A Very Vegan Valentine

Don't clog your valentine's big, pretty heart:  Give them a delicious plant-based treat to show just how much you love them!

This recipe was inspired by the C'est La Vegan blog.

I give you - Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes!

Here's what you'll need:

1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

½ cup dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 Tbs. baking powder

½ tsp. salt
¾ cups sugar
½ cup cherry soy
½ cup vanilla (or plain) soy milk
½ cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract
10oz. frozen cherries (or fresh cherries, but the frozen are pitted & cheaper!)  I chopped the larger cherries in quarters & halfed the smaller cherries.

Sift all dry ingredients except the sugar.

Why do we sift?

Because we don't want clumpy cocoa in our yummy cupcake!

Now we're ready to mix...

Preheat oven to 350 (F).

Mix the sugar and soy yogurt until just blended.

Add about 2/3 of the sifted mixture a few big spoonfulls at a time.

Then add your milk/oil/extract mixture...

Add remaining dry ingredients & then remaining wet.  Adding the ingredients this way ensures a firm moist cake.  ;o)

Do not over mix ingridents, mix until just combined:

You don't want your cake to be chewy!
Scrape sides & beater, fold in any unmixed parts as you fold in the cherries...

I mean, if you don't want to eat this right now, you should consider talking to a therapist.

Line muffin tin with papers (pink & white here for the holiday) & fill 1/2 - 3/4 full.



Pop 'em in the over for 20-25 minutes.

In the mean time, you can start on the Butter Cream Frosting...

You'll need:

4oz. Vegan Cream Cheese

1/2 stick vegan butter

2-2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese until thoroughly combined (maybe 2-3 minutes).

Add powdered sugar & vanilla until combined.  Check the consistancy, if you want it thicker, add more powdered sugar.

Frost your cupcakes & voila!

I topped mine with some organic truffles I picked up at Earth Fare.  I wanted to make little chocolate hearts, but I got started late & it just wasn't in me.  I guess I'll have to make something chocolatey soon.  Oh, the horror.

Happy Valentine's Day, Ya'll!