Break Radio Silence

Vegan Tiramisu and Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

There is no denying that there has been a serious lack of posts on this site as of late, but that is not to say that I have not been busy in the kitchen. In fact it would be fair for you to make the assumption that the less I post on here (or any of my online outlets) the busier I am.

I do bring tidings of great twitterpation! In the culinary world we refer to it as Wedding Season. The time of year when brides-to-be are making their preparations for the big day. I had the great privilege of not only making two new acquaintances, as well as being invited to create the wedding dessert spread for Brianna and Aaron! Seriously a couple of sweethearts. I am always so inspired by people with genuine energy and zeal for living.

Right off the bat they won me over with their flavor selection. Chocolate Hazelnut and most importantly Tiramisu! My goodness is there anything better than Tiramisu. No, no there isn’t. The fun part about all of this is not only do they want cupcakes for their wedding, they have requested that they be Vegan.

If you are at all familiar with Tiramisu you can see what I mean about it being challenging. How you recreate a custardy, egg-ridden, mascarpone cheese laden dessert with no animal product and in cupcake form?! Well, I’m glad you asked!

As I have previously mentioned and will continually remind you, I’m Italian and I have a younger sister who’s favorite dessert EVER is Tiramisu. So for the many years that I spent as a Vegan I had some serious motivation to get this dessert right. Two things I will say on the subject of Vegan products and then we’ll move on to the good stuff. Earth Balance and Tofutti Cream Cheese are gifts from Heaven for the Vegan community. Straight up.

So having these two gifts at my disposal it was really just a matter of recreating the familiar flavors of tiramisu and reconstructing it in a different form.

The base for Tiramisu are little, soft biscuits called Lady Fingers. They have a delightful crust on them so they soak up the espresso (and booze) without becoming soggy. So for the cake aspect, rather than combining the espresso and the Amaretto Liqueur for the soaking liquid, I made an Amaretto flavored cake. For the espresso soaking liquid I pressed freshly ground Espresso beans at double strength, then combined it with Kahlua and a dash of sugar over a medium-high heat in a saucepan to burn away the alcohol and intensify the flavors. The buttercream is where it got a little bit tricky and slightly fancy. Ordinarily if I’m going to be making a cream cheese buttercream, I use a 1:2 ratio of butter (Earth Balance) to cream cheese (Tofutti), in this case though I reversed ratio. I used 12 ounces of cream cheese to 6 ounces of butter. The Mascarpone in the Tiramisu is what gives the dessert that luscious, full and soft mouth feel. To round out the flavor of the Tofutti and the Earth Balance I added Vanilla Beans from two pods and added just a dash of Amaretto. All right, enough back-story.

Espresso Soaking Liquid

• 4 ounces strongly brewed Espresso, cooled
• 1-2 tablespoons of Kahlua or Bailey’s Coffee Liqueur
• Sugar, to taste

1. Combine the ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat and boil for a minute to burn away the alcohol.
2. Reduce to a simmer. If a skin develops on the mixture, scrape off with a spoon and discard.
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Amaretto Spice Cake

• 2 cups Soymilk, Unsweetened and Plain
• 1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 ½ cups Sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1-2 tablespoons Amaretto Liqueur
• 2 ½ cups All Purpose Flour
• Optional: ¼ cup Cornstarch or 2 tablespoons of All Purpose Flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon of Nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon of Cinnamon
• ¼ cup of Safflower Oil

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF and prepare your cupcake tins.
2. To start, we’ll be making Vegan Buttermilk. To do this combine the Soymilk and Apple Cider Vinegar in a mixing bowl and whisk the ever loving daylights out of it until it submits to your authority and becomes frothy and light. Set aside to thicken for 5-10 minutes.
3. In the bowl of your mixer, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (also the Cornstarch if you choose to use it. I typically only use the cornstarch when I am adding wet ingredients such as fruit).
4. Once your Vegan Buttermilk is nice and thickened we’ll be adding the sugar, vanilla extract, and Amaretto. Whisk until the mixture has become frothy once more.
5. Next, while adding the oil it is important to whisk the milk mixture as you slowly pour in the oil as to incorporate the fats and maintain a lightness to the buttermilk.
6. Turn on your mixer to a low speed, using the paddle attachment, and slowly add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients. Once the liquid is added scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and turn the speed up to a medium-high speed for about 20 seconds, then scrape the sides of the bowl once more. Return the speed to a medium-high speed and beat for a few seconds more or until the major lumps have been beaten out and the mixture looks billowy and luxuriously smooth.
7. Immediately fill your lined cupcake tins with the cake batter filling it 3/4 of the way full. We want a level cupcake, not a muffin top!
8. Pop the cupcakes in the oven for 18-21 minutes. You want them to be a rich, golden brown.
9. Cool the cupcakes for 5 minutes in the tins then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Using a straw, poke a hole in the tops of the cupcakes being sure to only go down half way! Spoon a small amount of the espresso liquid into the hole, then lightly dip the top of the cupcake in the espresso as well. We want a soaked cake, not a soggy one. Pop them into the freezer for 10-15 minutes to help set the liquid.

