Showing posts with label food blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food blog. Show all posts

Friday, December 18, 2015

Holiday dessert...Pumpkin Spiced winter squash vegan cupcakes with a lemon coconut frosting! (Completely Vegan)

I do not bake as much as I used to. Any baking I do now are casseroles. However, when my cousin is back from college, we get together and we bake. Sometimes, we make other things, but mostly we bake. We make myriads of cookies, pies, and, of course, cakes. Everything except muffins. I do not like muffins. Well, there is one muffin I do make, but it does not taste like your regular muffin. 

As we grow older, my cousins and I, thankfully still keep many of our traditions when it comes to family gathering. Although many of us have gone our separate ways, there are times when it do feel like we haven't grown at all. Holidays are one of those times.

I am not vegan. I love meat too much, but I do appreciate why people do the vegan thing, at least here in the US. However, I do love vegetables; thus I love vegan food. A friend of mine, Jill, is an animal activist and a proud vegan. On several occasions, I had gone vegan for a day, a week, and even a whole 40 days. The 40 days was hard. I scoured the internet for vegan recipes. Back then, it was hard to find vegan recipes. Nowadays, because of food trends, it is a lot easier. 

As I try to post my silly thoughts and ravings on the internet, I thought I'd try to scatter the internet with more delicious vegan recipes. Because, there can never be enough. So, as the holidays are approaching, here's a lovely cupcake recipe with all the holiday spices to keep you warm and toasty on a cold winter day with a lemon coconut frosting to brighten things up. Enjoy.

Happy Holidays! Happy cooking!


Spiced winter squash cupcake with a lemon coconut frosting


Ingredients

1 favorite winter squash halved ( I used butternut)

1/3 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup almond milk 
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 tsp of clove
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1/2 tsp of ground ginger
1/4 tsp of allspice
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1/4 tsp of cayenne

Roasting the Squash

1. Preheat oven 400 degrees.
2. Score the two halves of the squash. Drizzle with maple syrup. Sprinkle with cayenne.
3. Roast in the oven for 30 mins or until squash is tender.
4. Scrape the squash out and then puree. Set aside.


Making the cupcake

5. Turn oven down to 350 degrees F. 
6. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
7. Whisk together oil, sugar, almond milk.
8. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. 
9. Gently whisk flour mixture until well combined. 
10. Fold in pumpkin, but do not overstir or the batter will become gummy.

11. Fill liners two-thirds full. Bake for 24-26 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool completely.



Lemon Coconut Frosting

1/2 cup coconut oil
4-6 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp of lemon zest
1 tsp of lemon juice
salt



1. Cream the coconut oil with 2 cups of sugar until it has become smooth and lump-free.

2. Add salt and 2 cups of the confectioners’ sugar and resume mixing.
3. Fold in lemon zest and lemon juice. 

Monday, November 23, 2015

...I'm really back at it

I guess I didn't have the best start. I think I must have started the second post at least five times before I completely forgot about it. However, late is better than not at all right? Well, at least, that's what I am telling myself.

Lately, I have been cooking and made some pretty delicious meals, if I do say so myself. Also, my kitchen, although still tiny, had acquired more tools for me to play with. Two items that brought me much excitement are a slow cooker and a pressure cooker. I haven't experimented with the pressure cooker yet but the slow cooker had had plenty of used. Two dishes I was very proud of were an Irish stew and a white bean chili. I have photographic documentations for neither of those unfortunately. Hunger got the best of me.

Anyway, I've been on the vegan/vegetarian kick. Not that I'll ever go completely vegan, but more on that later. So, I made this last night as a before dinner snack.

However, I didn't think my snack was hearty enough. So, I added a poached egg. Still healthy. I've been in love with poached egg since Japan. They put it on everything. One of the many things I loved to put poached eggs on is Zaru Soba.


Soba was going to be my second post. My time on Japan had greatly influenced my taste buds. I will write a post about Soba and Japanese food. The next couple of post will be about Thanksgiving. Happy cooking!