Iron Cupcake – Wine Challenge!

Wine and strawberries, champagne and chocolate, so many possibilities for this month's Iron Cupcake Challenge!

For my cupcake, I decided to use my new favorite fruit, Razzcherries, and pair it with a sweet Moscato. I boozed it up a little more by topping my cuppies with a brandy infused fluffy buttercream. And finally, they are sprinkled with walnut dust and topped with a whole razzcherry.

If you remember, razzcherries are tart cherries infused with raspberry concentrate and then dehydrated. And they taste phenomenal! I have been dying to use them in a baked treat. I know they would be especially delicious with chocolate cake, but I wanted you to be able to see them so I made white cake. I think chopping them released their flavor even more. I added them to the Golden Vanilla Cupcake recipe from VCTOTW. The wine adds a rich moistness to the cakes, and the brandy was a nice extra zip in the frosting. They turned out fantastic!

Voting begins Thursday, January 29 at 8 p.m. at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER and will be open through Wednesday, February 4 at 12 noon. The winner will be posted the night of February 4 before 11:59 p.m. You can join the challenge anytime at IronCupcake:Earth cuphub at http://ironcupcake.blogspot.com.

This month’s winner will receive prizes from the following sponsors: Dogbone Art, Cakespy, a pair of cupcake earrings from Lots of Sprinkles, Sweet Cuppin Cakes Bakery and Cupcakery Supply, Head Chefs by Fiesta Products, Hello Cupcake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, Jessie Steele Aprons, Cupcake Courier, Taste of Home books, and a Cupcake Tee from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.

This is always a such fun and delicious challenge!

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!

Iron Cupcake:Earth Basil Challenge

Basil is this month's Iron Cupcake Challenge. Basil makes me think of tomatoes. Tomatoes remind me of an incredible tomato and peach gazpacho I sampled which was prepared by our Lake Austin Spa chef. I don’t even like gazpacho, but his concoction was something I’ve never forgotten. So for this challenge I created Peach Gazpacho Cupcakes.

The cake is based on the old tomato soup cake recipe. I couldn’t satisfy myself that Campbell’s condensed version is vegan, so I improvised with soygurt and tomato paste. I adapted a Sarah Kramer recipe from Veg Family. The peach part of the recipe is merely peach preserves, to which I added the basil. The basil flavor is very subtle, so if you want more, double the amount I used. And because of my aversion to buttercream frosting, I topped my cuppers with one of my favorite soup garnishes – popcorn, cinnamon flavored for this recipe.

Peach Gazpacho Cupcakes

Makes 1 dozen

The cake is slightly spicy and light in texture. These cupcakes are super quick and easy to make.

Ingredients:
8 ounces plain soygurt
2 T. low sodium tomato paste
2 T. canola oil
2 t. vanilla
¾ cup sugar
1-1/2 cups flour
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
pinch of salt

12 t. (1/4 cup) peach preserves mixed with 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil.

1 cup popped popcorn sprinkled liberally with cinnamon

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake tin with paper liners.

For the cake: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the soygurt and tomato paste. Whisk in the oil, vanilla, and sugar. Sift in the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir until combined.

Spoon into cupcake pan. Smooth tops and add 1 t. peach preserves to the top of each cupcake. Bake for about 22 minutes.

When cupcakes are done, remove them to a wire rack. The tops will be just sticky enough for you to stick on the popcorn topping.

This was another fun challenge and rendered some very tasty cupcakes. You can view all the entries in the Iron Cupcake flickr pool and you can join this monthly challenge at any time - find out how at http://ironcupcake.blogspot.com.

I know my lowly vegan blog and loath of buttercream will never beat out the mainstream competition; nonetheless, to participate I must post the voting time and prizes awarded to the winner.

Voting will begin on Sunday, September 27 at 12 noon at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER, and will be open through Tuesday, September 30 at 12 noon.

Prizes this month are provided by:

ETSY artist METAL SUGAR, HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, JESSIE STEELE APRONS, CUPCAKE COURIER, and TASTE OF HOME.

Thanks for visiting!

eat’n veg’n is 2!

Today is my two-year anniversary of blogging. It has been so much fun to share healthy vegan food with all of you. Aside from enjoying the camaraderie of fellow veg’ns, I want to make a special point of applauding the number of college and graduate students I’ve *met* who cook such amazing food and maintain such healthy lifestyles, all while maintaining their GPAs as well as busy social and family lives. You are truly exceptional.

A couple of items I will be using today for our celebratory dinner are:

A mango weighing nearly 2 pounds, a gift from Mexico.






A sifter that is not only a great baking aid, but was hand painted by my great aunt many many years ago.

Now I get a chance to remind you that voting in the Iron Cupcake Challenge begins today at noon!

There are several outstanding vegan entries, so be sure to *Vote Vegan* at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner.

(In case you forgot, my entry is Texas Torpedo Cupcakes.)

See you in a couple of days!

Sweet Heat – Texas Torpedo Cupcakes

I have joined the Iron Cupcake:Earth bakers challenge! Each month a secret ingredient is revealed and bakers are challenged to come up with a winning recipe, much like the Iron Chef America show I still love so.

