Vanilla Coconut Cream Dream Cupcakes (Grain Free, Dairy Free)
I'm going to be honest with you guys. Most of the time I'm making/baking/stirring/chopping food I'm singing MoTown in my head and dancing my butt off. I have no idea how MoTown got so ingrained into my kitchen process. Maybe it's the years of watching my parents and my aunts and uncles jamming out with glasses of wine in hand, somebody stirring a pot of something delicious on the stove, MoTown grooving in the background. It just makes me want to shimmy and simultaneously frost cupcakes.
I've been doing a lot of yoga and meditating frequently and I started doing this thing where I eat 1 raw meal a day and I'm feeling pretty stoked about existing right now. I mean, happiness is at an all time high. And it has nothing to do with how much money I make, my achievements, or who I know. It's all about that inner work, exercise, laughter, good food, doing my creative work, and surrounding myself with my loving community (that's my husband on the day to day, who makes me snort laugh about every 5 minutes and also makes me feel like the most beautiful, loved goddess).
Oh did I say I was talking about cupcakes? RIGHT! These moist, tender, grain-free babies are so wholesome and easy. Lightly sweet, and infinitely changeable: you can add 1/4 cup cocoa to make them chocolate, sub out any grain free flour if you're not into buckwheat (I suggest millet, amaranth, or quinoa flours) or even sub 1/4 cup of the coconut milk with mango puree for mango cupcakes! Make them vegan with two chia eggs instead of the eggs (2 tbsp chia - 6 tbsp water, let set together for 20 mins). But of course, frosting is where it's at when it comes to cupcakes. And this is frosting is my go-to. It's the laziest frosting that ever was. And it's going to nourish your body with healthy fats too!
- 2 cups almond meal
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch pink sea salt
- 2 farm fresh eggs
- 1 can full fat coconut milk (13.5 oz)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled (you want it liquid and warm, not hot)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- coconut whip frosting
- *optional: [url href="http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Do-Organic-Sprinkelz-Confetti/dp/B0057RIROW/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1428072663&sr=8-13&keywords=vegan+sprinkles"]vegan sprinkles[/url]
- Preheat the oven to 325F. Fill a muffin tin with parchment liners. Set aside.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl: almond meal, buckwheat flour, tapioca flour, coconut sugar, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
- In a bowl of a blender, combine the wet ingredients: farm fresh eggs, coconut milk, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Blend on high until you have a creamy, well mixed sort of custard.
- Add the wet mix to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
- Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners. If you're using a high liner, like I did, you can fill them all the way up to the top. If you're using a shorter liner, fill them 3/4 of the way full as they rise significantly.
- Bake 30-35 minutes, rotating half way through.
- Let cool completely. Then frost, top with sprinkles, and dig in!
- 1 can full fat coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- *optional: natural pink food dye
- Skim the thick coconut cream from the can of coconut milk. Reserve the water for a different use (I like to use it in smoothies!).
- Combine the coconut cream, maple syrup, vanilla, and natural food dye in a small to medium mixing bowl. Whip on low using an electric beater for 1 minute, until everything is combined.
- Freeze for 30 minutes, or refrigerate for 2 hours (up to 24 hours) to get it it nice and cold.
- Once it's thoroughly chilled, remove from the freezer/fridge and whip again with your electric beater until the frosting glossy.
- You can spoon it straight onto anything you like, but to make it into a swirl on, say, a cupcake:
- Add your coconut frosting to a pastry bag (I do this by placing my pastry bag into a tall glass cup, then fitting the edges around the glass like a cuff).
- Tie the bag at the open end, then snip a hole a little smaller than a dime at the end out of which you'll be pipping. Pipe in a circle starting at the outside of the cupcake working inwards.
- Voila!