Sprinkles

Sprinkles is a cupcake shop/bakery out of Beverly Hills, CA. They are some of the best cupcakes I've had (they aren't vegan though, unfortunately!). My sister went to California last month and had a layover in Arizona (where my best friend lives). He picked her up from the airport, brought her to lunch, and also brought her to Sprinkles. I was extremely happy when I picked my sister up from Boston and she had cupcakes for me (pumpkin cupcake featured above). They were delicious. I think they are putting a Sprinkles in somewhere in Boston. Anyway, thanks a bunch to Justin for buying me cupcakes!

Peanut Butter Chocolate & Uh-Oh Oreo

I've made regular Oreo cupcakes before, and a friend of mine loves Uh-oh Oreo's so I have him to thank for the idea. The Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcake was kind of a pain to do, only because you had to make two different cupcake batters for it. Overall I heard they both came out great.

Uh-Oh Oreo Cupcake:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. Take out, let cool.
Uh-Oh Oreo Frosting:

1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup shortening
3 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk
1/3 cup cocoa powder

You're also going to need one package of Uh-Oh Oreo's for this. Finely crush up about 12 cookies in a zip lock bag. Mix the crushed cookies in with your chocolate frosting. (It can be difficult to frost your cupcakes if the cookie chunks are too big.) After frosting the cupcakes, i always cut extra Oreo's in half and put one on the top to make it look cute.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake:

Chocolate Batter:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup of cocoa powder

Peanut Butter Batter:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3-1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

After putting the paper liners in your cupcake tin, put one tablespoon of the chocolate and peanut butter batter in each. Take a few toothpicks and kind of mix the batter around. Make sure not to completely mix then together. Just give it a marble effect.
Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. Take out, let cool.
You will have a lot of extra batter, you would be able to make another dozen of these cupcakes with the extras. You might want to only do this recipe if you're planning on making 24, or if you want to put aside the extras and bake them shortly after.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting:
1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup shortening
3 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

You can do this recipe with either plain chocolate frosting or chocolate peanut butter frosting. Frost your cupcakes with a piping bag, then sprinkle the tops with crushed peanuts.

Happy Baking!

Lemon Drop & Hostess Cupcakes

I'll post these recipes later

Treats for Friends!

I made some treats for a friend of mine. The cookies rule. I got the recipe from my sister, and I told her I would keep it a secret. Best vegan chocolate chip cookies I've ever had, hands down. As for the brownies, they came out horrible. They tasted like what i would imagine chalk + tar + rubber cement + gross chocolate would taste like. I got the recipe from a vegan cookbook that I have, so I was bummed when they didn't come out good tasting. I guess someone ended up liking them anyway, so it worked out. I won't post the recipe for them because trust me, you don't want it.

On another note..people keep asking me to send them my baked goods. I have no problem with doing so, because I've done it for a friend twice with cupcakes and cookies. I only request that you trade something back. I'll be open to trading baked goods for good vinyl OR you can pay me via pay pal, or snail mail. I won't be sending out any baked goods for free though. The only way you'll be able to get baked goods for free is if I'm friends with you personally and you live in MA, if you sneak into b9 and steal some, or if you go to Metal Fest on Saturday April 18th at 12:00 p.m. sharp in time to see Dead Swans!

Dulce De Leche & Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

So I'll start off by saying that the middle picture is just vanilla sugar, in case anyone was wondering. You can make it by taking empty vanilla beans and putting it in a container with plain sugar and let it for a a few hours, or days. The longer you let it set, the stronger it will be. Anyway, I made vanilla bean and dulce de leche cupcakes. They both came out great, but friends said that the dulce de leche cupcakes win. Here are the recipes!:

Dulce De Leche Cupcake:

Note: To make these you have to make the caramel sauce.

1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup caramel sauce
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes, take out and set to cool


Caramel Sauce:

note: I got this recipe from the back of my confectioners sugar bag

3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
dash of salt
1-1/2 cups powdered Sugar ( don't add the powdered sugar until after you add the sauce to your cupcake batter!)

Directions:

In a small heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter, milk and salt. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved.
Increase heat to medium and boil sauce for 3-6 minutes.
Set aside to cool.


Dulce De Leche Frosting:

Once you add the sauce to your cupcakes, mix the confectioners sugar in with the caramel sauce and whip together with an electric mixer until it's smooth.

Vanilla Bean Cupcake:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the vanilla bean, cut one bean in half, scrape one half and put it into the mix. Then you can put the empty bean in the sugar afterwards. Save the other half for your frosting. I scraped the bean and let the extracts sit in the milk overnight in the fridge.

So bake the cupcakes at 350 for 18-20 minutes, take out and set to cool.

Vanilla Bean Butter Cream Frosting:

1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup shortening
3 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk
extract from 1/2 of a vanilla bean pod


I just decorated the tops of the vanilla bean cupcakes with the vanilla sugar!
Happy Baking!

PB&J (again) and Sweet&Salty Cupcakes

I got requests for the PB&J cupcakes again from a few people. They seem to be a favorite. I also made Sweet&Salty which is a basic chocolate cupcake (sweet) with peanut butter (salty) and caramel frosting, then drizzled with caramel sauce and garnished with a chocolate dipped pretzel stick. Here are the recipes:

PB&J Cupcakes:
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350. I usually put 2 tbsp of batter in each cupcake cup. bake for 18-20 minutes, take out and let cool. Take a piping bag with a small to medium sized tip. Put jelly of your choice onto piping bag (I used grape). Stick the tip into top of the cupcake and squeeze jelly into, just use your best judgment and decide when to stop. Repeat this for each cupcake.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup shortening
3 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter


Sweet&Salty Cupcake:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Caramel Sauce:

note: I got this recipe from the back of my confectioners sugar bag

3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
dash of salt
1-1/2 cups powdered Sugar

Directions:

In a small heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter, milk and salt. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved.
Increase heat to medium and boil sauce for 3-6 minutes.
Set aside to cool.

Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting:

1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup shortening
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup caramel sauce

to garnish, i just drizzled the sauce over the frosting and added a chocolate dipped pretzel stick.

Happy Baking!

Cinnamon&Sugar and Banana Cupcakes

Alright, so I haven't updated this in a while. I have another post to make after this one. I've been pretty busy lately and pretty much forgot that I have this blog. I'll try to keep it up on the top of my "things to do" list from now on. About two weeks ago i baked some peppermint patty cupcakes along with brownies, strawberry oatmeal bars, and chocolate chip cookies. I took pictures of them, and went to go update my blog and realized that I was stupid enough to not put my sim card into my camera before I took the pictures. I'll bake them all again sometime soon. Anyways, these are cinnamon&sugar and banana cupcakes. I'm still having a hard time with banana frosting (or frosting that contains fruit in general). So besides that, no complaints! Here are the recipes:

Banana Cupcakes:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons of pure banana extract (the good stuff might be difficult to find)
2 brown mushed/pureed up bananas

bake for 18-20 minutes at 350, take out and set to cool

Banana Frosting:

(I wouldn't follow this recipe, or if you do, try to find a way to strain the bananas in a cheese cloth or something before adding them to the frosting)

1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup shortening
3 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk
2 tbsp pure banana extract
1 mushed up/pureed brown banana

I decorated the tops by thinly slicing a banana and then dipping the sides in cinnamon and sugar!


Cinnamon&Sugar Cupcakes:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp + 1 tsp of ground cinnamon

Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. Take out, set to cool

I lightly frosted these with vegan cream cheese frosting and then dipped them in cinnamon and sugar.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/4 cup earth balance
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Happy Baking!