Um, folks, we have another winner. This one was so good it has bumped another cupcake out of the running altogether. Bye bye regular old chocolate, hello hot chocolate! In Taylor’s words, this is a much more sophisticated chocolate. In Robin’s words, mmmmm. The texture was fascinating. So moist, and yet fluffy and slightly grainy (in a good way). Something about the combination of ingredients that go into the batter, it comes out of the oven full of flavors you can’t quite identify. Deep, rich flavors. While we didn’t add enough cayenne to make it spicy, the pinch we did add brings a depth to the cake like adding salt might, but much more pronounced. It’s like the cayenne becomes a super salt - that brings out the fine details of all the other ingredients within the cake.

In other words, it’s darn good.

We topped these off with a simple cream cheese buttercream, flavored with almond and a touch of vanilla. I jokingly suggested we add some color to the snow white frosting, and immediately both Taylor and Robin shouted “Purple!”. Right, ok, purple it is. And how purple they are. Topped with some pearlescent jimmies, they make for a very glamorous cupcake.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes. Recipe adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Ingredients
1 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn flour or very fine cornmeal
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

For Frosting:
1/4 cup cream cheese (or vegan cream cheese, like Tofutti)
1/4 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
3-3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk or soymilk

Directions
Preheat oven to 350˚F and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Whisk together coconut milk and flaxseed and allow to sit for 10 minutes, then whisk in sugar, oil, vanilla, and almond extract.

In another bowl, sift together flour, corn flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cayenne. Gently mix in wet ingredients.

Fill cupcake liners with 1/4 cup of batter (approximately 2/3 full). Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.

For frosting, cream together butter and creamcheese. Slowly add most of the confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until mixture is smooth and fluffy. Add soymilk, extracts, and coloring (if desired), and mix until combined. Add remaining powdered sugar, adding more if necessary to achieve proper consistency. Mix at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Thanksgiving is over for another year, and for that, we are sad. But we are still enjoying the memories (and the leftovers) from last night, and those will last at least a week (more so for the memories). It was a great Thanksgiving. We only had one (ok, two) semi-disasters, when our thermometer croaked on us (sorry for the panicked post!), and another when I forgot I was halving the pie crust recipe for a single crust pie, and accidentally added twice as much water as needed. Despite that, things turned out beautifully. The turkey was done through and not overcooked (phew!), and I had plenty of time to make another pie crust. We actually ate on time for once (4:30, to be exact), which is an amazing feat in and of itself. Our small table was overflowing with delicious food, and while we all ate way too much, way too fast, we sat staring at our empty plates, completely and utterly satisfied. After a brief digestion break, we enjoyed some James Bond and pumpkin pie (which I have since declared my most successful pie EVER), and went off to bed.

We also learned that turkey comas aren’t exclusive to humans, either…

Life is good, indeed.

I will be posting more pictures and recipes in the coming days, but right now, I’m feeling like some turkey sandwiches. And maybe some cupcakes, as if we didn’t spend enough time in the kitchen yesterday. :)

Who knows of a failsafe way to tell if it’s really done or not, without a thermometer? Like, quick?

We’re not ready for it to be done yet! We were expecting AT LEAST another hour and half cooking time, still have to cook the stuffing, boil the potatoes, roast the green beans…

When is something like this EVER done EARLY?

Turkey - you baffle me.

A Thanksgiving tradition has taken root, and it tastes darn good. What is it? Well, if you were around last year, you’d remember that we skipped the cooking the night before thanksgiving, instead replacing dinner with a delicious plate of pumpkin waffles. Well, we decided to do the same again this year, and it might just have to be something we do every year before Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving menu this year is just as ridiculous as last, except that this year we’ll have 3 people (hi Robin!) enjoying the feast, instead of just two. Still, stay tuned for plenty of leftovers recipes in the coming weeks, we’ll have lots.

Pumpkin Waffles

Makes 4-6 servings, depending on the size of your waffle maker.
Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
4 large eggs, separated
2 cups well-shaken buttermilk OR 2 cups soymilk mixed with 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter or margarine, melted

Directions
Preheat oven to 250°F and preheat waffle iron.

Sift together flour, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices.

Whisk egg yolks in a large bowl with buttermilk, pumpkin, and butter until smooth. Whisk in dry ingredients just until smooth.

In a mixing bowl with a whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until they hold soft peaks (as in, far soften than the over-beaten whites you’ll see in my picture above). Folk them gently into the waffle batter, until just combined.

Brush or spray waffle iron lightly with oil and spoon batter into waffle iron, spreading quickly. Cook according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Transfer waffles to rack in oven to keep warm and crisp. Serve with warm maple syrup (for breakfast), or chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream (for dessert).

