Coffee Caramel Cupcakes

This week I really wanted to do something with puff pastry or some other pastry that I have not tried before, BUT as it was my sisters birthday celebration over the weekend so I of course had to bake some cupcakes.

Today is her actual birthday (she turned 29 but she’s still my baby). We celebrated this past weekend with some appy’s, drinks, bowling and of course cupcakes. Like always, I did most of the cooking and prepping of food. I usually do the same cupcakes for birthdays either vanilla, chocolate, oreo, or cookie dough. This time I wanted to branch out a bit more. I did a quick Pinterest search “vegan cupcakes” and immediately came across these coffee cupcakes https://lovingitvegan.com/coffee-cupcakes-with-coffee-buttercream-frosting/ (from the blog “Loving It Vegan”). I have used this blogs recipes many times and they always turn out beautifully.

Before I commit to a recipe I always read the ingredients and method to make sure it will be a good one (I always double check for ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, and some sort of egg replacement). This one looked great, so I bought ingredients and got to work early Saturday morning.

***Note: There are many different egg replacement techniques for baking. To replace 1 egg you can substitute 1/4 cup of yogurt, applesauce, sour cream etc. You can also make a flax or chia seed egg (1 tbsp. ground up flax or chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp. water). This recipe calls for 1 flax egg, I did not have any flax seeds in the house so instead of using a flax egg I used 1/4 cup vegan coconut yogurt.

Once the cupcakes were out of the oven and cooling I made a quick caramel sauce. This caramel recipe is super simple, quick, and delicious https://leelalicious.com/vegan-caramel-sauce/#wprm-recipe-container-57045

Finally, once the caramel was thickened, and the cupcakes were cooled I whipped up my icing recipe (see oreo cupcakes). I added a bit of copa de oro which is a vegan coffee liquer (I use these to make my vegan shafts which I also served at the party). Against my better judgement I allowed my boyfriend to ice the cupcakes, and I covered the imperfections with caramel drizzle! These cupcakes turned out amazing! I am so happy with how they looked and tasted, my only complaint is that I did not take any pictures (pictures you see were taken of the left overs on Sunday).

It has been hard to judge my initial question of baking and how it relates to stress. In all honesty I have had some pretty stressful things pop up into my life recently, and have not really focused on my stress levels before, during, and after baking. However, I think whenever you can carve some time out of your day to do something that you love (especially something that you can share with others like baking), that can only benefit your mental well being. Things are starting to look up for me, so we will see how these next couple inquiry posts go… FINGERS CROSSED I GET TO MACARONS!!!

And as always, Fang approves of this recipe!