Sunday, November 23, 2008

Iron Cupcake Challenge – Cranberry

In my last post I said “See you Monday” before I realized I had a deadline to meet. This month’s Iron Cupcake Challenge was to use cranberries in our cupcakes. Cranberries are a holiday favorite and certainly one of my favorite ingredients anytime of year.

I love the cupcakes I made for this challenge, but I’m not sure they qualify as Iron Cupcakes. I was further challenged by lack of lighting in my kitchen, and therefore didn’t work terribly hard on this entry. I used the Strawberry Cupcake recipe from Joy of Vegan Baking, and substituted whole cranberry sauce for the strawberry jam. It is a ridiculously easy recipe. The cupcakes baked up so beautifully. Somehow I ended up with crispy edges that all my tasters went crazy for. Honestly, they didn’t even need frosting.



No frosting would render them muffins, so I did make a small batch of frosting. As most of you know, I’m not a fan of sugary sweet frosting (I should find myself a muffin challenge!), but I did get an idea awhile back from Mo. She made Snowball Cupcakes, like the packaged kind with gooey coconutty covering. She wasn’t totally happy with her frosting though, and mentioned that next time she made them she would use the My Sweet Vegan ricemellow frosting recipe. So I just stole that idea. I made a third recipe of the frosting, because I only wanted to frost a few of the cupcakes, and tinted it pink by adding in the juice I let drain out of the cranberry sauce I used in the cupcakes. Then I pressed coconut shreds onto the frosting.

So here is my Holiday Cranberry Snowball Cupcake, totally delicious and totally festive.


The winner of the challenge will receive these prizes:
LOLLIPOP WORKSHOP
COOKIE SUNSHINE
A pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES
Something lovely from CAKESPY
An apron complements of SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY
HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS
HELLO CUPCAKE book by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
An apron from JESSIE STEELE APRONS
A CUPCAKE COURIER and
TASTE OF HOME books

Voting will begin no later than Sunday, November 30 at 8 p.m. at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER and will be open through Friday, December 5 at 12 noon.
You can join the challenges at any time by visiting IronCupcake:Earth!

18 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

BEYOND STUNNING!~!

Anonymous said...

Looks yummy! I gotta try that ricemellow frosting.

Anonymous said...

your cupcakes look amazing. i love the coconut on top. the cupcake name is perfect. i would gobble these babies up.

A.M. said...

O, they look yummy!

Anonymous said...

Snowball cupcakes? Oh yes, please! beautiful and I'm sure delicious!

Meg Wolff said...

TXVegan,
I would be a fan of the crispy edges too!

Katy said...

Mmmmmmmm, those look so tasty and festive! Yum!!!

Anonymous said...

They look wonderful--great way to use that cranberry sauce!

Oh, and happy Vegan Thanksgiving! ;)

Anonymous said...

it's high time I broke down and tried some of that ricemellow thing, already.
happy t-giving to you in advance, Diann!

Anonymous said...

These look great! Good luck.

Usha said...

Looks delightful and festive !

allularpunk said...

oh...those look beautiful! and sound delicious. that little amount of frosting with the coconut sounds perfect. awesome!

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

Diann, they are so pretty and festive! You have my vote! :)

jessy said...

oh my goodness! your cupcakes sounds sooooooooooooooo glorious! i want to eat all of them! and they look absolutely beautiful, too!

Lindsay (Happy Herbivore) said...

All I want for Xmas is a Holiday Cranberry Snowball Cupcake by Diann!

Libby said...

These look so pretty! Just like the snowballs I always want to eat in the store!

Vegan_Noodle said...

I need to go vote!! I love your snowball cranberry cupcakes. So cute.

Bex said...

That cupcake needs to be in my mouth
I love cranberries!