Showing posts with label eggless blueberry muffins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eggless blueberry muffins. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Space Party Cupcakes

Life is Good: We have a five year old!

Recently, our big kid turned five. (*Holds hands to cheeks, shakes head.*) The time has flown by. Indeed, the hubs and I agree that these have been the best five year of our lives!


Since our oldest is silly for space, nutty for Neptune, and mad for the moon, of course, we threw a space-themed party!

I love a party! I mean I lovvvvvvve a party. And the prep is just as much fun as watching our guests enjoy it. This year was especially thrilling because the big kid and I did a lot of the party brainstorming and preparation together.

Baking with my grandmother was a wonderful thrill of mine as a child, so I have been including our big kid in (eggless, due to allergies) baking since he could dump a cup of flour into a bowl. He and I made these blueberry muffin cupcakes for the party. We talked about the different ways that I could decorate the cupcakes---like astronauts faces, maybe with a rocket shooting off of the top, or perhaps an alien? Then I made the mistake of suggesting suggested that it might be fun to let everyone decorate their own cupcake as an activity for the party. The birthday boy jumped at the chance. And as far as party activities go, it was a great idea! (I was just a little bummed that I didn't get to try my hand at decorating them myself...)

The prep was pretty simple. I purchased takeout containers to house all of the decorating supplies. I made different colors of frosting using my Grandma's recipe. Guests could also use chocolate chips (my kids have egg and nut allergies, so these were a blessing to find!), marshmallows, craisins, and fruit snacks that I cut into inch and a half-sized pieces.

The birthday boy thought the fruit snacks looked like alien antennas and asked if we could make the marshmallows look more like eyeballs. That's my kid! So I dipped a toothpick into black food coloring and dotted some marshmallows in the center. Voila!

I threw a plastic tablecloth over the dining room table so that when all of the guests had jumped into their rockets and zoomed home to planet Earth, all I had to do was pull up the sides of the tablecloth and throw it all in the trash!

Friday, May 17, 2013

Eggless Blueberry Muffins

Life is Good: we have sweet treats

We  had a playdate yesterday, so of course we needed a yummy snack! Our family love these eggless blueberry muffins. 
--> Our 5-year old has a severe allergy to eggs (among other food and seasonal allergies) and our littlest is showing signs of an egg allergy, too, albeit much less dangerous than his big brother’s. We discovered the big kid’s allergy when he was nine months old, so as his first birthday approached, what was a mama to do? I couldn’t imagine celebrating without a cake. So I turned to my friend, the internet, and went to work researching eggless cooking and baking. I felt so grateful for all of the mamas and others before me who had offered their thoughts, experiences, and recipes. For our big kid’s first birthday, I adapted my Grandma’s “secret” chocolate cake recipe using tofu instead of eggs. 
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Since then, I’ve (gratefully) discovered a carrot cake cupcake & muffin recipe that I make often. The applesauce/baking powder combo works great as a substitution for beaten eggs.
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I’m equally grateful for the vegan strawberry cupcake recipe I found on egglesscooking.com. It’s a great recipe, although mine never look like the picture that accompanies the recipe on the website.  In this case, vinegar mixed with oil and vanilla replaces the eggs. Be sure to keep your batter firm. Loose batter will make it difficult for the muffins to remain solid after cooling from the oven. (They’ll taste good, but they’ll fall apart.)

I took the strawberry muffin recipe and adapted it for blueberries.  They taste just like any other blueberry muffin…you don’t need to have an egg allergy to enjoy them!
 
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Eggless Blueberry Muffin & Cupcake Recipe
Adapted from a recipe at http://www.egglesscooking.com/2009/02/26/vegan-strawberry-cupcakes/        
Yields: 12 Cupcakes OR Two 8 Inch Loaves

Ingredients:
    1 and 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
    3/4 to 1 cup Sugar (I use less sugar. The fruit makes them sweet enough for us.)
    1 teaspoon Baking Soda
    1 1/3 cup FROZEN blueberries (I use organic.)
    1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (I use Madagascar Vanilla, which is brown in color.)
    1/2 cup Canola Oil
    1 tablespoon White Distilled Vinegar (Any brand is fine.)
    1/3 cup Milk plus another tablespoon or two, if necessary (I use organic whole milk.)
 
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Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Grease/line a muffin tin or grease a 9 inch loaf   pan.
  2. In a large bowl combine together the flour, baking soda and sugar.
  3. In another bowl, mix the oil, vinegar and vanilla.
  4. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir together but do not over stir.
  5. Your batter will look a little lumpy at this point.
  6. Now, add the milk and blueberries. Stir together, but do not over stir. If your blueberries have been sitting out for a while and begin to defrost, your batter may turn purplish blue. (My kiddo likes this.) (I use frozen blueberries so that they stay firm while the batter is stirred together as well as while the muffins bake.)
  7. If your batter still seems dry, add another tablespoon or two of milk. Keep in mind that this is supposed to be a thick batter. There is no egg in it to hold things together, so you don’t want it to be too “loose” or “soupy”.
  8. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins. I typically get 12 muffins.
  9. Bake for about 22-30 minutes (time varies depending on your oven and also the muffin pan you use) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If baking a loaf bake it for 40-45 minutes and check for the doneness.
  10. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.  

Enjoy!