4 Cupcake Wars inspired raw vegan cupcake recipes: green tea vanilla, sweet pepper, corn and sage, lavender and orange, cacao spice

Yes, Shannonmarie at Rawdorable is at it again, this time taking inspiration from Cupcake Wars winner Stephanie Sparkle and her vegan baking fame, and turning Stephanie's cupcakes into raw vegan cupcakes. She's also got the recipes for these four lovely cupcakes for you all in this post and an interview with Stephanie!


the raw cupcake quartet


green tea topped vanilla cupcake


sweet potato, corn and sage cupcake


lavender and orange cupcake


cacao spice cupcake

Vegan S'mores Cupcakes with Recipe Link

I've noticed that a lot more cupcake bakeries are offering special dietary needs type treats, the most popular ones being Vegan and Gluten-Free. After watching and recapping the first all Vegan Cupcake Wars episode I decided to start expanding my recipe repertoire and look into Vegan recipes...

The blog Pickles & Honey developed this classy looking Vegan S'more's cupcake. The main reason I was always turned off by Vegan baking was the thought of how stressed out I would be trying to find specialty ingredients. This recipe has some special ingredients but overall, the majority of the items on the list can easily be found in your pantry...definitely a plus in my book! If all Vegan recipes are as simple as this one, I think I may have overcome my Vegan baking fear! Check out the recipe here!

Vegan cupcake success secrets with Sticky Fingers Bakery owner and Cupcake Wars winner Doran Petersan

Vegan baker, owner of Sticky Fingers Bakery and Cupcake Wars winner Doran Petersan talks to Portfolio about her business's success, and the rise of the cupcake:

To what do you attribute your success?

You can make your shop as pretty as you want, and ambiance is important. People could come in and feel comfortable, but unless you have good food, nobody’s gonna come back. So it’s the food that keeps bringing people in. The best compliment is when someone comes in not knowing we’re a vegan bakery and, after eating, they still have no idea it’s a vegan item. There’s no preconceived notion that vegan is not gonna be good. The minute you tell someone that’s not vegan that they are eating a vegan product, they are looking for something to be different. I’m not here to tell people what they should eat; I’m here showing them what we can do and then letting them make the choice.

Cupcakes are a luxury: Has the economy hurt your business?

They are luxury items, but they are considered acceptable and affordable luxury items. You're talking about a cookie or a cupcake that costs $2 or $3. We’re not talking about jewelry or shoes. Where we feel it is our largest orders—our catering, our wedding cakes—that’s where people try to cut back. But as far as our retail, we see more of the lesser expensive items being sold, but our daily retail sales have grown.

Has the cupcake wave started to wane?

It has not weakened at all. It is huge. After six years of cupcakes, they are getting hotter and hotter. We’re not just a cupcakery; we look at other people and the amount of product they are putting out, and I am flabbergasted. A lot of times if you have a fad it runs out in two or three years, but it’s not. People are absolutely in love with these things. We can’t keep them on the shelves. If it’s a fad, I’m not concerned because we have a full-service bakery, and when it’s the next thing you just ride the wave. I’m confident we can do anything as a vegan alternative to a non-vegan item. Whatever it is, you figure it out.

Visit Sticky Fingers at stickyfingersbakery.com on Facebook and be sure to check out her new cookbook, Sticky Fingers' Sweets: 100 Super-Secret Vegan Recipes.




from the Sticky Fingers' Cupcake Wars viewing party

The Lorax Truffula Tree vegan dark chocolate cupcakes with cotton candy on top, plus recipe link

Find out how to make these dark chocolate vegan cupcakes with cotton candy on top, styled in homage to Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, at Meet The Shannons (via Babble).

Vegan fruit and flower cupcake spotlight on Cupcake Wars winners Bliss Cakes by Stephanie Sparkles

Last night, I started ogling the photos on the Facebook page of Bliss Cakes by Stephanie Sparkles, after seeing the beginning of TV competition show Cupcake Wars. I didn't get to finish the post before seeing that they'd won! For our recap, click here. They do custom cupcakes and delivery in the greater Los Angeles area, and can be reached at stephanie at stephaniesparkles.com or 424-259-3036; visit stephaniesparkle.com for more information. Here are some of their gorgeous cupcakes. They've also got a cookbook and you can follow them @s_sparkles on Twitter.














cupcakes at Burning Man

Here are just a few of their cupcake flavors:

Long-Life Goji Berry
From ancient Chinese medicine comes the Goji Berry, revered for longevity enhancing nutrients and its chewy citrus berry flavor. This tasty chocolate cake is filled with a heart of real Goji Berry kreme, and capped with fresh coconut frosting.

