Inspiration

After a happy- miserable weather morning at the art museum. For breast cancer they held an outdoor yoga class on the steps of the art museum, still rainy and cold. It was very sweet and made me think about how much i take for granted and need to aprieciate what i have in my life. It turnned to be a lazy day. I made apricot BBQ sauce from VCON and Happy Herbivores Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Great recipes- was a tough decision to choose the cream cheese over the maple frosting. But i was initially inspired by having the Toffuti in the fridge. Check out this recipe! Vegan, no refined sugar, whole wheat and no oil.
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup raw sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 heaping tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 large peeled carrot, shredded
1 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 generous tsp vanilla
1/2 - 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional but recommended)
* you can use raisins too.

METHOD
Preheat 350 F
Mix flour, baking powder, soda, sugar, salt & cinnamon in a medium bowl
in a large bowl, mix applesauce, vanilla & carrots
Add dry mix to wet mix 1/2 cup at a time
Mix well before adding the next 1/2 cup of the flour mixture
Once blended, fold in walnuts
Fill muffin pan (greased or use paper cups) to the top
bake 15-17 minutes - fork check

MAKES 12 ‘cakes

Low Fat Cream Cheese Icing
INGREDIENTS
1 container non-hydrogenated tofutti cream cheese, room temp
1 generous tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
2 - 4 cups vegan confectioners sugar

METHOD
Use hand mixer to whip tofutti, vanilla & salt
Add 1/2 cup sugar at a time on low
Test after 2 cups, if its not sweet enough for you, add another 1/2 - 1 cup
(will be soupy)
Spoon icing on top of ‘cakes - will run naturally
(you should have some icing left over for a future batch)

For a thick icing, keep adding sugar until thick (4 cups or so)
* the icing is not soy free (the cake is)

Fat Free Maple Icing
INGREDIENTS
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tbsp maple
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS
using a hand mixer,
whip 1 cup of sugar, maple, cinn and vanilla
add more sugar if necessary to get right consistency
whip until fluffy and combined