Sesame Street Cupcakes

This Sunday, my friend Matt’s son, Oskar, celebrated his 3rd birthday.

After two weeks of rain, the skies finally cleared and the sun shone down on the park picnic.

It was a beautiful day, full of happy children, good food and time spent with friends.

Earlier this week I saw an adorable cookie monster cupcake idea on a new-to-me blog called applejacks. A few days later, Annie of Annie’s Eats wrote about the Sesame Street themed birthday party she threw for her son.

Inspired by both bloggers, I combined their ideas and created my own version of Sesame Street Cupcakes.

They were a hit, even with the Elmo-loving birthday boy!

Although these adorable cupcakes ended happily, they began with a very sad state of affairs.

My very first cupcake flop.

Although the recipe for funfetti cupcakes came from a website that I’ve used lots of times, for some reason, these cupcakes just didn’t work for me.

So, I stuck with what I know and made the perfect vegan vanilla cupcakes.

Light, fluffy, vanilla deliciousness!

I find it a bit ironic that the ‘traditional’ recipe was a disaster but the untraditional recipe worked like a charm.

Earlier in the week, I prepared the eyes and colored coconut flakes.

The eyes were made by melting white chocolate, placing spoonfuls onto parchment paper, then sticking a chocolate chip in the middle of each dollop.

The eyes took several hours to completely set so making them ahead is a good idea.

I’ve always been a bit partial towards died coconut flakes.

When I was young, my mom always made a 3D Easter basket scene by shaping rice crispy treats and coating them in beautiful Easter colored coconut.

I found a powdered food dye that created really vibrant colors.

For the frosting, I stuck with my vegan vanilla buttercream frosting, minus the vegan part… I only had real butter left.

So I guess this was straight up vanilla buttercream then.

I generously frosted the cupcakes…

then placed them upside down in the coconut flakes.

After a few rolls in the coconut flakes, the fuzzy ‘fur’ was stuck and ready to go.

Although Annie’s cupcakes were adorable with their skillfully piped frosting fur, I love the way the coconut looks so fuzzy and puppet-like.

In addition to the chocolate eyes, I used gummy treats (which are a cinch to cut,) chocolate chip cookies, oreo cookies and nutella to decorate the cupcake characters.

Introducing the Sesame Street Characters!

Cookie Monster (my favorite)

Big Bird

Oscar the Grouch

Elmo

Although Big Bird looks a bit out of proportioned and fearful for his life, I’m really happy with how the cupcakes turned out.

They made everyone at the party smile.

Well, everyone except Big Bird that is.

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Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

Tomorrow the Room Mums from my class are throwing a farewell party for the four children who are leaving our school at the end of the year.

One of the hardest parts about working in an international school is that families come and go quite easily. Parents are relocated for work and the kids are off to new lands. Although this is exciting and allows for so many wonderful learning opportunities, it’s also a bit sad.

Where I grew up, people rarely moved. The class roster was almost identical for 13 years.I graduated high school with almost all the same people that I went to kindergarten with. 

My high school English teacher even taught my father.

Saying goodbye to children is really hard for me. I care so much for each and every child in my class, and the thought that I will probably never see them again breaks my heart.

 So, to make the farewells more bearable, we’re throwing a party.

To make the farewells more sweet, I baked cupcakes.

Healthy Vegan Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

Slightly adapted from: Confessions of a Bake-a-Holic

Ingredients

4 cups flour

2 2/3 cups raw sugar

1 1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 Tablespoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup apple sauce

3 cups hot water

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line or oil a muffin tin.
2. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, combine oil, apple sauce, hot water and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Mix just to combine. Add bananas.
4. Pour batter into prepared muffin tin. Bake for about 20 minutes, until a tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.
5. Remove from oven and let cool. Store in the refrigerator. Before serving, dust with powdered sugar.

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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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Rewind the Week

This week has been full of delicious food, exciting adventures, and memorable events.

I’m not going to let my lack of modern-day journaling prevent this week from being known. Much of what I mention now will hopefully be put into a more detailed post of its own, but in the meantime, sit back, relax and enjoy my week in review.

Last Saturday

I had such a good day last Saturday. Sebastian and I drove to my new favorite German museum, Kommern Open-Air Museum. I was going to bring my class to the museum on Thursday for a trip and wanted to be a bit more knowledgeable before leading a tour.

The museum has collected and repaired traditional buildings from the Rheinland and placed then into four communities. Visiting the museum is like traveling back in time.

We enjoyed walking through the buildings and imagining what it must have been like to live in the Rheinland region 500 years ago.

Old-fashioned rhubarb custard crumble cake

After visiting the museum, Sebastian and I did a bit of shopping then went to see two short plays.

The Bonn Players, the theatre group I’ve acted with in the past, was showing their spring productions. Both plays were very well done and really enjoyable to watch. After the play, Sebastian and I ate an extremely late Italian dinner at a local restaurant then called it a night.

