Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
A Cookbook Review for Baking Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Desserts
Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero offer 75 spunky recipes for baking vegan cupcakes that "taste just as good, and some may argue even better..."
Vegan Baking
“We simply don’t need dairy and eggs to have sweet, satisfying, and decadent treats,” authors Moskowitz and Romero say in their introduction. And they have the recipes to prove it.
As the title suggests, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World isn’t just an ordinary recipe book. It’s a manifesto to convince the world that vegan baking can be for everyone. No more do people with ethical or dietary reasons for avoiding dairy and eggs have to settle for drab desserts. These vegan cupcakes are made to be front and center, fully decorated and taken to the office, birthday parties (for kids and adults), and more.
For those not familiar with vegan baking, the book begins with an explanation of standard vegan ingredients, covering flour, sweeteners, oils, soy and rice milks, flavorings, and starches. It also lists essential baking tools, and gives tips for decorating techniques so that your cupcakes can (with practice) look as spectacularly appetizing as the ones in the color photos. (The troubleshooting section in case your cupcakes don’t look like theirs is a handy addition as well.)
Basic Cupcakes
The first section of recipes starts with Golden Vanilla Cupcakes and Your Basic Chocolate Cupcakes. These relatively simple recipes open the door to a host of other flavors. Each basic recipe also includes suggested variations, such as turning the Basic Chocolate Cupcakes into Peanut Butter Bombes, German Chocolate Cupcakes, or Cookies and Cream Cupcakes. The low-fat vanilla and gluten-free cupcake recipes are a particularly thoughtful inclusion for vegan bakers who also need to cater to other dietary needs.
Classic Cupcakes
If you’re hoping for more than chocolate and vanilla, you’re in luck, because next up are Carrot Cake Cupcakes, Gingerbread Cupcakes, cream-filled cupcakes, and more. The Pineapple Right-Side-Up Cupcakes and Banana Split Cupcakes are a must. (Be sure to check out the “Elvis” variation of the latter.)
Fancy Cupcakes
In case you haven’t had cupcakes enough, these recipes get even more exotic. The authors say, “Many of these recipes are simple to make... Only a few recipes are a bit trickier.” The Toasted Coconut, Apricot-Glazed Almond, Dulce Sin Leche, and Lemon Macadamia Cupcakes aren’t really much more difficult than the recipes found in earlier sections. If you’re feeling adventurous (and able to find the ingredients), you can also try Chocolate Stout Cupcakes, Green Tea Cupcakes, Lychee Cupcakes, and Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes. (Yep, the recipe actually calls for rosewater.)
Frostin’s and Fillin’s
Of course a cupcake book wouldn’t be complete without recipes for frostings, including vegan buttercream, ganache, and mousse. Although there are a few recipes that aren’t pure fat and sugar, such as Brown Rice Caramel Glaze, Super Natural Agave Icing (made from coconut oil), and Not-to-Sweet Blueberry Mousse, the authors could have done more to include healthy alternatives to traditional cupcake decorating.
Prepare for Total Cupcake Domination
All in all, if you enjoy vegan baking, you must try this book. You may or may not enjoy the author’s irreverent style, and you may wish some of the photos were more clearly placed with their recipes, but once you’re busy baking and eating these vegan cupcakes, you won’t care.
Still not convinced? In their A-Z list of “Why Cupcakes” (in which they give a reason for every letter of the alphabet for baking these cute little desserts), the authors remind us that, “Nothing says love like a cupcake does. If you don’t bake someone a cupcake then you don’t really care about them.” With this book, you can bake a cupcake for anyone.
