Veganizing Red Velvet Cupcakes

The other day, I randomly decided to  make my own vegan red velvet cupcakes.  The inspiration though, came long before I took action.  It was a couple of months ago when I first had that experience that delicious vegan desserts were possible-- that moment when I first bit into that red velvet cupcake from Cocoa V in NYC.

Now, I'm not really vegan, but on most days,  I follow a vegan-ish diet.   And from how good I feel on these days, I don't need a lot of convincing that a vegan diet works wonders.  It is not a lifestyle choice for everyone, but I think  everyone will benefit from it by going vegan from time to time.  

And this is why these cupcakes excited me.  I did a quick search for a recipe I can follow, and found something on this website, from the book, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  

Now this recipe is already vegan, which means it already is healthier than the normal cupcake.  But I wanted to go further:

1.)  I wanted to see if I could omit sugar entirely and use a healthier alternative (agave nectar)

2.)   I wanted to see if I could add some fiber to this (substituting part whole wheat flour)

3.)  And finally, I wanted to try if carob powder  (supposedly healthier than cocoa) would give the same wondrous effects as chocolate. 

And so the challenge begins.  

After researching on how to make the proper substitutions for sugar and whole wheat flour, I came up with the following recipe, based on the original recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  My notes on the recipe, and photos of my quest, follow immediately after. 

Extra Healthy Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes

Makes 6 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup    unsweetened Soy Milk

1/2 tsp     Apple Cider Vinegar

1/2 cup    All Purpose Flour

1/8 cup    Whole wheat Flour*

1/3 cup    Agave Nectar**  (i ran out so i used 3 tablespoons agave + 2 tablespoons maple syrup)

1 Tbsp     Carob Powder

1/4 tsp      baking powder

1/4 tsp      baking soda

1/4 tsp      salt

3 Tbsps   Canola oil

1 Tbsp     red food coloring***

1/2 tsp     Vanilla extract

 Notes on Ingredients:

* Whole wheat flour has the same nutrients as all-purpose flour but it has more fiber.  It may be substituted for all purpose flour but never more than half of what is required as it makes baked goods denser and heavier (I guess chewy?)

**According to my research, when substituting agave nectar for sugar in a recipe, add the total amount of sugar called for in your recipe and multiply by 2/3, and then you get your agave nectar amount (since it is sweeter than sugar,  you definitely need less of this)

*** A lot of people are opposed to using food coloring because of the chemicals, but I found this brand at whole foods called India Tree (photo below), and it's all natural food coloring all derived from vegetables (red is derived from beets), which I think is really good.  A bit pricey but better to be safe than sorry!

Method:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (usually, it's 350 degrees but since I'm using agave instead of sugar, which browns easily, my research says that I have to bake at 25 degrees lower for 6 percent longer).

In a bowl, combine soymilk and apple cider vinegar to imitate buttermilk and set aside. 

In another bowl, mix flour, carob, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

Add canola oil, food coloring and vanilla extract to buttermilk and whisk to combine.  Sift dry ingredients into the wet and fold just until combined.  All cupcake recipes warn of overmixing, so I would watch out for that. 

Pour onto cupcake liners until 1/2 to 2/3 full and bake for 20-22 minutes. (again with the time, depending on your oven,  I would check at the minimum cooking time to avoid overcooking).  

 Cool before frosting.  

Cream Cheese Frosting:

2 Tbsps   Earth Balance vegan butter spread

2 Tbsps   Tofutti Cream Cheese 

1 tsp         vanilla extract

1 Cup      Raw turbinado sugar, pulverized in the blender  (traditionally uses confectioner's or powdered sugar, but I can never bring myself to buy it so I always just substitute pulverized brown sugar.  I think most of the time it works pretty well.)

Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature.  Cream together butter and cream cheese until combined.  Add powdered sugar in batches and whip until combined.  

India Tree Natural Food Color

Love these cupcake liners! 

Spooning the batter on each cupcake liner

Before they go into the oven

They've puffed up nicely!

Frosted cupcakes.. I think it was too runny

Yummy and moist!

My conclusion:


I rate this venture a success overall.  The cupcakes were moist and the frosting delicious, however it wasn't as light and fluffy as I expected, due perhaps to the cooking time (not sure if that whole equation of cooking at 25 degrees lower at 6% longer worked for this), or due to the presence of whole wheat flour.  This is a good recipe but I think it needs to be tweaked a little to come up with better results that are light, fluffy, moist and super delicious. :)

Vegan Chocolate Truffles

Since I'm on this ongoing quest to expand my vegan recipe repertoire, I decided to give these vegan chocolate truffles a shot.  Now truffles are traditionally made with cream and butter, and this recipe was obviously going to have some kind of non-dairy substitute.  But when I saw that this recipe had literally 3 ingredients and that the "cream" was going to come from raw cashews + water  to make cashew cream,  I fell instantly in love.  Could it really be true that cashew cream was that simple?  I remember eating at this vegan restaurant a couple of weeks ago that had an entree with cashew cream.  I thought it was absolutely divine, and for some reason I thought it would be difficult to make by myself.   


But if this recipe was true, it really wasn't.   Still high from my DIY almond milk experience  a couple of weeks ago, I knew this recipe had the potential to teach me something valuable on my quest to improve my vegan cooking.  Can you imagine unleashing the potential of creams made from nuts? I was giddy at the thought.


So then I jumped right in and made it, using this recipe.  I didn't have enough baking chocolate in the house, so I decided to divide the recipe accordingly.  Also I used carob powder instead of cocoa powder.  This is what I did:


(the amounts are my own amounts but the steps/procedure come from the original recipe given above.  I just put my own comments in blue :

Vegan Truffles Recipe 1/4 cup raw cashews  1/4 cup cold water  .3 lb bittersweet chocolate  carob powder  1. Put cashews and cold water in a blender and blend at high speed for 1-2 minutes (yes a long time).  2. Scrape the sides down and blend again until the mixture is the consistency of heavy cream.  I don't know if it's because I have so little in that blender, but it didn't really puree the cashews as much as I thought they should.  It was absolutely delicious but I still got some cashew bits in it.  It did turn out to have the consistency of heavy cream, however, with cashew bits.  For next time I was thinking, maybe soak the cashews in water first, like I did with my almond milk, to sort of break them down and soften them so they'll blend right away in the blender.   3. Meanwhile, in a double boiler heat the chocolate until it's all melted.  I didn't have a double boiler so what I did was put the chocolate in a small saucepot and put it in a wok filled with water, on the stovetop.  I think it worked pretty well because the chocolate melted nice and fast.  The reason for doing it like this is because you don't want the chocolate to be on direct heat as it burns so easily.  The boiling water acts as a protective barrier between direct heat and the chocolate.   4. Cool the chocolate until it's comfortable to work with and fold in the cashew cream (making sure not to stir too fast or you'll create bubbles).    This step did not take long at all, aside from the cashew bits in my cashew cream, I think this turned out pretty well. 5. Cool in the fridge for 2 hours (to set).   This step made my chocolate too hard and almost impossible to work with.  I had to melt it a little bit so I can shape them into little balls.   6. Take out a small ball, roll in cocoa powder and store in fridge/freezer.    This turned out to be really easy once the chocolate mixture has melted a little bit.

This is what mine looked like after:

I thought they were delicious but I'm not satisfied with the consistency.  I have a feeling it is related to how I blended my cashew cream.  I'll keep that in mind for next time but this isn't bad for a first try.  ♥