Raw Vegan "Cheese"cakes

I've been posting (and eating) a lot of sugary desserts lately, so I figure it's time to take a break from those and make a dessert that's actually good for you. The desserts I usually post are healthier than traditional ones, as they have substitutions like coconut oil for butter, and apple purée for eggs, but they're still not exactly health food. These "cheese"cakes actually can be considered healthy and nutritious, and they're delicious! It's a win win!

I've made them in mango and strawberry flavors, but I bet most fruits would be delicious. Blueberry is next on my list. I made these in muffin tins lined with unbleached baking cups (I always walk out of Wild By Nature with something new), but I bet this recipe would work in a traditional cheesecake springform pan. I'll try it for Andrew's birthday next week and fill you in. He was a big fan of the strawberry ones!

I prepared the crust exactly as directed in the original recipe. I've tried other raw vegan crusts, but this one is by far the best. I even got over my intense dislike of stevia for use in the filling and found a brand that doesn't make me gag!

Non-nausea inducing Stevia

The original recipe called for coconut oil and cocoa butter.
I don't have the latter, so I improvised and used coconut butter.

Tasty medjool dates from Blue Mountain Organics.
I went a little nuts recently in their online store.

It's best to freeze these, then let them sit on the counter for a couple minutes before serving.

Raw Vegan "Cheese"cakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Crust:

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1/4 cup packed medjool dates, pitted
• 1 tsp. water
• Pinch of salt

1. Grind the almonds in a blender or food processor. Be careful not to over grind them, stop when you reach a crumb consistency.
2. Roughly chop the dates and grind them in with the almonds until they have turned to crumbs also.
3. Add the water and salt and grind again until a dough forms.
4. Press this dough into the bottom of lined muffin tins.

Almond crumbs

The crust in the muffin tins

Filling:

• 2 cups chopped fruit, such as mangos, strawberries or blueberries
• 1 cup cashews
• 3 Tbsp. agave
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 4 drops of liquid stevia
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped (vanilla extract could work, too)
• 4 Tbsp. coconut butter, melted

1. Blend all the ingredients in a blended or food processor until everything is thoroughly mixed.
2. Pour over the crust, and freeze for a few hours until firm.

Lilac Muffins

Spring has never been more delicious!

Lilacs are my absolute, hands down favorite flower. The smell, the delicate purple color, the tiny blossoms, I love it all. My favorite time of year is when the lilacs bloom in May (or April as it was this year). Andrew knows how much I love them, so he bought me a bush on my first birthday that I celebrated with him, and planted it in my parents yard. I told him I would love him as long as lilacs bloom in spring. I know, I'm so romantic. Well the bush hasn't bloomed since that first year, but I still love him! (Does anyone have any idea why a lilac bush wouldn't bloom btw? It's growing fine, it just doesn't flower). We have a small bush outside of our bedroom window now, and even though I avoid opening that window because of my allergies, I make an exception when the bush is in bloom. I hate how short the blooming season is though. The blooms are on their way out, so get on this recipe right away! I never thought to bake with lilacs. It didn't ever cross my mind that they could be edible until I came across the recipe that I adapted this from. I switched out eggs, milk and butter for healthier, vegan ingredients, and topped the muffins with a thinned out version of my vegan buttercream icing and candied lilac blossoms. If you're looking for something unique, pretty and delicious to make for Mother's Day, look no further. This recipe is perfect.

The lilac blossoms on their own are pretty bitter. I thought the muffins would take on that taste, so I iced them to add some sweetness. It turns out they're not so bitter once they're baked, so the muffins tasted fine on their own. Feel free to skip the icing and candied lilacs, but they do make for a nice presentation. And candying the lilacs makes them "taste exactly like they smell", according to my brother Jesse.

Lilac Muffins

Makes 6 muffins

• 1/4 cup of coconut oil, melted
• 1/8 cup of apple puree or sauce (or 1 cube if you freeze the puree in ice cube trays)
• 1/4 cup of Turbinado sugar
• 1/2 cup of almond milk
• 1 cup of unbleached flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup of lilac blossoms, stems removed

1. Preheat the oven to 350º.
2. Hand mix all the ingredients besides the blossoms in a mixing bowl until well blended.
3. Fold in the lilacs.
4. Spoon the mixture into 6 greased muffin tins.
5. Bake for 20 minutes.
6. When cooled, top with icing and candied blossoms (recipe below).

