I’ll wait while you digest that beautiful pair of words and clean up your slobber.

If you’ve been vegan for a while there’s no doubt you’ve heard of the cook-book Veganomicon by the same authors who run Post Punk Kitchen and who’ve written Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. But if you’re a newbie-gan, you’ve gotta get this book!  My friend Michelle let me borrow her copy to test out a couple recipes before I invested the $17 in the book. How often do you get to test a book before you buy it?! I can’t lie — I’m stoked about this book and getting my own copy! In an effort to pay forward Michelle’s kindness, I got permission from the book’s authors to share a recipe with you guys! Vegan or not — I hope you’ll check out Veganomicon and especially try the recipe below. Let’s be real — taste buds are amoral and uninvolved in food politics — so I’m *stoked* these donuts taste like bite-sized heaven, ‘cuz, if not, I’d be a little cranky!

Vegan Jelly Donut Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup soy or rice milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• About 1/3 cup raspberry jam or preserves (you can use strawberry or grape if you prefer)
• 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Pour the soy milk, vinegar and cornstarch into a measuring cup and set aside.
• Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.
• In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. Create a well in the center if the flour to pour your wet ingredients into.
• Stir the soy milk mixture with a fork to dissolve the cornstarch, then pour into the flour mixture. Add the oil, granulated sugar, and vanilla. Stir until well combined.
• Fill the cupcake liners about 3/4 full with batter. Place a heaping teaspoonful of jam on the center of each cupcake. You don’t need to press down in the jam or do anything else; the baking will take care of all of that and it will sink in.
• Bake for 21 to 23 minutes. You can’t really do a toothpick test here because of the jelly filling, but the cupcakes should be done by this point. The tops should be firm.
• Remove from the oven and let cool completely on wire racks.
• Once cooled, set them someplace cool and dry. and eave uncovered. It it’s winter, leave them in your coldest room. If it’s summer, leave them somewhere air-conditioned, if possible. If it’s not possible, don’t sweat it–just don’t leave them anywhere very warm. Let them sit overnight and preferably up to 24 hours. This will make the tops dry and a little bit crispy and more donutlike.
• Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar (using a sifter if you have one) . Serve with coffee.

Notes: You can’t bake these without cupcake liners. If you run out (like I did — whoops!), you can make your own liners with foil. Also, you don’t need to wait for these to cool overnight or even for them to cool down from the oven as the boyf and I dug in on these babies straight out of the oven and they were amaaaaaazing. Also, I ended up with 16 cupcakes instead of 12.

Nutritional Info. per Cupcake (Out of 16) — Calculated via Sparkpeople Recipe Calculator

Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe 16 Servings Amount Per Serving Calories 150.4 Total Fat 4.8 g Saturated Fat 0.4 g Polyunsaturated Fat 1.4 g Monounsaturated Fat 2.7 g Cholesterol 0.0 mg Sodium 142.7 mg Potassium 23.5 mg Total Carbohydrate 25.5 g Dietary Fiber 0.4 g Sugars 12.7 g Protein 1.3 g Vitamin A 0.0 % Vitamin B-12 0.0 % Vitamin B-6 0.5 % Vitamin C 1.1 % Vitamin D 0.0 % Vitamin E 5.3 % Calcium 1.7 % Copper 1.6 % Folate 7.3 % Iron 3.5 % Magnesium 1.0 % Manganese 4.7 % Niacin 4.1 % Pantothenic Acid 0.6 % Phosphorus 2.1 % Riboflavin 3.7 % Selenium 5.9 % Thiamin 6.5 % Zinc 0.7 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

NOT BAD!!!

Follow Up on My Un-Lent Challenge

I have *so not* been looking forward to divulging what a lame-ass I’ve been for not completing my goal of 5-hours of exercise a week, but, alas, the charm of any public challenge you give yourself is that you can use fear of humiliation to your advantage. I think I might be getting a little too immune to it at this point though lol

Mon. — Nada
Tues. — Nada
Wed. — Ran for an hour.
Thurs. – Nada
Fri. — Ran for 30 minutes.
Sat. — Turbo Kick Boxing (1 hour)
Sun. — 1-hour bike-ride.
Total: 3.50 hours <– Damnit!

Oy. I’ve been slackin’! I know it’s slacking and not lack of opportunities to fit in the time. We all know I could read while fast-walking on the treadmill. I could spare 20 minutes every day to do Jillian’s Shred. I could lift weights while watching the news. I can fit in circuits while waiting for my donuts to bake   Ya know what I mean, jelly bean? This week better be better *shakes fist at self*

Do you guys multi-task while exercising?

<3,

The Cranky One

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).