Saturday was Bruce Willis's 56th Birthday - I generally don't care about these things but a BBQ was long overdo and we just needed a title for the Facebook invite. We Googled the date [March 19th] and we found it was Bruce's birthday. Perfect. [I mean, srsly, have you ever seen
Die Hard? Classic.] So after queuing up my Netflix with as many BW movies as I could find, I made these cupcakes in his honor [not really, I'd been wanting to make these for a while; and I knew some guests of ours are vegan and gluten free and the timing was just perfect].
Cashew Butter Cardamom Cupcakes [adapted from:
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons soy milk [I used coconut milk]
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoons ground flaxseeds
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup smooth cashew butter
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour [I used 1/3 cup plus 1 TBS coconut flour**; 1/3 cup plus 1 TBS white rice flour; and 1/3 cup tapioca flour - to make these gluten free!]
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom [I may or may not have doubled this...]
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp grated orange zest
1. preheat oven to 350 line muffin pan with paper liners
2. in large bowl, whisk together soy milk, orange juice, orange zest and flaxseeds until frothy. add oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cashew butter to soy milk mixture and beat for one minute till frothy.
3. in separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom and cinnamon.
4. add dry ingredients to wet in two separate batches, and beat with electric mixer or whisk for about two minutes in total. fill cupcake liners 2/3rds of the way full and bake for 22-24 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.
**
If using coconut flour, you're gonna want to increase the liquid in the recipe. I did the following: 2/3 c coconut milk; 1/3 c OJ; and added one extra TBS of oil. I was too lazy to make the frosting [to be fair I was elbow deep in carrots for a Raw Carrot Cake [that's another post - let me just say, I'm now, officially, ready to move to L.A.: I have broken into the Raw Food realm.]] - but if you're feeling up to it - here are the details:
1/3 cup smooth cashew butter
3 T non-hydrogenated margarine [such as Earth Balance], softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 cup soy milk powder
Beat cashew butter and margarine on low until pale and thick. Add vanilla, syrup, and cardamom and beat for another minute, then add the milk powder in two batches.
Seriously. Delicious.
Seriously.Amazing.I need to start using cardamom more often...
