Help us - we're sinking!
I’ll admit, I’m not always the best when it comes to baking but every now and then I like to give it a try and often surprise myself. I was so excited to try my hand at baking vegan cupcakes so I could bring them to my little birthday celebration at the spa later today. Only problem is – I’ve never made cupcakes before – and well, something went totally wrong. So now, I have a ton of decent tasting frosting and no cupcakes to frost.
Once I get the actual cupcakes to look like cupcakes, I’ll post the recipe. But in the meantime, does anyone have any good tips? My cupcakes just collapsed in the pan. I’m thinking more liquid or oil? Or is it because I used brown rice flour?
Any suggestions or advice you have would greatly help this large bowl of homemade vegan chocolate peanut butter frosting not go to waste.
In my vegan years, I NEVER successfuly made any cakes. For birthdays, I used (vegan) brownie mix and used Egg-Replacer. They were flat and guey, but that’s OK for brownies. I eventually had to “give in” and buy powdered egg whites and used it for cakes or cupcakes. Hope you find what works.
I’ve been successful with muffins…but man, the cupcakes! I don’t know what went wrong…glad its not just me.
I heard today in Dr Oz one could use chia seeds/powder instead of eggs in baked products. Look it up! dr oz.com
Thanks for the tip, definitely will do!
We’ll probably need to know what recipe you used to be able to tell what about it may need to be changed. Did you JUST use brown rice flour for the flour, or that along with something else? Only knowing what is in this post, I’ve found that with gluten-free baking you have to have a good mixture of flours to starches; we usually do about a 2:1 ratio of gf flours to starches (tapioca, potato, etc.). Before we figured this out, a lot of our early recipes turned out very … dense. To put it nicely.
Ah, interesting. Thing is I’m not gluten-free – or rather, I don’t have an allergy or anything – but my friend is who I was sharing cupcakes with (or was going to be sharing cupcakes with) and I am vegan..so I was trying to accomplish so many things. I used ALL brown rice flour. No combination. I used….brown rice flour, turbinado sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pinch of salt, coconut oil, coconut milk, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar…
But sunken cupcakes are great as a frosting delivery vehicle – more room to add frosting! You could also “plug” out the middle, add filling, plug back up and frost.
Good luck! I’m not experienced enough yet with baking gf/vegan to figure it out myself.
I love your optimism! That’s what I should tell everyone – I did this on purpose so you could eat more delicious frosting with your cupcake!
‘m no longer vegan, but I still use this simple recipe for chocolate cupcakes. Mine comes out of a Vegetarian Times Cookbook, but it’s at home. This link is pretty much the same. The key in vegan is replicating the effects of the eggs to rise the cupcakes. the combination of vinegar and baking soda is what helps that in the vegan recipies. also if the are flat and mushy, you have likely added too much liquid.http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/vegan-chocolate-cake/detail.aspx
THANK YOU! Its funny, I didn’t use any egg replacer or anything equivalent to eggs but maybe far too much liquid. Hmm, I’ll check out your link for more tips. Really appreciate it!
I have the book “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World” and I’ve made about 8 of the different recipes. I would absolutely put my cupcakes against any cruelty cuppies. Mine and light and fluffy and delicious. I had a stupendous FAIL with one recipe, but I think it was because the baking soda and baking powder were not as fresh as they should have been. However, I crumbled the cupcakes, added the icing to the mix, and ate it over vanilla vegan ice cream. OMG was that yummy! Don’t throw them away!!!
I am definitely not throwing them away. Everyone has given me such great ideas! I love this!!! So much support.
i am gluten and dairy free, my hubby is vegan. i sucessfully made GFV triple chocolate cuppies this past august for the first time, for both of our birthdays, hence the indulgence. i didn’t make them from scratch, i used bobs red mill gf choc cake mix.
i substituted banana for the eggs (or you can sub applesauce) but i ALWAYS have had to cook GFV bakery goods almost twice as long to get them to fully cook and stay risen. they rise just fine in normal time, but after i pull them out of the oven after the normal cooking time, they ALWAYS fall with the centers ending in ooey-gooey messes. so, my suggestion is to cook them longer next time
also, i think karen is right on the money, it usually takes a mix of GF flours and starch for good GF bakery goods, that’s why i bought the mix. betty crocker uses a dedicated facility for their GF mixes, fyi.
