I made this recipe into 6 cupcakes, but there was a little bit too much tosca topping, and the batter rose a lot on the oven, so this batch would probably be enough for 7 small cakes too. With a little too much topping on a little too high cupcakes, I experienced a little spilling of the topping while it was baking, and that’s a problem because when it cools, it hardens, and it becomes tricky to loosen the cupcakes from the cupcake pan. So, when I took the cakes out of the oven, I immediately grabbed a butter knife and tidied up the edges of each cake.

The Cake Batter:

I made 6 cupcakes with this, but I think it’d be better to make 7. Before starting with the batter, I preheated the oven to 175 degrees Celsius, and greased and floured 6 cups in my muffin tin.

Dry Mix:

• 1 and 1/2 dl wheat flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

Wet Mix:

• 1 dl plain, unsweetened soy milk
• 2/3 dl plain soy yogurt
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 dl canola oil

I whisked the wet mix in a mixing bowl, then stirred together the dry mix, and combined the two with a fork until only small lumps remained. Now, I poured the batter in the 6 prepared cups in my muffin tin, and baked for about 14 minutes, until a little brown on the sides but very pale on the tops. While the cakes were baking, I prepared the topping.

The Tosca Topping:

• 2 tablespoons margarine, melted
• 2 tablespoons plain soy milk
• 1/2 dl sugar
• 1 tablespoon wheat flour
• 50 g slivered almonds

I placed everything else but the almonds in a small cooking pot, and then heated on medium heat until the mixture started to boil gently. It took about 5 minutes to reach that stage. Then I turned down the heat, let the mixture simmer for about a minute more, and then removed it from heat. I mixed in the slivered almonds, and the topping was ready.

When the cakes were done prebaking, I spread about a tablespoon of the topping over each cake, and then popped them in the uppermost rack of our oven for 12 more minutes, until the topping started to get brown. Then I took the cakes out of the oven and carefully tidied up the edges of each cup before the topping started to harden. Then I let them cool in the tin for about 20 minutes until removing.

I used all kinds of green things in these cupcakes; an apple, melon seeds, kiwi fruits, and green food coloring for the icing (had we had frozen parsley, I would have squeezed out its juice to be used as a natural food coloring). The cake itself was disappointingly pale after baking, but the artificial greenness of the icing remained. I had never heard of baking fresh kiwi fruits in a cake, and the experiment was a success: the cupcakes had a mild kiwi taste, a light and moist texture, and the kiwi fruit cubes provided a slightly tangy edge when bitten into. And these cupcakes got excellent reviews – “the best muffin I have ever tasted” remarked a relative after having one (there is no word for cupcake in Finnish), and Heikki said that they were “probably the best cupcakes you’ve ever baked”.

The Fruit:

• 2 (organic) kiwi fruits, peeled and finely cubed
• 1 Granny Smith Apple, very well washed and grated

Dry Mix:

• 1 dl pumpkin seeds, finely ground
• 2 dl wheat flour
• 1 dl potato starch
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt

Wet Mix:

• 2 dl plain, unsweetened soy yogurt
• 1 dl unsweetened soy milk
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 dl confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• grated peel of 1 lemon

I ground the pumpkin seeds in our mini food processor, and preheated the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. At this point, I greased and floured my muffin tin as well.

Then I washed my apple thoroughly, and grated it. I didn’t peel the apple because I thought the peel would give the cupcakes some green color – it didn’t, so I’d say it’s best to get rid of the peels, because they have a lot of preservatives. I peeled the kiwi fruits and cut them in small cubes. I have a feeling that organic kiwi fruits are slightly larger than the non-organic ones we’ve had, so 3 smaller kiwi fruits wouldn’t be exaggeration.

Now, I mixed the wet mix and the dry mix in separate bowls, and then combined the two. I mixed the batter with a wooden fork just enough to combine, and then poured the batter in the prepared muffin tin, filling the cups about 2/3 of full.

Now, I baked the cupcakes in 175 degrees for about 23 minutes, until they were lightly browned over the top. The cupcakes were not very pretty straight out of the oven, because there’s so much fruit in the batter, but the icing makes them shiny and smooth. I let the cupcakes cool in the tin for 5 minutes, and then removed them to prevent sogginess.

Green Cashew Icing:

This icing is very rich and sweet, and the recipe makes more than enough to ice 12 cupcakes. Half the recipe would be just enough to make a thinner layer of icing.

• 1 dl cashew nuts, toasted and finely ground
• 1/2 dl unsweetened soy milk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable margarine, in room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• a pinch of green food coloring
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons potato starch
• 2-3 dl confectioner’s sugar

After I’d put the cupcakes in the oven, I measured the margarine and the soy milk in small cups, and let them warm up to room temperature. I ground the cashews in our small food processor, then added the soy milk, and processed until the two were completely combined, and resembled a thick cream.

Now, I combined the margarine and the cashew mixture in a big bowl, and mixed them with a hand held mixer for a few minutes. Now, I added the rest of the ingredients one by one, beating in between: agave nectar, vanilla sugar, lemon juice, food coloring, potato starch, and confectioner’s sugar. I started with 2 dl of sugar, and added it tablespoon at a time until the consistency was still sort of runny and almost thick enough to be piped. Now, I refrigerated the frosting until my cupcakes had cooled down, and then piped it on the cupcakes.

