I am not sure why – but my last post was incomplete! I don’t know why everything didn’t get published but here we will go again….

Two weeks ago I baked a batch of vegan vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Mmmm mmm were they delicious. It was hard to keep from eating them after they had cooled. I ended up eating 3 in one day so I took them to my  physics lab for my partners to enjoy!

This picture does not give them justice. I am working on my food photography skills… I am learning it is somewhat of an art! I topped them off with a blueberry because I only had a few left and needed to put them to use. The ingredients used for the vanilla cupcakes include:

* 1 1/2 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer powder (equivalent of 1 egg) —> I can only find this at Whole Foods

* 2 tbsp. water

*1 3/4 cups vanilla soymilk

*1/2 cup of water, divided

*1/2 cup non-hydrogenated, nondairy butter, melted (I use EarthBalance)

*1 1/2 granulated sugar

*1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

*2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

*2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

*1/2 tsp. salt

For starters, you need to whip or in a food processor, blend the egg replacer and 2 tbsp of water together until its smooth and creamy. The add the soymilk and 1/4 cup of water to the egg replacer mixture. Then cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, add the vanilla extract. In a seperate bowl stir  together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this along with the egg replacer/milk mixture to the butter/sugar combination. Beat them together…. and add to the muffin cups and bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes.This should make about 10-12 cupcakes… I think I ended up with 10.

They turned out nice and moist – which is my favorite! But when I pulled them out of the cupcake tins, a couple were very soft and caved in a bit! The frosting was delicious and simple to make. It is relatively easy to find vegan frosting at the grocery store but I always feel better about making things homemade because you know you aren’t consuming chemical additives and preservatives.

Here is what I used for the Chocolate Frosting:

*1/2 cup non-hydrogenated, non dairy butter, softened (EarthBalance)

* 3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted

(okay, so I honestly didn’t know what this was hahaha…. thank goodness my mom informed it is plain ‘ole powdered sugar)

*1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

(also, I did not sift this or the sugar… so I am not sure if it will make too much of a difference)

*1 tsp vanilla extract

*3 to 4 tbsp water or nondairy milk

(I used soymilk)

Cream the butter…. then add the confectioners sugar and cream a bit longer (couple minutes). Then add the cocoa, vanilla, and milk and to the mixer up to a high speed until all the ingredients are combined. Beat until the frosting is light and fluffy and if it seems a bit dry, add 1 to 2 tbsp. of milk and keep blending. The recipe I used for this says this frosting will last up to 2 weeks if refrigerated. I felt like this make a lot of frosting and I definitely had a bunch leftover. It is so fluffy and tasty – a new favorite of mine!

I drove back to Boulder today from Nebraska and leave for California tomorrow to surprise my cousin at her college graduation from California Lutheran University and to visit Ryan and meet his family. I couldn’t be more excited. I want to check out Trader Joe’s while we are out there and see how it compares to my beloved Whole Foods

I am planning to start blogging more of my meals and a book review of my current read…. “This Crazy Vegan Life” Have a great week!