Whole Wheat Cranberry Scones

devil's food cake

My sister's birthday just passed and for it, she wanted chocolate cake. "Any type, as long as it tastes good." I got this recipe from the magnolia bakery cookbook and it made a gigantic 3 layer cake with tons of icing. It was quite the labor of love. 

But mostly just labor. 

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

This was my first ever batch of vegan cupcakes, fresh from my new vegan cookbook (just something to mix it up a little).  I thought I would keep it simple with the golden vanilla, which turned out to be quite tasty. Even without the icing they have a great amount of flavor, and they have the same 'cupcakey' texture normal ones do. They taste just like regular cupcakes- and better than most. I made a batch of twelve last night and there are only a few left this morning :) Enjoy 

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes (yields 12 cupcakes)

from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

1 cup soy milk

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 and 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup canola oil

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line muffin pan with cupcake liners. 

2. Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup, set aside a few minutes to get good and curdled. 

3. Beat together the soy milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla and almond extracts in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until no large lumps remain. 

4. Fill cupcake liners two- thirds full and bake for 20-22 minutes until done. 

5. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting. 

Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening

1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup plain soy milk

Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes. Add the vanilla and soy milk, beat for another 5-7 minutes until fluffy. 

Blueberry Pie

I'm Emily, and my blog is about trying new recipes and being creative in the kitchen! Hopefully, I can show people that food doesn't have to be made expensively to taste good, and that sometimes the simpler recipes are the better ones.

Yesterday was one of the few times I didn't have school, an overwhelming amount of work, or anything to do. At all. So you see, this decision had to be made extremely carefully. Nothing too sweet that would leave me feeling [very] guilty for hours to come, and nothing too savory to the point where I would find myself poking around the fridge at 11 o'clock looking for something sweeter. I eventually concluded that blueberry pie was the winner. 

After anxiously waiting hours for it to cool off in the fridge (and a restless attempt in the freezer), it was, at last, ready. I ended up scooping some of the juice out because it had overflowed. But boy was it good.