heart cupcakes

This is a wonderful way to make cupcakes.  I first saw it here, on Alison Astair's facebook page.  If you are not familiar with this facebook page, I strongly suggest checking it out.  Especially if you are a parent or caregiver.  Alison has so many incredible ideas for so many different things.  I have consulted her page many times....

The thing with this post though, is that it is more for the idea and not so much for the recipe.  I have yet to come up with a fabulous yellow cake, and I am just now realizing that in my advancing age I am really becoming too picky.  Or too lazy.  I can't quite tell yet.

So to keep things simple, use whichever cupcake recipe you want here.  And if you have a really great yellow cake recipe that you are just dying to share, I would love to try it out!!

All you need to make these great cupcakes is aluminum foil.  Make small balls to put in the top (I used small foil cylinders for the flower shape), and take small folded squares to stick in the sides at the bottom.  I tried it with balls at the bottom, but it was too much and made the shape all wonky.  The end!  That's it.  So super easy.  And the kids loved them.  

You could probably decorate the cupcakes prettier than my boring sample here, but you know, when I'm hankering for cupcakes, I just can't be bothered with decorating.  Slathering is much more my style.

dairy free cookie cups, again....

Yeah yeah, I know.  It's probably not a very good idea to repeat recipes on here.  But I really just couldn't help myself.  We were going to a birthday party and I was making cupcakes for Ian so that he wouldn't be left out and I asked the kids which ones to make and these were the ones that they chose and they are just sooooo good and the picture just came out too great.  The end.

To see the earlier post, click here.  And I just now realized that I started this post exactly the same way as the original.  And I'm not changing it.  So I guess that makes me actively unoriginal.  Oh well......


Dairy free Cookie Cups

1 c. plus 2 tbs all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt1 stick Earth Balance butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c. dairy free chocolate chips or baker's chocolate cut into chunks (I use Enjoy Life)

Preheat oven to 375
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  Mix well.
On medium speed, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla and continue to beat until well mixed. 
On low speed, stir in the flour mixture until blended.  Add the chocolate chips and stir to integrate them into the batter.
Line a muffin tin with cups.  I used a small size cup for this recipe; perfectly bite sized.  (If you use a regular size cup, increase the cooking time by about 5-10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.)
Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Set the muffins on a cooling rack and be sure to let them cool before you add the frosting, or it will melt.

Cinnamon frosting

2 c. confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
6 tbs soy butter, softened
2 1/2 tbs soy milk
a few drops vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sift the sugar and the cinnamon.  Add the butter, and with the paddle attachment, mix at medium speed until the mixture forms a sort of ball.  You will want to drape a kitchen towel over the bowl of the mixer, that is, unless you want to stand in a cloud of sugar...  Once the ball forms, turn the speed to low, combine the soy milk and vanilla, and add to the sugar ball a couple of teaspoons at a time.  Make sure that the milk is incorporated before each addition.  Once all the milk is in, scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula, and turn the mixer up to full speed. Mix until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 5-10 minutes.  Scoop the frosting into a pastry bag with a tip, or simply a plastic bag, reinforcing one of the corners with tape.  Snip off the corner, and voila, instant pastry bag. Pipe away!

cookie cups

Yeah yeah I know.  Why follow a chocolate chip recipe with a chocolate chip recipe..  Well, this is why:

Chocolate chip cupcakes with cinnamon frosting.


























One of my all time favorite indulgences of yore was the cookie cup at the mall.  I found myself going to the mall JUST to have a cookie cup.  The last few times I had them though, I noticed that something was missing.  I didn't get the there-must-be-crack-on-these kind of euphoria I used to get.


















So I kind of forgot about them.  This was before I really started cooking, before I had kids. Before I found out about Ian's allergies.  I actually hadn't thought about the famed cookie cup until the day before these pictures were taken.  It was my husband's birthday on sunday, and I wrestled with making another cake (I had made a pineapple upside down cake on friday with coconut whipped cream- recipe to follow), or these.  But while remembering why the mall cookie cups were so good, I started to remember the frosting.  It was a kind of waxy, overly sugary, stick to your teeth in a shortening way type of frosting.  That would not do.


















Since my last mall cookie cup, since I have birthed my babies, since I have started cooking dairy free, I have been developing my own frosting.  It is definitely a work in progress; a little more butter here, a little more soy milk there, coconut milk instead of soy milk, rice milk instead of coconut milk, add more vanilla, add less vanilla, add cinnamon, add cocoa powder..  Each time I make it, it is a bit different.  And each time I have made it, well with the exception of the rice milk (I am really just not a fan of rice milk unless it is in my cereal), it is as good as the last time.  Just different.  And I rather like that about frosting.  You can totally personalize it to match the dessert.  But, I digress....  Let's get to the important stuff.  The recipe.

















Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

1 c. plus 2 tbs all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt1 stick Earth Balance butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c. dairy free chocolate chips or baker's chocolate cut into chunks (I use Enjoy Life)

Preheat oven to 375
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  Mix well.
On medium speed, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla and continue to beat until well mixed. 
On low speed, stir in the flour mixture until blended.  Add the chocolate chips and stir to integrate them into the batter.
Line a muffin tin with cups.  I used a small size cup for this recipe; perfectly bite sized.  (If you use a regular size cup, increase the cooking time by about 5-10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.)
Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Set the muffins on a cooling rack and be sure to let them cool before you add the frosting, or it will melt.

Cinnamon frosting

2 c. confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
6 tbs soy butter, softened
2 1/2 tbs soy milk
a few drops vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sift the sugar and the cinnamon.  Add the butter, and with the paddle attachment, mix at medium speed until the mixture forms a sort of ball.  You will want to drape a kitchen towel over the bowl of the mixer, that is, unless you want to stand in a cloud of sugar...  Once the ball forms, turn the speed to low, combine the soy milk and vanilla, and add to the sugar ball a couple of teaspoons at a time.  Make sure that the milk is incorporated before each addition.  Once all the milk is in, scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula, and turn the mixer up to full speed. Mix until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 5-10 minutes.  Scoop the frosting into a pastry bag with a tip, or simply a plastic bag, reinforcing one of the corners with tape.  Snip off the corner, and voila, instant pastry bag. Pipe away!