Chocolate Tahini Cupcakes

I started dreaming about all things chocolate tahini once I tried Soom's chocolate tahini butter. Cupcakes were the first thing that came to mind and while looking around the internets, I found My Name is Yeh's cake recipe. Molly makes a cake with rosemary buttercream which sounds to die for via Magnolia Bakery's recipe. I opted for chocolate tahini everything while I was baking in hopefully the last snowstorm of the year. It was actually pretty peaceful. My sister skipped school and we made smoothies and pancakes. Also 2 tbsp= 1/8 cup if that helps your measuring for this recipe.

Chocolate Tahini Cupcakes

2 cups + 2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup + 2 tbsp cocoa powder (I used half Hershey's special dark cocoa powder)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

2 large eggs

1 cup coconut milk (I used half almond milk and half buttermilk)

6 tbsp tahini paste

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup + 2 tbsp boiling water

Sesame seeds, for sprinkles! Toast them to be extra fancy.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with liners. This recipe makes about 30 + cupcakes.

Mix all dry ingredients together in a small mixing bowl including the sugar. Whisk the rest of the ingredients together in a larger mixing bowl minus the boiling water. Add the dry to the wet ingredients, when stir in the water. Batter will be thin.

Fill the cupcake tins about halfway and bake 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely.

While cupcakes are baking, make the frosting. I just used the Hershey's chocolate frosting recipe and added 2 tbsp tahini. Next time I'll probably add up to 1/4 cup to get a stronger tahini taste. For an even stronger tahini taste, just use the Soom tahini. I was cooking for a crowd (my little twin cousins' birthday) so I wanted a milder flavor.

Vegan Coconut Cupcakes

For a family get together, I was asked to make dessert. I decided on these coconut cupcakes from Chef Chloe because I had all the ingredients in the apartment. They turned out to be a big hit! They were gone in about an hour into lunch. My cousins, Sara and Tony crushed about 5 of them between themselves. It was pretty impressive!

Cocunut Cupcakes

• 1 ¾ cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup raw cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup coconut milk (from a can)
• ½ cup canola oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Coconut Frosting

• 3 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil 
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 to 3 tablespoons coconut milk 

Garnish

• shredded coconut
• coarse sugar

To make the Coconut Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cupcake pans with 15 cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make sure to shake the coconut milk in its can before pouring out into the measuring cup to make sure the milk is uniform and creamy. It tends to separate in the can especially if it is cold outside. In a separate bowl, whisk together coconut milk, oil, vanilla, and vinegar.
Add the dry mixture into the wet mixture and mix until just combined.
Fill the cupcake liners about two-thirds full with batter.

Lemon Cornbread Cupcakes

I made these cute little lemony cornbread cupcakes to bring over to the grandparents' for dinner tonight (before the season finale of "Downton Abbey"!!). I'm a big fan of cornbread, so this seemed like a good way to make it for dessert. And of course anything with lemon shoots to the top of my baking to-do list!

The original recipe suggests a lemon glaze, which was fine, but next time I make these I think I'll make a cream cheese frosting or just drizzle with honey. Usually I like a citrusy glaze, but it didn't do much for the cornbread. But the actual cupcakes were really good!

---

LEMON BUTTERMILK CUPCAKES

From Love & Olive Oil

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cornmeal (preferably coarse ground)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk, room temperature
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced (should yield 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest and 2 tablespoons lemon juice)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Vegan Lavender Earl Grey Cupcakes

This recipe is from a website that has a ton of vegan recipes for those that follow the Orthodox Lenten tradition, which basically means eating vegan for 40 days. For lent this year, I decided to follow the Orthodox lifestyle (except for I'm still eating eggs). Anyways, I could not find the website where I originally got the recipe from so I could not cite it. Sorry whoever you are! You have really good recipes, especially this cake!

Makes about 30 cupcakes or one large 9x13 inch cake.

2 cups earl grey tea
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons culinary lavender
3 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

Brew 2 cups strong earl grey tea (or even better earl grey lavender tea, found in the strip district!!!) and let cool.

Meanwhile, either chop the lavender or use a mortar and pestle to crush the lavender.

Sometimes if I don't feel like chopping the lavender, I just throw it in whole. Just expect lavender chunks then if you go that route. Then combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and lavender) and mix with a wire whisk until thoroughly combined.
Combine the oil, applesauce, and vanilla. Then add the earl grey tea and vinegar. Add the dry mixture slowly, bit by bit, to the wet mixture while stirring gently. The vinegar makes the batter foam, so don't worry if that happens.

Once the cake batter is combined, divide evenly into lined cupcake tins. I filled the cupcake tins about 3/4 of the way.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. If making a cake, grease a 9x13 inch baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes instead.

I like to make a white icing for this cake using powdered sugar, almond milk, and coconut cream.

Avocado Cupcakes

There's this lady in Pittsburgh that makes vegan treats and sells them at various farmer's markets and fairs. At the I Made it Market before Christmas time, I tried one of her avocado cupcakes and it was phenomenol. I finally got around to making them myself. You can really taste the avocado in the cake part and the cupcakes turn out to be a really great pale green color. The avocado replaces the fat in this recipe which is pretty cool. I found this recipe off of epicurean vegan's blog. I did, however, substitute actual yogurt instead of soy yogurt so my version is not vegan.

INGREDIENTS:

Cupcakes:
1-1/2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 avocado, pitted and peeled
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
3/4 C almond milk
1/3 C plain yogurt
2 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
1/4 C Earth Balance margarine
1 C confectioner’s sugar
Coconut cream
Sweetened condensed milk

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin with liners. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In the food processor, puree the avocado.
Add the almond milk, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla; blend until smooth and creamy.

Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture with a whisk until there are very few lumps.

Divide the mixture among the muffin tins and bake for about 15-20 minutes.

To make the frosting, I did not measure anything but I combined the ingredients a little bit at a time until I liked the taste and consistency of it. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting! I actually like to wait until I'm ready to serve them and then just frost them right before.

Spiced Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes

This is from a recipe that was posted before, but it's even better now with a cream cheese filling! I made these with my little sister Kelly (also known as the monkey) and she ate about half of them in one day. This is the monkey about to eat a cupcake whole with the wrapper and all:

Cupcake batter:

2 cups pumpkin puree

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

3 cups flour

3 tsp cinnamon

3 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

3/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp baking soda

1 1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup honey

On a Baking Frenzy

I agreed to make desserts for the engagement party this weekend, so I'm spending all day in the kitchen.
On the list:

Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake from little llama's blog

Vegan tofu chocolate cheesecake
(adapted from this recipe)

13 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup brewed espresso
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pound silken tofu, drained
1 Tbsp agave

1 tsp Vietnamese cinnamon (have to make this recipe Asian somehow)
1 prepared pie crust (below)

1. Melt the chocolate chips, coffee and vanilla extract in a double boiler, stirring often with a spatula.
2. Combine the chocolate mixture, tofu and agave in a blender and spin until smooth, about 1 minute.
3. Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.