Red Velvet Cupcakes done the Babycakes way

Okay, now who doesn't love red velvet cupcakes?  Who can pass one up?  They are probably my favorite kind of cupcake vegan or not, gluten free or not, I cannot pass one up.  There's just something about the richness of how they taste.  The frosting always pops out more on red velvet cupcakes, in my opinion.  That being said, I used the Babycakes vanilla frosting recipe for these, and you can find that link here.

For these cupcakes you will need to use spelt flour, now spelt is wheat's cousin, so I don't think these are gluten free.  I have heard that people with Celiac's can digest spelt though, depending on how sensitive they are to gluten.  That being said, let's get to the recipe.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1/2 cup rice milk
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 3 1/4 cups whole spelt flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2/3 cup coconut oil
• 1 1/4 cups agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 5 tablespoons natural red food coloring, or as needed to achieve your preferred color
• vanilla frosting (see above link)

First, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Line 2 standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.  Pour the rice milk and apple cider into a small bowl, but do not stir, set aside to develop into "buttermilk."

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add the oil, agave nectar, and vanilla to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.  The batter will be thick.  Using a plastic spatula, add the "buttermilk" and mix just until combined.

Slowly add red food coloring by the tablespoon until the batter is the desired color.  Do not exceed 6 tablespoons.

Pour the batter into the prepared tins.  Bake the cupcakes on the center rack for 24 minutes, rotating the tins 180 degrees after 14 minutes.  The finished cupcakes will bounce back slightly when pressed, and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

I frosted the cupcakes at my bff's home.

Let the cupcakes stand in the tins for 20 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely.  Using a frosting knife, gently spread desired amount of frosting to each cupcake.

You can store these cupcakes in the fridge in an airtight  container for up to 3 days.

Enjoy! 

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes (Gluten-Free too)

I can't believe my blog is a year old already!  Hopefully I'll get more followers/viewers in this new year of my blog.  I made these cupcakes about two weeks ago when I was craving chocolate, and since the first cupcake batch came out well, I decided to go with my Gluten-Free Cupcakes cookbook by Elana Amsterdam.  They were also sugar free;  they were sweetened with agave nectar.  I like agave a lot, but sometimes when things are sweetened with it, it makes your baked goods extremely moist...a little more than I would like.  That being said, I thought the cupcakes were still very good, and the buttercream turned out really good too.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
• 1 tablespoon ground chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon flax meal
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut milk
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Here's what you'll need for the buttercream:

• 1/2 cup Spectrum all-vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread
• Pinch of sea salt
• 3/4 cup agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 9 muffin cups with paper liners.  In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, cocoa powder, arrowroot powder, ground chia seeds, flax meal, salt, and baking soda.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, agave nectar, vinegar, and vanilla extract.

Stir the wet ingredients into the almond flour mixture with a large spoon until thoroughly combined.  Scoop 1/4 cup of batter into each prepared muffin cup.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached.  Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 1 hour, then frost and serve.

Now onto the buttercream:

In large bowl, blend together the shortening and buttery spread with a handheld mixer until creamy.  Mix in the salt, agave nectar, and vanilla extract, whipping until smooth.

Refrigerate the frosting for 2 hours, or until firm.  Frost the cupcakes immediately, then place them into the fridge to keep the consistency of the frosting firm until serving.  Enjoy! 

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Meringue Frosting

Okay, again, it's been too long since I last updated my blog.  A lot has been going on in my life, but I'm not going to bore you with the details.  I'm finished with classes for the summer, well, I have one, it's on-line though.  I don't have a summer job (yet, but I'm hoping somebody will get back to me), so I will probably be updating this blog a lot. 

I made these cupcakes yesterday since I had a lot of strawberries that were probably going to go bad soon, so I wanted to use them for something.  This recipe comes from Gluten-Free Cupcakes by Elana Amsterdam.  It's the first recipe I've made from this book and they turned out great.  The frosting was a little too sweet for my taste, but the cupcakes weren't overly sweet at all, so it was balanced out.  The only bad thing about this recipe was it only makes 8 cupcakes, so if you're making them for an event, you might want to double or triple the recipe, same goes for the frosting.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries

Here's what you'll need for the frosting:

•  1/4 cup agave nectar
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh stawberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 8 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine the coconut flour, arrowroot, salt, and baking soda.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, agave, and vanilla.

 Blend the wet ingredients into the coconut flour mixture with a handheld mixer until thoroughly combined, then fold in the strawberries.

Scoop a few tablespoons of batter into each prepared muffin cup.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached.  Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 1 hour, then frost and serve.

