Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing
From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Ingredients for Cupcakes

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup oil *I used canola
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup soy milk *I used organic vanilla
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions for Cupcakes

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
• In a medium bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil, sugar, soy milk, and vanilla.  Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt. Stir together with a fork–don’t use a hand-held mixer, as  it will make the batter gummy.  Once well combined, fold in the chocolate chips.
• Fill liners two-thirds full.  Bake for 22-24 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let fully cool before icing.

Ingredients for Cinnamon Icing

• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons margarine, melted
• 1 tablespoon soy milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions for Cinnamon Icing

• Place sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.  Add margarine, soy milk, and vanilla and stir with a fork until smooth. Keep at room temperature until ready to use.  The mixture should look opaque and honey brown.  If it’s glistening a lot or looks too liquid, add a little extra confectioners’ sugar.

To Assemble

• Take a small plastic sandwich bag and cut out a tiny hole in one edge or fit a pastry bag with a small-holed decorating tip.  Fill the bag with icing and pipe it out Jackson Pollack-style onto the cupcakes.  You may also opt to pipe it in zig-zags, lines or swirls. Let the icing set at room temperature or refrigerate.

Nutritional Information
Calculated with Spark People’s Recipe Calculator (It’s fun to use and gives tons of data, as you’ll see below)

• 1 Cupcake w/o icing: Calories 241.3, Total Fat 11.5 g (Saturated Fat 2.0 g, Polyunsaturated Fat 2.9 g, Monounsaturated Fat 6.1 g), Cholesterol 0.0 mg, Sodium 126.6 mg, Potassium 120.7 mg, Total Carbohydrate 34.2 g, Dietary Fiber 1.9 g, Sugars 21.8 g, Protein 2.2 g, Vitamin A 111.4 %, Vitamin B-12 1.0 %, Vitamin B-6 1.4 %, Vitamin C 2.5 %, Vitamin D 0.6 %, Vitamin E 11.8 %, Calcium 6.3 %, Copper 5.3 %, Folate 6.3 %, Iron 7.8 %, Magnesium 5.0 %, Manganese 10.7 %, Niacin 4.7 %, Pantothenic Acid 2.1 %, Phosphorus 4.0 %, Riboflavin 6.1 %, Selenium 0.9 %, Thiamin 7.7 %, Zinc 1.9 % (*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs)
• One serving of cinnamon icing: 34 calories, 1.4g fat, 0.1g fiber, 0.1g protein for one serving of icing
• One cupcake with one serving cinnamon icing: 275.30 calories, 12.9g fat, 2g fiber, 2.3g protein

To see the recipe for the devil’s food cupcakes pictured above with the pumpkin cupcakes, see here.

If you’re looking for cool holiday gift options, I’d recommend the vegan cupcake recipe book that the above recipe came from.  The authors recently released a vegan cookies recipe book (Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite Treats) too which I’m hoping to get sometime soon! Or, bake a batch of these goodies to give as a gift (if you plan on doing so, I’ll send you my address hint hint wink wink).

In case you’re wondering, no I’m not vegan. And, frankly, I don’t have a staunch stance on the issue of vegan eating in general. If you know me at all, you know I’m kind of a relativist when it comes to food choices.  However, I do love to try new things and I think that the overarching vegan concern for the environment and ethical treatment of animals is awesome and something I align with in my own practices, in my own way.  And on that note, it’s time to stuff my face, I’m cranky!

Give-Away Round Up

• Win some MixMyGranola here — Ends 11/18
• Win some Heart Thrive and Sun Cake Energy Bars here — Ends 11/18
• Win some Somersault Snacks here — Ends 11/23 (I *love* those snacks, by the way!)

If you’re an omnivore or vegetarian, are you open to trying vegan recipes?

<3,

The Cranky One

p.s. Happy Birthday Jody! You are such a sweet and positive voice in the blogging community (and…you’re hot – ’nuff said).

Ok, so I know every one’s totally done thinking about Halloween.  Actually, I bet a lot of you are sick from Halloween and wishing to forget the parade of candy that marched down your throat (or is that just me?).  But, I want to give you a little re-cap of the brilliance that is the cranky one on holidays.  If this is any indication of how Christmas will go, we better get a jolly red suit made so I’ll actually have clothes to fit into. So, it went something like this

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(Gotta love using “light” cranberry juice as if it will offset the rest of the crap you consume w/ it, no?

