Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Whoa, we are more than halfway through MoFo and this is only the 3rd time I have cooked with pumpkin this month? I need to step up my game, yo!

Remember when I told you yesterday that I baked cupcakes for a coworkers birthday? Well, they came out fucking awesome. I won't lie though, I was shitting bricks on my way into work today with them. I know I am a very capable baker but I haven't brought in baked goods to share with my office in the whole 9 months I have been here. Like I mentioned, I am super lucky to have another vegan and two vegetarians in the office so we always have each others backs. Everyone else is really veg-friendly(though the occasional teasing occurs, but its all in good nature) but I was nervous about how the omnis would react to a vegan cream cheese frosting. The nervousness started last night while I was making the frosting. I eat Trader Joe's "This is not a tub of cream cheese" with my bagels but I've never used it for frosting, I usually stick with Tofutti or Galaxy(the best of the best). I wasn't loving how it was coming out so I added a bunch more vanilla and sugar then I tossed in some cinnamon. After fussing with it for awhile, I was pleased with the results. Almost. At this point, it was a perfectly spreadable frosting but not thick enough that it would hold up to piping it. I was exhausted so I decided to just spread it on and be done with it. The frosting still tastes awesome but isn't as pretty as I would have like. Oh well.

I had my guy taste test the cupcakes the night before because I know he will tell me what he really thinks. He loves vegan cream cheese but I don't think I told him there was any in it until after. I was also worried about them having too much cinnamon, my tastebuds were starting to go a little numb from all the frosting I had to try. His reaction was that the frosting was awesome and went perfectly with the cupcake.

The reaction through the office was the same as well. I'm definitely going to bake more for work now! I love vegan baking success!

The recipe I used is the one I got from Vegan Good Eats, which originally came from Jody of jodycakes. Here is the recipe below, without my frosting modifications (those were done to taste without measuring)

Pumpkin Spice Vegan Cupcakes

• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon. vinegar, preferably apple cider
• 1 cup all purpose flour, preferably unbleached
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup each vegan sugar and packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon each ginger, nutmeg and salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cardamom (optional)
• Dash of ground cloves and allspice
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line 12 count muffin tin with cupcake papers.
2. In large measuring cup, combine milk & vinegar to create soy “buttermilk. Allow to sit and curdle while preparing all the other ingredients.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugars and whisk until smooth. Sift together all additional dry ingredients, including the spices and salt into the sugars. Whisk to combine.
4. In small bowl, stir together pumpkin, applesauce, oil and vanilla.
5. Pour wet ingredients into dry, adding soy “buttermilk” last. Combine all ingredients until smooth and pour into the prepared pan, filling cups about halfway.
6. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the tops spring back to a light touch.

Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

• 6 tablespoons Vegan Cream Cheese, such as Tofutti brand
• 2 tablespoons Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 2-4 tablespoons soy milk (as needed)

Cream together the cream cheese and butter and add vanilla. Add the sugar one cup at a time. If frosting is too thick, you may slowly add soy milk to loosen up to reach the desired consistency.

Quick MoFo Roundup and SPECULOOS!

If I could post about everything I've starred in Google Reader, have emailed myself, or bookmarked so far in MoFo, we'd be here for days. I haven't been commenting on as many blogs as I'd like to either so I thought I'd throw together a quick post about some of the things I am dying to try.

One of the very first things that really caught the attention of my stomach was the Quinoa Edamame Salad over at Eating Beautiful. I am obsessed with the Warm Chickpea Artichoke and Quinoa Salad that I make so this gorgeous salad is right up my alley and I can't wait to give it a try!

If I had to pick one thing to list as my favorite thing about fall, without a doubt it's pumpkin! Especially if it is in baked goods! One of these Sundays I am going to get up early enough to make these Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls from Hell Yeah It's Vegan! for breakfast. If I close my eyes and try really hard, I can almost smell them! While you are there, check out the Warm Cabbage Salad that was posted yesterday. It looks fantastic!

The Pumpkin Pie Smoothie over at Veggie Fixation has me craving a smoothie in the worst way. Such a quick way to get your pumpkin fix!

