Cupcakes, Oh My

So today is my friend’s 23rd birthday. And living up to my role as baker extraordinaire I made the sweet treats. My first year at ISU we invented the infamous mango tangos. A mix of coconut rum and Naked mango juice (because its healthy you know). So I invented the mango tango cupcake. 

The recipe is a modified margarita cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.

1/4 c. pureed mango (pureed with just enough water to whir)

1 c. coconut milk

1/4 c. oil

2 tbsp. rum

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 c. granulated sugar

1 1/3 c. flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with awesome liners, plain will do if you must. Whisk mango through sugar in a large bowl. Sift in remaining ingredients and whisk until combined until batter is smooth. Fill liners and bake for 20-22 minutes. Or until toothpick comes out clean. These little beauties were filled with mango pudding and topped with a half batch of vegan fluffy buttercream that was mixed with 1/3 c. mango pudding. And toasted coconut, decorative and tasty.

 

The mango tangos are filling with a mango pudding concoction too. See…

Basically it was the left over mango puree(approx. 1 1/2 c.) mixed with about 1/3 c. sugar, 2 tbsp. cornstarch, and maybe 1 tsp. lemon juice. Cooked in the microwave for two minutes or until thickened. Pop it in the fridge to cool and set and them stuff those little suckers. 

 

Because 12 cupcakes just doesn’t feed very many, and because my friend is known for her love of cupcakes, I also made chocolate cupcakes stuffed with peanut buttercream. Again I turned to my culinary heroes, Isa and Terry, for ideas. Just the basic chocolate cupcakes with dutch process cocoa. And the other half of the buttercream mixed with 1/3 c. peanut butter. 

Let’s MoFo It Up

Today I’m going to Ames to have sushi with my best friend for her birthday. Because in our happy circle of friends all special events are celebrated with sushi or Indian food. Both of which we are all guilty of overindulging. I’m making her cupcakes tomorrow, but since today is the start of Vegan MoFo I figured I had to make something. 

 

So here are some chai cookies. More testers. I am a cookie bakin’ machine. Someone just happened to mention they like snickerdoodles and I thought I had a better solution. Instead of being rolled in cinnamon sugar these are rolled in chai spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, black pepper, etc).

This is also how I make friends with businesses. Beware, if I know where you work I will probably bring cookies at some point.