Tuesday 14 March 2017

RECIPE | Unicorn Cupcakes [VEGAN].

Why not impress your friends with these delectable, vegan friendly unicorn cupcakes? Too cute to pass up!


I'm pretty certain that if you make anything pastel coloured and name it after the great mythical creature that is the unicorn, it becomes infinitely cooler. Now, in my eyes, cake is pretty cool already, however, stick some multi-coloured, pastelised icing on there as an ode a unicorn and you've got some seriously next level shit. So next level that I fear it would be cruel of me to not share this with the world. 

For the cupcakes, I used a good ol' vanilla sponge base, you can make this coloured to add to the badass unicorn theme, however, make sure you use a colouring that is bake stable (most off-the-shelf liquids aren't) and if you're going to use pink or purple, watch out for that sneaky E120 if you want to keep it vegan. 

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
(makes approx 12 large cupcakes)

Cupcakes:
♥ 220g self raising flour
♥ 200g caster sugar
♥ 200ml plant milk ( I use soy)
♥ 20ml cider vinegar
♥ 80ml oil
♥ 1/4 tsp baking powder
♥ 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
♥ 1/4 tsp salt
♥ 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Icing:
♥ 50g vegan margarine
♥ 50g vegetable shortening (I use Trex)
♥ 600g icing sugar (sifted)
♥ 1 tbsp vanilla extract
♥ plant milk (enough to get your desired texture)
♥ liquid/gel food colouring (I used red, blue, yellow and purple)

You will also need sandwich bags, clingfilm and a piping bag with whatever nozzle you like (I used a star nozzle) and unicorn inspired decorations - I used stars and edible glitter.

WHAT TO DO:

♥ Preheat the oven to 180 and prepare a muffin tray with cake cases.
♥ Place the plant milk and cider vinegar in a jug and leave to curdle whilst you gather your other ingredients.
♥ Place the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix through.
♥ Add the plant milk/vinegar mix, oil and vanilla extract to the dry ingredients and quickly mix until combined with a metal spoon - you need to work fast because as soon at the wet meets the dry the raising agents will start to react with the vinegar.
♥ Once mixed scoop into the cake cases, again working as quickly as your can.
Place in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes or until you can poke with a skewer and it comes out clean - *VEGAN CAKE PERK* due to the lack of egg in the mix you can safely lick the bowl without any risk of getting sick, now if that's not a reason to try vegan cake I don't know what is!
♥ Once cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool.
♥ To prepare the icing place the vegan margarine, trex and vanilla extract in a bowl and gradually add the icing sugar, beating well to combine. You can also gradually add some plant milk in order to reach your desired icing consistency.
♥ Once mixed, divide the icing into bowls (the number depends on how many colours you wish to create).
♥ Gradually add the food colouring to each bowl and mix well until you reach the desired pastel hue. 
♥ Once you have the pastel icing mixed up, transfer each colour into it's own sandwich bag and lay a strip of clingfilm down on your work space.
♥ Snip the corner off each bag and squeeze each colour in a horizontal line next to each other along the clingfilm - just like this.
♥ The roll the clingfilm up and twist the ends as though you were making a icing sausage. You can then place this in the your piping bag, using the end of the clingfilm to pull the icing into the nozzle. 
♥ Snip the twist off the clingfilm and you're good to go.
♥ Now ice and decorate to your hearts content!

My General Life - Unicorn Cupcakes Vegan

A perk of using the clingfilm is that the inside of your piping bag should be fairly clean - which is great because I'm lazy and this recipe creates enough washing up as it is!

Although it's a little arduous having to mix all the different coloured icing up, this method is so effective for creating a gorgeous looking cupcake that tastes delicious too!

Let's start a conversation:
I'd love to see your unicorn creations, so if you whip these up yourself please share any photos with me either on Twitter (@_hellojordan) or Instagram (@_hellojordan).