I have never cooked with fresh pumpkin before, I think I've always been a little intimidated by it. Sure, I'll carve the shit out of a jack-o-lantern and roast up the seeds, but that's as close as I've come to cooking with fresh pumpkin in any way. It is definitely something that has been on my list of things to do and I think this recipe for Roasted Sugar Pumpkin & Collard Crustless Quiche from Manifest Vegan is going to be the one to get me to do it! Sugar pumpkins are small enough that I won't feel like a huge failure if I fuck it up, but this recipe also seems straight forward enough that I wont.


Oh, and in other news, my bf scored some Speculoos cookies at the dollar store! He bought them thinking they were biscotti but when I realized and explained with ridiculous enthusiam (more than one should have at 7 am, unless of course you've just discovered a package of biscoff in your bfs kitchen) what he had actually bought, I think he might have thought I was nuts. Until he tried them. I've gotta go to the dollar store asap and clear out their stock.

Also, thanks to a ppk peep, I learned the why they are called Biscoff here in the good ole USA. When you combine the words 'biscuit' and 'coffee' that is what you get and because these are clearly "Europe's favorite cookie with coffee" it only makes sense.

Pumpkin Baked Baked Ziti with Sage Bread Crumb Topping and Pumpkin Cream Sauce

8th day of MoFo, 8th post! Fuck yea!

Remember when I made Pumpkin Ravioli last week and had a bunch of leftover cashew ricotta? The Pumpkin Baked Ziti from Veganomicon was the perfect recipe to use it all up. I really only used the recipe as a guideline since my cashew ricotta already had seasoning and pumpkin in it. The crunch sage breadcrumb topping was fantastic. I didn't make homemade breadrumbs, instead I used panko to give a really crunchy contrast to the creamy ricotta filling. The walnuts in the recipe really step up your standard bread crumb topping too, they will find their way into any recipe I make that calls for a crumb topping in the future.

I did a lot of googling today to try and come up with some sort of sauce to serve over it and was kind of at a loss. After I tossed the ziti in the oven I decided to try an experiment. I put about a half cup of soy cream and half a can of pumpkin puree into a sauce pan and whisked them together, added some soy butter and spices and then let it barely simmer for about 10 minutes. The result was a perfectly creamy pumpkin sauce. Some people might think I'm weird for serving pumpkin sauce over pumpkin baked ziti, but I'm telling you, this shit is cray. It made me wonder why I don't do cream sauces more often, the possibilities are endless. Pureed greens, tomato, basil, sage, really anything you could think of would probably translate really well into the soy cream/butter base. You can make them as thick or as thin as you want and serve them over pretty much anything. Fall 2012 will be the season of the cream sauce!  Probably Winter 2012 too.

For a side I sauteed about 4 cloves of minced garlic in a little bit of olive oil and then dumped in a bag of baby spinach to wilt. This meal was so easy to pull together, especially because of the ricotta I already had made and with all the inactive cooking time while the dish baked I had time to clean up the kitchen and tweak the sauce. I really really suggest you make this dish if you love pumpkin as much as I do.

I'm not normally one for posting recipes that aren't either entirely mine or that I haven't adapted but because I made some changes, I will post it here.

Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Sage Bread Crumb Topping and Pumpkin Cream Sauce

(Inspired by and adapted from Veganomicon)

For the Baked Ziti: 

• 2 cups of Pumpkin Cashew Ricotta (recipe below)
• 3/4 lb of ziti or penne
• 1 onion thinly sliced
• 3 tblspns olive oil
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1. Preheat to 375 and lightly grease a casserole dish. 
2. Prepare pasta according to package directions. 
3. While pasta is cooking heat the oil in a pan and add onions. Cook on med-low heat until caramelized, about 10-15 minutes.
4. Place the ricotta mix into a large bowl, add caramelized onions, bread crumbs and veggie broth. Mix until well combined. Taste and add more spices as you like. 
5. Pour pasta mix into casserole dish and cover with Sage Bread Crumb Topping (recipe below)
6. Bake 35 minutes. 

 Pumpkin Cashew Ricotta

• 1 cup raw cashew pieces
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tblspns olive oil
• 1 head roasted garlic
• 1 lb firm tofu, drained
• 2 tblspns sage
• 2 tspns salt
• 1/2 tspn nutmeg
• 1 1/2 can pumpkin puree

1. In food processor add cashews, lemon, oil and garlic. Pulse until it is a paste. 
2. Crumble in the tofu and process until it starts to resemble ricotta
3. Add spices and pulse until combined. 