It’s best to let the frosting dry up in room temperature for a few hours before refrigerating the frosted cupcakes. Also, I recommend only frosting the cupcakes that will be eaten on the same day, because otherwise they will get soggy in the fridge.

This recipe is an adaptation of the Cashew Butter Cardamom Cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. I have never seen cashew butter, so we replaced that with ground cashews. Other replacements were also made according to the things we happened to have in the house, and we sneaked in some citrus liqueur as well. I added caramelized cashews because they are my new favorite decoration for any type of cake, and the frosting is a mix of vegan whipped cream and cashew butter cream frosting. I described the easy process of caramelizing cashews in the Chocolate Rum Cake post.

This batch made 10 regular-sized cupcakes, and there was plenty of icing for each one of them. I usually flour my muffin tin with semolina, which creates a little crunchiness on the sides of the cupcakes. It is fool-proof, I have never experienced any sticking, but probably ordinary breadcrumbs would do the trick just as well.

Batter:

• 2,5 dl soy milk
• 1/2 dl freshly squeezed citrus juice (we had tangerine and lemon)
• 1 tablespoon Grand Marniér liqueur
• 2 teaspoons finely ground flaxseeds
• 1 teaspoon egg replacer powder (or corn, potato, or barley starch)
• 1 dl canola oil
• 1 dl granulated sugar
• 1 dl raw cane sugar
• 1 dl toasted and ground cashew nuts
• 2,5 dl wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• pinch of cinnamon

First, we preheated the oven to 175 degrees Celsius, and greased and floured the muffin pan with vegetable margarine and semolina.

I whisked together the first 5 ingredients (soy milk through egg replacer), and then added the next 4 ingredients (canola oil through cashews). Now, I beat the mixture with a hand held mixer for a few minutes until it became smooth.

Heikki combined the remaining ingredients (flour through cinnamon) in a separate bowl, and then added this dry mixture in the wet in two batches. I mixed the batter with a hand held mixed until the it was smooth, and then poured it in the prepared muffin pan, filling it two-thirds of full. Then we baked the cupcakes for 22 minutes, when a toothpick inserted came out clean, and the cupcakes had a nice brown color.

At this point, the cupcakes had to cool completely before frosting. This took them about 30-40 minutes.

Cashew cardamom frosting:

• 1 dl cashew nuts, toasted and finely ground
• 1/2 dl vegan whip cream (we had GoGreen Vispi, probably would work with plain soymilk as well)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable margarine, in room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 2 teaspoons chocolate drink powder (or a little less dark cocoa powder)
• 1 tablespoon dark syrup
• 1 dl or more confectioner’s sugar

First, I mixed together vegan cream and finely ground cashews. Then, I added the margarine, and beat this with a hand held mixer until combined and light colored. Now, I added the rest of the ingredients one by one, confectioner’s sugar last, and kept on beating until the frosting was fluffy. Then, I refrigerated the frosting while the cupcakes were cooling down.

To assemble, Heikki piped cashew frosting over the cupcakes, and I dropped a few caramelized cashews (instructions here) on top of each one.

The first two I made last week for a friend, who celebrated her birthday and other nice things that have happened in her life lately. Here are the raspberry rum cupcakes with raspberry buttercream frosting and non-vegan sprinkles (these were the first sprinkles I have bought in my 10 years of veganism, and I didn’t realize they weren’t vegan until someone in the party reminded me about the possibility… I will learn from my mistakes.):

These were adapted from the Almond Cupcakes recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, I used half spelt flour and added some rum extract and a few frozen raspberries in each cupcake before putting the tray in the oven, and topped them with raspberry buttercream frosting adapted from the same book – I used regular raspberries instead of raspberry syrup, and the pink color came out just perfect.

Here’s what I used for the raspberry frosting:

• 1,2 dl vegetable margarine, in room temperature

• 2,5 dl or more confectioner’s sugar

• 1,5 dl frozen raspberries, defrosted

The margarine has to be warmed to room temperature, otherwise it won’t get fluffy. For this frosting, I only needed the pulp of the raspberries, so I pressed them through a strainer to get rid of the seeds. This should leave some 5 tablespoons full of raspberry pulp. Now, I whipped the margarine until a little fluffy, then spooned in most of the sugar and mixed to form crumbles, poured in raspberry pulp and beat until creamy, and added the rest of the sugar little by little until the consistency was very fluffy.

Here are Mint Chocolate cupcakes, adapted from the Basic Chocolate cupcake recipe in the same cookbook, but I added some crushed mint candy (I used Marianne, hard mint candy with chocolate filling) and some crushed chocolate in the batter. I topped the cupcakes with mint chocolate buttercream frosting, and sprinkled with crushed mint candy. I guess the mint chocolate frosting was basically raspberry frosting with melted chocolate (cooled to room temperature) instead of raspberry pulp, and crushed mint candies added in the end. The green stars are even vegan, I think. These were heavenly.

Last Saturday, I baked raspberry and apple cupcakes for a house warming party, recipe adapted from the Basic Vanilla Cupcakes in the same book, I think I just replaced some of the flour with spelt. I halved the batch, and added some crushed frozen raspberries and rum extract in the other half, and some cubed apples, a few drops of almond extract, and cinnamon in the other half. You can see the raspberry ones in the background (the same frosting as last week’s batch):

The pale-colored topping is Cinnamon Icing from Vegan Cupcakes, with a pinch of nutmeg and a some grated lime peel added, and some grated chocolate on top.