Tiramisu Cupcakes

Since I was left alone on Valentine's Day (AKA: Single Awareness Day), I buried myself in the kitchen baking up all sorts of concoctions at the expense of my parents. Thankfully this one turned out! haha. I was sort of shocked actually because these were extremely easy to make. It's the same vanilla recipe I posted earlier with a few add-ons[: AAAND.. I know I know, it's been forever since I last updated. I'm sorry. But to make up for it I just recently went grocery shopping so be prepared for a lot more posting[: Hoorayyyyy.
Anyway, on with the recipe.

Serves: 12
Ingredients:
Pillsbury Cream Cheese frosting (it's vegan!)
Vanilla cupcakes
1/3 cup strong coffee
1/3 cup Kahlua
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
12 chocolate covered coffee beans, chocolate chips, or regular coffee beans

Mix together the coffee and Kahlua. Using a spoon or a knife, carve out a small cone in the middle of the cupcake ( about 1 inch from the center, 1 inch deep). Scoop the cone out carefully trying your best to keep it as intact as possible. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the Kahlua mixture in the hole you made, making sure all of the sides are soaked. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of the frosting into the cavity and smooth it over with the back of your spoon. Dollop a few tablespoons on top of the cupcake. Dip the bottom or the cut-out chunk into the Kahlua mix keeping the top part dry, and pat gently into place on top of the frosting [continue with the remaining cupcakes]. Dust the chocolate and cinnamon over the tops of the cupcakes. dollop a small amount of frosting on top and add the chocolate chip or espresso bean.

**Make some coffee to go with these[: **


My dad ended up being my date, he's just the cutest thing. [:
And he loved the cupcake

Superbowl Cupcakes[:

I wanted to make these as simple as I could, because I'm terribly lazy and didn't have that much time to work with haha. So, I just ended up making basic chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. The chocolate cupcake recipe is actually one passed down from my grandma, so you have my dad to blame because he wouldn't let me post it. I have to tell you though, it's my favorite. Sooooo good. The vanilla recipe, however, isn't a huge secret so here it is[:

Basic vanilla cupcakes:
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 + 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 + 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
Whisk the soy milk and vinegar together and let the mixture set until it curdles. Beat the mixture together with the oil, sugar, vanilla, and vanilla extract. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until well combined. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way and bake for about 21 minutes until done. Let cool completely before frosting!

**I didn't make any frosting for these; Pillsbury sells alot of vegan frosting, so I used Original Vanilla for the vanilla cupcakes and I think Chocolate Fudge for the other? haha I know it was chocolate, had the word "fudge" in it, and it was vegan. I know right, I'm so much help. [:
Also, did you know their Cream Cheese frosting is also accidentally vegan? I didn't. I <3 Pillsbury.**

**Duncan Hines also has vegan frosting, but I don't like it as much.**

** I used a Wilton 1m swirl tip to frost these.**

Coconut-Banana Bread

This changed my whole view on bananas. Haha seriously, I used to hate them, but after this it's like there's this whole new thing I've been missing out on. I've never made banana bread either, so on top of this being ridiculously amazing I was super excited because I'd never made anything like it before. [:

Banana Bread:
1 + 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 mashed bananas
Equivalent of 2 eggs ( I use Ener-G Egg Replacer)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
A large handful of shredded, sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a loaf pan.
Mix together whatever egg replacer you are using, bananas, sugar and oil in a bowl and beat until well combined (this is easiest with an electric mixer but you can do it by hand if necessary). Sift together flour and baking soda and stir into wet mixture until blended. Fold in the shredded coconut.
Bake for 45 minutes.

**If you want to make just regular banana bread you don't have to add the coconut, it bakes the same without it[:**
**You could add walnuts or blueberries in place of the coconut, alot of things would be good with this[: just experiment**

Lemon Poppyseed Teacake

This was really good! I was a little hesitant to try this recipe again since the first time it ended up a big mess (I used different ingredients), but I'm glad I did. It was already gone about two hours after coming out of the oven[: I didn't have as many poppy seeds as the recipe calls for so I halved the whole thing.

Serves: 10
Teacake:
2/3 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1 + 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 + 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup applesauce ( I use unsweetened Granny Smith[: )
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons pure lemon extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease a 7 x 4 x 3-inch loaf pan.
In a small bowl, combine the soy milk, vinegar, and poppy seeds; set aside. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Add the oil, agave nectar, applesauce, vanilla and lemon extracts, and lemon zest to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Incorporate the soy milk-poppy seed and mix just until all of the ingredients are blended.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake on the center rack for 35 minutes, turning the pan 180 degrees after 18 minutes.
Let the teacake cool in the pan for about 20 minutes before cutting.

**Don't open the oven door except at the 18 min. mark and when it's finished!**
**If you don't have lemon extract, don't substitute for actual lemon juice! The acidity will ruin everything haha trust me.**