Vegan Apricot and Carrot Cupcakes

Every year me and Ash make each other birthday cakes, this year he asked for carrot cake - his favorite. I've already done a few vegan carrot cakes before and was bored of the old recipe I was using, so I decided to play around with ingredients and this is the result. The dried apricots add a great flavor to the cakes. I like to soak and simmer them in orange juice so when you bite into them you get a tangy, juicy taste of orange.

This recipe is based on this wonderful recipe from The Ethical Chef.

Ingredients:

• 225g Grated carrots
• 170g Dried apricots, cut into little pieces
• 280g Self raising flour
• 150g Cane sugar
• 80g Desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp Ground ginger
• 1 tsp Ground nutmeg
• 1tsp Cinnamon
• 200g Vegan margarine
• 200ml Orange juice
• Pinch of salt
• A few walnuts to decorate (optional)

Frosting:
I used this recipe for the frosting.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (325F).
2. Simmer the orange juice and chopped dried apricots in a pan for 5-10 mins (until the apricots begin to soften). Allow to cool.
3. Mix the margarine and sugar together in a bowl. Add the grated carrots.
4. Add the cooled juice/apricot mixture, sift the flour, salt and spices in and mix.
5. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cakes and bake for 12-18 mins.
6. Allow to cool before frosting & decorating.

Sticky Toffee Teddy Cupcakes!!!

I've wanted to make some teddy bear themed cupcakes for a while. So when I had a day off work I got baking! Here's my recipe for sticky toffee teddy cupcakes (adapted from this recipe.) These cupcakes are light, moist and mouth watering. Seriously, they are probably my favourite cakes I've ever eaten, and I've eaten A LOT!:

Ingredients (makes 12 large cupcakes or 16 smaller ones):
For the cakes:

• 3 medium carrots (peeled and finely grated, for a more airy cupcake use 4)
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 120g unsalted butter (I like to use pure soya spread instead for a lighter cupcake)
• 150g light muscovado sugar
• 180g self raising flour
• 2 medium eggs (beaten)

For the Buttercream and decorations:

• 180g sea salted butter (just normal salted will do if you can't find this)
• 200g icing sugar
• 4 tablespoons dulche-de-leche or canned caramel
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Large chocolate buttons
• Pink dotted balls/large sprinkles
• Turquoise balls for the eyes
• White chocolate
• Paint Brush

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 170 for fan ovens
• Cream together softened butter and sugar in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed.
• Sift the flour and the bicarbonate of soda in a separate bowl.
• Add the beaten eggs to the sugar/butter mixture, add a tbsp flour while mixing. Add the rest of the flour/bicarbonate mixture and the grated carrots. Mix it all thoroughly.
• Spoon into cupcake cases, bake for 15-20 mins, the cakes should spring back up when pressed with a finger when they are done.

For the butter cream:

•  Soften the salted butter, mix with dulche de leche and the salt. Gradually sift in the icing sugar while stirring. 

To decorate:

• Melt some white chocolate. Lay out the large buttons on a tray with greaseproof paper on. You will need 2 buttons for each teddy cake, 1 for the ear and 1 for the nose.
• For the noses, paint the melted white chocolate on the back of your pink sprinkle and place in the top half/centre of your button.
• For the ears, paint the melted white chocolate as a circle in the centre of the ear. Once the chocolate has set, cut the ears in half with a sharp knife.
• Frost your cupcakes, add the ears, nose and eyes (unless of course you want your teddies to be blind) then SCOFF THEM. om nom nom

My dog decided I was paying FAR too much attention to baking and not enough time paying attention to her. So she spent most of my baking session posed like this expecting tummy rubs:

Poor Effy didn't even get to sample any cupcakes! :(

Butternut squash honey cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!!

I figured because of the healthiness of the butternut squash in these cupcakes it's probably ok to overload them with yummy cream cheese frosting om nom nom nommm. I adapted my recipe from Tooth Fairy Recipes. They taste like little mini carrot cakes and are a great way to enjoy eating veg. If you're struggling to know how exactly to react when you try this cake, refer to 0.45 of this video.

Here's what you need for the basic cakes:

• 230g butternut squash
• 2 free range eggs
• 100g unsalted butter, melted
• 50g natural caster sugar 
• 50g brown sugar
• 80g honey
• 100g self raising flour
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• Orange zest (optional)

For the icing:

• 125g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 50g icing sugar
• 250g low fat cream cheese

Method: 

• Preheat the oven to 200c (gas mark 6)
• Peel the squash and cut it into chunks and place in a microwaveable bowl with boiling water. If you life your cakes a little bit more textured like carrot cake then zest a bit of the skin into the bowl too. Cook in the microwave on high power for 10 mins. Drain the excess water and mash up the squash as finely as possible.
• Whisk the eggs and then mix them with the sugar, honey and butter.
• In a separate mixing bowl, mix the flour with baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg (and orange zest if using it). Add the egg mixture and the butternut squash and mix together thoroughly. 
• Place some cupcake liners on a cupcake tray. Fill with the mixture and bake for 20 mins (possibly less in fan ovens).
• For the frosting mix the unsalted butter with the icing sugar until even and then add the cream cheese.
• Wait until the cupcakes are cool to add the icing you duh brain. Add a candied orange on top if desired.