Baking at Home: The Lemoniest of all Lemon Cupcakes

Lemon cupcakes
So I got the sudden urge to bake today. This is rare for me as I've never baked by myself before and I don't even like turning on the oven. But I got an intense craving for lemon cake, so I hyped myself up to make cupcakes (you know, for portion control). As I don't have a hand mixer nor did I want to buy so many ingredients (like flour or sugar — you know, baking things), I bought some boxed lemon cake mix, some whipped vanilla frosting, added an entire lemon's worth of zest and juice to it, and called it a day. So what if I used a muffin pan instead so they turned out way shallower than intended? So what if the liners were just a little too big? So what if I didn't have a fancy piping bag and had to use a spatula to smear on icing instead? These ended up being the LEMON CUPCAKES OF MY DREAMS. Betty Crocker wasn't lying — these really are super moist. And I made 16 of them for a total of $4! I never need to buy cupcakes again!

Photolog 2020: Day 2 of 366

Shortbreads, sugar cookies, almond brittle cookies, thumbprint cookies, blueberry and fig tarts, chocolate fudge, peanut brittle, almond tarts, Nanaimo bars, candy cane cookies... What to do with all the excess desserts you baked over the holidays? Have a dessert party! No, not me (don't be ridiculous, I don't bake), but my friend Chelsea and her mom did, and they made (and received) so many sweets that they couldn't possibly eat them all. So they invited me over for dessert and then packed me up not one, not two, but three bags of baked goods to take home. It was like the Christmas version of trick-or-treating!

Conclusion: It's always good to be friends with people who like to make food.

Baking Session: Red Velvet Cupcakes

Janetta and I hadn't done a baking session in a while, so we decided to meet up yesterday for our first one of the year. After the lemon square flop, we were both wary of what to bake this time around (the intense amount of vegan margarine we used last time left such a nasty aftertaste to the point where we couldn't even enjoy our final product). We tend to make vegan versions of things so both our vegan and non-vegan friends can enjoy our treats, but we are also well-aware of how vegan replacements of things (e.g. eggs, butter, milk) can completely alter the taste of a dessert. So we decided to bake vegan red velvet cupcakes with a recipe that Janetta had successfully tried before, and with both homemade cream cheese frosting and vegan-friendly store-bought buttercream frosting.

Dry ingredients: Flour, salt, and baking soda

In the mixer: Sugar, (vegan) butter, and eggs (or egg substitute)

In another bowl, add cocoa powder, vinegar, and a lot of (vegan) red food colouring

Add dry ingredients, milk (or soy milk), and red cocoa paste into mixer

Blend until smooth and creamy, you know, like velvet

Line pan with cups (my choice: giraffes with party hats, Janetta's choice: scary acrobats)

Scoop batter into cups (we used an ice cream scoop for equal-sized cupcakes)

Put in oven at 350ºF for 30 minutes

In clean mixing bowl, add cream cheese and (vegan) butter

Add icing sugar and vanilla extract

Blend until frosting is smooth and creamy

Remove cupcakes from oven and let cool for 15 - 20 minutes

Frosting time!

Janetta is much more skilled at this than I am

Add toppings for decoration (we used cake crumbs and red crystal sprinkles)

Time to devour!

These turned out beautifully: the cake was soft and moist with just enough chocolate flavour, and the frosting was rich, smooth, and not too sweet so the cream cheese stood out. I also have to note that not a single person could tell they were vegan (well, minus the cream cheese frosting). I gave one to Jack last night, and he devoured one in about 15 seconds, no words necessary. I brought one to my co-worker today, and she just sent me a text saying, "Delicious! My kids had to fight me for it!" I delivered a small batch with buttercream frosting to my vegan friend for her 30th birthday, who had never had red velvet cupcakes before, and she literally swooned and said, "God, I can't believe I've been missing out on this my entire life." My mom tried one this afternoon and thought it was so good, she "just had to bring a another one to work" and then a third one for her "co-worker," if only to save me from "eating too many calories and becoming fat." (Ahem.) In conclusion, I'd say these are a big hit with vegans and non-vegans alike! And, hey, they're even mom-approved. Many thanks to Janetta for making our baking session a success!

