To celebrate the fact that today is DAY 21 of the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, I decided to make cupcakes! I, like most of the female population, adore cupcakes. I used to make them all the time in law school during finals to cheer up my uber-stressed friends. I rarely made them from scratch, though, that must be said. So I was more than a bit nervous to attempt vegan cupcakes that would, of course, be made from scratch. Luckily, I received Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World as a gift ages ago, and after a little searching, I found this darling petit livre on my bookshelves and dusted it off. I wanted to start with a basic cupcake so I decided on vanilla with lemon cream cheese frosting. I am not a huge frosting fan (unlike most of the female population), but cream cheese frosting I love. It's not so sugary sweet as it has the delightfully thick and tangy quality of, well, cream cheese!
The process was fairly simple, and there were only a couple of ingredients I was missing (mostly because I rarely back from scratch). Voila the finished product!
Now, for my very honest review of the finished product...
The Frosting: Delicious! I used Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese and, to be honest, I was not optimistic. I tasted a tiny bit before whipping up the frosting, and I doubt I'd ever spread it on a bagel. But the frosting? Divine! Blended with powdered sugar, a splash of vanilla extract, and lots of grated lemon zest, this frosting definitely tastes as decadent as regular cream cheese frosting.
The Cake: Admittedly, I didn't love the cake. Don't get me wrong, it's good. It's just not my ideal. I liked that it's moist and light and fluffy. What I didn't like was the flavor. The recipe suggested I use almond extract in addition to vanilla, so I did. And I can tell. And I don't really like it. It just... doesn't work for moi, especially not in a basic vanilla cupcake. So next time, I'm just going to stick to the vanilla extract.
Overall: Yummy! I'm going to bring my friend Jenny one later tonight and the rest to work tomorrow. I've already had 2 today, and well, I think that's quite enough. :P
Now, for my very honest review of the finished product...
The Frosting: Delicious! I used Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese and, to be honest, I was not optimistic. I tasted a tiny bit before whipping up the frosting, and I doubt I'd ever spread it on a bagel. But the frosting? Divine! Blended with powdered sugar, a splash of vanilla extract, and lots of grated lemon zest, this frosting definitely tastes as decadent as regular cream cheese frosting.
The Cake: Admittedly, I didn't love the cake. Don't get me wrong, it's good. It's just not my ideal. I liked that it's moist and light and fluffy. What I didn't like was the flavor. The recipe suggested I use almond extract in addition to vanilla, so I did. And I can tell. And I don't really like it. It just... doesn't work for moi, especially not in a basic vanilla cupcake. So next time, I'm just going to stick to the vanilla extract.
Overall: Yummy! I'm going to bring my friend Jenny one later tonight and the rest to work tomorrow. I've already had 2 today, and well, I think that's quite enough. :P
Gotta dash, but I'm planning to record a vlog just for vegan tomato, discussing my experience with vegan eating and cooking, and letting y'all know where I'm going from here. Stay tuned!!
