Your Vegan Mom

Pumpkin Cupcakes, Version 3.0

 

Felix is two months old today.  He smiles and goos and props up nicely in the corner of the couch.  Last week, he outgrew the feet in his six month pajamas, and this week he can't quite straighten his legs in them.  He's holding his neck up pretty well, and he loves to eat.  Right now he's taking a nap.   

I don't think there will be cake today.  Desmond begs to differ, but I think that maybe at best we can come up with some pie.  I'm ready for pie.  If you're looking for a traditional custardy pumpkin number, then Nonna has your recipe.  And if you need something quick, incidentally lower in fat, more of a Wednesday night pie, then you'll want Susan V's crustless version.  Either one tastes like Thanksgiving, and I would like to eat them both right now.

I am done with cake.  We made something like 600,000 cupcakes for Desmond's birthday two weeks ago.  There was the birthday party, and the pre-school celebration, and then our pal, Linus, went and turned two weeks old - requiring, of course, more cake.  I went with the toddler-friendly mini version which resulted in incredible numbers of tiny cakes.  I'm full-sizing it from here on out.  There were millions of little chocolate cakes coated in ganache and moist, lightly spiced, pumpkin cakes with cream cheese frosting.    

Here is an updated version of the recipe that I posted two years ago for Desmond's first birthday.  I'm leaving the original alone in case you're looking for a baby-friendly, lightly sweet, pumpkin-heavy, very first cake.  We've graduated to something just ever so slightly sweeter that doesn't call for an annoying fraction of a can of pumpkin (Not a problem when there is a one-year-old in the house, he'll polish it off.  That can of organic pureed pumpkin is my very favorite baby convenience food, by the way.  But thank goodness we're not quite ready for it yet.  We have a few more minutes of squishy, blobby baby time.  I love it.).     

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Yield: 24 cupcakes (or a ton of tiny ones)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour, or more all-purpose, do not use regular whole wheat flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 15-ounce can pumpkin
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat the oven to 350 and line 2 muffin pans with cupcake liners.  Add the apple cider vinegar to the the soymilk and set aside to curdle.  In a large bowl, stir together the wet ingredients (the pumpkin through vanilla, including the now thickened soy milk and vinegar mixture).  Sift the dry ingredients into the wet, and stir with a fork until combined.  Scoop (I like to use a pan spray-slicked ice cream scoop full, or about 1/4 cup, or about 2/3 of the way up the cupcake wrapper.) into the prepared pan and bake for 22 minutes.  Let cool and spread with your favorite frosting (I like cream cheese.).  

Zucchini Cake

We've inadvertently started a family tradition.  For Felix's one week birthday we made carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  When he was two weeks old there was that classic vegan chocolate cake from the Depression.  So today he is three weeks old and of course there has to be cake.  It's apparently what we do.  Fortunately I had a giant zucchini languishing in the fridge just waiting to become my mom's classic zucchini bundt cake and a toddler size helper always willing to dump cups of flour in a bowl and lick sugar off the counter (What?).  

Also it turns out this new tradition is fantastic for spreading fraternal goodwill.  It kind of makes me feel like an accidental mom genius, and I think maybe the tradition should be added to the parenting books.  Here's the thing - it gives Desmond and me something special to do together which is so important right now with this new kid in the house demanding so much of my time.  It gives us cake.  It makes Desmond feel all magnanimous and big brotherly because he is making something for his little brother.  But he gets to eat it himself because babies can't eat cake.  Hence making him feel all the more big and important and happy... because there's cake.   

And yes, just like any time that I suspect I might be a mom genius, even an accidental one, my child had a complete melt down - maybe his biggest tantrum yet, right in the middle of our lovely little family tea and cake party to remind me that this child-rearing thing is all cyclical.  The second it's easy it will get hard again and so on and so on teaching me all sorts of stuff along the way.   

Zucchini Cake

4 cups grated zucchini
2 cups sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup flax meal
3/4 cup water
3 cups flour (I used 1 1/2 cups all purpose and 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, mix together the flax meal and water and set aside to thicken.  Grease and flour a bundt cake pan.  Heat the oven to 350.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Set aside.  Beat the flax mixture for a minute to make sure it's thoroughly goopy and a little bit aerated.  Add the zucchini, sugar, walnuts, oil, and vanilla to the bowl and stir.  Add the sifted dry ingredients to the bowl and stir again until just combined.  Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for an hour until a knife comes out pretty clean - a few moist crumbs clinging to the blade are fine, but goopy cake batter is not.  Depending on your oven and your pan, it may need closer to an hour and fifteen minutes.