Bread Crumb Topping

• 2 1/2 panko bread crumbs
• 2/3 cup walnut pieces - chopped in food processor til they look like coarse crumbs
• 1/2 cup soy butter
• 1 tblspn dried sage
• salt and fresh ground pepper

1. In a skillet melt the butter and add all ingredients. Stir until everything is mixed and coated. 

Pumpkin Cream Sauce

• 1/2 cup soy cream
• 1/2 can of pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup soy butter
• 1 tblspn garlic powder
• 1 tblspn sage
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine all ingredients and bring to a low simmer while constantly stirring. Cook until butter is melted and desired consistency and taste is achieved. 

(Tiny portion is due to me snacking while cooking and not being as hungry)

Pumpkin Ravioli - Mofo Post #2

Day 2, post 2. I'm doing okay so far! Actually I cooked and wrote this on Sunday, but shhhh. Don't tell!

Like I mentioned in MoFo Post 1, I've been dying for fall to be able to cook all things apple and pumpkin. I've already done an apple post so here goes my first pumpkin one of MoFo and the season.

I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday than watching football, cooking, cleaning and drinking beer. All while in a hoodie, leggings and tube socks. During football seasons past, I would only watch the Patriots games and then either before or after, I would spend a bunch of time in the kitchen cooking something awesome. This season I have joined two fantasy football leagues so I pretty much need and want to watch every game, all day. But I also want to be in the kitchen all day. My need to be in the kitchen won over the need to watch football, though I did pop back into the bedroom every so often to get updates.

On the menu was Pumpkin Ravioli, Roasted Garlic Butter Sauce with Sage, Lemon Scented Green Beans, Tofurkey Sausages and Garlic Bread. OMFG. All in all, everything I made literally takes 10 minutes or less to cook but prepping the ravioli took a long ass time. I started the night before by making Cashew Ricotta so all I had to do was add pumpkin puree and some nutmeg.

Initially I had planned on making homemade pasta sheets to make the ravioli with but I knew as soon as I went to bed the night before I wouldn't be up for it. Luckily, I had about 60 round fresh wonton wraps in the freezer that I got from the Asian market not too long ago. Wonton wraps are a fantastic stand in for homemade pasta. But really, nothing beats homemade.Though it is nice to have perfectly round pieces to work with.

I made the Cashew Ricotta  from Veganomicon with a few changes. I used 1 cup cashews, instead of basil, I subbed dried sage and thyme and added about 1/4 cup of nooch. That alone was worthy of any ravioli, lasagna, or just eating it off the spoon. That good. But adding a can and a half of pumpkin puree and 1 1/2 tablespoons of nutmeg really made it go from delicious to amazeballs. It also made WAY more than I needed for 30 ravioli so I tossed it in the freezer. I will be making a lasagna with it very soon.

It took forever to prep each ravioli and by the time I was done I had to do some stretching. Being hunched over the table for an hour killed my shoulders and neck. But every second was worth it once these babies were cooked. I put about a tablespoon of ricotta on each wonton wrap, wet around the edges with water and placed another wonton wrap on top. While gently pushing any air bubbles out, I pressed the edges together to seal them up and then went around them with fork tines just to be safe. There is nothing worse than your ravioli filling seeping out while cooking.

After I was done filling them all, I put them on a baking sheet and left them to sit for awhile in the fridge so I could take a breather. And by breather, I mean I spent another hour cleaning the kitchen on top of the two I had spent prior to even starting the ravioli.

Finally it was time to start cooking everything. While I was bringing a huge pot of water to a boil, I started everything else. These little guys took only 5 minutes to cook and because I filled a few a little too much, I ended up with a few casualties, but it was like 4 out of 30. Not too bad.

I don't really have recipes for anything I cooked today, just kind of winged it. For the butter sauce, I threw a bunch of Earth Balance in a pan with roasted garlic and fresh chopped sage. The lemon scented green beans were just steamed beans with the juice of half a lemon, a few cloves of roasted garlic and a sprinkle of sea salt. The garlic bread was melted earth balance and roasted garlic spread on them. The tofurkey was well, just that. Tofurkey. All in all, asides from all the prep time for the ravioli, it really was a simple meal. And fuckin' tasty too.

