More than a cupcake!

Thursday's Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Man & Woman of the Year campaign fundraiser was a success! Thanks to Kira Smith (LLS Man & Woman of the Year Candidate) funds were raised for research, patient services, advocacy, and public education regarding Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Solid Tumor Cancer. To donate to this wonderful cause go to: www.mwoy.org/ctx.

Hotcakes was so happy to cater this event with Very Vanilla Vegan and Double Chocolate Vegan cupcakes! If the picture to the left is making your mouth water (mine is!) you can order a dozen or five by e-mailing jc@austinhotcakes.com or following this recipe!

The Goods (Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes):
1 cup almond milk
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
¾ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
⅓ cup canola oil
¾ cup sugar
2 tsp. Mexican vanilla extract
¼ tsp. almond extract

The Steps:
Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside.
Beat together the soy milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla, and other extracts, if using, in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix until no large lumps remain.
Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack, and let cool completely before frosting.

Vegan Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
½ cup nonhydrogenated shortening
½ cup nonhydrogenated margarine
2 tsp Mexican vanilla
3½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
¼ cup plain almond milk

The Steps:
Beat together the shortening, margarine, and vanilla. Add sugar and almond milk in thirds. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes. Enjoy!

Today was my FIRST EVER attempt to bake with Stevia vs. Sugar/Agave/Sucanat and it was...a success!!! Sugar free and proud this modified apple-walnut-flaxseed muffin recipe is a perfect on-the-go breakfast when you're short on time.

Ingredients
Cooking spray
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour (or GF flour mix)
1 cup whole-wheat flour (or GF flour mix)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil

10 packets of Stevia
2 large eggs
1 cup natural applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk (or almond milk)
1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch pieces

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-capacity muffin pan with cooking spray.
In a small bowl, mix together the walnuts, cinnamon, and flaxseed.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flour, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, whisk the Stevia packets and oil until combined. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in the applesauce and vanilla.
Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined. Gently stir in the apple chunks.
Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the walnut mixture. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.
Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

These keep 3 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer!

Chilly months + Pumpkin muffins = Bliss

I'm a flavors of the seasons kind of a girl and during the chillier months I love gingerbread, pecans, rich earthy sweet potatoes, and, of course, pumpkin :). One of my Christmas presents to myself was a beautiful cookbook, "The Food You Crave" by Ellie Krieger. One of the recipes is a whole wheat pumpkin muffin. They turned out delicious with just the right texture mixing both wh0le wheat and unbleached all-purpose flours. Try it...you'll like it!

Pumpkin Muffins

Cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/4 cup raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds (I did not use the pumpkin seeds)
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.
In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.
Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

*Keeps for 3 days in the fridge/3 months in the freezer in an air tight container.

Yumm...double, dark chocolate...for the last 5 years I have had a love affair (don't worry honey...you're still my man:) with dark chocolate. It began after I read in a health journal that all of the anti-oxidants are oh so good for you! That's all I needed to hear...well, read. Tosca Reno endorses dark chocolate for goodness sakes!..in moderation, of course.

When looking for which cocoa to use in your cupcakes dark, dutch press cocoa not only give the best flavor but also the richest color. I suggest at least 65% cocoa with no added sweeteners, or flavors. A good cocoa should be able to stand on it's own!

Happy baking and good luck not eating 1/2 the frosting "testing" the consistency :).

Three cheers for lemon zest!

When I think about lemon I can't help but smile...so fragrant, so colorful, so...zesty! A little goes a long way and in fact if you have a recipe that calls for salt you can add a little lemon zest and cut the salt by half. I made these little gems as an expirement...my basic vegan, vanilla cupcake recipe...with a little organic lemon to the batter and frosting. What started as an experiment quickly became my favorite treat!

The next time your in the kitchen...think about our little yellow friends and smile!