Best Vegan Cupcakes - Experimenting with Vegan Baking

Nichole inspired me to start baking again. And that can only mean one thing: vegan baking! I have always loved to bake, but Nichole inspired me to learn a new, cruelty free way of baking. Ever since, I have been attempting to learn and experiment with classic vegan baking.

Of course, my favorite vegan baking cookbook is the previously mentioned Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. The first recipe I made was the Brooklyn Brownie Cupcakes, which includes delicious ingredients like bourbon and soy yogurt. Um, yum.

Last night, I decided to go a bit more classic, but with a twist. I made the basic chocolate cupcakes that Nichole shared with us earlier, but made the frosting with a bit of a twist.

For half of the cupcakes, I made peanut butter frosting and topped them with chopped Reese's cups. For the frosting:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup nonhydrogenated shortening

1/4 cup nonhydrogenated margarine

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted if clumpy

3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/8 cup plain soy milk or soy creamer

2 tbsp peanut butter

Directions:

Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.

Add the vanilla, peanut butter, and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.

For the other half of the cupcakes, I made strawberry frosting and topped them with pink sprinkles:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup nonhydrogenated shortening

1/4 cup nonhydrogenated margarine

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted if clumpy

3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/8 cup plain soy milk or soy creamer

2 tbsp strawberry preserves

Directions:

Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.

Add the vanilla, strawberry preserves, and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.

I think I have created some vegan baked goods lovers at work!

Moooo-tacular Dairy - The Glory of Lucerne and Organics

I have never tried to go vegan. I know that Nichole was for a while, and I have a few other friends who have attempted the noble lifestyle. Unfortunately, I could never in a million years pull it off. I am just too much of a dairy consumer. Milk and cheese are staples in my diet.

But I never want to consume dairy products made with growth hormones. There is something slightly seedy about the milk and cheeses on our shelves, the ones that aren't organic. The population growth and limited resources have led to dairy products laced with rBGH and IGF-1. Thankfully, organic products have come onto the scene and are more readily available than ever.

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Of course, organic is often synonymous with expensive. They don't call it Whole Paycheck Foods for nothing. But Safeway brand has come to the rescue with Lucerne brand and O Organics dairy products.

Lucerne and O Organics are generic brands carried in Safeway stores, including the Vons near my apartment. Both brands produce organic products, which I find especially important in dairy products. And...they're reasonably priced!

The O milk is usually at least 30 cents cheaper than Horizon. The Lucerne cheese is actually cheaper than Sargento and other brand names. I feel good about what I'm eating and my wallet doesn't suffer.

For me, quality ingredients are everything. Our country has allowed some pretty heinous things to taint our food, and some pretty inhumane things to happen to the animals that provide the food. I think that the generic organic brands are a huge step in the right direction. It makes eating smart affordable and simple. Why not choose the organic product when it's best for your body and your bank account?

Pinkberry is the New Black

Photo courtesy of Pinkberry

As someone who has recently become more aware of what exactly we do to milk in this country, I was thrilled that my friend took me to a frozen yogurt company yesterday that is as concerned as I am.

Cows in the U.S., besides being seriously mistreated in many cases, are injected with a growth hormone called rBGH. This hormone is used to help the cows produce more milk by stimulating IGF-1, a hormone directly responsible for milk production. It's genetically engineered, aka unnatural, and is not destroyed by the pasteurization process or human digestion. RBGH has been linked to cancer, including breast, prostate, and colon cancers.

Pinkberry uses dairy products from cows not treated with rBGH. While Pinkberry faced a class action lawsuit to disclose their ingredients (hey, it's a dessert, it needs sugars), it has never used milk products containing rBGH. And it's low cal, too! They also disclose all of their calories very clearly in the store (for everything from the yogurt to the toppings), so you are always able to make healthy choices. My Pinkberry choice yesterday? A small chocolate yogurt with brownie pieces, yogurt chips, and strawberries.

Pinkberry began in West Hollywood, but is now all over the US and the world (but not Pennsylvania yet, sadly).

That being said, it's often difficult to know if the milk products you are consuming are actually free of hormone additives. But I buy organic! you say. Well, yes, but to call itself organic, a milk product must only be free of synthetic hormones. RBGH is synthetic, but cows naturally produce hormones, especially estrogen. So any milk will contain some hormones.

But as a socially conscious consumer, I much prefer milk that comes from cows not injected with synthetic hormones. The only truly hormone free milk isn't real milk. So stock up on that soy milk if you can't stomach any hormones in your dairy products.

Oh, and by the way, that hormone appears in cheeses produced in America as well. To avoid hormones in your cheese, buy European produced cheeses, since rBGH is banned across the pond.