La vie est belle..

It's only been like eight months since I last posted or wrote anything..that's cool, right? Well, thanks to the heat and the sheer fact that I haven't been able to have a "normal" life for the past two weeks, I figured, what better thing can I do right now than to talk about some cupcakes?

A couple of times this summer I have been asked to make up some treats for various occasions. This last one was quite nice and it suited my taste buds very nicely. Some cupcakes were needed for a Parisian Market that was being held outside. Paris? Cupcakes? Black, pink and white color themed? Oui!Oui! Having just returned from our very late, but very worth it, honeymoon, I was still on the French kick (like it ever left...come on, it's tattooed on me!) I was very eager to whip these babies up! Ah...there were so many tasty vendors and dessert carts in Paris, I think I ate my weight in sugar while we were there. It's okay that it produced a bit of a sugar shock, it was still worth every morsely bite.

Macarons on St. Germain-des-Pres...

...Your pick of chocolates

Typical items found in our bags during the day..

Can I just pack up a Ch'en and be an expatriate in France? I'll paint stripes on large canvas pieces and sell my creative genius for thousands...if that doesn't work I will just paint Ch'en with air-filter collars.



Ok, so back to these cupcakes. Trying to keep with the whole vegan-organic-summertime appealing in 100+ degree heat, I decided that chocolate raspberries would be the way to go.

Over at Sur La Table, they have some pretty neat baking papers, and one set was of the Eiffel Tower.Voila! The finished product

Again, I used the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, followed the chocolate cherry recipe, but substituted raspberries for the cherries.

Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350* and line a cupcake tray with liners.

2. Whisk the soy milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes..this is kinda like your "buttermilk" now add sugar, oil, and extracts. Beat until foamy.

3. In a separate bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add it to the wet ingredients and stir till it's clump free.

4. Fill baking cups just 3/4 of the way, bake 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.


Frosting
Ingredients:

1/2 cup Earth Balance
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A drop or two of raspberry extract
A drop or two of pink food coloring
1/4 cup soy milk
Now...
Stir it up!