The Cupcake Adventure: Happy Birthday Medea

Today is Medea's birthday. She is six. I can hardly believe that six years ago today my little baby was born. I decided that I would dedicate my blog to her today. As I was thinking about a topic to write about dedicated to that little ball of fire, she practically dropped one in my lap. The cupcake adventure. Medea is a spitfire. She says what she is thinking and has a mind of her own. When we started this Vegan crusade, she said, "I am NOT going vegan." Then she decided to go vegetarian. Then the cupcake disaster of 2012 happened. Here is the story.

For her birthday/Easter party at school, her teacher bought Walmart cupcakes from the bakery. These were our favorite cupcakes. We used to buy these little cupcakes all the time. We would buy the 18 pack and eat them in one night, just the four of us girls. So, I attended her class party, and when they had these cupcakes, I wanted to tear into them. I wanted to eat them all. Mostly out of nostalgia. Out of love for the cupcakes. Of course, I didn't, but Mae did (we call Medea Mae).

She ate about 1/4 of the cupcake and then pushed it away. I said, "Aren't you going to eat that?" I wanted to eat it! She said, "Nah, it is gross." I said, "What do you mean, gross?" She said, "I think I just prefer home food." In that moment I realized that she had reset her taste buds. It was awesome. It was an awesome moment for me. The moment in which I made a difference in my child's life. Processed food tastes gross to her. That being said, I did buy a package of Oreos at the store because Veganism doesn't have to be about deprivation and Oreos are vegan. But she hasn't even eaten one of them. None of them has.

But this raised a really important question for me. Can a birthday cake be Vegan and taste good? Yes, there are vegan cakes, but can they replace what we once had? So much of our family traditions are built around food. I haven't even begun to really address how I am going to deal with Thanksgiving. I can't even think about it. I'm not ready. I almost didn't feel ready to address this cupcake situation. Maggie, my oldest child said, "Just let her eat cake." As if she were Marie Antoinette. I considered doing just that until Mae announced that she preferred home food. So, I launched on a quest to make a tasty Vegan cake.

I think it turned out great! The frosting needs some tweaking. I will tweak it. I have already been working on the tweaking in my head. I am going to make another cake next week for Mae's party with her school friends. I will post the new frosting recipe when I make it, but here is the current one and the delicious cake which I would want to eat even if I wasn't Vegan. It was that awesome.

That is what a naked vegan vanilla cupcake looks like.

Recipe:

1 cup sugar

1 2/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp vegetable shortening

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

1 1/2 tbsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put all the dry ingredients together and cut in the shortening. (I did it with knives). Mix all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. I usually skip this step in recipes, but don't do it! Add the wet to the dry. But here is my tip: start stirring the dry and pour the wet into the dry in a slow, steady stream as you are stirring. Then just mix until they are blended, but don't over mix! Immediately put them in the cupcake tins.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

I feel like I am missing an ingredient, so I might have to come back an edit this posting if I remember it!

Here is Mae frosting her cupcake.

Vanilla frosting recipe (that I am going to tweak . . . stay tuned)

1/2 cup Vegan margarine

3 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Almond milk to thin

Use room temp margarine and beat in sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer. Add almond milk if needed to thin (I didn't need it).

Here is Persephone frosting her cookie. (Her shirt says McStud, just in case you are wondering).

Add Vegan Sprinkles.

This is what they look like done (sans sprinkles). Aren't they lovely. The cupcakes, seriously, were probably the best cupcakes I ever had. The frosting needs work, but those cupcakes. I could have eaten them all day.

In the end, we all loved them. Happy birthday, my little love muffin. I am so proud that I was able to share a Vegan cupcake with her. Maesus, because she could save the world. Because she Mae save the world.