Vegan Made Easy

So tonight, in honor of our dear vegan friends, we have given this evening to you!  That's right.  You heard us correctly.  Here are two, count them, TWO recipes for you guys.  Pasta and cupcakes!

This pasta dish is light and filling, but packed full of a lot of flavor!  And guess what "non-vegan-ers," these are SO easy to make "non-vegan" if you choose with a few adjustments.  If you're not interested in this being a vegan recipe, saute-up some chicken with garlic and olive oil or toss some parmesan or feta on top, or even serve this as a side dish!

As for the cupcakes?  Well.... have we not seen a trend lately?  And really, who's going to pass-up a cupcake?  Just pretend these are healthy since they're banana based, minus the frosting.  :)



Sun-Dried Tomato, Red Pepper, and Spinach Farfalle Pasta
1 large onion
1 large red pepper
3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
6 oz fresh spinach
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
olive oil
salt
pepper
1 tsp red pepper flakes
tricolore farfalle pasta (8 - 16 oz, depending on pasta/sauce ratio preference)
truffle oil (for drizzling at the end)

Begin to boil water and prepare pasta as directed.  If you'd like, you could substitute another pasta.

Dice onion, red pepper,  and sun-dried tomatoes.  In a large, pre-heated skillet, add about 2 tbs olive oil, garlic, onion, and red pepper, and cook down.  Once vegetables have begun to brown, add in the sun-dried tomatoes and continue to saute (adding the oils from the jar).  If needed, add more olive oil so the vegetables do not become dry or stick to the bottom of the pan.  Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.  You may decide that you want the dish more or less spicy and add or omit some of the red pepper, however, it adds a nice, subtle zing to the dish.  :)

Once the vegetables have browned evenly, add the fresh spinach in and mix until lightly wilted (about two minutes).

Remove from heat and dish over pasta.  Drizzle with truffle oil, if desired, or more olive oil.


Banana Nut Cupcakes

1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup oil
4 ripe, ripe bananas (mashed)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (toasted if you'd like)

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and set aside.

Mash bananas well and add to mixing bowl.  Brown bananas are great for baking, since they have such a high sugar content.  Make sure the bananas you use are nice and brown like the ones above!

Add oil, maple syrup, and vanilla to banana mash and mix until well incorporated.  Slowly add the dry ingredients in halves and blend into the wet mix.  Add walnuts last (if desired) and mix.  You may decide to toast the walnuts for a few minutes like we did (since the oven has already been preheated for the cupcakes themselves, but toss the chopped walnuts onto a cookie sheet and toast until lightly browned or desired darkness).  If you don't like nuts, omit them all together.

Bake for 17-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  (Look!  Everything in here is vegan!)

Frosting
4 oz cream cheese (substitute)
4 tbs butter (margarine or other substitute)
1 - 2 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar

In a stand mixer or a bowl with a hand mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Add the vanilla and powdered sugar until you reach desired sweetness and/or texture.  If you're not a vegan, then, by all means, use the regular ingredients, but here's a recipe that's easily made with substitutions!

Without the frosting, these are really just muffins... shhhh don't tell anyone!

Irish Cream Cupcakes

What is St. Patrick's Day without a little bit of Irish flare?  No, they're not exactly green like the last cupcakes we made, but they're still tasty.  :)

Admitidly, Lexi (Alexandra) was a little "bored" after teaching this morning and wanted to do something in honor of this holiday. No, it's certainly not a day in which my family celebrates, but a holiday  is certainly an excuse to make a dessert if any day is!

Irish Cream Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter (room temp)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup Irish Cream (any brand)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350.

In a separate bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together and set aside (flour, cake flour, baking soda, and salt).

Cream butter and sugar together until nice and fluffy.  Add in Irish cream and blend well.  It'll be a nice, smooth texture at this point (and... tasty!  But don't eat too much, otherwise the ratio will be out of whack for the rest of the ingredients!).  Mix eggs and vanilla in and blend. 

Add in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture on low and mix until blended.  Lastly, add in the sour cream and mix.

Place liners in cupcake pans or grease and butter if you'd rather.  Spoon the batter into the holders and fill to almost the top (or about 3/4 of the way full).  This should yield about 18 cupcakes.

Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs.

Let cupcakes cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan and let cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Espresso Frosting
8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1/2 tsp espresso grounds
4 tsp cocoa powder
2-3 tbs Irish Cream
powdered sugar



Cream the Irish Cream into the cream cheese.  Add espresso grounds and cocoa powder and mix until well incorporated.  Slowly add powdered sugar until desired texture and sweetness.

You may desire a stlightly more intense espresso flavor and decide to add more or even double.  This recipe gives a nice subtle hint of coffee but is not overwhelming.  Also, if you REALLY love frosting, then you might just want to double the whole recipe.  :)

Frost cupcakes!

Early Irish Fest.: Guinness Cupcakes

Cupcake binge?  Cupcake fling?  Cupcake obsession?  We're not sure...  And we're also not sure how long this is going to last, but who cares, right?  As long as they taste good!  And why not make each kind as different as possible?  We already have a few prospective flavors we had to put on the back-burner tonight (due to some failed missions in getting required ingredients, but we won't go into details.  We'll just leave it at... this part of town is not stocked for our high-end taste buds).

