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!