Vegan Vanilla Stawberries and Creme cupcakes

Vegan vanilla strawberries and "creme" cupcakes... golden vanilla cupcakes filled with sweet gooey frosting and macerated strawberries, topped with fresh strawberries and sweet frosting. This was a big hit at Gaby's birthday party last night and were recreated today because we had leftover macerated strawberries and creme :)
This recipe is sort of a combination of two berry-based vanilla cupcake recipes from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Ingredients
1 cup soymilk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 cups macerated, thinly sliced strawberries (in 3 Tbsp of maple syrup)
3 cups "Creme" - recipe/method follows

Cupcake Method
Add maple syrup to thinly sliced strawberries and set aside for at least 30 minutes for strawberries to get really soft and release their juice.

Preheat oven to 350F. Pam your muffin plan/cupcake liners.

Whisk the soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl and set aside for about 5 minutes to thicken up a bit.

Sift and mix the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.

In a separate large bowl, combine oil, sugar, vanilla and almond extract, and soymilk mixture.

Add dry ingredient mixture to wet ingredients, mixing well. Keep mixing until no large lumps remain.

Fill your cupcake pan cups about 2/3 full. Bake 20 to 22 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean from a cupcake). Set aside to cool on a wire rack. Make sure they're cool before you frost them!

Creme Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1-3 Tbsp soy milk

Add vanilla extract to powdered sugar. Add 1 Tbsp of soy milk to powdered sugar at a time, mixing until the consistency looks like thick cake batter. Make sure its not too runny.

Cupcake assembly
Using a paring knife, carve out a cone shaped hole about an inch into the cupcake. The best way I found to do this was to stab the cupcake while it was still in the muffin pan, and rotate the cupcake in muffin pan while sort of sawing with the knife. Remove the cupcake cone and set aside.

Fill the cupcake with about 1/4 tsp of creme frosting. Then gently fold and shove macerated strawberries into the cupcake, I usually managed to get about 2-4 slices in, depending on how deep I cut the cone.

Take the cupcake cone and gently, but firmly, squish it back on top of the cupcake. Take additional stawberry slices and decorate the top of the cupcake (over the now replaced cone to cover it up) and generally dribble creme frosting over the strawberry slices.

Repeat with all cupcakes. Store in fridge or cool area so frosting doesn't get runny. Enjoy!

Vegan Queso Dip - Not Unhealthy!

Last night was fajita night, and my roomates and I made a delicious feast with peppers/veggies, black beans, guac, cilantro lime rice, and ... vegan Queso! I used this recipe because it was the "healthiest" I could find, most of the other ones used a good amount of margarine. So, I haven't had queso in awhile and I thought that my judgment might be skewed, but everyone (including 3 omnivores) really liked it! The "cheesy" flavor comes from the nutritional yeast, and the melty texture is thanks to the cornstarch and ground cashews. I used the whole foods 365 brand hot salsa, but just use your favorite type. Everyone agreed that it doesn't taste exactly like queso, but that its a really tasty cheezy dip (and is much healthier!). If you make it, let me know what you think!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk (not "plain," which is still sweet)
2 t. apple cider vinegar
1 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. tumeric
1/4 t. mustard powder
2 T. tahini
1 jalapeno, finely chopped (or more to taste)
1/2 cup prepared spicy salsa, draining excess juices
1/4 t. salt (or more to taste)

Preparation:
1. In a small bowl, combine the soymilk and vinegar and allow to rest for 3-5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Mix in cornstarch, stirring to dissolve. Set aside.
2. In a blender or food processor, process the cashews until finely ground. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, spices, salt, jalapeno, and tahini. Stir in ground cashews and soymilk mixture until well blended. Stir in prepared salsa and salt. Cook for another 5 minutes on medium heat, and then put on low heat; it will thicken as it cools. Add more salt to taste (if you want, I didn't)
4. Serve warm, at room temperature or cold with tortilla or pita chips, or use as a sauce for tacos, fajitas,or burritos.

Vegan Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

This was the first time EVER that I have made cupcakes, and on top of that they are vegan cupcakes. I got the book "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" for Christmas/Solstice... and its awesome. I made these cookies and cream cupcakes for our friend Kristin's birthday on Saturday. The tops are not oreos, but newman-os! They were a huge hit, in the "I would have never ever guessed that they are vegan, why does the frosting taste like delicious sweet butter?!" kind of way. I highly recommend the book!