I’ve been in need of a challenge in the kitchen, so I took this challenge seriously, as I’m sure all the competitors did. Obviously, adding a teaspoon of chili powder to a cupcake recipe is not much of a challenge. I challenged myself to REALLY use chilies creatively and produce a little cake that I would bake again because it tastes great. I further challenged myself to use only ingredients I had on hand and not shop for any exotic chili spices or specialty chocolates. I did not bake gluten free for this first challenge. I have never made gluten free cupcakes, but my experience with the dry tendencies of gluten free treats made me think a gluten free version wouldn’t hold up to the mix-ins I was going to include. So what did I decide on?

As much as I love the combination of deep dark chocolate and a kick of heat from peppers, I figured lots of folks would do the chocolate chipotle combo, so I looked to something different. You may remember the big bag of red jalapenos I got from the farmers market recently. Jalapenos are the king of peppers in Texas. They are hot, slightly acidic, and are added to everything TexMex – migas, soups, breakfast and dinner tacos, breads, margaritas, and on and on. I thought about how I have used jalapenos, especially in salsas in combination with strawberries, mangoes, and pineapples, which are all wonderful.

Believe it or not, I had no fresh or canned pineapple on hand, but I did have dried pineapple. I made this nonvegan dessert, from Anna at cookiemadness, for my mom to take to a party and knowing it would be a huge hit, I bought extra pineapple to make a vegan version. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Anna found chopped pineapple, but this is what I have.




Yes, I do love my chocolate so I did include a bit. Any good chocolate lovin’ gluten free health conscious vegan keeps cocoa nibs on hand, right? So that’s how I came up with the combination of jalapenos, pineapple, and cocoa nibs.

As for the name I chose, “Texas Torpedo” usually refers to a cream cheese stuffed jalapeno (aka “popper”), but really it can be applied to anything with jalapenos as an ingredient, e.g., Texas Torpedo sandwich or cupcake! My cuppers are topped with a cream cheese frosting.

Now for the recipe.

Texas Torpedo Vegan Cupcakes:
(adapted from Golden Vanilla Cupcakes
from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

1/3 cup candied jalapenos (recipe follows)
1 cup nondairy milk
1 t. apple cider vinegar
1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
2 T. cornstarch
¾ t. baking powder
½ t. baking soda
½ t. cinnamon
½ t. salt
1/3 cup canola oil
¾ cup sugar
2 t. pineapple extract
½ t. vanilla extract
2 T. dried sweetened pineapple, diced
2 T. cocoa nibs
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)
Cocoa powder for dusting (optional)

Begin by making the Candied Jalapenos. This is best done the day before. It is a bit time consuming and messy, but so much fun to make!

Candied Jalapenos

8 medium jalapeno peppers
1 cup water
1 ½ cups sugar
extra sugar for coating (optional)

Put on rubber gloves. Cut the tops off the peppers and slice in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and membranes. Slice each half into 1/3 inch wide pieces and put into a large saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to boil. Let boil for 3 minutes, then drain. This will soften the peppers and remove some of the acidity.

Oil a cooling rack and set it over a parchment lined baking sheet. Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add the pepper strips and boil, stirring occasionally, until most of the syrup is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Turn the peppers onto the rack and separate the strips. Let them dry uncovered at room temperature for 4 to 8 hours, or until they are only slightly sticky.

I coated my candied pieces with additional sugar to make chopping them easier, but yours may not need it. Chop enough strips to make 1/3 cup for your cupcakes.

You will have more than enough candied strips for the cupcakes, so use the leftovers for garnish and/or snacking.


Pineapple Cupcakes:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake tins with paper liners.

Mix the milk and cider vinegar and set aside for 5 minutes.

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.

In a stand mixer or with electric beaters, beat together the sour milk, oil, sugar, and extracts. Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until smooth. Stir in the peppers, pineapple, and cocoa nibs.

Fill your paper lined cupcake tins about 2/3 full. Bake for about 21 minutes or until done. Let rest 5 minutes in tins, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

The cupcakes turned out perfectly.

Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
(from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

¼ cup margarine, softened
¼ cup soy cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 t. vanilla extract

Cream together the margarine and cream cheese until just combined. Using electric beaters, add in powdered sugar a half cup at a time. Mix until completely smooth, then add in vanilla. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Texas Torpedo Cupcake

Do you like the Iron Chef logo positioned peppers? Here’s the inside.

Honestly, these cupcakes are perfectly delicious. The crunchy nibs and chewy candies add excellent texture to the soft cake, and the jalapeno did exactly what it was supposed to – leave a lingering, subtle heat.


Please vote for my pretty little spicy cupcake! Voting begins 9:00 a.m. August 31st and runs through noon September 4th at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner. Some really nice prizes have been donated for the winner of the competition.

The winner will get all this:

The complete line of HEAD CHEFS from Fiesta Products,

A copy of the new book HELLO, CUPCAKE,

A one-of-a-kind piece of original CAKESPY art by ETSY artist Jessie Oleson,

A luxury hostess apron from JESSIE STEELE,

The next generation of the CUPCAKE COURIER,

And a new publication from the library of TASTE OF HOME BOOKS.

You can view all the outstanding entries for Iron Cupcake on the IRONCUPCAKE FLICKR GROUP page.

Why don’t you join Iron Cupcakes too! The next challenge starts soon. Learn all about it at ironcupcake.blogspot.com.


This challenge was so much fun and I can’t wait for the next one. Let the battle begin!