Green Velvet Cupcakes

If these cupcakes seem eerily similar to a recipe I posted last month, you’re right. Last month, for Valentine’s Day, I posted a recipe for vegan red velvet cupcakes. This is basically the same recipe, except these are Green Velvet Cupcakes.

The Recipe:
1 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp red food coloring

Mix together dry ingredients. Add soy milk, oil, food coloring and vanilla. Mix well. Add the vinegar until just blended.
Bake at 350 F for 13-20 minutes.

My Review:
These cupcakes turned out great. They tasted better than my original batch of red velvet cupcakes, because I baked them for the appropriate time. However, they didn’t come out quite as vibrantly green as I was hoping for, but no one complained about the color. And I’m sure if you use more food coloring (I only used 1 tbsp) that it will work out better for you.

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Stolen Banana Bread

I’m calling this banana bread “stolen” because I deserve no credit for this awesome recipe. The recipe belongs to my friend and co-worker Kathleen, who often joins me in Vegan Bake Offs. I’ve eaten her banana bread before, but it has never tasted as delicious as it did last night, eating a slice straight out of the oven. The bananas were gooey and almost caramelized with the chocolate chips to create a delicious, gooey, chocolatey texture.

Ingredients:
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup applesauce (I used Mom’s homemade applesauce)
1 cup sugar, a little less than a cup
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
chocolate chips, to taste

Mix together bananas and applesauce. Mix together dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients. Mix well, until somewhat smooth. Pour the batter into a bread pan, and preheat the oven to 350 F. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

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Red Velvet Cupcakes

I’ve never made red velvet cake before. To be honest, I’ve never even tasted red velvet cake before. So maybe I’m not the best judge of quality here… but either way I can assure you, these red velvet cupcakes are the perfect Valentines Day treat.

The Recipe:
1 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp red food coloring

Mix together dry ingredients. Add soy milk, oil, food coloring and vanilla. Mix well. Add the vinegar until just blended.
Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes. (The original recipe said 25 minutes, but I ended up over baking them a bit, so 20 minutes is just a guess.)

I didn’t go all out on these and make vegan cream cheese frosting. I had the Tofutti, however I also bought bagels this week, and simply decided that my Tofutti would be better put to use on my morning breakfast, than on these cupcakes. (Selfishness is sometimes necessary.)

For the Frosting:
1/2 cup vegan shortening
1/2 cup vegan butter, Earthbalance
3 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk

Beat together shortening and butter until relatively smooth. Add the powdered sugar gradually, continually beating in more powdered sugar until smooth-ish. Add soy milk and continue to mix. Add vanilla, mix until smooth.

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Oreo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies and Better Food Photography

So many different food experiments happened this past weekend that I absolutely have to lump them all into one, extremely overwhelming post!

First, I’ll talk about my (slightly) improved food photography. I had an assignment last week for my photojournalism course to take photos using an external flash. Now I don’t know about you, but this seemed really intimidating to me at first. I don’t own an external flash, so instead of purchasing one, I borrowed a camera from my work which came with an external flash. To anyone who knows anything about DSLRs, the camera I borrowed might be a little impressive: it was the Canon 5D Mark II. Whoo! Everything was way over my head. There was definitely a learning curve coming from my Sony Alpha A55. So, long story short, I was super intimidated for about a week.

Thankfully…miraculously…somehow… I got over my initial fright and just started snapping photos of food last night. To my absolute delight, they came out looking quite nice! However in the future I’ll try not to shoot everything on a bright blue backdrop (which actually doubles as my bedroom curtains).

So the first thing I baked this weekend was a semi-failure. I baked a pan of slutty oreo brownies, from a recipe I found on What’s Gaby Cooking. These looked absolutely sinful, however, I made the amateur mistake of using salted vegan butter when the recipe actually called for unsalted butter. This was definitely a no-no. The salted butter made the brownies super oily and gross looking. I tried baking them for about 20 extra minutes, but all that did was overcook them and leave them with the curious description of solid yet oily. Gross.

I was quite disappointed in myself. (Also, I took this photo on my cell phone, not the 5D Mark II.)

However, one success did come out of that recipe! In the recipe it requires that you make too much cookie dough, and recommends saving the extra dough to make chocolate chip cookies later. Thankfully, the cookie dough came out marvelously, and I was still able to salvage the day of baking. I made oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies, which were awesome. Sweet, but not too sweet.

They look funny, but they are awesome! And oreos are totally vegan! Doesn’t that blow your mind?

Finally, on Sunday evening I made myself something healthy to eat. It was an offshoot of the brussels sprout potato hash I made a few months back. I basically used the exact same recipe, but substituted broccoli for brussels sprouts. It was still delicious.

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Awesomely Delicious Coconut Brownies

My roommate and I got into a bit of a tiff this weekend (typical roommate problems) and, well, I eventually felt the need to apologize to her. These things happen, and having roommate problems really sucks, so I decided to bake her brownies as an addition to a verbal apology. And seriously, if she didn’t accept these brownies as an apology, she’d have to be crazy, because they are soft, gooey and insanely delicious.

I baked brownies because it was the only baked good I actually had ingredients for and I’m so glad I found this recipe! It is absolutely wonderful.

I seriously need better photo-ing skills.. but I'll take another picture later.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a freaking huge bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients, and mix well. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes.

I added the coconut oil last, and I’ll admit, I was skeptical about adding it because the mixture already looked extremely moist. But I was able to mix it in really well, and the brownies actually turned out all the better for it. They have a wonderful soft, gooey texture with just the right hint of coconut flavoring. If (or rather, when) I make them again, I’d probably add a nice coconut frosting like this one:

2 sticks (1 cup) vegan butter, cold
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut

Mix vegan butter until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar, blending until combined. Add coconut milk, vanilla extract and coconut flakes. Blend until creamy. (I haven’t tried this frosting yet, but judging from my knowledge of frosting recipes, it looks like it would work well.)

Oh, and my roommate and I are on good terms now. But I like to think she would have forgiven me even if I hadn’t baked her brownies… although I’m sure it didn’t hurt!

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Chocolate Brownie Bliss

Since I’ve clearly missed my opportunity to engage in extensive holiday baking, I’m trying now to make up for it with a delicious, traditional chocolate brownie recipe.

The recipe comes from The Joy of Vegan Baking

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tbsp water
2 tsp ground flaxseed
1/2 cup water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix together 1/2 cup water, flaxseed and vanilla in small bowl. In separate bowl, mix sugar and applesauce. Add water, flaxseed and vanilla mixture to the sugar and applesauce mixture and mix well. In large bowl mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips add this to the applesauce mixture and mix well until smooth.

Bake for 40 minutes. The final product should be slightly moist.

I also topped the brownies with a rich, decadent chocolate frosting that my Mom made earlier in the week. The recipe was also from The Joy of Vegan Baking.

My Review:
I’m usually pretty picky about my brownie recipes. I like a brownie to be just the right density, not too cakey. And I think this brownie recipe really fits the bill. I also absolutely love the added chocolate chips. I must add a warning, though. This cake is not for the weak of heart. It is extremely chocolately, and should only be undertaken by those who can handle the amazing chocolate density.

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