vegan lemon poppyseed cupcakes

I can't show you, because Bluetooth has decided that the effort of finding my phone is just too much for it, but I made the awesomest cupcakes yesterday. They were the product of a delicious combination of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Ia Moskowitz and Terry Romero and, my old standby, The Joy of Cooking.

After my adventures in bread-making, I'm a little unnerved at how many ingredients cupcakes require, but if I'm soul-exposingly honest after the merest fingerful of batter I melted into a puddle of delight.

Vegan Cupcakes is a fantastic book, which proves to an unforgiving omnivorous society that indulgence of the most decadent kind can be completely harm-free. Or at least the fruits of my vegany labours proved it to Matthew and he does tend to want to dip slices of homemade vegan chocolate birthday cake in egg and fry them in bacon fat. The authors (champions of the Post Punk Kitchen) do a great job of explaining why certain ingredients are needed, why they work the way they do, etc., without assuming everyone can afford agave nectar and vanilla pods. They also allow for a degree of experimentation that many cookbooks (particularly those dedicated to baking delicious yummies) seem to back away from nervously.

Those of you who read these pages somewhat regularly will know I'm in my element when given four different ingredients and told to get to it, so it may not surprise you to find out I quickly decided I didn't want to make any of the cupcakes in the book, but tweak and tease instructions from here and there until my very own recipe was created.

Though I knew I wanted to make cupcakes, and wasn't afraid to seek ingredients from further afield, I wasn't actually sure what kind I wanted. Lovely though basic vanilla and plain chocolate are, I didn't want basic or plain. I had my heart set on a mouthwatering platter, something tangy, not too sweet, maybe a bit chewy, and with a bit of a bite.

As it turns out my cupboard runneth full of poppyseeds and there was a spare lemon knocking about the fruit bowl, also Matthew had answered the call of the cocoa bean and brought home some chocolate from his own adventures canoing in Bromley-by-Bow at 2 in the morning. The decision was practically made for us. All that remained was to top it all off with gentle dabs of frosting (all the better to lick the bowl afterwards) and a kiwi slice or two.

ingredients:

1 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 sunflower oil
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp grated lemon
1 1/4 tsp poppyseeds

VCTOTW recommends using canola oil, but say that sunflower (which is what I used) works just as well. I image soy oil would work too, but that is definitely harder to come by and has a distinct flavour that may not be conducive to more delicate cupcakes. VCTOTW recommends adding a teaspoon of vanilla as well, but I didn't have so much as a drop; so if you haven't got it, don't worry about it.

My main deviation was to split the sugar half-and-half between light brown and granulated. I think this is why they turned out so caramelly, with a slightly sticky crumb, even after baking thoroughly. I also used sea salt instead of normal iodine salt.

method:

Preheat oven to 350 F (gas mark 5ish? I totally had to guess on this, but 5 seemed to work for me.)

1. Mix milk and vinegar in a bowl, letting the mixture sit for a bit so that the milk curdles slightly.
2. Stir in the oil and then fold in the sugar with a flat wooden spoon.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder and soda, and salt.
4. Mix until smooth.
5. Grate the rind of half a lemon into a separate bowl, allowing the juice to spill in as well -- you'll get about a teaspoon of juice -- taking care to remove any pips. Add to the mixture.
6. Stir in the poppyseeds.

What you ought to end up with is a fairly liquidous mixture that will get gradually thicker as it stands, which is why you ought to speed up a bit here. Grease your tin (or in my case a silicone mould thing that I got for Christmas and is the most amazing thing else. I cannot recommend silicon enough: seconds after it came out of the oven I was able to touch it and move the tin onto my wire mesh cooling thing.) and fill each section two-thirds (2/3) full. Place in the oven and set your timer for 22-24 minutes -- this is Isa and Terry's recommendation -- yes, they are that specific -- and they have indeed got this cooking to perfection lark down to a tee! Mine took 22 minutes, almost exactly.

I actually made two batches, splitting the main part of this recipe in half. The first being lemon and poppyseed, the second being chocolate chip. For chocolate chip, simply roughly chop your chocolate into fairly small pieces and fold them in (in lieu of lemon and poppyseed. ...You knew that, right?) and proceed as normal.

I'd like to say for the record that steps one and two surprised me, as you're normally directed to mix all the dry items together, then add the wet, bit by bit. Maybe it was just the cupcakes, maybe it was because this Sunday was the most chilled I've been since leaving the womb, but this method is sheer magic. Everything was fluffier, everything lighter, airier, more textured -- like the batter had been whisked by pixies. Seriously. I was thisclose to touching the rainbow.

I'm going to have another bash at the Bluetooth, as these cupcakes really did look amazing (we ate all twelve last night while watching Sexy Beast and Point Break. I felt so sick this morning, it was like a sugar hangover). And if that doesn't work, then I'll make them again after my birthday. Why wait till then? Because my parents are threatening to purchase for me a real, proper, SLR digital camera! Hurrah! It's either that or my weight in undyed yarn and Kool-aid. Mum keeps asking which I'd prefer, but how am I supposed to chose between that?!

Comments

[emmms]

Fifty?! Lordy, that's going to be some party. I think it's enough to make twelve fairly hefty ones, though I ate a lot of the batter (which is every cook's prerogative!) so it may actually make more like sixteen. You have to let me know how it all turns out. Next week I'm going to experiment with kiwi, so I'll post those too!

[stef]

oops sorry for the double posting. feel free to delete these last 2!

[stef]

this sounds absolutely scrumptious. a friend of mine loves that book so i'm happy to find your version of the recipe! could you possibly say how many cupcakes this makes? i'm just trying to gauge how many times i should multiply the recipe for a guestlist of about 50. thanks!

[stef]

this sounds absolutely scrumptious. a friend of mine loves that book so i'm happy to find your version of the recipe! could you possibly say how many cupcakes this makes? i'm just trying to gauge how many times i should multiply the recipe for a guestlist of about 50. thanks!

[Hazel]

I'm not a vegan but I just bought this cookbook after seeing it mentioned on your blog. I'm allergic to eggs so its hard to find any kind of cake recipe and the ones in this book just look delicious!

[melissa]

i almost bought that book the other day! i love me some cupcakes. :) and yours sound delicious!