Now onto the frosting:  In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the agave to a boil, stirring constantly.  Decrease the heat to low and simmer for 6 to 10 minutes, stirring on occasion, until the agave darkens slightly from its original amber color.  Remove from heat and set aside.

In a deep bowl, whip the egg whites to stiff peaks using a handheld mixer.  Stop whipping as soon as the egg whites are stiff.

Could have been stiffer.

Drizzle the warm agave very slowly into the egg whites, while whipping with a handheld mixer, to keep the peaks stiff.  Allow to cool to room temperature, then fold the strawberries into the meringue.  Use right away.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake

Yes, that's my homework under my dessert.

Let's make this clear, this isn't a cheese cake, this is a cake with cream cheese in it.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it came out very tasty and filling.  It was very chocolaty, not very moist, but still very good.  I baked this last weekend when I should have been doing my homework.  I had a huge craving for chocolate though, so I took a break from my accounting studies. 

Here's what you'll need:
2 cups hazelnut flour
2 cups almond flour
2 1/2 cups Stevia Extract in the Raw or 1 1/4 cups New Roots Stevia Sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup salted butter melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons liquid stevia

First preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a Bundt pan entirely with butter and place it in the freezer.

In a large bowl, combine the hazelnut flour, almond flour, stevia, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt and whisk until well mixed.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and liquid stevia and mix with an electric mixer at medium-low speed.

Add the flour mixture one or two cups at a time, and mix at medium-low speed until it makes a smooth, thick, pourable batter. 

Remove your prepared pan from the freezer, then dust the entire inner surface with almond, pecan, or coconut flour (I used coconut because I have a lot more of it than the other two).  Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and jiggle it to evenly distribute the batter into every nook and cranny.

Bake for 30 minutes, then gently rotate and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until the cake is springy when pressed in the center and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack.  Let the cool for at least 20 more minutes before slicing and serving.

Enjoy!

Raisin Cinnamon Oatmeal

 This was my breakfast this morning.  I haven't eaten oatmeal since I was a little kid, and back then it was the junky instant stuff from a tiny package.  Today was the grown-up version of my favorite flavor from back then, raisin cinnamon.  I didn't take any pictures because I wasn't thinking of posting this, but since it turned out so well, I decided to.

What you'll need:
1/2 cup rolled oats (no added sugar and no added flavor)
dash of salt
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup raisins
1 package of flaxseed from Carrington Farms' Organic Flax Paks Milled Flax Seeds
1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon (I used Penzeys' because it is the best cinnamon out there, in my opinion.)

Bring the soy milk and tiny bit of salt to a boil.  Lower the heat and add oats.  Cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally.  Transfer to a bowl and stir in flaxseed meal and raisins.  Add the cinnamon and stir once more.  Eat and enjoy! 

Cinnamon-Apple Muffins

This recipe comes from The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking (I told you I would be using this cookbook a lot).  I made the recipe yesterday morning and they turned out very yummy.  The recipe didn't make a lot of them, the recipe says 9, but I was only able to make 8.  I'm trying not to eat them all within a couple of days, it's been difficult because they're really good.

Here's what you'll need:
3/4 cup hazelnut flour
3/4 cup almond flour
1/2 cup Stevia Extract in the Raw
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
6 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk or other milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia
1/2 cup coarsely chopped apple (about 1 large apple)
1/4 cup chopped almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, or walnuts (which was used in this recipe) for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 8 or 9 muffin cups with paper or foil liners, then mist them with spray oil.

In a medium bowl, combine the hazelnut flour, almond flour, stevia, baking powder, and cinnamon and whisk until well mixed.

In a large bowl whisk the eggs, milk, applesauce, vanilla, and liquid stevia together until thoroughly blended.

Add flour mixture and stir with a large spoon for 1 to 2 minutes to make a smooth, sticky batter.  Fold in the apples.

Spoon or scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups, dividing it evenly among them; the muffin cups should be just about full.  Sprinkle the nuts evenly over the muffins.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rotate and bake for about 20 to 25 more minutes, until golden brown and springy when pressed in the center.

Let the muffins cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Basic Brown Bread

Hi, everybody!  Today's recipe comes from The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking.  It's starting to become my go-to cook book when it comes to baking goodies for myself.  I just received in the mail either this week or late last week, two new cook books on how to bake using alternative flours. One is all about coconut flour (which I have a lot of), and the other focusing on almond flour.  Hopefully, I'll get to those books sooner rather than later, but don't count on it because school is my number one priority right now (as it should be).

This bread looks more like a banana bread, and is very filling, it also has a very nutty taste to it.  It's also extremely healthy for you considering it has two cups of flaxseed meal in it.

