Vegan Pumpkin Cupcakes

Well, I am super proud of myself! I did it again; I made vegan cupcakes that tasted really good, so good that you wanted more than just one! It was cupcake Sunday at my spiritual community and I volunteered to bring my experiments with me. The other good news is that the frosting did not end up all over my kitchen. My husband was making jokes the whole time I was making the frosting about making sure that the blender wasn't too close to the edge of the counter and that I needed to be extra careful when removing the blender from the base, yada yada yada. He said that I should be able to laugh at the experience now that this was my second time making the frosting. I wasn't laughing. Instead I was holding my breath hoping that all went well. Thankfully all of the frosting ended up on the cupcakes or in my mouth!! Now I can laugh and start breathing again.

The recipe is as follows:

¼ cup plain almond milk or soy milk
1 tbs. apple cider vinegar
1 ¼ cup all-purpose whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
½ tsp. salt
½ cup pumpkin puree
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tbs. vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.

2. In a small cup, combined the almond milk (or soy milk) and vinegar. Allow mixture to rest for 5 minutes.

3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugars, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.

4. In another mixing bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, vanilla and almond milk-vinegar mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing until just combined. Divide the batter into the cups, filling each liner about ¾ full. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake emerges clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

1 tub of tofutti cream cheese
1/2 block of extra firm tofu
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup powder sugar
zest of 1 lemon

Throw ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Put into the refrigerator until ready to use.

As we all know I like to tinker with recipes. With this one I reduced the sugar in the cupcakes and replaced the white sugar with brown. I also used whole wheat flour instead of white. With the frosting I like to use the zest of one lemon. It gives it a nice tartness that counteracts the sweetness. This recipes also didn't distinguish between teaspoons and tablespoons!! I could of ended up with some interesting cupcakes if I didn't know a bit a about cooking. The original recipe came from About.com and was submitted by Ashley Skabar.

What Kate Ate 10/18/10

Oatmeal with walnuts and banana
Vegetable Panang curry with rice
Oatmeal and cherry cookies (they were small so I had four, and they are semi healthy)
Veggie and hummus wrap