Hey everybody!
It’s been a while since my last post – and, since then – I’ve acquired a terrifyingly and intimidatingly awesome new camera! I’m still very much in the midst of learning how to use it, and likely will be for the rest of my life, but I thought – why not just dive in? (… for the record, it’s a Canon EOS Rebel XS, if you’re curious!)
So far, I’ve taken pictures of snowstorms, melting snow rivers, my boyfriend, my dog, my cat, trees etc. – and now – cupcakes!
I’ve been eating pretty healthily lately, and I’m all about making healthy foods fun – so I’ve been having a lot of tasty fruit smoothies (my favourite one is a peanut butter banana smoothie – I’ll add the recipe here for a bonus though I don’t have pics! Look for it in the “p.s.” hehe), playing around with quinoa and veggies and different delicious proteins, and I’ve also been experimenting with vegan/gluten-free baking!
I have a couple of people very close to me who are unable to eat gluten – so I am so excited to be able to learn recipes for stuff they can eat – and also I have some vegetarians and vegans in my life! It’s win/win.
The recipe I used for these cupcakes is from Babycakes NYC and the recipe can be seen/found here: Babycakes Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe.
The recipe for the frosting that I used was found on the internet – and had 5 stars – and deserves every single one of them. I’ll include it below!
This is where I found the recipe.
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
-
1/4 cup Vegan Cream Cheese (I used Toffuti ‘Better than Cream Cheese’ – if you’re in Corner Brook – I’ve JUST found this at Sobey’s!)
-
1/4 cup Vegan Margarine (I used Becel Vegan)
-
2 Cups Powdered Sugar (I used powdered sugar)(Sorry, that was not necessary – I was just enjoying making side-notes)
-
2 tsp Vanilla (I really love vanilla – you may want to use only 1 tsp – I also use pure vanilla – if you want a brighter frosting, you can use artificial clear – but real vanilla is so worth it)
Directions:
Cream together cream cheese and margerine for a couple minutes – I did this up on high so it got nice and fluffy – but don’t over mix or it will get all liquidy. Slowly add powdered sugar, say 1/4 cup at a time. Add vanilla. Try not to eat it all before you put it on the cupcakes. Cover up screw-ups with sprinkles.
I hope you enjoy these if you decide to give them a try! I personally find them super moist and delicious – and I love the hint of lemon in the cupcakes – and I enjoy that I can make them for my grandma and my friend Kristen when I visit BC! Hooray! Make sure you bake these until they are cooked all the way through – or else they can be a bit TOO moist! Which I guess, really, is just another way of saying “under-cooked”.
This is my dog Link, trying to wink his way in to getting some fries.
As for me, I am going to be scarfing these down in an effort to quell my nervousness about reading poetry this weekend in Corner Brook at the April Rabbit. I’ve done a lot of singing, and I’ve done a lot of writing songs and poetry and the like, but I don’t remember ever having read any poems out loud, excluding perhaps in my school days. TERRIFYING.
If you’re in the Corner Brook area, you should really check it out! I am so excited to hear everyones poetry (so many insanely talented people) and I think it’s going to be a fantastic night of many words. It starts at 8pm this Saturday at King Henry’s Pub in the Glynmill Inn. You can find the facebook event page here: April Rabbit Event Page (I seriously love the poster.) I feel so lucky to be able to be a part of such a fun event! Yay!
Anyhow, that’s it for now. Please enjoy this picture of a tree.
Cheers,
Alley :)
ps (I told you there was going to be one)
Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
Ingredients:
- 1 banana (I prefer mine slightly under ripe)
- 1 cup almond milk
- 2 tbls peanut butter (yeah right – I used closer to 4, if we’re being honest here)
- 2 tbls chia seeds
- 3 – 4 ice cubes
- honey to taste (i like to swirl it on the top after it’s all made!)
Directions:
Blend everything – drink everything!
xoxoxoxoxoxoox
Delish! xoxox