Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
No longer do people avoiding eggs and dairy have to accept second-string (or third-string, or ...) cupcakes, thanks to Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I'd bought this to bake birthday cupcakes for a toddler with severe and extensive food allergies: no one realized they were egg- and dairy-free. This is a great book for anyone baking for vegans, those with food allergies, or anyone who likes cupcakes.
At first, I was hesitant to commit to a full vegan cookbook and tried the sample chocolate cupcake recipe. It wowed everyone, I bought the book, and baked over a gross (a dozen dozen) of vegan cupcakes this summer.
I've made the chocolate (with chocolate, mint and coconut icings), lemon-lemon, vanilla, pumpkin-chocolate chip, and carrot cake (with cream cheese) cupcakes. All were yummy. The carrot cake is one of the best I've ever had: a few bites of intense, carrot-cakey goodness, perhaps even better than Dorie Greenspan's carrot cake. My all-time favorite are the green-tea cupcakes. Additionally, there are low-fat and gluten-free versions of the basic vanilla and chocolate cupcakes.
Complaints are few: I upped the cocoa content from 1/3 to 1/2 cup in the chocolate cupcake recipe; Republicans will want to skip the sections where the authors write about "cruelty-free" baking.
Because the recipes usually use oil (rather than margarine) as the fat, each cupcake recipe is super-easy, requiring only two mixing bowls and a whisk. (Icings usually require a mixer to beat the margarine.) Soy cream cheese is the most exotic vegan ingredient I've used so far (green matcha tea the most exotic non-vegan ingredient). If you aren't baking for vegans or the dairy-averse, I see no reason not to use dairy ingredients in the recipes. Plus — import for the parents of toddlers — without raw eggs in the batter, small children can lick beaters and bowls without anyone fretting over salmonella. (I eat raw batter, but certain short household members were denied this treat until they were older.)
One important thing: if you are baking for someone who doesn't eat dairy, check your margarine: most margarine contains milk products like whey or casein. Makes sense to me too. You may need to find the vegan section or or make a special trip to the vegan grocery store.
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The recipe: Blitzkuchen
When my mother discovered her copy of this recipe, she was very happy, and mailed me a photocopy with a note to make it for her. This is one of her favorites of the cakes my grandmother baked, although I don't remember it. Perhaps I was too busy eating Jewish apple cake.
When she next came to visit six months later I'd made _two_ cakes, because I'd nearly burnt the first one. The sugar seemed too much, for both the cake and the topping, and my mother agreed that even with a quarter less sugar in the cake and the topping, the cake was sweeter and moister than she remembered. I've reduced the sugar even further.
Despite the "Blitz" in the name, this is an American recipe, one of a number of variations of quickly mixed cakes.