April 9, 2009 - Vegan Cupcakes and Frosting

Once a year Library West on campus hosts an Edible Book Contest "where the only rule is it must be edible and must be somehow related to a book!" The entries are put on display in front of the library, and the general public is invited to help judge. In the past, once the judging was over, everyone present was invited to partake of the entries. When word got to us about this year's contest, Lila, Alison and I decided to enter with an entry inspired by "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" - the idea was not only to get our name out there, but to also provide an entry that anyone of the general public judges could eat.

Our concept was to use the recipes in the book to make mini-cup cakes, and to make a hemisphere cake (to represent the world), which the mini-cupcakes could then overrun. Because it was our first time trying either mini-cupcakes, or the hemisphere cake, we decided to do a test run on cupcakes this week. Since the contest was on Thursday, we'd have to get together earlier in the week (Monday was the only day that worked for all of us) to make the entry, so we'd be making the trial and then the real thing a mere 4-days later.

I was a little disappointed to see that "Best Non-Fiction" had been removed from the categories, but the big disappointment came when, once we submitted our entry form, I was sent a thank you along with more detailed instructions for the contest. Including how, unlike past years, the entries were to be picked up by the participants, and not fed to the general public. This, combined with the fact that our cakes would be past their prime, discouraged us from entering this year. We didn't need to feed our friends the same cupcakes two weeks in a row.

So, with the Edible Book Contest off our agenda for this year, we still decided to try recipes from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which we borrowed from our friend Rusty. There were many delicious looking recipes to choose from, but we finally decided on the coconut lime cupcakes. I accompanied Alison to the grocery store the day before to pick up ingredients, and we were frustrated in our search for coconut oil and non-hydrogenated shortening. A decision on the fly, we decided to make the chocolate-marble cupcakes instead, with orange butter cream frosting.

Still eager to try the mini-cupcakes, I borrowed the mini-muffin pan from my sister, and bought the itty-bitty pan liners we would need.

On Thursday we got set up at Alison's place, mixed the ingredients for the cake (taking turns adding things and reading the recipe), and then split the batter into the directed portions. The smaller batch became chocolate, and would be used to marbleize the regular cupcakes. The directions call for adding both the vanilla and the chocolate batter at the same time, side by side, then using a tooth-pick to swirl together. With both Lila and Alison adding the batter, I think we had it easy- the hardest part was not getting the batter to drip on the pans. We noticed the chocolate portion of the batter was more liquid, so Alison (manning the chocolate side of things) had a bit of an easier time of things. Once the mini-cupcake pans were filled, we used the remainder of the batter in 5 "regular" sized cupcakes. While the recipe says that there should be more vanilla batter in the end, we found the opposite was somehow true for us - a full sized cupcake's worth of chocolate batter, with a small vanilla heart on top.

It was my job to mix/marbleize the cupcakes, though we did choose to leave some half and half, since the division between the vanilla and chocolate was so perfect. In the end, once the baking was done and we were tasting our product, I realized I didn't mix them nearly as well as I thought I did / as I should have. For the future, more swirls are preferred.




While the cupcakes were baking (the mini-cupcakes were done in less than half the time listed for the full sized cupcakes -but since we bake with the oven light on, we were able to make the judgment call as to when to pull them out of the oven), we set to making the frosting. We decided to make two different butter cream frosting, and since the base was the same, we just added the whole amount of shortening and margarine to mix together, then split in half as best as we could. We then added the half-amount required of the other ingredients. As Lila mixed the base, Alison took the orange butter cream frosting (juicing an orange, and using orange zest instead of the lemon zest) and I mixed the ingredients for the chocolate butter cream frosting, accidentally adding too much vanilla.

When it came time to taste test, we discovered that the smaller cup-cakes, at least, were sweet enough without frosting. I think everyone liked the orange frosting just a bit better than the chocolate (even those whom we shared the cupcakes with later). In the future we'll try the lemon zest in the orange butter cream frosting (as the recipe called for) since we noticed the frosting got a little bitter after the first day.

So while we didn't end up making these cupcakes a second time, as entry for the Edible Book Contest, we very much enjoyed them, and I consider this evening's baking a success.

Sweet Thursdays Blog Introduction

In the grand scheme, I suppose this blog introduction comes a bit late, the fifth post in, rather than the first, but what you don't know is that I secretly backdated all the previous 4 entries to coincide with the date the original post was made in my personal Livejournal account. It wasn't until after the third post that I decided that perhaps I should use a separate blog to post my musings on vegan baking.

Long story short, I dusted off my little-used blogspot blog, and revamped it, added my thoughts of our previous baking expeditions, and viola, this blog.

A bit about me and the project that inspired me to venture into vegan baking.

A library staff member by day, and an avid writer, reader, watcher of Anime and TV at other times, January found me in Denver for the American Library Association convention along with two of my girlfriends. (Fun factoid - each of them has rented the spare room in our house at one time or another, so they are both former roommates).

The first morning we went to sign in, and find some breakfast. Alison and I were able to grab some pastries at a coffee shop in one of the conference hotels. Lila, who is a vegetarian who also does also not eat eggs (called a Lacto Vegetarian, as I just found out), was unable to find anything at the coffee shop that did not have eggs in it. The clerk could not even verify if the bagels (which usually don’t have eggs) were egg free. We went to the conference center information desk, and asked after vegan dining options (figuring that vegan food would fit the egg-free requirements, and then some). First we had to explain to the information assistant what we meant by vegan.

