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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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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