I mean the cupcakes are beautiful.
They are the most amazing ones I’ve made since going vegan.
And that makes me so happy because so much effort went into creating these little cups of glory.
They are inspired by the Ghostbusters movie-which my brother is obsessed with, and also my lime&coconut shower gel. Weird combination, I know, but it works.
They aren’t a healthy dessert option. In fact the amount of sugar I put in these surprised me as a type 1 diabetic. They’re just a vegan show stopper cupcake(bake off reference!), that you can bake to show your friends how we vegans roll. Or just to indulge yourself. Either way they’re delicious.
And yes, maybe I could have used more lime juice in the cupcakes; coconut sugar or flavouring in the icing; green food colouring instead of spirulina...
Yes. I did put spirulina in them. Even though there is the zest and juice of two whole limes in these beauties, they were not green enough, so I added an intensely green product. Even better, a natural product. I had plans to use green food colouring, but the ingredients of the one I found in the supermarket were like 95%glucos/fructose/syrups/artificial ingredients, and there really is no need to ruin something almost perfect with chemicals.
If you can buy natural/concentrated lime flavouring in a supermarket or shop near you, let me know in the comments, because I have no clue where to get this from. Also feel free to substitute the lime juice for that, to acheive a more intense flavour-I would!
But onto the recipe.
Which happens to be my first recipe in a long time. I don’t think I’ve posted one since my BEST cookie recipe. See how that was the BEST cookie recipe, and this is the BEST cupcake recipe? I’m noticing a pattern here….My recipes are obviously the best!
Just kidding.
This recipe is adapted from a lemon cake recipe, and the frosting comes from this website, but ideally, in the near future I would like to find a better one, as this is so easy to mess up. Too much oil and its disgusting. Too little and its disgusting. Add milk and it’s literally running away from you. But I think I’ve got it pretty much covered.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of almond milk
- 1 & 1/2 cup of flour
- 1/2 cup of sugar or stevia or other substitute
- 2tsp baking powder+1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda+pinch of salt
- 1tbsp apple cider vinegar(to get a reaction&rise)
- the zest and juice of two limes
- 1tsp spirulina powder or other colouring additive
- 1/3 cup of melted coconut or canola oil
- 4tbsp of coconut oil
- 1cup icing sugar (notice I’m not calling it confectioners sugar so that no one else confuses it with caster sugar and fails)-you could also used crushed coconut sugar to give it more of a coconut taste.
- almond mil or ground almonds to work on the texture.
- Preheat your over to 160*c/340*F
- Measure out your milk and add the cider vinegar and lime juice. Leave to curdle for a few minutes and then add the oil.
- Sift in the flour, then add baking powder, soda and salt.
- Stir vigorously or use an electric whisk to get the mixture to a smooth consistency.
- Add the sugar and lime zest and continue mixing.
- Now add the spirulina or colouring. I did this so gradually. 1/8th of a teaspoon, mix, another eighth and so on until I got a decent colour. I admit spirulina doesn’t give it the vibrant ‘in-your-face’ green I was looking for, but it’s close.
- Line 12 cupcake moulds with baking paper or cupcake cases and fill them to about 3/4. A good way to do this is to pour your batter into a jug, thus making it easier to fill your cases evenly and without spilling too much.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until they look baked and have slightly risen.
- Cool these incredibly slowly. They collapse in on themselves so easily destroying your dreams of delicious cupcakes.
- Make your frosting by creaming together the coconut oil and powdered sugar. If after mixing for a while it seems to not be coming together, add a splash of milk and try again. But do this with caution. EXTREME caution to avoid your mix being too runny as it is unsalvageable and must be re-started.
- Once cooled, stick your cupcakes in the freezer and your icing in the fridge for a few minutes to get them down to a low temperature. The frosting does not cope with humidity or high temperatures so these cupcakes will need to be kept in the fridge before eating.
- Ice your cupcakes-either just with a spoon or go all out with piping.
To decorate them, I made some candied lime peel, but apart from looking quite nice, it wasn’t tasty. Try decorating them with a mint leaf or some coconut flakes/shreds. Something to suit your style.
Again this recipe isn’t perfect, and as I work on it more, I’ll hopefully update and tweek it. If you yourself find a way to improve it, please let me know, as this has been one of my favourite recipes.
I seem to be posting a lot this week, but we have half term at school; so apart from hanging out with friends and revising vocab, I’ve been researching so much veganism and vegan related stuff that I think my brain may explode.
I found free-lee’s channel (believe it or not for the first time), and have watched a LOT of her videos-going back to last year.
Also I found out that one of the members of my favourite band is vegan (Rena Lovelis from Hey violet), and also that some of 5SOS tried it too, which has me super hyped. So many people-influencial people at that are going vegan and spreading the message of love. Their has never been a better time filled witg more motivation and guides to going vegan, than now.
And at that, I leave you to your awesome day.
Enjoy.x
Green Teen and Vegan 