Acai Jungleberry Bliss
A purple-powered tropical kiss: luscious lemon cake frosted with exotic acai, real blueberries, and fresh fruit. Acai, a wild berry from the rainforests of Brazil, is packed with powerful antioxidants, nourishing amino acids, and essential fatty acids.

Tangerine Poppyseed Dream
Unforgettably sweet and citrus-ey! Moist poppy seed cake, sparkling with real tangerine zest, and capped with a juicy tangerine frosting!

Wild Jungle Peanut-Butter Choco Delight
A new twist on a classic flavor: decadent dark chocolate cake, with a gooey heart of real Balinese RAW chocolate, topped off with a frosting of creamy Wild Jungle Peanut-Butter. Wild Jungle Peanuts are pure, heirloom peanuts, loaded with antioxidants, complete protein, and beautifying oleic acid. Because they're grown wild in the Amazon, they help to protect our rainforests!

Tropical Avocado Mango Twist
A fruity, creamy, spicy little mouthful. Mango cake filled with coconut kreme and frosted with buttery avocados, mangos, and a dash of chili for some tropical heat.

Ginger Chai Spice
Like a creamy mug of zesty chai tea: warm and comforting. Fresh ginger cake awakened by a creamy frosting with a dash of Indian chai spice.

Sweet Picnic Chevre
Fluffy vanilla cake, enlivened with a luscious fig preserve, swirled with a creamy goat cheese frosting, and crowned with fresh-sliced pear. Rich and refreshing: perfect for a picnic!

Cupcake Wars: Vegan Bake Off

Did you happen to catch last night's new episode of Cupcake Wars? Well just in case, let me recap for you!

Last night's episode of Cupcake Wars was the first all vegan episode! The bakeries were competing for the opportunity to serve their delicious and animal friendly treats at the Inaugural L.A. Green Festival.

The competitor's for this episode were:

New Cascadia Traditional from Portland, OR

Michy's Foods from Los Angeles, CA

Bliss Cakes by Stephanie Sparkles from Venice, CA

Two Birds Baking Co. from Huntington Beach, CA

ROUND ONE:
This round challenged the bakers with locally grown fruits and vegetables, including but not limited to: clementines, sage, lemongrass, fennel, red peppers, coconut, avocados, etc.

NCT: Chocolate cake with sweet pepper lemongrass filling, avocado icing, vegan ganache and edible sprinkles. Also, this cupcake was gluten free. The judges were unanimously underwhelmed.

MF: Fennel cake, clementine buttercream with a candied sage leaf on top. All the judges loved the bright and fresh clementine flavor of the buttercream and creative nature of the fennel cake but were not too thrilled with the sage merely being a piece of decor.

BC: Corn cake, speckled with sweet red pepper, topped with creamy sage frosting, topped with parsley to lighten up the flavor and sweet red peppers. Judges loved the surprise of the cupcake being sweet over savory but again cautioned the use of the required third ingredient as a garnish.

TBBC: Clementine fennel cupcake, vegan vanilla buttercream frosting, with balsamic glazed figs on top. The balsamic reduction overpowered all the other flavors in the cupcake.

Eliminated: Two Birds Baking Co.

ROUND TWO:
This round challenged the bakers on showcasing "living green" through their cupcakes. As we all know in this round judging is based on 50% taste and 50% presentation.

NCT: Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Orange Frosting and topped with chopped hazelnuts
Molasses Spice Cupcake filled with Apple Butter topped with Cinnamon Molasses Icing
Zucchini Raisin Cupcake with Ginger Nutmeg Cream Cheese Icing.
Judges: Delicate decorations but not WOW for the second round. Overall taste was delicious.

MF: Apple Cinnamon Cupcake filled with caramel, topped with Cinnamon Buttercream, Caramel Drizzle and crushed peanuts.
Gingerbread Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting topped with crushed gingerbread cookies
S'mores Cupcake filled with a marshmallow with Chocolate Ganache, toasted marshmallow and crushed graham crackers.
Judges: Mixed review on the decor. Mixed reviews on the technical aspects of cupcakes (cook times).

