Is this or is this not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? Right, say no more, it’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen.

Cupcakes are a great way to teach kids how to bake because they can get their individual cakes to decorate. And just think of all the great lessons that cupcakes will espouse - arts and crafts, science, patience, cooperation, not to mention the crucial heavy metal face skills that will carry your child well into adulthood.

From adventures of a 7 year old vegan.

And share your photos from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with the world that the vegan cupcakes have taken over.

Join us.

Until reader’s photos start filtering in we will have to be down with OPC. Here Katie from Chicago wows us with Halloween gothcakes. I mean, creeps us out completely because they are so spooky.

These were made by Amanda in Memphis. She writes:

“Monday was my niece’s 5th birthday, so we had her party Sunday afternoon.

There was a robot theme to the party, so I set about coming up with something robot-y. Now, granted, I’m telling everyone that these could also be viewed as monsters or aliens but I choose to view them as little robots.”

The recipe is from kittee at pakupaku.

I am especially impressed with the improv-ed cupcake tower, it was actually her mom’s spice rack. Cupcakes are the mother of invention.

As the name implies, these are cappucino cupcakes filled with a tofu based espresso creme, straight from page 138.

We poke holes in the cupcake and then overfill it with the pastry creme so that a cute little dollop peeks out on top.

This picture was taken by our very own Terry Hope Romero, but as soon as photos start coming in from readers we’ll be posting those on these very pages.

Advice From The Trenches

You never know, someday in the very near future life may require that you make six batches of cupcakes or more. It may sound daunting but it isn’t so bad if you’re prepared. I have managed to pull off up to 300 cupcakes in a handful hours, and I don’t have a fancy oven. If you do have a fancy oven you’re better than me and you don’t need my advice.

1- Write down the doubled recipe in big fat sharpee and put it in a place that’s easy to see. I tape mine to the kitchen cabinet.
2- Make two dozen at a time. Batters get all ferkakte if you reduce or increase the quantities too much.
3- Mise en place. How come the French have words for everything? I mean, if that phrase didn’t exist I would have to sit here and type “put everything in it’s place.” That doesn’t sound like very much fun. Mise en place sounds fun. So keep an assembly line of your ingredients ready and waiting. The instant you’ve put one batch in the oven make someone do all the dishes for you so that you have clean, dry equipment ready for the next batch.
4- Focus! You only really need to focus when you’re putting the all the ingredients together. It’s easy to forget if you added one cup or two, one teaspoon or six. Let the phone ring, let the baby cry, let the house burn down. Just make sure you measure your ingredients accurately.
5- Get an ice cream scooper for equally measured out batter.
6- Start measuring out your next batch about ten minutes before your previous batch is done, but don’t mix the wet and dry ingredients together until your finished cupcakes are safely out of the cupcake tray and new liners are ready and waiting. I have four cupcake trays and that’s probably the best way to do it, but I know most people have at most two because most people have better things to do than bake 20 zillion cupcakes everyday. I also have hands of Teflon and I am capable of lifting cupcakes out of ridiculously hot cupcake trays, much in the same way that mothers can lift cars if their children are stuck under them. You, however, will probably need to wait for the cupcake to cool.
7- If you have leftover batter, this is kind of a crap shoot, but you can reserve it in a bowl. Add the leftover batter from each batch to the bowl. At the end of your cupcake making add a little baking powder (a 1/4 teaspoon sounds like a safe bet) and use up the remaining batter. The cupcakes aren’t guaranteed to turn out right, but they might. And it’s a chance worth taking because, hey, free cupcakes.
8- Make sure you have tons of space for cooling and mixing and decorating. If you have a small kitchen with limited space, clear everything off the counters, bring in an extra table if you have to. Just make sure you’re not cramped in so much as you can.
9- I know you have an oven thermometer so I won’t bother to remind you.
10- I like lists of 10. I find music to be really helpful when baking. I especially recommend Juice Newton’s “Angel of the Morning.”

I've started a blog for me and Terry to write about all things vegan and cupcake.

http://vegancupcakes.wordpress.com/

I'll still write here, though, when I have something to say that doesn't involve cupcakes. That is to say, rarely.

