Banana Split Cupcakes

There is no other way to describe these than Oh My God! They are just like a banana split in a cupcake! The cupcake is banana with chocolate and pineapple jam spread through it and then the frosting is a vanilla buttercream with chocolate ganache, nuts, hundreds & thousands, and a cherry! It tastes sooooo good! They look so good too!

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemony Frosting

One word; Yummm!!! Thick, fudgey and warmingly spicy, these cupcakes are perfect for a cold winter's day. I'm not much of a ginger cake person but these are truly good :)

Chocolate Gluten Freedom Cupcakes

At the cafe we get a lot of customers in with food allergies, and not surprisingly these days, gluten is a biggie. Generally, gluten free cupcakes can be a bit hit and miss. I have a chocolate cake I make with ground almonds that's pretty amazing, but that has egg in, so a no-no for my own allergies. This one (yes, my favourite cupcake book once again!) is gluten, egg and dairy free and is, as usual, amazing! It has tapioca, rice and quinoa flours as well as ground flax seed. It took me on quite a search through Geelong to locate all the ingredients (seems Quinoa flour is quite hard to come by at the moment!) but I eventually found them all and it was well worth it. The quinoa gives the cupcakes a deliciously nutty taste and the texture is dense and moist and just so chocolatey. I topped them with the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting which compliments them so well. The creaminess blends exceptionally well with the richness of the cupcake.

I also made the vanilla version of these but we weren't as sold on those as the nuttiness seemed a bit overwhelming. I think I'll try them again using a pre-mixed gf flour instead of the quinoa and see if that keeps the texture but loses the nuttiness.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

One of my favourite drinks at our cafe, apart from my initial cup 'o mud which is a neccessity of a morning to get me going (just ask our waitresses Kirsty or Sonia about the colour of my coffee ;D), is our Mexican Hot Chocolate. It's so rich with chocolate and cinnamon and has a texture to it thats just amazing. Made with oat milk, it's part of my every lunchtime ritual. So I was very excited to find this recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes in the Vegan Cupcakes book.

I made it without the cayenne pepper and with vanilla instead of the almond essence. I also left out the fine ground cornmeal and just added a little extra almond meal. And the result? They are soooooo awesome! Thick, dense and incredibly moist they are so chocolatey it's like chocolate heaven. They have a mild hint of cinnamon which gives it an exotic taste that's just so good! (Can you tell I really, REALLY like these ones!).

They're iced with Rich Chocolate Ganache Topping (pg 143) and then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. So yumm!

Chocolate Cake

 I made this for the cafe from the recipe found here. It's from the blog of my favourite vegan recipe queens and is basically their Basic Chcolate Cupcake recipe doubled and cooked in two 20cm cake tins and then layered and frosted with their vegan chocolate buttercream frosting. I was going to do their ganache as on the website but got over-excited by the frosting and forgot! Ahh well, next time (and there definately will be a next time!). This cake is moist and dense and oh so chocolatey! I made a non-vegan devils food cake last week and this one is so much more suitable to be food for the devil!

City Girl Snickerdoodles

From Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (yes, I swear these aren't the only cookbooks I own, but they're soo good!) comes City Girl Snickerdoodles.

When Nik was home sick from school a couple of weeks ago he came to work with me while I was testing out a non-vegan version of Snickerdoodles. Being Australians and having no idea of what these things were we fell in love with their crispy, chewy vanilla and cinnamon-ness. He was very dubious that a vegan version could be as good and was quite vocal in his doubting, nagging me to make the original version, but I stuck to my guns (mostly because there was no way I was missing out on eating them!). I nearly died of shock when he announced that they were even better than the non-vegan version and he then proceeded to whip a bunch of them off with him to school to hand out! I have now been informed that I have to make more every day because his schoolmates are all addicted to them now too and want their own cookies! His best friend has even made a picture of snickerdoodles his desktop wallpaper!

Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes with Old Fashioned Velvet Icing

More from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, honestly every person on earth should own this book, every recipe is amazing! I'm making their things for the cafe now with complete approval from everyone there because they seriously kick all our other cupcake recipe's asses! We weren't 100% sold on the almond essence taste so I'll leave that out of future ones and just add vanilla instead, but the texture and melt in the mouth goodness of these is just beyond description!

Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles

From the same women who bought you the cupcakes book comes Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (yumm!). Snickerdoodles aren't something we have here in Australia, but after making some non-vegan ones for the cafe as an experiment I've become addicted to them. These ones have quite a kick to them with the addition of Cayenne (I used about 1/4 tsp rather than the 1/2 tsp recommended but these still have a lot of power!). They almost have a ginger-snap taste to them. Probably not ones I'll make again in a hurry because I'm not a big spicy person, but you have to admit they look cool!

Vegan Pancakes

The first ever vegan pancake I tried to make was a complete disaster so I've been searching for a pancake that's just as good as "regular" ones. These ones are gorgeous and fluffy and more than suitable to dish up to even the fussiest milk and egg lover in your household! (Believe me, Nik hears vegan and runs a mile but I've even got him devouring these with gusto!)


Vegan Pancakes:

• 1 cup flour
• 2 Tblsp caster sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Big pinch salt
• 1 cup ricemilk (add more milk if you like them more pancakey and less pikeletey)
• 1 1/2 Tbslp canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional - I like my pancakes sweet ;D)

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Add milk, oil and vanilla (if using) and mix until just combined. Don't stress too much about lumps.
Heat your frypan on medium heat, coating with whatever oil you like (I use a Canola cooking spray because I don't like them too oily). Once heated ladle your mixture into your frypan, flipping the pancake when you start to see bubbles. Cook other side, then flip onto a plate and dig in!

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

From the pages of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero) comes this baby. This is their Golden Vanilla Cupcake (pg 33) and it's just divine. I made it using rice milk instead of the soy (I love rice milk in cakes, it gives an extra vanillary sweetness) and using their canola oil variation. They're amazingly buttery tasting and just melt in your mouth.
The icing is their Vegan Fluffty Buttercream Frosting. Their recipe uses half margarine and half shortening, but I just used Nuttelex as I forgot to look for shortening in the supermarket. I also used rice milk instead of the soy. The frosting is light and fluffy (just like the name says!) and very rich.

I'd recommend their book to anyone. It's amazing and every recipe looks simply mouthwatering. I'm not going to reproduce their recipes, you'll just have to trust me and go buy their book!

About Me

My one big fear when diagnosed with my allergies was the thought that I'd have to have bland, dry sweets and be forever deprived; torture for a chronic sweet tooth! I'm discovering now, however, that while going out for a cake and coffee is not much fun, the desserts I make myself are often so much nicer than the dairy, egg and soy-filled ones anyway.

It's my aim to share some of the books and recipes I find so that others can see it's not the end of the world. In my previous life, before I got sick, I was a professional photographer, so all my creations will be documented for you to see and drool over as I make them!

So, armed with my trusty mixing bowl and spoon, and with my chief taste testers; Sascha (13yrs) and Nik (11yrs) by my side (as well as my fellow staff-members at Moorabool Valley Chocolate by Design), let's get cooking ;)