Vegan cupcakes take over the world
Vegan cupcake recipe book by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero
review by Milly Bernice
Vegan cupcake recipes are hard to find - most vegan cookery books don't have much happening on the cake front. However, there is a solution! Vegan cupcakes will take over the world!
I don't know about the vegan cookery books everyone else owns, but most of those I have collected have one thing in common. Not much happening on the cake front.
In fact, a perusal of some vegan cookbooks might lead you to think that a life of not eating bits of animal is a life of punishment food.
Luckily, 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World' makes sure you won't miss out on all those essential cakey nutrients. Being vegan means all the recipes are dairy free, so 'Vegan cupcakes' is also suitable for those with milk allergies/intolerances - and includes some gluten free cakes as well.
The recipes range from simple Golden Vanilla cupcakes and Orange Pudding cupcakes to decadent Hazelnut cupcakes with mocha hazelnut mousse filling. So there's something for all cooking abilities amongst the 75 recipes.
Like all the best cookery pr0n, 'Vegan Cupcakes' has pleeeeeeeenty of pictures to make you drool. There's also a troubleshooting guide (if you're not one of life's natural bakers this'll help you figure out why your cupcakes don't look as enchanting as those in the book. Never mind - eat quickly and no-one will know they weren't pretty).
The only disadvantage for UK readers is that the measurements are in cups. If you plan to do a lot of cupcake making, or have other American cookbooks, then it's worth investing in a set of measuring cups. However, you can use a large teacup to start with (not a mug - unless you're feeding the whole street) and if you use the same cup for consistency through the recipe it should work okay.
Ingredients in most of these delicious vegan cupcake recipes are likely to be things you have in your house already, but for some of the more adventurous cupcake recipes it's worth checking first.
Quite a few of the recipes use agave and maple syrup in place of sugar, and you could easily use something like Sweet Freedom instead if you need to keep a check on sugars.
Soya milk is the main dairy replacement, but my cakes turned out perfectly nice using rice and nut milks, which I prefer. A few of the recipes with squidgy fillings call for silken tofu in aseptic packets (the little sealed boxes). Try and get the softest silken tofu you can, or you will have to thrash it quite severely.
Important: No-one will be able to tell that your beautiful vegan cupcakes are not ordinary ones, so you can throw cake parties without having to abandon your principles. Also, non-vegan guests will never know they're eating something vegan until you tell them.
Or you could skip the party and eat them all yourself.
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Milly Bernice spends her time fantasising that she is Lucille Ball reborn. When not grappling a small ginger toddler she jointly runs an IT consultancy. Her personal blog can be found at www.laraloola.co.uk.