As for the rest of the menu, we’re only being somewhat adventurous. Our Turkey turned out so well and so perfect last year (even if it was 2 hours late), and we figured, why mess with a good thing? So we’re doing the same Cranberry Glazed Roasted Turkey as last year. Same for the Ultimate Garlic Mashed Potatoes. This year, however, we are trying a few new recipes, including a gravy recipe donated by the wonderful Auntie Sally (our gravy last year was eh…), some pancetta and chestnut stuffing by Giada (Taylor picked that recipe), an attempt at homemade jellied cranberry sauce (the only way I could convince Robin NOT to get a can of the stuff), simple roasted green beans, and a traditional Spiced Pumpkin Pie (our attempt at a twist on pumpkin pie last year didn’t go so well, we figure keeping it simple was the best bet).

As of now, 9:37 on Thursday morning:
- Turkey stock for gravy is made and in the fridge (made by boiling some aromatics with the turkey giblets — FYI: if you’re faced with the challenge of figuring out what is what when it comes to parts, this image might give you a hand. We needed all the organs EXCEPT the liver, and had no idea what the liver looked like.)
- Turkey is brining in it’s ‘body bag’.
- Jellied cranberry sauce is made and setting in the fridge.
- Pumpkin pie is made and actually looks somewhat decent (I have crust issues). It took about 20 minutes longer to bake than expected, which is not something you want to deal with at 11:00 at night.
- Garlic is prepped and roasting in the oven. Because 9:45 in the morning, roasting garlic is exactly the scent you want filling up your home. :) Lovely!

We’re planning on eating at 4:00. Which means we’ll probably eat at 6:00. Isn’t that always the case?

Hope you all have a lovely turkey day, filled with delicious smells and fun times with those you love. We’ll be back periodically throughout the day, updating you on our status and progress (just in case you need some light reading while your own bird is baking).

Folks, we have a winner. Hands down, no question about it, winner. This little gem will be joining lovely almond and rich chocolate on our wedding cupcake menu.

Holy cow they are delicious.

How they all came about:
Robin likes Chai. A lot. And upon hearing we needed a non-chocolate cupcake recipe for the wedding, suggested we try a chai cupcake. Sounds good, right? We first turned to our fail-safe book (though recently it has failed us), Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Indeed, there is a Chai cupcake recipe in there. However, it uses yogurt in the base, which, if you read the disaster that was the Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes last week, you’ll know that the yogurt didn’t fare so well. And I wasn’t going to risk that happening again.

So we began with a basic vanilla cupcake recipe, and went from there.

Chai tea is sure a complicated beast - but after a good bit of research, I understood fairly well that most chai teas are comprised of a few key spices: cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger. Some used nutmeg as well, so we decided to toss some of that in the mix.

For the tea portion, we simply steeped some black tea, using the soymilk instead of water. This infused a rich tea flavor to the cupcake without needing any extra liquid - the soymilk was already in there.

The frosting was a challenge, but to me, no cup of chai is complete without a giant dollop of whipped cream. Short of frosting these with whipped cream, I wanted a frosting more silky and smooth than our standard buttercream. We decided to try, for the first time ever, a Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

Success. The frosting was to die for. The best frosting I have EVER made. Much less sweet than American Buttercream, but so much richer and with an incredible depth of flavor that almost makes you think there is more in it besides egg whites, sugar, and butter. It made me extremely nervous, making it, though. The frosting feels very fragile, like it can barely support it’s own weight, and at the slightest hint of too much heat or even if you sneezed near it, it’d melt into oblivion. Has anyone worked with Swiss Buttercream before? It is so perfect in every way and I don’t want to abandon it, but I don’t want it to become a wedding-day disaster either.

Spiced Chai Latte Cupcakes with Cinnamon Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Makes 12 cupcakes. Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Frosting recipe adapted from Tartlette.

Ingredients
1 cup soy milk
4 black tea bags or 2 tablespoons loose leaf black tea
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For frosting:
1/2 cup sugar
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

Heat soymilk in a small saucepan or microwave until almost boiling. Remove from heat and add tea bags. Allow to steep for 10 minutes, then remove teabags, squeezing out as much soymilk as possible. Re-measure, and add more soymilk to make exactly 1 cup. Whisk in cider vinegar, and side aside until curdled.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Pour in soy milk mixture, along with oil, sugar, and vanilla, and stir just until no large lumps remain.

Fill cupcake liners with 1/4 cup of batter (liners should be 2/3 full), and bake for 20-22 minutes or until puffed and golden. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

For buttercream: put the sugar and eggwhites in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like marshmallow cream.

Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on medium speed until it cools and forms a thick and shiny meringue, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until is is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. Add the vanilla and cinnamon and whip for another 30 seconds until incorporated. Spread or pipe on cooled cupcakes.