Sunday

Lazy day at home. Probably the most interesting thing I did was ate a great soup and salad lunch.

Chickpea vegetable soup, mixed salad and bruschetta.

Monday

I’ve told you about.

Tuesday

At school the kids performed their musical for Year 2 and a few parents who weren’t able to come on Wednesday. Other than that, it was a normal school day.

Once home, Sebastian and I made a very traditional German spring dinner.

Boiled new potatoes, fish, white asparagus and hollandaise sauce.

Wednesday

My students performed their Pied Piper musical for their parents. There were several teary eyes in the audience and many appreciative greetings at the end. I am so proud of the kids as well. They really put everything they had into this show.

Thursday

The class trip to Kommern was a huge success.

The kids were fascinated by “the olden days.” As opposed to Saturday when Sebastian and I went, on Thursday, the town was ‘working.’

The bakery was baking bread, the blacksmith was making horseshoes, the housewives were cooking and gardening.

Probably the most memorable part of the day was meeting a woman who described what life would have been like 200 years ago. She had everyone captivated by her tales of childhood and hard manual labor.

I was absolutely exhausted after the trip and was so happy when I got home to find that Sebastian had prepared pizza dough for dinner.

We ran to the grocery store and strawberry stand before beginning to bake our pizzas. I made a fennel and red onion pizza with black olives and a balsamic glaze.

Absolutely divine.

Sebastian went down the spicy road and made a salami and jalapeño pizza.

I also whipped together a very quick rhubarb tiramisu using a recipe from my vegetable box.

Needless to say, Thursday night I slept like a baby.

Friday

Last day of the week before a week off of work (sort of.)

School went well, one of the mums came in for Mystery Reader and finished reading The School Mouse. I have loved listening to this particular mum read this book. She reads with the most soothing and beautiful British accent your could imagine. I’m just sad that the story is over. I always feel a bit down the few lonely days after finishing a good book.

After school, I came home and made birthday cupcakes for my friend and classroom assistant, Prachi. I had planned on bringing the tiramisu but realized that I’d be carrying around a heavy glass dish all night and decided to go the dish-free direction.

 Vegan Chocolate Amaretto Cupcakes, I promise a recipe soon!

Because of my baking, we were running so late that we decided to take the car after all. I guess carrying a glass dish wouldn’t have been a problem. We ate at a Mexican restaurant in Bonn called Tacos. I had delicious vegetarian fajitas and a margarita. We ended up staying at the restaurant all night, laughing, talking and simply having a relaxing night out.

Saturday

I didn’t sleep well Friday night because I was too nervous about Saturday morning. My friends Jan and Matt are in a band and invited me to sing a couple of songs at an upcoming gig.

Saturday was my first rehearsal with the band and to say that I was nervous really is an understatement. Only Matt has ever heard me sing so I was really afraid that the rest of the band would be unimpressed and question his judgment. Luckily, all went well and I had a really good time with the band. Our next rehearsal is on Thursday then the gig is on Friday.

Once rehearsal was finished, Sebastian and I went to IKEA then over to Jan and Zoe’s to help them move into their new apartment. They are only moving next door, but the new flat is about 3x larger than the old one. Doctored up frozen pizzas and beers were shared on the new balcony then we relaxed and chatted while listening to music late into the night.

Sunday

Beside cooking a really fun breakfast and dinner, today has been a total write-off.

I slept in, made breakfast, fell asleep while reading, woke up again, watched three documentaries, talked on the phone with my friend, made dinner, then started blogging. A very unproductive day.

I have this coming week off of school but will be going in to work most of the days to work on writing reports. Although I hate that I’m spending a “vacation week” writing reports, I’m glad that I have the time to focus on the reports while the classroom is all mine.

Alright, thanks for sticking with me through this long post, I promise to provide a few of the recipes on their own as well as a dedicated post to Kommern Open-air Museum.

I hope all of you have had a great week and a relaxing weekend.

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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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Birthday Surprises

I have had a wonderful birthday today. From breakfast in bed to flowers and homemade cards, today has really been special.

I was called to the office first thing this morning and in the three minutes I was away, the room mums came in, decorated the class with streamers, lit birthday candles and had a birthday chair and cupcake tower ready for me. As I walked into the classroom, everyone started singing. The kids really got a kick out of “tricking me into the office!”

I got a kick out of tricking them into eating worms and dirt cake.

Being a teacher is the best job in the world. I wish every human being could feel the overwhelming love and excitement that spills over from little kids on a teacher’s birthday.

It really is the best feeling.

Make Your Own Dirt Cake!

• chocolate cupcakes
• best frosting with coco powder mixed in
• crushed Oreo cookies
• gummy worms

My face hurts from smiling all day!

Thank you to everyone who helped make today so special.

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