Vanilla Bean Cream Topping

• Tub of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, cold
• 6 ounces Earth Balance, cold
• 3-4 cups sifted Powdered Sugar
• 2 pods of Vanilla Beans, split and scraped (reserve pods for future use)
• 1 teaspoon of Amaretto
• Non-dairy milk, used if necessary for thinning

1. Combine the Tofutti and the Earth Balance in your mixing bowl and beat until combined. A very important thing to keep in mind that Vegan “fats” have a higher water content than their dairy cousins, so start cold and DO NOT over mix. The water will separate and you will be left with something…well, weird.
2. Once the mixture is smooth add the vanilla beans, Amaretto, and powdered sugar in small stages (3 is a nice number), start on a low speed and work up to a medium-high speed fully incorporating the sugar until the mixture is smooth.
3. You will know when your buttercream is ready to go when you pull your beater out of the mixture and turn it right side up and the buttercream slowly curves downward. You want it soft, but not runny.

Time to Assemble!

1. With an offset spatula or small rubber spatula, put about two tablespoons worth of frosting on the top of the cupcake. Using your secondary hand to rotate the cupcake and your dominate hand to frost, turn the cupcake as you use a circular stroking motion evenly distribute the buttercream around the entirety of the cake while still maintaining a flat top. They don’t need to be perfect, we’ll be covering them with cocoa powder!
2. Once your cupcakes are frosted, get your sifter out and lightly dust the top of the cakes with cocoa powder and just like that, you have Vegan Tiramisu Cupcakes!

It seems like a lot of steps, and it is. I can absolutely promise you this: your home will smell amazing and the sense of accomplishment that you will have once you take your first bite will make you forget about all the labor you just went through!

Take a step back please.

Alright, so I missed my “Inspiration Friday” post yesterday. Believe it or not I have a good reason. I spent all day yesterday crafting and baking cupcakes for one of my dearest friends, Emily. It’s her cousins bridal shower today and Emily and her family graciously choose me to make cupcakes for the event. I honestly feel so humbled and honored whenever anyone asks me to do something like this for them. I had the immense pleasure to be able to do Emily’s wedding cupcakes last year as well!

So the goodies I created were new twists on classic flavors. The theme to the bridal shower is “vintage kitchen” and the future bride’s favorite flower are Sunflowers. I was given full creative license on the flavors, and the only request was that there be variety. Emily’s mom, Vic, LOVES Black Forest Cake so that was an easy choice and to match the yellow of the flower of choice, I went with a Lemon Cake with cream cheese buttercream. Seems simple enough right?

Negative Ghost Rider! Ha! I may put out straight forward, and simply delicious desserts; but my process is usually far from “simple.” For the Black Forest I decided to  change it up a bit and use a lighter cocoa powder (My usual weapon of choice is Valrhona Cocoa Powder. My goodness this is one of the greatest things on Planet Earth) and spice the cake slightly with cinnamon and nutmeg. For the cherries, I roasted them in raw turbinado sugar and sea salt for 15 minutes, then I added about 1/4-1/3 of a cup of a young, spicy  cabernet sauvignon and continued to roast for an additional 5-7 minutes to burn off the alcohol and infuse the flavors. The only thing I have to say on the subject is that they are lucky to be getting Black Forest cupcakes and not plain chocolate cupcakes. I miraculously limited myself to two cherries and I am still enjoying the effervescent notes of dark berries, cocoa, and spice hanging in the air of my studio. Le sigh.

But on to the Lemon Cupcakes! In case you are wondering, yes, the lemons came from the heavenly tree in my mother’s backyard! I zested a large lemon and used the juice from two of the lemons in the cake. While the cupcakes were baking I made a simple lemon syrup by boiling lemon slices in a sauce pan with sugar and water (if you ever want to make a simple syrup the ratio is 1:1. Bring to a boil then simmer for 20-25 minutes and vuala!) Right after the cupcakes came out of the oven I poked holes in them with a toothpick then brushed them with the lemon syrup and alternately rested the lemon slices on the cupcakes so they would soak up as much lemon flavor as possible.

The buttercream was actually the most simple part of this whole process and fortunately I picked two flavors of cake that called for the same type of frosting. Some times I am delighted with how my subconscious helps me out from time to time! My buttercreams are definitely something that I need to nail out a precise recipe for. I treat my baking so much like a chef treats his dishes. I obviously follow very strict ratios and rules, but you would be surprised with how much I work with and adapt my recipes. That’s why it’s hard for me to give recipes sometimes! Knowing Garrett Jones, my dear friend and co-owner of Back to Eden Bakery in Portland, has gotten all of his recipes down pat and I am motivated to pull myself together in that manner. He and John fuse creativity and organization in a way that is completely inspiring. They make me want to grow up and be responsible. So, the moment that I stop being so loosey goosey with my frostings is the day that I will share them with you!

I kept the cupcakes simple, yet elegant. I found these lovely little sunflower and white gerber daisy flowers that I placed on the buttercream and I airsprayed the Lemon cupcakes a light yellow. Nothing too fancy but when they’re all next to each other they look rather delicate and uniform. The shower is today and I just hope that they like the little spins that I put on these classic recipes! I always get so nervous when people eat my food. I may present myself as the most confident woman on earth, but I am a wreck when I send my product out. I put a lot of myself into my baking and cooking. It’s my life, how I express myself, and most importantly how I love people.

So that’s the excuse for missing “Inspiration Friday!” This week it’s a Saturday post which will be coming up moments after this is posted! Have a wonderful weekend!

Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Black Forest Cupcakes