Vegan "Buttercream" Icing

Ices 6 muffins

• 1/4 cup of vegetable shortening
• 1 cup of powdered sugar, divided
• 1 tsp. of vanilla extract
• 2 tsp. water (this is the thinned out version, to make the original, use only 1 tsp. of water)

1. Cream the shortening and 1/2 of the sugar with an electric mixer.
2. Add the rest of the sugar, vanilla and water and cream until smooth.

Candied Lilac Blossoms

Makes about 1/2 cup of simple syrup.. which will candy a lot of blossoms

• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, plus extra for dusting (I tried to use organic for dusting, but the blossoms came out kind of brown and rotten looking, so this might be the only time I say this, but skip the organic version. This also makes it non-vegan, since it's bone char that whitens the sugar). 
• Lilac blossoms, stems removed

1. Heat the water and 1/2 cup of sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is completely dissolved to create the simple syrup.
2. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. Once cool, dip blossoms in the simple syrup using (clean!) tweezers.
4. Blot off the excess syrup on the handle of the wooden spoon, and dip in sugar.
5. Place on a sheet of wax paper to harden.

Blue Moon Orange Cupcakes

These may have been the tastiest cupcakes I've ever created. They're light, fluffy, and packed with flavor. Who knew that beer went so well with cupcakes? I saw these on Pinterest, another social media site that I'm completely addicted to. Between blogging, pinning, and facebooking I've been spending way too much time online. I even started using my laptop again, something I haven't really used since graduating college. Like everything else on this blog, these cupcakes are vegan. Even the beer is vegan.

I started Saturday night to prepare for yesterday's Super Bowl. We had a lot of cooking to do the day of, so anything that could be done the night before was. Once again I turned to allrecipes.com for a vegan cupcake recipe. They had a great one using coconut oil and apple cider vinegar instead of butter and eggs. I added some zest from a naval orange, which added a sweet kick to the cupcakes. Zest from the same orange was used to flavor the icing, the recipe for which can be found at the bottom of this page. 

Beer doesn't always bake well, so before the cupcakes were iced, I poked holes in the top of them with a toothpick and brushed them with Blue Moon using a pastry brush. You couldn't really taste the beer (the orange flavor dominated), so if you're a fan of Blue Moon I suggest not only brushing the cupcakes with a lot of beer, but also using it in the icing. To thin the icing I usually use water, but next time I'll add a Tbsp of beer. This batch made 9 cupcakes, and they're gone already. Logan and I just split the last one.. and I just realized I gave my 15 month old beer. Oops. I'll keep an eye out for clumsy, wild behavior. Oh wait, he's always like that.

Blue Moon Orange Cupcakes

Makes 9 cupcakes

• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 1/2 Tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cups almond milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp. orange zest

1. Preheat the oven to 350º.
2. Melt the coconut oil. I do this by putting the oil in a small glass dish, and placing it in a saucepan full of water over the stove. Just make sure the water doesn't come above the top of the glass dish. See the picture below.
3. Pour the vinegar in a 2 cup measuring cup. Add almond milk up to the 3/4 cup mark. Let stand for 5 minutes, or until curdled.
4. Mix the flour, sugar, powder, soda and salt in a large bowl.
5. Add the coconut oil and vanilla to the almond milk mixture.
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the flour mixture, and mix well.
7. Fold in the orange zest.
8. Pour into a greased muffin tin (makes 9 muffins).
9. Bake for 15 minutes.
10. Once cooled, poke holes in the top of the cakes with a toothpick and brush with beer.
11. Make the frosting. Mix 1 tsp of orange zest into the icing, and thin with a Tbsp of beer (instead of water).
12. Frost cupcakes, and top with orange wedges.

