Hey, guys! Once again, it’s been a while…you may or may not
have heard that I finally uploaded my
vegan cake cookbook!! Like…two months ago, to the day. Agh! Has it really
been that long? Time sure flies when it’s summer vacation, jesus christ.
Anyway. So I know I promised to return to regular posting,
but clearly I didn’t follow through on that promise. Which I have no explanation
for except my own laziness and the fact that I straight-up forgot about this
blog for a while.
Nonetheless, I thought I’d try to provide a bit of context
for my absence this past year and my sudden return with more recipes. Just for
posterity. And for my own closure. And in case there is anyone out there who
cares.
So basically, I stopped posting around the end of the school
year in 2016. I’m not sure why I didn’t post over the summer, as I was probably
still baking semi-regularly. I also accumulated a few more potential blog posts
(recipes and photographs, but no text) which is why I have stuff to post now
(more on that later)—like these cupcakes, which I made sometime last year. The
recipe’s still good, I assure you! Nothing’s changed! I’m kind of drooling over
my own pics right now, actually.
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| Does that make me a narcissist |
Then last fall, I went to college! Yep, moved out of state
to live in a dorm and everything. As you may understand, it’s kind of hard to carry
out elaborate baking projects in a tiny kitchen you share with like a hundred
other people. Also there’s the fact that I didn’t have time, nor did I really
feel like baking. I also could’ve posted those old recipes I had then, but I
didn’t.
Then winter break came and went, then spring semester (which
went, uh, dubiously well) and now here I am! The cookbook, I should mention, I
put together shortly after the end of the spring semester. I had all 30 recipes
prepared like, over a year ago, but for some reason I never sat down to
actually format and publish the goddamn thing. Again, just my own laziness. It actually
wasn’t that difficult once I got down to it, if you don’t count the fact that I
stayed up until 4 am formatting the PDF, then had to wait like a week to finish
jumping through all the hoops necessary for the creation of a PayPal account. I’m
sure glad that’s over with.
Now, as for why I wasn’t motivated to do all these things
for so long? I uh…kinda lost interest I guess. I’d been blogging and baking
semi-hardcore for like, two years at this point last year. I was running out of
steam. Like most teenagers, I had my phases, and that was my baking phase. I
think part of it was that I was losing interest in vegan baking. Which I feel
bad about! The thing is, vegan baking does
have a shit ton of limitations; and while the final product can absolutely
taste good, it often requires a lot of expensive special ingredients /
substitutions / jumping through hoops that can become tiresome. Especially when
you’re looking at all these cool recipes that you can’t make because they call
for too many eggs or, like, a teaspoon of gelatin, and you’ve already given up
on trying to adhere to a strictly vegan diet anyway (I’m a vegetarian).
This is not me trash-talking vegan baking! I think it’s cool
and the results can be mind-blowingly good and it was an awesome experiment to
try for a solid two years of my adolescent life. But I think I’m done. This
past summer, I’ve made a handful of layer cakes (going back to my roots) and some
other desserts, and all of them have been non-vegan. I didn’t photograph them
either, so I wasn’t going to publish them anyway. But know that I am throwing
around the idea of continuing this blog as a non-vegan baking blog. It wouldn’t
be anytime soon, since I have, like, eight vegan recipes I haven’t posted, and
I haven’t done any *real* food photography in a while. Plus if anything it
would be on a super casual basis since I am returning for my sophomore year of
college in… a month (oh my god). Just putting that possibility out there.
Anyway ummmm that sure was a wall o’text. That’s pretty much
it though.
Oh yeah—and while I haven’t been blogging over here this
past year, I have been blogging elsewhere: tumblr dot com. Surprise, surprise.
Blogging over there is way easier though. Which is probably why I’ve been able
to run six blogs on that platform simultaneously without combusting.
But that’s neither here nor there. ONTO THE RECIPE.
 |
| Fucking finally |
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Pomegranate molasses
Ingredients
490 grams • pomegranate
juice • 2 cups
50 grams • granulated
sugar • ¼ cup
30 grams • lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan
and heat on medium high until the sugar has dissolved and the juice simmers.
Reduce heat just enough to maintain a simmer. Let simmer for about an hour,
until the mixture is syrupy and has reduced to about ¾ cup. Transfer to a jar
and let cool completely before using.
________
Pomegranate orange cupcakes
Adapted
from Vegan Desserts by Hannah
Kaminsky
Ingredients
Orange
cupcakes
245 grams • orange
juice • 1 cup
2 grams • orange
zest • 1 tablespoon
55 grams • olive
oil • ¼ cup
4 grams • vanilla
extract • 1 teaspoon
158 grams • all-purpose
flour • 1 cup plus 2 ½ tablespoons
175 grams • granulated
sugar • ¾ cup
20 grams • cornstarch
• 2 ½ tablespoons
4 grams • baking
powder • 2 teaspoons
2 grams • baking
soda • ½ teaspoon
2 grams • salt •
¼ teaspoon
Pomegranate
frosting
168 grams • vegan butter, room temperature •
¾ cup
240 grams • powdered sugar • 2 cups
60 grams • pomegranate molasses (see recipe above)
• 3 tablespoons
15 grams • nondairy milk • 1 tablespoon
Pinch salt
Pomegranate seeds, to taste
Directions
First, make cupcakes. Preheat oven to 350
degrees F and grease 12 cupcake tins.
In a large bowl, whisk together orange juice,
orange zest, olive oil, and vanilla. Whisk together flour, sugar, cornstarch,
baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to
wet and whisk until the batter comes together; a few lumps are fine.
Divide batter between muffin tins and bake for
15 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool in tins
for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make pomegranate frosting, place vegan
butter in the bowl of an electric stand mixer and beat until smooth. With mixer
on low speed, spoon in powdered sugar and beat until incorporated. Add
pomegranate molasses, nondairy milk, and salt and beat on medium-high until
light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Pipe frosting on top of cupcakes to finish.
Decorate with pomegranate seeds. Munch.
_________
Thanks for reading! If you like these cupcakes, consider
supporting me by purchasing a download of The
Vegan Layer Cake Cookbook.
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