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Devil’s food and pumpkin chocolate chip vegan cupcakes
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D’oh!

For all you peeps out there trying to be mindful of what you eat, here’s a little tip — drinking and desserts do not mix. Well, actually, they mix — a little too well.  So well, in fact, that you might find yourself waking up from a vodka-induced slumber, sprawled on the floor, with cupcake crumbs all over your face and fingers and a trail of crumbs leading back to the kitchen, the scene of the crime, as if you were Hansel and Gretel trying to clue your way back home. I’m just sayin’. You may forget how many cupcakes you ate while you were busy pounding vodka cranberries with your girlfriends, but the scale doesn’t forget.  It’s kinda like that “I Know What You Did Last Summer” phenomena — those damn cupcakes will come back to haunt you and make sure you remember!

I think I should raise my hand here and opt to be the poster child for smart people who do stupid things. What was I honestly thinking making not one, but TWO, types of cupcakes as an appetizer for my entree of booze?  Come on now.

As if you didn’t have your fill of sweets, the recipe for the devil’s food cupcakes my girls and I made follows:

Devils Food Vegan Cupcakes — From this post

Ingredients

• 1 cup almond or soy milk — 40 calories, 3 g fat, 1 g fiber, 1 g protein (I used almond milk)
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar — 0 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g fiber, 0 g protein
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (or sweetener of choice) – 580 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g fiber, 0 g protein
• 1/3 cup coconut oil — 626 calories, 73 g fat, 0 g fiber, 0 g protein
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour — 455 calories, 1.3 g fat, 3.4 g fiber, 12.9 g protein
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder — 66 calories, 4 g fat, 9 g fiber, 5 g protein
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting — I used a glaze (recipe to come on a later post)
• Total nutritional information for 12 cupcakes w/o the glaze: 1767 calories, 81.3g fat, 13.4g fiber, 18.90g protein
• Per serving (1 cupcake w/o glaze) — 147.25 calories, 6.78g fat, 1.12g fiber, 1.58g protein

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with cupcake papers.
• In a small bowl, combine milk of choice and vinegar. Set aside for several minutes to allow milk to sour. After a few minutes, add sugar, oil and vanilla. Use another bowl to combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Combine wet and dry ingredient and stir until just mixed.
• Fill muffin tin until each cup is about 3/4 full. Bake cupcakes for 18 t0 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely.

Recipe for the pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes to come in a later post!

Remember when I said here that I wished that I had a picture showcasing my mom’s vintage dress?  Well, it’s here.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

In other news…I know I bitch and moan a lot and always point my finger at my blog title as if to say, “hey, you know what you got yourself into!”  We all know I’m cranky, but reading about a study on negative moods here actually made me happy, which is very counterproductive given what the study postulates.  From the study: “[The researchers] found that people in bad moods were less likely to believe urban myths or rumors, and were also less likely to make decisions based on racial or religious prejudice. They were better at remembering events they’d seen, and better at persuasive writing.”  Wait, you mean to tell me that I’m actually a better person for being cranky?! Ok, so I may be extrapolating a bit much, tee-hee, but that is one study I stand behind fully   Cranky ones, unite! (but don’t enjoy uniting because then you might be more positive and, apparently, more inclined to believe in tom foolery and support inequitable conduct….;)

So…today, I began my birthday countdown!  It’s officially a week away!  I shall be turning 26 and kissing my mid-twenties away as I tread on over to the “late” twenties category.  I could throw a tantrum but that really would require too much energy, so I’ll focus instead on less cranky thoughts of birthday cake and Disneyland (where I will be next Wed.!).  Since it’s also my twin’s birthday — funny how that works — I plan on doing an ode to him next Wednesday, so stay tuned for that!

If alcohol and desserts are a major “no no” for mindful eaters, what would be a good tip to avoid it?  Locking the fridge?

What do you think about negative moods actually making you a better critical thinker? Ahh…now I understand why my professors are in perpetual “panties in a bunch” mode…it’s for the sake of instruction!

<3, The Cranky One