What does it mean when non-vegans enjoy eating vegan food? Even omnivores like it. It’s a compliment of the highest order. Every vegan cookbook promises it. I am happy when vegans are enjoying their food; that’s why we started the cooking show, to keep vegans well-fed and entertained, not to convert anyone. And yet, try as I might to deny it, I’m reluctantly waiting for that omnivore seal of approval.

Years ago, I was a waitress at a restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn. When it came time to make my staff lunch there was always an audible sigh from the chef, and sometimes worse. Cooking for the vegan. On the occasions when we had some downtime, I’d go back to the kitchen and he’d teach me chef things - the proper way to cut an onion, how to flip a pancake. We’d argue about sexism, politics, and soup stocks (he always used veal stock in his vegetable soups). One day I decided to bring him in some of my own soup. It was one of my specialties, a light tomato-based chickpea soup with fresh coriander, baby potatoes, and veggies. He took one bite and before it even hit the back of his throat he said “I can tell this is vegetarian.”

Of course he was expecting something, it was written all over his face. He was expecting it to “taste vegetarian,” which, to his sensiblities, was a bad thing. Did he recognize the the notes of roasted onion, the leek and mushroom that I used to make the broth? Was he able to savor the tomatoes that I had gotten from the farmers’ market that very morning, blanched and peeled myself, all simmered and garlicky? How about the chickpeas I had soaked and boiled, the way they burst open on your tongue?

No. He wanted the veal stock box. He needed to taste the box. Spoon to lips was only a handful of seconds, but the tension was probably that of a boxer’s before a big fight, only completely unfair because I wouldn’t even get a chance to throw a real punch. The fight was fixed. It was going to taste like a handful of grass to him.

And so I learned a valuable lesson. Never tell them it’s vegan. Not until after the compliments have come in.

At this point in my life it’s mostly hard to avoid because I’ve written a cookbook. After 16 years of eating the food I make, my friends and family know that it’s going to be good. They know that my cookies are going to disappear; it isn’t even a big deal, they’re just cookies now. And so it was interesting to bake the cupcake tower for my friend’s wedding last weekend. Most of the guests didn’t know the cupcakes were vegan.

It was thrilling to watch them, smudged brushstrokes of frosting not yet wiped from their chins, and see their expressions as they took one bite, then another, some going back for seconds with a little cake still left in the wrapper of the first. Little girls in frilly dresses twirled on the dancefloor, cupcakes in hand.

It made me think of the cognitive dissonance that humans face everyday as they buy their cold, dewy cartons of milk, the happy cow painted on the front. It’s so hard to give up what we’re used to. We’re so convinced that we can’t let go, that this is the way it always has been and this is the way it always will be, that our little glass of milk doesn’t make a difference, and even if it does, who cares? Why should we even care? Plus, there is no way we can live without meringue. But who even really likes meringue?

And so I suppose the bottom line is that’s why it’s more important when a non-vegan likes our food. Because we feel we’ve changed something, set a mind on a different course. Of course, it doesn’t mean that the taster will never eat dairy again. They might not even remember the experience in the minutiae of their everyday life. But the next time they’re presented with a vegan cookie or a soup, their mentality will be different. The fight won’t be there; enjoying it will come easier. And that is the paradigm shift, the one little grain of sand, one of those “little things” we hear about, the ones that they say count. I’m sure that the first simple cell that ever existed seemed insignificant, not that anyone was around to notice, but now look at us, a bunch of simple cells running around doing who knows what.

I know, enough with the talky talky, make with the cupcake tower.

Click “more” for the rest of the pho-tos.

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Since I’m not on the internet enough I thought it would be cool if I created a blog dedicated to vegan cupcakes. That’s a joke, see, because I am always on the internet, watching, waiting and keeping things vegan. But I thought it was necessary to create a safe space for all things vegan and cupcake.

Our little cupcake book is out so tell your local store to order it for you, but I can’t stop you from going to Amazon, either.

The cover was designed by one Josh Hooten from Herbivore magazine, the forward was written by Sara from Tegan and Sara, photography was done by Rebecca Bent and the cupcakes were tested by a full team of internet famous sublebrities. Terry and I love you all! (Except for Josh) You may also notice that the book is dedicated to Bea Arthur.

Tomorrow I will start the blog off with pictures of a cupcake tower from my friend Abby’s wedding. After that, who knows? But keep checking back so that you can say you knew us when.