Since we're quickly approaching the time of year when little green men, pots of gold, and rainbows are abundant, we thought we'd give a toast to the Irish and make a recipe with the nation's staple food: some good 'ol fashioned Guinness beer!  Can't say either of us enjoy drinking the beer on its own, but baking with this alcohol is a whole new ballgame!  Partially inspired by our lack of Irish Creme and an awesome friend Lindsey who made a tasty Guinness cake a few months back, here is our tribute to the Irish!

We might just even have to enter ourselves on Cupcake Wars...  :)  Is that allowed?

Guinness Cupcake
1 cup Guinness
3/4 cup butter (room temp)
1 cup flour
1 cup cake flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbs vanilla
2/4 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the flour, cake flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda together and mix.  In a stand mixer, add butter and sugar together and blend until creamed.  Once nice and fluffy, and in the Guinness and mix on low. The texture will look a little funny, but don't be disturbed, that's okay.  Add in the vanilla and eggs and mix.  The batter will still look funny.  :)  Next, mix in the sour cream.  The texture will start to look a little more normal.  Once all incorporated, slowly start to mix in the dry ingredients.  Do not over beat the batter, but make sure all of the dry ingredients are blended in.


Place cupcake liners in the muffin tins and fill about 3/4 of the way (they will look decently full, but shouldn't be spilling over the edge).  This yields about 18 cupcakes.

Bake for 15-16 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.  You want them to be nice and fluffy looking (no over baking!).  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from the pans.



Ganache Filling
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup  half-n-half (or heavy cream)
2 tbs butter
1 tbs Guinness

In a saucepan, add chocolate chips and butter and allow to melt on medium-low, constantly stirring.  Once mixture is almost fully melted, add in the Guinness and the half-n-half (or heavy cream).  Continue to stir until all of the chocolate is melted and the mixture is nice and smooth.  If you want it a little thicker, add more chocolate or less liquid.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, remove the insides of the cupcakes making about a 3/4" hole about 1" deep. It'll be a little crater.  :)  We used the 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon measures, since we don't own a cool to do it for us.

Carefully spoon the ganache filling into the holes!  This should be just enough, with a little extra, depending on how deep and wide you make those holes.  We came out with just a little left over.  We didn't want to overdue the ganache and have a chocolate overload on the inside (just a nice, little surprise!).

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter (room temp)
8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla
green food coloring (optional... but FUN!)
powdered sugar (approx 1 - 1 1/2 cups)

In a stand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.   Add in vanilla and food coloring (if desired).  Mix until blended and slowly add powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency for your frosting.

Now frost those guys and eat 'em!!!

Funfetti!

That's right!  You read it correctly!  Let's be honest here.  Who doesn't have fond childhood memories that include funfetti cake or cupcakes in one form or another?!  And what better a time to celebrate funfetti than with a birthday?!

Nicholas (Alexandra's husband) has a birthday this week and as a pre-celebration for all the folks at school, Nicholas gets to take these homemade cupcakes to school with him.  :)



Funfetti Cupcakes
2 1/4 cup flour (all purpose)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 - 1/4 cup sprinkles
1/2 cup oil (or melted butter)
1 cup milk (or yogurt or buttermilk)
4 egg whites
2 tsp vanilla

Just like the box mix (shhh!!!), mix all of the dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, and sprinkles).  We suggest using the long sprinkles (apparently called " rainbow jimmies" in New England, which was unknown to me until reading another blog...) as they "bleed" better into the batter.  Add in the oil or butter, milk, egg whites, and vanilla and mix until well blended, but do not over mix.

Line muffin tins with paper liners or grease with cooking spray or butter.  Evenly destribute batter.  Fill the approximately 1/2 - 2/3 of the way full (or about 3/4's of the way for the mini muffin tins).  This recipe yielded 12 "regular" sized cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes!  You may decide to make 48+ mini cupcakes or 24 regular ones.

Bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes or until lightly golden (or for mini cupcakes, bake approximately 11-12 minutes).  They should be able to "bounce back" upon a light touch (make sure your finger doesn't sink in, or they need another minute or two).  Times may vary according to your oven.

Let cool for about 10 minutes before removing from baking pans and let cool completely before frosting (unless you'd like melting frosting...).

Buttercream Frosting
1 stick butter (1/2 cup at room temperature)
2 tbs heavy cream (half-n-half, milk, etc)
powdered sugar
1/4 - 1/2 tsp almond extract (if desired!)
food dye (if desired)

Make sure butter is room temperature!  (The texture will not come out the same if you melt it or use a hard stick of butter!)  Put butter into mixer and add dye (if desired) and blend until smooth (and desired color is achieved).  Slowly add powdered sugar, alternating with heavy cream, until a light, fluffy, yet stable, texture is created.  You may decide to alter the color at this point, so have fun!

This recipe was decent for frosting the 12 regular-sized cupcakes and the 24 mini cupcakes the batter yielded.  If you're a big frosting fan, then by all means, double it and INDULGE your sweet tooth!

Frost each cupcake and add some sprinkles for a final touch.  :)

Happy Birthday, Nicholas! (part 1)