PS. from one GF’er, that is sooo thoughtful for you to attempt making cuppies your GF friend could eat! even tho they didn’t turn out as planned, it really does mean a lot that you did, in fact, try.
Thank you April – all of this is news to me and such great advice – I’m gonna go exploring on the Bob’s Red Mill Mix front and see what I have in my pantry that I can mix and match with to make my cupcakes work .And yes, I find that people are often sensitive and wonderful about my own vegan needs so I try to return the favor whenever possible.
you can go buy some enjoy life double chocolate soft cookies (GFV)and make sandwiches with your yummy icing, to not let it go to waste, of course!
such a fantastic idea! LOVE IT!!!
I may just have to do that…less of a mess in my kitchen that way!
I’m not sure but you can use these with your icing to make those cake pops. http://www.cakepopsrecipe.com/chocolate-cake-pops-with-sprinkles/
I know vegan chocolate chips are hard to find sometimes though
I modify traditional recipes by using EnerG egg replacer found in most natural markets.1 1/2 tsp plus 2 Tbsp water is equivalent to 1 egg. I have been new to vegan baking and have been quite successful so far. Vegweb.com has many great recipes for cupcakes
It’s very hard to bake vegan and gluten free. Just baking gluten free is hard, I’ve made lots of great vegan treats. There is even a whole vegan cupcake book!
If you’re not looking for gluten free recipes specifically, a vegan chef – Chloe Coscarelli – actually won the Food Network “Cupcake Wars” with one of her recipes.
You should check out her page: http://www.chefchloe.com/
She’s got a lot of good looking recipes out there.
I’m not vegan, but I prefer vegan cupcakes to regular ones. I’m obsessed with the Red Velvet cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the world. I think with any vegan cupcake recipe, you really need to make sure you sift the ingredients well. Here’s the RV recipe: http://workplaygardencook.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-01-31T13%3A04%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=7
Good luck!
A failed cupcake (or cake) is perfect to make cake balls with. Crumble it all up and put approx 1c (or s0) of your frosting in and smush it all together with your hands, mixing well. Chill it in the fride for a half hr or so. Take out and roll into bitesize balls, put back in fridge for about another hr. (if you have sucker sticks, line the balls up on a cookie sheet and stik in the sticks before putting back in fridge.) Once chilled again roll in melted chocoate (if that is GF and vegan, I’m neither so I don’t know) if chocolate is not ok to use just micro your frosting for a few seconds to thin it out a bit and roll them in that. You can even add some sprinkles or whatever to make them cute too. Just and idea, good luck on the future recipes.
Rule #1 : Never make a recipe for a gathering or event that you haven’t made before. You have to test the recipe on family and friends before the event to be sure it’s worthy.
I agree with Karyn. Rice flour has no gluten, so will not “hold up” like wheat flour will. You must add starch to it, and some type of gum would also help with the texture. I do gluten free vegan baking, & find if I don’t get the mix right I have flat muffins & cupcakes. Prior to going gluten free I never had problems with mu vegan cupcakes & I cook vegan cupcakes for my parrots all the time. I would advise finding a proven vegan recipe and following it. I use ENER-G replacer or flaxseed to replace eggs. Chia seeds work like flaxseeds.
Try Ben Starr’s Pumpkin Carrot Cake recipe and alter it for vegan purposes. They are the most spectacular cupcakes you’ll ever have! http://benstarr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88:pumpkin-carrot-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting-and-candied-hazelnuts&catid=18:desserts&Itemid=51
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