Here's what you'll need:
2 cups brown or golden flaxseed meal
1 cup hazelnut flour (the most expensive flour I've bought to date)
1/4 cup Stevia Extract in the Raw or Splenda
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 cup unsweetened soy milk or other milk
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup salted butter melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line the bottom of a 4 1/2 by 8 inch loaf pan with parchment paper, then mist the pan with spray oil.

In a medium bowl, combine the flaxseed meal, hazelnut flour, sweetener, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt.  Whisk until well mixed.

In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer (which the recipe recommends), combine the eggs, milk, water, and butter and whisk or mix with the paddle attachment at medium-low speed until thoroughly blended.

Add the flour mixture and stir vigorously with a large spoon or mix at medium speed for 2 minutes.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then stir even more vigorously by hand or mix at medium-high speed for 2 minutes to aerate the batter.  It should be smooth, sticky, and pourable.

Pour mixture into the prepared pan.  Bake for 35 minutes, then rotate and bake for about 35 minutes, until golden brown and springy when pressed in the center and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

(I can't tell if this picture is pre-oven or post-oven...sorry.)

Let the bread cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before turning out the loaf.  Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

Enjoy! You can put anything on this bread too, cheese, turkey, peanut butter & jelly, or butter like I did this morning. 

Cocoa-Nut Brownies

This recipe comes from my The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking cookbook.  These brownies were made using alternative flours such as pecan and almond flours.  The recipe also requires the use of Stevia or Splenda. I always choose the more natural one, so Stevia in this case.  If you're on a diet and still want to eat yummy snack food, you should probably pick up this cookbook.  Every single recipe calls for a type of nut flour, which you can find at your local health food store, however if you are allergic to nuts, this book isn't for you then.

Here's what you'll need:
2 cups (8 oz.) pecan flour
1 cup (4 oz.) almond flour
2 cups Splenda or Stevia Extract in the Raw, or 1/2 cup New Roots Stevia Sugar
1/2 cup (1.5 oz.) unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened chocolate soy milk or chocolate almond milk
1/4 cup salted butter or margarine, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then mist the pan with spray oil.

In a medium bowl, combine the pecan flour, almond flour, stevia, cocoa powder, and baking powder and whisk until well mixed.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, soy milk, butter, vanilla, and liquid stevia together until thoroughly blended.

Add the flour mixture and whisk or stir with a large spoon until all of the ingredients are evenly incorporated to make a smooth, sticky batter.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, spreading it in an even layer if need be.

Bake for 15 minutes, then rotate and bake for 10 minutes, until the brownies are just slightly springy but still jiggly when pressed gently in the center.  If you like fudgy brownies, remove them from the oven at this point.  If you prefer them to be more cakelike, continue baking for a few more minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the brownies comes out clean.

Let the brownies cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes.  Cut them in a 3 by 4 grid, to yield 12 brownies.

Enjoy!

Agave-Sweetened Plain Donut with Agave-Sweetened Chocolate Glaze

On Sunday, I decided to finally use my donut pans that I bought a few weeks ago.  Since BabyCakes in NYC is also known for their gluten-free vegan donuts almost as well as their gluten-free vegan cupcakes, I decided to use one of their recipes.  This recipe comes from Erin McKenna's second cook book, BabyCakes Covers the Classics: Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes from Donuts to Snickerdoodles.  You will need a few unconventional flours, so go to your nearest health food store or places like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Kings.  They carry these things, all by Bob's Red Mill.

The end result was heavy feeling, and tasted like cake, but was still delicious and much healthier than Dunkin' Donuts'.  If you want a more crunchy donut, Erin suggests making the donut recipes with the sugar in them instead of agave nectar (which I will get to another week).  I wanted to try the healthier option, so I did, and they turned out delicious, especially with the chocolate glaze!

Here's what you'll need for the donuts:
3/4 cup rice flour (I used brown rice flour)
1/3 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup arrowroot
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/3 cup melted refined (mine was unrefined, I don't think it makes that much of a difference) coconut oil or canola oil, plus more for brushing the trays
3/4 cup agave nectar (light colored)
6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup vanilla extract
1/4 cup hot water

One important thing I forgot to type above, Erin suggests measuring out all the ingredients (even the liquid ones) in dry ingredient cups, it makes a little bit of a difference.

What you'll need for the chocolate glaze:
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup Better Than Milk Rice or Soy Powder (I used a different brand, and it was soy.)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup melted refined coconut oil or canola oil (I used canola this time.)
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Brush 2 six-mold donut trays with coconut or canola oil and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, potato starch, arrowroot, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and xanthan gum.

Add the agave nectar, coconut oil, applesauce, vanilla, and hot water and mix with a rubber spatula just until the ingredients are incorporated.  Continue mixing until the batter is smooth.  Using a melon-baller or tablespoon, drop 2 1/2 tablespoons of batter into each donut mold.  Using a toothpick, spread the batter evenly around the mold.

