Vegan Chocolate Amaretto Cupcakes

Chocolate and amaretto go so well together.

Rich, dark, silky chocolate and sweet, smooth amaretto.

I adapted this cupcake recipe and this frosting recipe to achieve this flavorful but not-too-boozy recipe.

Vegan Chocolate Amaretto Cupcakes

Makes 18 cupcakes

Ingredients

3/4 cup non-dairy milk

1/4 cup amaretto (plus more for dipping)

1 cup natural cane sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp pure almond extract (optional, but awesome)

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. With an electric mixer, beat together the following ingredients in a large bowl: non-dairy milk, amaretto, oil, sugar, apple cider vinegar, vanilla, and almond extract. Beat on medium speed for a minute or two.
2. Now sift in the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well, until the clumps are gone.
3. Spoon the batter into prepared cupcake pan, about two-thirds full for each. Bake for about 22 minutes at 350F, or until the cupcake slowly springs back when pressed with a finger. Allow to completely cool before dipping the cupcake tops into a small bowl of amaretto and frosting.

For a bit more boozy cupcakes, dip the cooked and cooled cupcake tops in a little bit of amaretto before frosting.

Vegan Chocolate Amaretto Frosting

Makes enough frosting to top 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup vegan margarine, room temperature

1/4 cup amaretto

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 cup coco powder

1/2 Tablespoon cornstarch, sifted

1/2 teaspoon salt

almond slivers to garnish

Method

1. Beat the margarine using an electric mixer until fluffy.

2. Add the sugar, cornstarch and salt then beat for 3 minutes more.

3. Pour in the amaretto then beat for another 5 minutes or until the frosting is light and fluffy.

4. Pipe or spread the frosting on to your cakes as desired.

Perfect for birthdays, picnics and BBQs.

 

I hope everyone back home has had a great Memorial Day. I spent the morning at school then went out to lunch along the Rhine with a group of my girl friends. A lovely way to spend a hot, late spring day!

Tonight I’m going to a bar called Spleen to listen to Andrew Vladeck, a singer and songwriter from New York who’s stopping in Bonn on his European tour.

Should be a good night, I’ll tell you more tomorrow!

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Fluffy Vegan Cupcakes

Although I’ve not mentioned it here, this year I have given up purchasing and cooking with (almost) all animal products for Lent.

I still use organic milk, but only a splash in my morning coffee. That’s it.

This absence of animal products explains the sudden influx of vegan recipes on the blog.

To be honest, I’ve been having a lot of fun trying new vegan recipes. I don’t necessarily miss anything, not even cheese, as the recipes have been so full of flavor on their own.

Giving up animal products created an interesting dilemma when it came to baking birthday cakes for my friend, Kate. I wanted to maintain the birthday baking tradition but didn’t want to sacrifice my commitments to either vegan baking or providing delicious treats.

Last year, I made Kate the most popular recipe on my blog, Lexie’s Healthy Carrot Cupcakes.

Although these cupcakes are delicious and one of my favorites, they are made with eggs, butter and cream cheese.

Luckily, there are so many talented vegan bloggers that the search for a birthday cake replacement was easy.

First up, I visited my favorite vegan blogger, Angela, and her inspiring blog, ohsheglows.com.

I immediately decided to bake her Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes which I’d already saved on my Recipe Wish List.

These cupcakes were so easy to throw together and they rose up gorgeously.

My new favorite chocolate cake, regardless of dietary standards! Do yourself a favor and please, go and try this recipe now!

Knowing that not everyone likes chocolate cake (gasp!) I was on the prowl for a vegan vanilla version and stumbled on a recipe for Vegan Vanilla Agave Cupcakes from the book, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, reposted on happylittlevegans.com.

This was another fast recipe that came together in a cinch but ultimately, I prefer the chocolate cake!

There was just enough batter left of both the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes to make two marbled cakes as well.

These were the taste-test samples.:)

  Heck, yes! After much frosting contemplation, I decided to combine the vegan frosting ideas from both here and here to create my own recipe below.

Topping delicious, individual cakes with fluffy vanilla frosting might be enough for some, but not for me!

Kate’s birthday provided the perfect excuse to try a technique I read about on another favorite blog, Annie’s Eats.

Several weeks ago, Annie wrote a beautiful post on How to make dried pineapple flowers.

I followed her guide exactly up until the very end.

Rather than drying the pineapple then placing the slices in the muffin tin to harden over night, I went ahead and put the dried slices in the muffin tin then tossed them back in the oven to continue to dry while forming the flower shape.

    Oh so delicate and feminine!

The vanilla cupcakes were topped with pineapple flowers, but the chocolate cupcakes received the strawberry treatment.

Strawberries always add that gorgeous pop of color!

The frosting recipe made enough to top 24 cupcakes and three snackable strawberries.

Yummy!

After a day of creating, the cupcakes were all packed up and ready to go!

We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Maya. Although the food wasn’t very authentic, it was still good. The service, however, was dreadful. Oh well, at least we were with good friends, celebrating the life of a wonderful person and had cakes to eat!

Life is good.

We had good fun dancing the night away before coming home very late. Losing an hour with the time change didn’t help much either! Good fun was had by all!

Happy Birthday, Kate!

Vegan Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Makes enough frosting to top 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup vegan margarine, room temperature

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 Tablespoon cornstarch, sifted

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2- 2 Tablespoons soy creamer

Method

1. Beat the margarine using an electric mixer until fluffy.
2. Add the sugar, cornstarch and salt then beat for 3 minutes more.
3. Pour in the vanilla and creamer then beat for another 5 minutes or until the frosting is light and fluffy.
4. Pipe or spread the frosting on to your cakes as desired.

If you’d like to try any of the other recipes or techniques, please visit these sites.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes.

Vegan Vanilla Agave Cupcakes 

How to make dried pineapple flowers.

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Cake Sale

At the moment, the children at my school are involved in many activities to raise money for the flood victims in Pakistan.

Naturally, the teachers are in on the fundraising as well.

Today was our school’s Welcome Back BBQ.

Parents bring dishes to share, the PTA buys the sausages and beer, and the teachers usually just show up and eat.

This year, we decided to hold a cake sale. We sold cake raffle tickets and the winners were able to take home the cake.

I donated two of my favorite cakes.

Lexie’s Healthy Carrot Cake and Healthy Chocolate Blueberry Cake with Coconut and Chocolate Glaze.

I was up early this morning and baked the cakes for the afternoon BBQ.

Here’s a walk through of the process.

Visit the links for the full recipes.

Lexie’s Healthy Carrot Cake

Made 1 double-layered cake and 12 cup cakes

  I don’t have a photo of the final product. The frosting was really runny this time. I felt like it was a complete flop and was quite upset, but in the end it turned out ok.

Healthy Chocolate Blueberry Cake with Coconut and Chocolate Glaze

I was worried that the carrot cake wouldn’t sell due to it’s runny appearance, but amazingly, both cakes were gone within 5 minutes of hitting the table. One of the assistants offered so much money, she was allowed to bypass the raffle altogether.

My two cakes helped to send and extra €50 to Pakistan.

That’s $65.

You see, this assistant is a new Grandmother and tomorrow she’ll be serving these cakes to her extended family as they welcome the new baby into the family.

I hope the cakes satisfy the needs of her family and the money helps to feed other hungry families in Pakistan.

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