Liz had a birthday. These pictures make me happy. I must confess: I had a hell of a day yesterday. In a past life, I was a bit more of a worrywart than I am now. It's taken a lot of mental training and conscious self-awareness to be rid of that habit, but everybody has those days sometimes. You know what I mean: the shit has hit the fan and you're stuck in a place that requires you to hold your shit together until you punch out. That was me yesterday: like someone threw a Mentos in a 2-liter of Sprite and I couldn't twist the cap off until the end of the day. I made the end of the day come early and headed out for my post-workout shakeout run to just breathe. Another confession: when I get tired, I get weepy. Yeah, I'm like a 4 year-old. And I was exhausted from holding my shit together the whole day, so I battled that lump-in-the-throat waterworks feeling a few times out there. Every time I hit one of these patches, I did the Grateful Exercise: fill your mind with something really awesome in your life. Most usually, my thoughts gravitate toward people and the simple things. These pictures do a pretty good job of bringing those thoughts from my brain to your eyes.
Oh yeah, and I made cupcakes.
Aren't they pretty?
Fresca Ninja tasted these at a sidewalk cupcake party post-Monday Night Run. She thanked me the next day for the very sexy dream that she had about this hott little thing the previous night. I wonder if Spooner (her bf) knows about this? These things are good. Better than good. You need to make them. And if you like things a little extra wild, double the cayenne.
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup sweet white rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup Stevia in the Raw
3/4 cup coconut cugar
3 chia eggs (3 tbsp ground chia seed mixed with 6 tbsp hot water)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup butternut squash puree
2/3 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup water (or nondairy milk)
1 tsp vanilla
For the icing:
1 ripe avocado
6 oz creamed coconut
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees; line cupcake pan with liners and prepare your chia eggs. Set the eggs aside to work their gelatinous magic. Whisk dry ingredients in a medium bowl, and set aside. Combine wet ingredients in food processor until well combined very well combined. Add the dry ingredient mixture about 1/2 cup at a time, pulsing as you go. Be careful not to overmix, as you'll wind up with dense little cupcake bricks. (I'm horrible about this.) Fill your cupcake tin and bake 17-19 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean, turning the pan halfway through.
While the cupcakes bake, prepare the frosting: Peel the avocado and remove the seed. Combine the creamed coconut and avocado in the food processor (or with a hand mixer) until well combined. While the processor is running, slowly add the honey. Continue to process for 1-2 minutes and then add the powdered sugar. Continue to process the frosting an additional 2 minutes or so. It may require less whipping time with a hand mixer since the processor blade doesn't do quite the whipping magic of the mixer.
Allow cupcakes to cool before frosting. I made a poor man's frosting bag with a pair of scissors and a ziploc baggie. It did the job, but we know Martha would be disappointed. I also regret not putting in another 1/4 tsp of cayenne in the batter. I was hoping for a bit more of a kick, but if you're afraid of the spice, follow the recipe as written. I saved a couple of these for Liz and VinoVino, but sitting on the counter, they were in too much danger of being shoveled into my black hole of a belly, so into the freezer they went. They kept well for a week in the freezer. The vivid green of the frosting had dulled the slightest bit, but the kick of the spices are enough so that you'd hardly notice.
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