Vegan MoFo-Day One - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing

Fall is by far my favorite seasons! How could it not be, I live in New England! With all of the gorgeous foliage, pumpkin beer making its way back into bars and liquor stores, the cool breeze that starts chilling the air at night, the abundance of apples, the sound of leaves and pine cones crunching under your feet and getting to dress Gizmo in adorable sweaters adorned with skulls and crossbones are all things that make this season awesome. The one thing that will make this fall especially awesome is Vegan MoFo! 

If you aren't familiar with MoFo, I suggest you get yourself acquainted because for the rest of the month, myself along with 800+ other vegans will be blogging almost daily! Last year I suffered from MoFo burnout, but I am determined to not let that happen this year. Armed with my million vegan cookbooks, my Nikon D40, iTouch and my awesome job as the manager of a veg*n restaurant I will see this bitch through til the end! Sure, some posts might just be a photo and a few sentences about what I am eating, buying or cooking but I will succeed!

Now, onto my very first MoFo post of the year.........

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing!

I walked to the market with plans on buying canned pumpkin to make some dog treats for Gizmo and her new best friend, Stank, my neighbors pitbull. I left with about 5 cans so of course I had to find something to make for myself with my surplus pumpkin supply.  One of my missions is to eventually bake my way through Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and these cupcakes got me one step closer.

They are super easy to make and friggen delicious! I've made a shit ton of cupcakes in my vegan and pre-vegan life and these are by far, the moistest(is that a word?) cupcakes I have baked. I've had pumpkin bread, cookies and muffins before but never a cupcake. The only thing I think I will do differently next time is add a little more cinnamon and maybe throw in some nutmeg and ginger to give them more of a pumpkin pie flavor. But even without the extra spices, these little cakes of heaven are seriously worth dying for.

Baking Fail

This post is a week overdue but I've been running around like a mad woman all week. I suck at getting this blog going.

When I was an omni and a vegetarian I was always good at baking and used to do it alot, but in the past 2 years I think I have baked a total of 4 times(mainly because I was living with my [ex]bf and our oven was broken, I cooked in a toaster oven, not fun.) And the times I did bake were all before I was vegan. This is my first fall as a vegan, and fall is when I do alot of cooking and baking(asides from the 2 years mentioned) I decided that it was about time that I get back into it. Of course I couldn't just start out with something quick and easy like cookies to boost my confidence. Nope. I had to start with cupcakes and pumpkin brownies. Big mistake.

The cupcakes I made were the vegan vanilla cupcakes from Crazy About Cupcakes. I followed the directions exactly with the exception of adding a handful of confetti sprinkles to make them "Funfetti" cupcakes, so I don't know where I went wrong but they came out like dense little pound cakes. They were heavy too. The flavor was o.k. but nothing I would serve to anyone else. I also made the vegan frosting in the same cookbook which called for cooking some of the ingredients together. I think I let it boil for 1 second too long because instead of a smooth creamy frosting I ended up with a lumpy bowl of what looked like man juice, you know what I'm talking about...... That had to go in the trash. I also tried veganizing a regular frosting recipe subbing vegan butter for dairy butter and soy milk for cow. This frosting ended up just like a glaze, I beat in a ton more confectioner sugar to get more of a frosting consistency but once it was piped on to one of the cupcakes it went from a perfect little spiral of frosting to a melted goopy mess all over the counter... I think part of what my problem was that I used Smart Balance Light, according to some peeps over at the PPK forums, Earth Balance is the way to go when baking and make frosting.

The recipe for Pumpkin Brownies was the one from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. Another fail, but only a semi-fail. The brownie batter tasted amazing and cooked up nicely too, they were fudgy and moist. The pumpkin layer however was a mess. It was really liquidy when I put it and and it stayed that way throughout the cooking. I am not giving up on that recipe though, I will try again, and I will succeed.

After all of that, I felt like I was not meant to bake as a vegan. But I had already offered a fellow PPKer to donate some baked goods for a bake sale at a craft fair that benefits the Milton Animal League so I couldn't give up. The bake sale is tomorrow so of course I waited until today to try baking again. Luckily this time I used different recipes and everything came out delicious. I'll save that for another post though. And I actually took pictures of stuff this time!