Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

Category : Food & Beverages, Recipes

Last week I made some super delicious cupackes for a friend’s birthday.  For Christmas my sister gave me this little tool that cores out the cupcake so you can fill them.  I hate to say it took me this long to use it but now that I’ve finally taken the time to do filled cupcakes, I think I’m going to have to fill every cupcake I make from here on out.  They were amazing!  Here’s what I did – I made the chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, filled them with the peanut butter frosting and topped them with the vanilla buttercream.  I think I might have to whip up another batch of filled cupcakes this weekend! 

 

 

Kick Ass Cupcakes – Boston

Category : Dining Out, Food & Beverages

This weekend I went to Boston for my friend Sarah’s birthday.  Yesterday we were in Somerville and grabbed cupcakes at Kick Ass Cupcakes.  As always, I’m very happy when cupcake places offer a vegan cupcake.  They had a Choc-it-to-me vegan chocolate cupcake with a chocolate filling and chocolate ganache frosting.  The cupcake was on the drier side and the filling ended up falling out in one squiggly lump of hard chocolate which I ate last and let melt in my mouth.  The ganache frosting was soft and fluffy with chocolate shavings as a garnish - really the best part of the cupcake.  The over-all flavor was good. This wasn’t my first dry vegan cupcake - I sometimes wonder if they’re just not as fresh, maybe due to a low demand which I suppose they can’t do much about other than make smaller batches  so they’re not left selling the dry ones, or maybe their recipe is just dry and if so that could be adjusted.

Sarah had the red velvet.  The first thing she noticed when she pulled away the paper was that it wasn’t even red!  I know they try to use natural ingredients, but red velvet just isn’t red velvet if its not red!  They do make natural food coloring from plant based sources that they could use.  The next think she noticed was the dryness

I guess they just didn’t impress us – needless to say, we won’t be going back.

babycakes Downtown Disney

Category : Dining Out, Food & Beverages, Travel

Wednesday Eric and I found ourselves stranded in Orlando, staying across from Downtown Disney.  Neither of us were too excited as we’re not big Disney people but suddenly I remember there is a new babycakes there!  We wandered around to check everything out, but really I was looking for babycakes.  I found it rather annoying that none of the maps indicated where it is.  Thank goodness for my blackberry which helped me locate it.  I was beyond excited to get some yummy vegan treats.  I got the chocolate chip brownie cupcake top with vanilla frosting to eat on the spot (despite being overly full from my massive lunch-there’s ALWAYS room for cupcakes!).  I can’t tell you how heavenly that was.  It was equal parts cake and frosting, so for a frosting lover it was divine.  I also grabbed two cookie sandwiches for Eric and I for later, but who was I kidding, Eric doesn’t like sweets so really they would both be for me.  I’m not so good at having food (especially treats) so close to me without eating them.  After a few hours of carting around those sandwiches I broke down and ate one – two chocolate chip cookies filled with creamy pink frosting – YUM!  Of course the day moved on and I did my very best not to eat that second sandwich.  I was sure never to leave it in the car to melt so I kept it in my handbag hoping for the best on a 75 degree day.  Once we got to the airport I reached in my bag only to find a very greasy brown paper bag.  It had melted after all.  So, I pulled that baby out and savored every goey bit of deliciousness.  Mind you, at that point there really wasn’t any pink frosting left – it has seriously melted away and into the cookie, yet that didn’t stop me from finishing it off.  I’m not at all into messy foods and had I been at home I’d have eaten it with a fork but I didn’t have a choice in the airport – luckily I had some wet wipes in my bag!

I’ve now been to all three babycakes!  That does make me sound a bit nuts I suppose!  So far the only thing I haven’t liked are the red velvet cupcakes – everything else is wonderful!!!

So, if you’re headed for Disney and are in search of some amazing vegan or gluten free goodies, locate the building marked Fresh A Peel and just inside the door near the chicken restaurant you’ll find babycakes.

mmm…BabyCakes NYC!

