Vegan Cupcakes

So Halloween is this week and I found out two weeks ago that Marley's new pre-school teacher is also Vegan, which means, of course we have to make cupcakes for her Halloween Party on Wednesday, and because I like to make things complicated (as my hubby would say), I pulled out my copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Terry Hope Romero and Sara Quin, and began to play with flavor combinations and recipes. 

Love this cook book and if you don't own it buy it!!

Luckily my husband and I have a Halloween Party to go to tonight so I don't have to eat 10 dozen cupcakes all by myself. Vegan or not, that is a few too many for even me.  So before our trip to visit our good friend Amanda and her horses, my baking assistant and I started batching cupcakes and we finished baking, frosting and decorating them today at about 6:00 am. Too bad for Daddy since he was still in bed and got to hear the mixer going bright and early. 

Some of this weeks flavors: The Elvis (for Lori since we are going to her party tonight and he is a huge fan), A chocolate Orange Cupcake (the winner along with a spider Newman O's on top for Marley's school party) and an Almond Joy Cupcake.  For the Almond Joy, I am still playing, as of right now I used the Chocolate Coconut Cupcake Recipe and added Almond Extract, then made a Chocolate Butter Cream with Almond, not sure I love it. Will try again soon and keep you posted on my continued tweaking.

Here is my Baking assistant following my directions, step by step for the Chocolate Orange Cupcakes batter. 

Whisking.

  

I was actually pretty amazed at how well she follows instructions and she stuck with me in the kitchen through the whole process, even moving her baby dolls table into the kitchen to use as her surface to "write her recipes in her note book".

 And since she it too little to put them in the oven, she cleans the spatula for me. One benefit of Vegan Cupcakes, no eggs!  She told me her friends "are really gonna like these cupcakes, because I'm a really good cook". And yes, she meant her, not me.

Once the batter was in the oven, we moved onto the Elvis Cupcakes, after making a delicious and light Banana Cupcake, we filled and frosted them with Peanut Butter cream Frosting. The secret is in the Molasses.

  Peanut Butter Cream

The Elvis Cupcakes with the Ghosts, per Marley's direction. (she actually put them on)

  Here are the Chocolate Orange Cupcakes, with Orange Butter Cream Frosting and Chocolate Ganache, there are only 11, as #12 is below and the start of the Newman O's Spider, without the legs. (I'm having a hard time finding Vegan shoestring Licorice which is what I want to use)

Busy morning, thanks for checking in and more pictures and blog tomorrow. Tomorrow we tackle that yummy roasted Vegetable soup, and carve pumpkins!! And maybe even pictures from the Halloween Party! :)

Namaste, and get your down dog on people!! 

XOXO