Be My VEGANtine Cupcakes!

It's that time of the year again. While I don't really like Valentine's Day and believe it to be an overrated, money grabbing day of atrocity, it doesn't stop me baking up lovely little treats for the day. Each year I try and do something a little different from the last. This will be my first ever vegan Valentine's day, so I wanted to make something a little special. I decided to do a rich chocolate cupcake topped with a fluffy vanilla icing and a little shortbread cookie. I wanted an extra pop of colour so I added a large raspberry to it. You don't have to add one if you don't like them or you can use a strawberry for that extra pop of colour. 

I'm still experimenting with egg substitutes in my baking. I've tried banana and now unsweetened applesauce and I already know which one I like the most! I'm actually looking at doing an entirely vegan sugar cookie line! More on that as it unfolds. It's a lot of work, so bear with me as I hammer out all of the designs, icings and packaging for them. I'm looking to start selling some of my creations locally! I've got a Facebook page for the skull sweets that I started doing this past October so I'll link that down below. Thank you to everyone who's been interested in my recipes so far! Let's get to the baking before you forget why you're here!

What You Need:

1 box chocolate cake mix (make sure that there is no egg or milk in the mix; not all boxed cake mixes are created equal.) 

3 tablespoons of unsweetened applesauce (this replaces the 3 eggs that most boxed cake mixes call for.) 

1c. cold water 

1/3c. vegetable oil (sometimes I add just a tablespoon and a half of the olive oil when baking with the apple sauce. Sometimes I don't even bother to add it at all. It's really up to you what you choose to do.)

In a large mixing bowl, combine together your boxed cake mix, water, applesauce and if you're using it, oil. Blend well either by hand or with an electric mixer. As I was blending this by hand I realised it was a lot smoother than when I used a mashed banana as a substitute. (Has anybody else noticed this?) Make sure that all the lumps and bumps are out of the batter before you pour it into the holes in your cupcake tray. Remember to line them with liners or grease each container individually with a non-stick cooking spray. Put into bake for 20 minutes at 350F. Fill a little over half and you should have roughly 22 cupcakes. Make sure that cupcakes are fully baked before you remove them from the oven. Put in a place to cool before icing. I like to stick mine in the icebox or even the freezer.

Making Shortbread

The shortbread is a really easy biscuit to make. If you don't care for them you can easily substitute them for a sugar cookie recipe of your choice. You only need four ingredients to make these.

1c fine sugar

2c vegan butter 

3c all-purpose flour

1 tsp vanilla essence 

**If you're like me, wanting to cut down on the sugar used in desserts, you can substitute the fine sugar for stevia. I actually prefer to use it in all of my baking, not only is it vegan, but its so much better for you. I've found its easier to make little changes in recipes like using stevia, using half coconut flour or unsweetened cashew milk etc than to just deny yourself all the time or attempt to have diet. Making these smaller changes for a healthier lifestyle are far easier than I ever thought they could be.
In a medium sized mixing bowl cream together the sugar and vegan butter. Add in half of the flour and vanilla essence, give a few good stirs to mix the flour and essence into the butter and sugar before adding in the rest of the flour. If the dough is too sticky for you, add a pinch or two of flour. Adjust accordingly. Because we are going to be cutting these out into shapes you're going to need a well-floured surface to put the dough out onto. I like to flour a cutting board, but any clean hard surface will do. 

Roll the dough into a ball and pound out (no pun intended) on the nicely floured surface. Take your biscuit cutter, it should be in the shape of a heart, and firmly press it into the dough. Carefully remove the cut out from the rest of the dough and set on a greased baking sheet. Repeat the process, leaving the biscuits roughly 1/2 inch apart on the tray. Once you have all the biscuits on the tray, take a few holiday coloured sprinkled and gently press them into the uncooked biscuit dough. This is totally optional. Put into bake at 325F for roughly 13 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown in colour. Remove the cookies from the tray after a few minutes and allow them to completely cool before attempting to use them as decoration. 

By now the cupcakes should be cool and ready for decoration! And, just like in the Phil cupcake blog, I'm not ready to give away all of my icing secrets! Taking an icing tool, I used a large star tip, I started in the centre of the cupcake, making bursts of icing making it look sort of like how whipped topping comes out of a spray can. I repeated it with each cupcake until they were all iced. I let the icing set for a minute or two before getting the shortbread biscuits and pressing them carefully, but firmly into the left-hand side of each cupcake. I followed up with adding a raspberry for a pop of colour on either the right or left side of the cupcake. There you have it! The Be My VEGANine cupcakes for 2019! I might do another valentines cupcake before the actual day, so stay tuned. I will be baking to bring into my work, so I'll post photos of those! 90% of them won't be vegan because no one there beside me is vegan and why spend the extra money when I don't want to? I hope you guys like these!