BC: Matcha Vanilla Raspberry Cupcake with Matcha Green Tea Frosting topped with a raspberry and mint leaf
Mayan Spice Chocolate Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing
Tangerine Poppyseed with Lavender Frosting, Coconut Cream filling and fresh tangerines and lavender flowers on top.
Judges: Decorations = LOVED. Cupcakes were a bit over baked, too much going on in the Lavender cupcake, suggested removal of the coconut cream.

Eliminated: Michy's Foods

ROUND THREE:
Create a 1000 cupcake display for the event.

NCT: Display was tree-like cupcake tiers made up of reclaimed wood done in an upwards manner making the display 360 degrees
accessible.

BC: Display was imagined off of a vertical cupcake garden. Made up of recycled wood, bamboo, fresh herb garden below, the piece can be reused after the event as a real vertical garden.

WINNER: Bliss Cakes by Stephanie Sparkles


This was a more interesting episode of Cupcake Wars. As bakers and foodies, we're always learning new methods of cooking and new things to try. This episode definitely showcased the intricacies of vegan baking and really opened me up to trying out some vegan recipes for myself!

Vegan Raspberry Tiramisu Cupcake

Man this sounds delicious!  Vegan raspberry tiramisu cupcake from Wildflour Vegan Bakery & Juice Bar in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Lovely image courtesy pag2525.

Vegan Apricot-Almond Cupcakes

Mmm...sounds so good! Vegan apricot-almond cupcakes:

All photos courtesy shashinjutsu.

5 strawberry cupcakes for National Strawberry Day

Happy National Strawberry Day! Here are 5 fun strawberry cupcakes for your celebration.


Strawberry and champagne cupcakes by blogger 20something Cupcakes - they have strawberry champagne filling and champagne frosting and candied strawberries on top! From the post:

I’m pleased to say that this creation was a complete success. There’s a lot of champagne going on in here, between the cake, the filling, and the frosting – it’s truly a BURST of champagne flavor. The fresh strawberry purée used in the filling complements the light and airy champagne cake perfectly. The super-rich buttercream is a nice contrast to all of that, and the candied strawberries on top? Well, this way you have a better idea of what you’re getting into – otherwise you might have expected plain ol’ vanilla.

Strawberry cupcakes by a little bit of Cassie via Flickr


Strawberry margarita cupcake by Waupaca, Wisconsin custom cupcake baker Amanda Cupcake via Flickr


Vegan strawberry chocolate shortcake cupcakes by Food Wanderings in Asia, winning recipe made by Chef Chloe on Cupcake Wars. Click through for recipe. From the post: "These cupcakes are pretty low cost too with no eggs and butter and yet, they came out perfect with nice domed tops, soft, fluffy and so moist. They're very easy to make. No creaming for several minutes, no beating the eggs until fluffy. You can mix everything by hand." via Foodgawker on Flickr


Lemon strawberry mousse cupcakes by IrishMomLuvs2Bake on Flickr

Heart-shaped cupcakes, the cutest vegan s'mores cupcakes ever and much more from vegan friendly Bunnie Cakes

How adorable are all of these cupcakes, and all of these hearts (and a special shoutout to the adorable vegan s'mores cupcakes, of course!) by Miami, Florida custom cupcake and cake maker Bunnie Cakes? Via their Facebook page.























Bunnie Cakes
274 NE 59th St
Miami, FL 33155
786-268-9790
mari at bunniecakes.com

Vegan rose chocolate cupcakes for Valentine's Day plus recipe link

Get the recipe for these vegan rose chocolate cupcakes from the blog My Little Celebration.



Blogger Dana reports that her taste testers couldn't tell the difference between this vegan cupcake and a traditional one, and writes:

Not only did the cupcakes turn out wonderfully, they tasted phenomenal! I don’t know why I’d ever bake a non-vegan cupcake again! The soy milk + vinegar mixture makes a creamy base for the batter, the cocoa powder gives them a rich chocolate flavor, and the oil keeps them unbelievably moist.

Vegan Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with recipe link!

Chocolate and orange.
A delicious combination that I feel is very winter-like...
Check these out:

Vegan Chocolate Orange cupcakes!!! Super easy. Super tasty. Even if you're not a vegan!

For full recipe and more pictures click here!