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Category : Food & Beverages, Travel

Friday night I went to BabyCakes in NYC!  I absolutely LOVED my chocolate chip cookie sandie – yes that is frosting in the middle of two chocolate chip cookies – it was divine!  They only had oatmeal raisin ones out but had these hiding in the freezer…even frozen it was great – actually the girl told me she likes them better frozen – I agree!!  I’ve been to BabyCakes LA but this was my first time to the NYC shop.  Of course I forgot that I didn’t care for their red velvet cupcakes (they have something in them that crunches, not sure if its the sugar or what, but its a little odd).  I wish I had remembered that because I brought a non-vegan friend and would have preferred her to get something that would be a hit.  She’s not a frosting person so I couldn’t share my treat with her.  Oh well, she’s had vegan cupcakes from Molly’s Cupcakes in Chicago and she does really like those – she said they’re much better and I agree!

mmm…Fritz Cakes!

Category : Dining Out, Food & Beverages

Sunday while I was out doing errands I made a quick stop at Fritz Pastry for a vegan chocolate cupcake – DELICIOUS!  This isn’t the best photo but last time I went I completely forgot to take one for you

  Isnt’ it cute how they do the frosting?  So different than everyone else

Sweet Cakes – Chicago

Category : Food & Beverages

Sunday I checked out Sweet Cakes here in Chicago for the first time and was in heaven!  I can’t wait to go back!  I had an organic iced tea, but most importantly a PB&J cupcake!!!  YUM!  Forgive me, I forgot to take a photo so I borrowed on from Caitlin L on Yelp.  I was SUPER IMPRESSED with the amount of vegan goodies - cookies, scones, cupcakes, breads…and more!  There are NEVER that many vegan options at bakeries!  It was so much fun and so difficult to decide.  They have more seating than I expected and offer free WiFi!  Their flatware and cups are made from that corn based plastic which is always great to see.

Amazing Vegan Wedding Cupcakes

Category : Food & Beverages

Talk about some amazing vegan cupcakes at my wedding last Saturday!!!  Aren’t they pretty?  AND they were DELICIOUS!!  They were from Molly’s in Chicago.  I was enjoying the night so much that I didn’t even remember to have one until I was walking out the door and there were only a handful left!  Luckily I still got a filled one – cookies n cream – although my favorite are the chocolate with peanut butter filling, but apparently everyone else loved those too so I didn’t get one of those

 

Vanilla Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cupcakes

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Category : Food & Beverages, Recipes

ok, even from just reading the name don’t they sound AMAZING?!!?!

I got my recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.  I used the basic vanilla cupcake recipe and added a few chocolate chips after they’d baked for 10 minutes.  Oh – I was out of vanilla so I used Kahlua which gave them a yummy flavor!  I frosted them with the peanut butter buttercream frosting.  Ugh, they’re absolutely delicious!

Vegan Cupcakes at Molly’s – Chicago

Category : Food & Beverages

Saturday I went to Molly’s Cupcakes on Clark to do a tasting for the cupcakes for my wedding this summer.  Although we’re not having a vegan wedding we’re having plenty of vegetarian food and of course Molly’s fabulous vegan cupcakes.  I chose to have them for both moral reasons – due to factory farming – and for environmental reasons – the dairy/egg industry has a hugely negative impact on our planet.

 

 

I settled on the following vegan cupcakes:

Vanilla and Chocolate cupcakes with pink and green vanilla butter cream frosting with white pearls on top.

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling and chocolate ganache frosting, topped with a peanut.

Chocolate cupcakes with Oreo filling and green, mint butter cream frosting, topped with part of an Oreo cookie.

Vanilla cupcakes with raspberry filling and pink butter cream frosting, topped with a raspberry and white pearls.

 

Stop into Molly’s and try one for yourself – they’re FABULOUS!  If you’re wedding planning, Lindsay is a delight to work with.  Even if your wedding isn’t in Chicago you can always have a friend transport them for you – that’s what I’ll be doing!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Category : Food & Beverages, Recipes

I  made the pumpkin cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and they’re amazing!  I didn’t bake them long enough – I didn’t test them before I pulled them out but that’s fine they’re still fabulous.  I also didn’t have enough chocolate chips so I added pecan pieces to make up the difference and that worked – it was a nice addition.  I don’t love nuts that much that I would substitute half of the chocolate chips for pecans next time but in a pinch it was a good add. Also, I was out of cinnamon so I used ground cloves.   Grab yourself a copy of the cookbook to get the recipe!  In the photo above I warmed up the cupcake and slightly melted the frosting on top – it was AMAZING!