We were finally pointed in the direction of a supermarket that might have something that was suitable, and given the Einstein Brothers bagel company as a landmark. Bingo. The Einstein Bros became our breakfast spot for the rest of the trip.

As we were walking we got to talking about how difficult the seemingly easy task of finding food had become. Imagine if any of us had been vegan (as our friend Rusty was). Very difficult especially with baked goods – doable, but most vegans can’t just order a baked good at a café or restaurant. At best they have one or two items on the menu that they can eat. That turned us to the idea of creating a café that had two menus, one “traditional” menu, and a parallel menu with the same items, but vegan.

Over time the idea morphed, through several variations, to where it currently stands: Try to open a green, vegan café in our hometown in the not-too-distant (but not too near) future. It idea may change as we go, every time we meet, we toss out new ideas (from menu items, to wardrobe, to decoration of the place, and more). We looked at what skills we’d need for the business side of things, and are considering several business education options. We also realized we would need to find suitable recipes, and since that seemed like the step that would take the longest, was the easiest to get started on, and pretty fun, we settled on trying to meet once a week to bake a new recipe, try out teas, etc.

I was pleased to learn that Alison and Lila are awesome when it comes to baking, and are intuitive about flavor adjustments, and how to fix recipes where I would just sit there in a stupor wondering what went wrong. So we get together, bake, taking turns with the steps, and reading the recipes, and then we sit down to sample our creations. As Lila and Alison toss out ideas on how to make the recipe better, or bring out different flavors, I diligently take notes (something well suited to my personality, actually). It was an easy transition from that to posting the stories of our meetings on a blog.

So that is what this blog is – it will be primarily a recording of our baking days, which we have as a standing date every Thursday, but will also include ideas we have for the café, in general, as we make progress on that front. We are looking forward to the café, however we realized we do have a ways to go to pull together a satisfactory menu, in addition to learning all the practical, business side of things. Given the current state of the economy, perhaps it is wise we are looking at years or more down the line before we introduce our green, vegan café to the world.

If you have questions about the recipes we make, or any part of the process, I invite you to make comments. Likewise, I’m more than happy to accept comments, suggestions on how to fix our baking problems, recipes we must try, etc. All I ask is that you be respectful to me and others who may comment, and I’ll treat you the same.

Vegan Scones and Devonshire Cream - April 2, 2009

Last Thursday was the first time our happy group was able to meet for a while, and it was the very first time that I was in charge of finding the recipe, not just the ingredients. In addition Jivi, a childhood friend of Lila's, whom Alison and I also know thorough my writer's group, was present, and helped with the baking and taste trial.

I searched several websites, and finally chose one scone recipe that was the winning combination of easy and tasty-looking. From there I did a separate search for vegan clotted cream, and ended up with a vegan Devonshire Cream recipe (now, I'm not really hip on creams, and I couldn't tell a hawk from a handsaw if you wanted to know if clotted cream and Devonshire cream are the same thing, or two different recipes in regular terms. All I know is when I did searches for "vegan clotted cream" this is the recipe I found.)

When I got home from work I did a final clean up of my kitchen (it got a thorough cleaning on Tuesday, after the small kitchen fire I set in a tea-making mishap), and set out all the ingredients for the scone and cream recipes. I had also bought berry preserves (with Pectin, not gelatin), and fresh strawberries, half of which I macerated (cutting up the ripest berries, and tossing them in a Ziploc bag with sugar).

Alison worked on making the cream, while Lila pulled the ingredients together for the scones. Jivi read the recipes, and I put the ingredients away as they were used, scurried around to get measuring cups, preheated the oven, and did general clean-up.

I am very fortunate that Lila has experience with scone recipes in general. After half the liquid was added, she realized that the dough looked to wet for scones, and didn't add the second half. The result was a very muffin-like batter that yielded 8 fair sized drop scones (there was no way the dough would hold together for the stretching and cutting the recipe called for), instead of 20 uniform scones.

We worried for the scones as they baked, and decided, upon tasting, that they a) were very buttery b) had a bit of a tang (which Alison, Lila and Jivi all identified as the baking powder). They weren't bad, for having such a wacky recipe, and we decided that if we use this scone recipe in the future to make the following adjustments: add 1 cup of flour, use all the liquid, add 1 tbsp more vegan buttery spread, a bit more sugar, but definitely no more baking powder.

The cream was also a bit buttery, given that it was a mix of buttery spread, Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (plain - though when I bought this, I almost got the garlic and herb by mistake. Be sure to read the lid, kiddies), and confectioner's sugar. Alison added the last of my bottle of vanilla extract (about 1/4 tsp) to the mix.

We each tried a scone with and without cream and strawberries, and determined they were, despite everything, quite tasty. However, given the small yield, and the extra baker, that meant that our gaming group and various significant others were disappointed to discover there were no yummy treats for them to taste test.

It also got me thinking that it is time to start trying teas.

Of course the talk turned to what else we could do with the scone recipes, different extracts we could add (lemon if it is any sort of berry scone, almond, etc) and perhaps exploring ivory scones (which I've never had, and the idea intrigues me.)

Once again, I am amazed by my baking partners, and grateful for their knowledge and general baking sense. Hopefully next time I am in charge of the recipe I'll find one we don't have to modify on the fly to make it work.


Image of the Devonshire Cream - the small batch of scones were reduced to crumbs and smiles before I remembered to grab my camera

[Scone recipe at vegweb.com: Super Easy Scones ; Clotted Cream recipe found at Vegan Yum Yum: Lemon Maple Scones with Vegan Clotted Cream]