simpson’ donut. I also made a lemon glaze, and threw a handful of coconut on top of those. I made a chocolate glaze using Valhrona cocoa powder and almond milk (Valhrona cocoa powder is much richer than normal baking cocoa, and I highly recommend giving it a chance. It’s worth the price for the extra flavor). I threw sprinkles on part of the chocolate dipped donuts, and crushed Chick-O-Sticks on the remaining. The Chick-O-Stick flavor didn’t come through as much as I would have liked, so if I play around with them again in donuts, I might add a handful of ground candy to the batter.


I also learned an important lesson. If you are baking several dozen donuts the night before you serve them, you might not want to wrap them in an aluminum pan with plastic wrap. Mine got a little too wet, even though they had all fully cooled before I wrapped them. They were fine after a few hours of sitting unwrapped again, but I think it would have been better to just let them sit in an open container overnight.
I equally love cake and yeast donuts, but I need to attempt making yeast donuts again soon. I would also like to work on a blueberry and raspberry cake donut! Do you have any favorite donut recipes? My friend Jenna made a resolution to make a batch of donuts every other week this year. I am excited to see her progress and all the flavor combinations she comes up with!

Cardamom Spice Gluten Free Donuts

I have had a mini donut pan for a few months now, but earlier this week I found a pair of regular sized donut pans at a thrift store for less than five dollars! Today I spent most of the afternoon baking donuts while watching Stranger Than Fiction. Maggie Gyllenhaal's character has my dream life. And her partner brings her flours! I swoon.
A friend had asked me when I started this blog if I would work on gluten free donuts, and I was happy to attempt. I started with a recipe from Jeanette's Healthy Living because it sounded the most appealing and I happened to have all the necessary ingredients at hand. When I first mixed the batter I felt like it was way too thing to possibly bake properly, and so I added more of the flour mixture until it seemed to be a workable consistency. I would guess that I used 200-250 grams of the total 400 grams I made. These donuts also became cardamom spice, I dumped tons in when I failed to realize the plastic cap was missing from the spice jar. Baking blunders, you gotta love 'em. Thankfully I was able to remove quite a bit of it, and the flavor wasn't too overwhelming.


This batch made 7 donuts for me. If you aren't familiar with using a donut pan, it takes a little practice to gauge the correct amount of batter. I highly suggest attempting to make one donut first to have an idea. You might feel like there is no way the tiny amount of batter you place in the tray will expand so much, but trust me it will. These donuts were also really fragile. One crumbled in the cinnamon sugar mixture, even though I was turning it very carefully. If I were to make this recipe again, I would probably add a bit of xanthan gum to help hold it together. Also, I couldn't taste the pumpkin in the batter (even before I dumped in too much cardamom), so I wouldn't make it hoping for a very pumpkiny flavor.
I feel like this was a solid first attempt at gluten free donuts for me. I think I might also try BabyCake's recipe in the future and play with various toppings.
I have more donuts that there wasn't daylight to photograph! So I will share those with you soon. Do you have a favorite donut? I have had some pretty amazing donuts from Mighty-O in Seattle. But I haven't had the chance to try Dun Well yet in New York. I hear they have a root beer donut?!

Faux-Butterfinger Milkshake

It has been so long since I have turned on my oven! For a week I was in Tennessee, and then I spent a 4-day weekend in the Midwest. Despite it being the coldest week yet this winter, the only things I can think about are ice cream and milkshakes. While I was in Chicago I drank the two best milkshakes of my life. One was the chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter milkshake from the Chicago Diner and the other was a strawberry milkshake from Pick Me Up Café.
While I was in Tennessee I also finally found Chick-O-Sticks again! Chick-O-Sticks are a delicious gluten free candy made from coconut and peanut butter. They are the closest thing to a vegan Butterfinger that I have ever found. Toy Joy in Austin makes a Chick-O-Stick milkshake that I had the pleasure of trying last fall. Ever since I have tried it, I knew I wanted to create my own version. There’s was a little thing because it is made from soft serve ice cream and lacks the hint of chocolate that really brings out the ‘Butterfinger’ness I desired.


Chick-O-Stick Milkshakes
Makes 2 large glasses

1 pint vanilla ice cream
1/3-1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
2 large Chick-O-Sticks or 20 individually wrapped bite size pieces
4 tsps chocolate syrup

Pour chocolate syrup in glass and set aside. Grind candy to a fine powder. Add to ice cream and milk and blend until desired consistency. Serve immediately.


I used Tempt ice cream because I had never tried a hemp-based ice cream before, but I was not a fan. If I were going to try this again, I would have used coconut or almond. Normally when I am making a chocolate syrup to drizzle, I melt chocolate with coconut oil. Unless you want a crunch, I would recommend using shortening, as coconut oil will produce a ‘magic shell’ like gets poured on top of sundaes. You don’t have to worry about that if you happen to have a store bought chocolate syrup around. Alternatively, you could also just throw a handful of chocolate chips in the blender with the milkshake. If you washed your glass right before you decided to make the milkshake, I also suggest making sure it is very dry because any remaining water will mix with the chocolate. Note the discoloration of the chocolate at the bottom of my glass (whoops!).
What’s your favorite flavor for a milkshake? I highly suggest checking out the restaurants/cafes mentioned above if you are in those areas!

*If you live in the DC area and like vegan snacks and punk music, you should check out Venomous Fest this Saturday. My friend Sheena and I will be having a vegan bake sale. There will be tons of cupcakes, cookies, donuts, rice krispie treats, and even a few savory snacks.