Coconut oil melting on the stove

Everything ready to be mixed

Another Super Bowl idea I saw on Pinterest. I usually wait until spring to eat strawberries, there's nothing like a Long Island strawberry! These were so cute though I couldn't resist. We did our shopping at Pathmark, which doesn't carry the vegan Endangered Species chocolate. I did find that Ghirardelli 72% cacao from their all natural Intense Dark line doesn't contain milk fat or any other animal product. The "laces" were added with Wilton's cookie icing that I had leftover from decorating Christmas cookies. 

Melt the chocolate in a bowl inside a pot of hot water.

Make sure the strawberries are very dry before dipping
them, or else the chocolate won't stick.

Vegan S'mores Cupcakes

My Sunday nights have been reserved from September through May for the past few years. It's when I get together with the Vaiana-Cavanaghs to watch Desperate Housewives, talk to each other about our week, and eat all sorts of junk food. My obsession with the show started one night when I went to the VC's house to catch up with Anna, one of my best friends since high school. Her sister Adriana got season 1 of Desperate Housewives on dvd for Christmas. We put on the pilot episode since Adriana kept raving about it, and our eyes were glued to the tv for the next five hours. We quickly caught up to the episodes that were airing on tv, and began our Sunday night ritual. By that time Anna's other sister Debrhea and her parents were just as obsessed with the show as we were.

Lately it's just been Adriana and I watching. Anna passed away in 2008, Deb moved out of state, and Mama and Papa VC's interest in the show waned. Adriana and I still honor Sunday nights with the show, Anna's memory, and our love for sweets. This Sunday I made s'mores cupcakes for the event. I've made the dessert once before in cake form for Logan's first birthday.

The recipe for the vegan batter came from allrecipes.com, a great site for browsing. The s'mores version is my own, proud creation though. It starts by packing a graham cracker crust into the cupcake tins, topping with batter, and toasting the marshmallows on top once the cupcakes have baked. Once the marshmallows are toasted on top they have to be eaten right away. The cupcakes can be made in advance, adding the marshmallows later right before serving. 

S'mores Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Graham cracker crust:

• 4 whole graham crackers, crushed.
• 3 Tbsp. oil

Cupcakes:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. distilled white vinegar
• 1 cup water

"Icing":

• 12 marshmallows*

1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2. Crush crackers and mix with oil. Add more oil if still too dry. Set aside.
3. In another bowl stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Add oil, vanilla, vinegar and water. Mix until smooth.
5. Press cracker mixture into a greased cupcake tin.
6. Spoon batter gently on top of the crumbs.

      7. Bake for 15 minutes.

      8. Using a knife, scrape around the sides of each cupcake and remove from the tin. Bake for 3 more                     minutes if they're not coming out easily.

      9. Place cupcakes on a baking sheet, and place a marshmallow on top of each, securing with a toothpick.

       10. Turn the oven up to 500º and place the cupcakes back in the oven, until they're golden brown and starting to melt.

       11. Serve immediately.

*To make these vegan in every sense of the word you would have to use gelatin free marshmallows, since gelatin is made from the collagen inside animal skins and bones. Eww. You would also need a substitute for white sugar that doesn't use bone char filters. I used regular marshmallows (while trying not to think about the origins of gelatin) and white sugar, so some people wouldn't consider them vegan.

As I mentioned before, this can also be made in cake form. Just double the recipe and bake for 30 minutes in two 9" round pans. Once baked, stack the two cakes together on a baking sheet and fill the middle with the cracker crumbs. Top with marshmallows and place in the oven until they're toasted. Logan couldn't get enough of this cake on his birthday. It was the first time he ever ate marshmallows, and it's no surprise that he loved them!

For Logan's Eric Carle themed birthday party I tripled the batter recipe to shape The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Even the frosting was vegan. My cake decorating skills aren't the greatest, but I really impressed myself with this one!

Vegan "Buttercream" Frosting

Makes about 3 cups

• 1 cup of vegetable shortening
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 cups of confectioner's sugar
• 2 Tbsp. water

1. Creme shortening and vanilla with an electric mixer.
2. Add sugar one cup at a time, beating well between each cup.
3. Thin the  mixture with water if necessary, and blend until smooth.