Thursday, April 27, 2006

wacky cupcakes



i'm really starting to come around regarding the whole vegan baking issue. after not a small number of disasterous attempts at baking egg and dairy free i pretty much threw in the peta embossed towel. what with a butter and egg loving cookie eater in the house cawing and deriding my poor, flat, chewy baked goods, what else could i do? i hated to throw my little spongy mouse pad like cakes into the garbage can, but i hated to eat them even more.

so while i still bake egg (free range, blah blah blah) and dairy (organic, blah blah blah) filled sweets for my not-always-so-sweet, i find that i'm cooking more vegan cookies and cakes that are passing muster. i don't really know what has changed. maybe i'm selecting my recipes more carefully. maybe i've learned that to overbeat a vegan baked good equals instant failure. maybe i've just learned that baking is a science and that you need to actually read the directions and, here is the really hard part, follow them.

and so on a momentary note of vegan victory, this here is a recipe for wacky cake. aka crazy cake. aka make do cake. aka (my favorite moniker) dump cake. the bones of this recipe has been around since the forties when bakers had to "make do" with what they had on hand during the lean wartime years. the recipe can be made into a sheet cake or a round cake, but i like the little cupcakes best. the directions specified to not use dutch processed cocoa but since that was all i had on hand, and i have a very difficult time following directions, i used it anyway. with no ill-effects. the cakes rose beautifully with a light airy crumb, a high peaked crown and a lovely chocolately flavor.

wacky cupcakes
1 1/4 cup white or wholewheat PASTRY flour
1 cup finely ground sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup +3 Tablespoons water
1 T. instant coffee granules (totally optional)
3 Tablespoons oil
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla

sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl (first five items) then whisk to combine. in another bowl place wet ingredients (water, oil, vinegar and vanilla) and whisk vigorously until well combined. BRIEFLY mix the dry and wet ingredients. DO NOT OVERBEAT or your cupcakes will be tough! they will become mouse pads! place cupcake liner in a 12 muffin tin and lightly spray with oil. fill to about 2/3 full and bake about 25 mintues at 350.

13 Comments:

Blogger Susan Voisin said...

Yay! Let's hear it for vegan baked goods! :-)

3:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They look great. I've had trouble with vegan baking and considered throwing in the towel a few times...but then I have one success among my failures and it give me new home. I think Vegan with a Vengance's lemon gem and fauxtess cupcakes turn out really well...vegan or not!

7:08 PM  
Blogger KleoPatra said...

I have had many trials and errors baking the vegan way, too... I keep pluggin' away even tho i end up eating less-than-stellar goods most of the time. (i only share when i feel it turned out well.)

9:42 PM  
Blogger tanvi said...

Oooh these look delicious. I'm vegetarian and often find myself eating vegan desserts (especially here in LA). Quick question- by finely ground sugar, do you mean not the organic or raw varieties?

11:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

they look gret!
I think i have everything to whip them up too!

11:30 PM  
Blogger Emily said...

look yummy. I may have to try these (when I'm allowed to bake again. Too much baking lately!)

6:53 AM  
Blogger rae said...

susanv: i agree susan, and the lowerfat the better.

megan: yeah, i love the fauxstess cupcakes. i'll have to try the lemon gem ones next. thanks for reminding me.

kleopatra: yeah, for every one vegan baked good i post here there are at least five utter failures that hit the trash can...oh, i know i should compost or something but i live in the city!

tanvi: i use organic sugar, like florida crystals or the stuff you buy at trader joes', and put it in the blender or food processor and give it a whiz or two. i used to live in la and there are so many good vegan eats out there. friends rave about placed called california vegan (i think) that i'll have to check out next time i'm down there.

clare: oh but please make sure to not overbeat the batter! i hope you like them...

emily: i know what you mean by baking too much. i have some raisin scones in the oven right now!

11:09 AM  
Blogger sp said...

Hurray for vegan baking! Baking is a science and vegan baking even more so. We (I'm speaking for vegan bakers here) don't have the hundreds of years of bakers to pass on the traditions of masterful baking.
I'm going to try the wacky cupcakes because they look divine. Also, my mother baked wacky cake when I was a kid and I thought it was magic. It had a flavour of its own and was fluffy and moist, rich and chocolatey. I'd forgotten all about wacky cake. I'd almost thought it was an invention of my mother's. Apparently not.

Sorry to hear that your city has no composting facilities! Our city recently installed a "green bin" program that takes all kitchen scraps and pretty much everything compostable. Hopefully such a program will happen in your city as well.

Love the recipes as always. Thanks.

12:59 PM  
Blogger tanvi said...

I've heard about California Vegan, too, but have yet to try it. My favorite vegan place you must try in LA: Real Food Daily (in West Hollywood).

11:42 PM  
Blogger redjane Stephanie Belding said...

Wacky cake lives!!!!!! I haven't thought about this in years! I was always blown away by the idea of vinegar in a cake when I was a kid- I have to make these cupcakes.
I'm personally all over the vegan baking thing. I have a handful of recipes I bake over and over and they all work really well; I've never been discouraged to the point of giving up but even when I was veg I was into substituting out the fats and increasing the protein ( from a health~fitness point of view) so I now experiment all the time. And ther are some great cookbooks too. Hang in there! There is hope! And thanks for the wacky!

8:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ooh! you don't have a recipe for vegan buttercream frosting, do you?

12:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another way for them to not be mouse-pads is to mix all the ingrdients EXCEPT the vinegar as vigorously as you please - THEN after the batter is in the baking oan even stir in the vinegar very briefly and pop in the oven. OR subsitute 3 or4 times the amount of baking POWDER (SANS VINEGAR) and you will get an even fluffier crumbly-er version. mmmmmmm...

12:36 AM  
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12:46 AM  

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