Vegan Vanilla Cupcake Frosting

Pardon the inexact measurements. This kind of thing is always a "dash of this...a scoop of that" experiment. Experiment a little yourself until you get the right consistency.

1 stick (1/2 cup) vegan butter
2-3 cups of powdered sugar
Splash of vanilla soy milk
Smaller splash of pure vanilla extract

Begin creaming the vegan butter and 1/2 of the powdered sugar in your mixer or using a electric hand mixer. As you get to a thick mixture add the soy milk and vanilla. Continue beating, adding the remainder of the powdered sugar. Keep beating until light and fluffy.

Wah La!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

This was my first foray into vegan baking and I came out a champion. I'm a sucker for a light, fluffy cupcake and these were the lightest and fluffiest.

1 1/2 cups vanilla soy milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1/2 cup semi sweet vegan chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the soy milk and apple cider vinegar and let sit until the mixture curdles. Melt margarine and chocolate chips, set aside.

In a large bowl mix dry ingredients well. Add soy milk mixture, margarine/chocolate mixture and vanilla and mix with wire whisk until well combined. Pour into prepared cupcake pan (with papers) and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool before before removing from pan.

Frost with vegan buttercream frosting (recipe coming soon)!

Red Rum Sangria

I love sangria. It's my "usual" order at any tapas restaurant, but the tapas are optional. What's better than red wine, juice, liquor and fruit on a hot summer day/evening/morning (just kidding)? I mixed up this recipe in celebration of the 4th of July - beware, it's strong...





1 bottle (plus a 1/8 or so of a leftover bottle) red wine
1/2 cup to 1 cup dark rum (depends on how boozing you want it and you can always use light rum too)
3/4 cup of sugar
1 cup of peach lemonade (organic Santa Cruz brand, but use any flavor you like)
1/2 cup to 1 cup club soda

Chopped apples and red plums (or any other kind of fruit strikes your fancy)


In a pitcher, mix sugar and rum until sugar dissolves. Add wine, lemonade, club soda and fruit. Chill...