Baking Session: Lemon Squares

It's been five months since our last baking session, so Janetta and I met up today for some kitchen shenanigans. We decided to make lemon squares because we were sick of cupcakes. Well, not really, we just wanted to try something different, and she had never made lemon squares before. Janetta found a vegan-friendly recipe online, so we got all the ingredients together and winged the rest:

The recipe called for an entire tub (!) of vegan butter

Mix, mix, mix

The crust is formed!

Squeezin' some lemons

Lemon zest pile

Lots o' lemony goodness

Blend, blend, blend

Big bowl of lemon curd

Chillin' in the fridge

Dust some icing sugar and serve!

I think the crust could have baked for a bit longer, but as far as vegan desserts go, they turned out... okay. Of course, they'd taste way better using regular butter and milk and adding eggs. (Obviously.) These have a sort of aftertaste to them that only real butter could cure. It's like the difference between using sweetener and real sugar, you know? We make vegan versions of things so all of our friends can enjoy our treats, but I think if we attempted making these again, they'd have to be non-vegan. You can fool someone with a vegan cupcake, but not with a vegan lemon square.

Baking Session: Vanilla Bean Latté Cupcakes

As mentioned, I met up with Janetta for a baking session yesterday, our second one since the midnight lemon cupcakes a couple months ago. Since we wanted a budget-friendly recipe, we decided to make "vanilla bean latté" cupcakes, which essentially consists of a vanilla bean cake with a hint of butterscotch and a vanilla-coffee buttercream. We decided to make ours vegan-friendly so that my vegan friend (and Janetta's vegan boyfriend) could eat these as well. Here was our baking process (this is a really photo-heavy post, so I apologize in advance for the loading):

In one bowl, add 1¼ cup all-purpose flour and 2 tbsp. cornstarch

Add ¾ tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. baking soda, ¾ tsp. salt

Sift dry ingredients into bowl

In separate bowl, add ⅓ cup oil and ¾ cup sugar

Add 2 tsp. vanilla extract (Janetta had some homemade extract)

Add 1 tsp. rum extract (if you want a hint of butterscotch flavour)

Turn mixer on, and add 1 cup of water (or soy milk) and 1 tsp. vinegar

Add sifted dry ingredients into wet ingredients

Mix, mix, mix; if mixture is runny, add some more flour

Pour batter into cupcake liners (about ⅔ of the way up)

Put tray into pre-heated 350° oven, and bake for about 20 minutes

Let cupcakes cool before frosting

Buttercream frosting: Add vegan margarine to a bowl (we didn't have a set recipe for this, so we just winged it)

Add brown sugar syrup

Add vanilla bean

Add sifted icing sugar

Mix, mix, mix; see the delightful vanilla specks?

Add coffee (we used instant coffee)

Mix until whippy goodness

Put buttercream in a bowl and start frosting!

We sprinkled some sugar crystals on top

And then added a chocolate-covered espresso bean

Ready to be devoured!

For our "testing cupcake," we drizzled some caramel on top

The caramel made it a little too sweet for our liking, but it was otherwise delicious!

The recipe we followed was supposed to make 12 cupcakes, but we ended up with just enough for 11. Both the cake and the buttercream were a little softer, lighter, and fluffier than we were used to; we substituted a few things in this recipe that may have changed the texture (e.g. water for soy milk, oil for butter, etc.), but overall, these were pretty tasty. The rum extract added a really nice butterscotch flavour to the cupcakes, though you can easily substitute it with maple or almond or caramel. They were a huge hit to everyone (vegan and non-vegan alike) that I gave one to — my vegan friend actually exclaimed, "I would marry you for these cupcakes alone!" And she doesn't even believe in marriage. Job well done! Any ideas on what to make for our next baking session?