Bake for 8 minutes, rotate, and continue baking until the donuts are golden brown, about 8 minutes more.  Let cool in the molds for 15 minutes.  Run a knife around the donuts in the molds, lift them out, and place them on a baking sheet.

While the donuts are baking, combine the coconut milk, agave nectar, rice or soy-milk powder, cocoa powder, and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor and blend on medium speed for 1 minute.  While the processor is running, gradually add 1/2 cup of the coconut oil and 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice and blend until thoroughly incorporated.  Add the remaining 1/4 cup coconut oil and 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice and process for 1 minute more.  The glaze can be stored, covered tightly at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Once the donuts are cool enough, dip into the glaze and enjoy!

Almond-Pecan Piecrust & Apple Crumble Pie

First I'd like to say is my heart goes out to everybody who was affected by Hurricane Sandy.  I live close to NYC and just north of NJ, and had lost power last night for about 10 hours, I'm quite lucky it came back on, considering there will be many people without electricity for a while.  :-(  Growing up in NJ and having gone down the shore every summer with my family while growing up, it's difficult to see how much Sandy destroyed.  :-( 

Since I had off of work yesterday, as did everybody in the Tri-state area, I wanted to bake something since I was very bored, and had time to pass.  So I decided to bake the apple pie I've been wanting to bake since the first time I brought back my half bushel of apples.  I was very apprehensive at first, since the lights were flickering a bit, but the news kept saying the worst would come later.  The slow apple peeler that I am, the pie was in the oven when the power shut off.  My stove top is gas, but not the oven.  :-(  The pie was nearly done, but I waited until this morning to finish it.  It came out alright.  It tastes really good, but it was falling apart and didn't look like a pie once on the plate.  Oh well, maybe next time I use this recipe it'll turn out better looking, oh, and I won't be stupid and think I have enough time to bake a pie while a major storm is going on.  Duh!

 This recipe came from my cookbook, The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking.  I made the crust first out of almond flour and pecan flour.  I had to special order the pecan flour from King Arthur Flour.  I don't think Bob's Red Mill sells pecan, but they do have almond and hazelnut.

Here's what you'll need for the Almond-Pecan Piecrust:

1 cup (4 oz.) almond flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1 cup (4 oz.) pecan flour (King Arthur)
1/4 cup Splenda or Stevia Extract in the Raw (I used Stevia), or 2 tablespoons New Roots Stevia Sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup salted butter or margarine melted
3 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk (I used soy) or other milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Lightly mist a 9" or 10" pie pan with spray oil.  In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, pecan flour, sweetener, and baking powder and whisk until well mixed.

Add the butter, milk, and vanilla and stir with a large spoon for 1 to 2 minutes.  The dough will be stiff and playdough-like.  Put the dough in the prepared pan and lightly mist the top of the dough with spray oil.  Spread the dough with your fingers, pressing it in an even layer to line the pan.  Prick the bottom and sides with a fork to help prevent bubbles (I forgot to do this) and air pockets.  Set aside.

Now, what you'll need for the Apple Filling:
5 cups thinly sliced apples (about 1/4" thick)
1 cup Splenda or Stevia Extract in the Raw, or 1/2 cup New Roots Stevia Sugar
1/4 cup (1 oz.) almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons salted butter or margarine melted
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia

What you'll need for the Crumble Topping:
3/4 cup (3 oz.) almond flour
1/4 cup Splenda, Stevia Extract in the Raw, Truvia, or Zsweet, or 2 tablespoons New Roots Stevia Sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup (2 oz.) salted butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

To make the filling, put the apples in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine the Stevia, almond flour, cinnamon, butter, lemon juice, and liquid stevia and stir gently with a large spoon or rubber spatula until thoroughly combined.  Add this mixture to the apples and mix together until all the apples are thoroughly coated.

Then pour the mixture, juices and all, into the unbaked piecrust; the apples will mound up higher than the edges of the pan.

To make the topping, put all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir with a large spoon or rubber spatula until thoroughly combined.  The mixture should be crumbly and dry.  If it lumps up rather than forming crumbles, refrigerate for about 30 minutes until hardened, and then crumble it with your fingers. 

Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the apples.

Put the pie on a baking sheet and cover the edges of the crust with foil to prevent burning.  Bake for 20 minutes, then rotate the baking sheet and bake for about 20 more minutes.  Remove the foil from the edges of the piecrust and bake for about 10 minutes, until the topping and crust are golden brown.

Let the pie cool for at least 1 hour before slicing and serving.  Keep refrigerated.

Enjoy!