Ital is Vital... Vegan Cupcakes

Vanilla Vegan & Gluten-Free Cupcake with Vegan Buttercream and Strawberry Slices

Ital or I-tal (/ˈaɪtɑːl/ eye-tahl)  a diet designed to increase Livity (life energy).

Growing up in a Rastafarian household, there was a time that we ate only Ital food. In it's most purest form, Ital food is akin to a vegan diet minus the salt. In truth though, there are variations on the theme, and it is open to some level of interpretation. For me, when I think of Ital baking, I want to make something that anyone can eat, whether they are vegan, have nut allergies, a gluten intolerance or whatever else can steal the joy of someone wanting to eat a tasty cake.

Irie!

It's been a while since I did any, but last weekend, I tried my hand at a bit of Ital (in this case vegan and gluten-free) baking with a simple cupcake recipe adapted from Ms Cupcakes new cookery book - "The Naughtiest Vegan Cupcakes in Town"

Cupcakes fresh out of the oven

In my little bit of experience in making vegan cupcakes, I've discovered that there are a million ways to make them. Also once you get the right ingredients it's actually quite straightforward (my kinda cooking!)

Whilst I perfect my own recipe to share with you guys, check out PETA's website for a cool, step-by-step guide on how to make vanilla vegan cupcakes (Click here).

Some extra vegan baking tips;

• Vegetable shortening use Trex (for the British readers)
• Vinegar means Apple Cider Vinegar or White Wine Vinegar
• Oil means flavourless i.e. groundnut, grapeseed or sunflower oil
• I used gluten-free flour mix instead of the usual self-raising flour
• Work quickly once the liquid has been added to the dry-mix & don't overmix
• Vegan cakes don't last as long as normal ones so they are best eaten straightaway (which is really no problem at all!)

Vanilla Vegan & Gluten-Free Cupcake with Vegan Buttercream and Strawberry Slices - Ital baking at it's best!

Before I forget, the book is an essential item in a baker's kitchen - it's beautifully put together and the recipes are easy to follow. Get yourself a copy! :)

Peace & Love

xx

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Tea and Cakes of London - Ms Cupcake...

My sister bought a book recently called 'Tea & Cake London' by Zena Alkayat, which gives details of some of the best places for sweet treats in London. Our plan is to go to as many as we can, to taste some of the goodies that are out there & see how the professionals do it!

Last week I was in Brixton, South London and I stumbled upon the vegan cupcake store, Ms Cupcake. I was really excited as I have heard so many good things about the place and couldn't wait to taste test! Plus it's been a while since I've featured vegan cakes on this blog!

Sure enough they didn't disappoint. The first thing you notice is just how much icing is on the cupcakes! There is literally a 50:50 cake to icing ratio, making them look so luxurious. I definitely felt some icing envy and am wondering now if I have been too miserly with my portions!

I had four flavours, Chocolate Chilli, Rose Petal, Red Velvet and Lime & Coconut. They have so many flavours on offer, it's a bit overwhelming for someone as indecisive as me (but obviously amazing!) Of these four, my personal favourites were the Lime & Coconut, followed by the Rose Petal cake and I think that is because they are vegan. There is definitely a difference in flavour with vegan cakes, but they are still very very tasty. This is where the choice of flavours comes in handy because you can push the boundaries of what you would normally choose.

If you have yet to sample vegan cupcakes, then I would definitely start here. I personally couldn't manage all of the icing, but I salute anyone that can!

Ms Cupcake can be found at 408 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 8LF, if you're in the area go check them out!

Peace & Love

xx

ps do you have any recommendations for cake eateries in London??

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Congratulations Jaime und Anna xx

This weekend was the wedding celebration for two of my friends who are vegans. It was a lovely intimate and informal affair in their beautiful garden, and the guests were asked to bring a dish along. 

I spent last week trying out various vegan cupcake recipes with my tasting committee at work and even posted a blog about it, but, for some reason Blogger has deleted my post.

I will do another vegan cake post in the future but I'm still a bit wounded by the fact that hours of work has just disappeared....

OK

Right, I'm back. Without writing the entire post again, I will say that I settled on the basic vanilla cupcake recipe in a book called 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Initially I wasn't bowled over by the cake as although it had a great texture, I thought it had an unpleasant aftertaste. One of my tasting committee members (thank you Sarah) suggested I add a filling to combat that. With a few tweaks on the ingredients and a choice of a Victoria Plum Jam or Raspberry Jam centre the cakes came out quite nicely. 

To be honest I was surprised as I am a bit skeptical. I would go as far to say that I will bake them again just because they tasted so good!

The toppers - and Anna is German by the way!

I made some Gerbera flowers as toppers. As it turns out sugar flower paste has egg in it so after all of my efforts some of the cakes weren't 100% legit. I didn't realise that until it was too late - vegan cooking is really challenging! 

I did try and compensate by using icing sheets which are gluten and dairy free as some of the toppers so it wasn't a complete flop.

My attempt at German...

Overall, a success. Vegan cupcakes can be genuinely tasty, who'd have thought??

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