Chef Chloe's Ginger Nutmeg Spice Cupcakes~!

And again, I want to share another of Chef Chloe's amazing vegan recipe!

In her book, this is called Chloe's Award-Winning Ginger Nutmeg Spice Cupcakes.

I love spices so I really wanted to make this and try how it tasted! In her cookbook, she has a date caramel sauce for this, which I didn't make. I also made my own frosting. If you want the original recipe, please support her cookbook! It has 125 recipes inside, and although she's well-known for winning Cupcakes War, the savoury recipes in her cookbook are really interesting and delicious! There's even a cookie recipe for your dog~!

I think Chef Chloe is such a sweet girl~ She's my idol!!!!

So, anyway, I'm going to share with you the recipe for the basic spice cupcakes and also the recipe for my own frosting. Enjoy!!!

Ingredients (Makes 6):

- 85g all-purpose flour
- 2g baking powder
- 1g baking soda

- 2g ground ginger

- 2g ground nutmeg

- 1g ground cloves

- 1g ground cinnamon

- 2g salt

- 65g sugar
- 55g pumpkin puree, canned or cooked fresh
- 55g coconut milk, mixed well before measuring
- 23g canola oil
- 4g white or apple-cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 175℃. Line a 6-cup cupcake pan with 6 cupcake liners.

2. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk in sugar.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, coconut milk, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.

4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk until just combined. Do not overmix.

5. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.

Date Caramel
- 2 medjool dates
- 55g maple syrup
- 10g water
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Place dates in a small saucepan with water to cover, and bring to a gentle boil. Let the dates boil gently for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water until cool to the touch. Peel the dates with your fingers and discard the skin.

2. Remove the pits and coarsely chop the dates. Place in a blender; add maple syrup, water, and cinnamon. Blend until smooth. Refrigerate until chilled.

Vanilla Frosting
- 25g cold vegan vanilla whipping cream (I used Toppin' Pride)

1. Beat on high until light and fluffy~! Refrigerate until ready to use.

To assemble the cupcakes, spread a thin layer of the frosting on the Spice Cupcakes and drizzle with the Date Caramel.

Enjoy~!

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Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge

My boyfriend had a mad craving for chocolates so I really wanted to make him something really good!

For all my chocolate recipes, I always only use Belcolade chocolate chips. I started using it because they were the only vegan chocolate chips I could find with only cacao and sugar as its ingredients. But now I love them for a different reason. They taste so wonderful! They are the best chocolate I've ever tasted!

This is super easy to make and you can finish making them in less than half an hour, but you have to chill them in the fridge before they're ready, so take note of this! If you want to give your friends a nice chocolatey gift, you have to make this one night before! ^^

And, and!!! I want to credit Chef Chloe for this recipe! Her original recipe uses more sugar, semi-sweet chocolate chips and walnuts. I changed it a little because my boyfriend likes dark chocolate, and I only have hazelnuts on hand. ^^" So I guess mine has a slightly more mature flavour. If you like sweet chocolates, just use semi-sweet chocolate chips and 15g more powdered sugar~! ^^

Ingredients (Makes 25 tiny squares): 

- 165g coconut milk
- 285g dark chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla paste/extract
- 30g cocoa powder
- 30g powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup toasted hazelnuts

1. Line an 8-inch square pan with foil or parchment paper so that it covers all sides and hangs over the edges of the pan.

2. In a small saucepan, heat coconut milk over medium heat until the first sign of boiling. Add chocolate chips and reduce heat to low. Let cook, stirring occasionally, until all chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Add the chocolate mixture and beat until all ingredients are incorporated and fudge batter is smooth.

4. Stir in hazelnuts.

5. Spread the fudge evenly into the prepared pan. Cover tightly with foil and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Bring to room temperature and cut into squares the size you like to serve.

Random, but my crazy boyfriend asked with a straight face why I put chickpeas into my chocolate fudge and that I was very creative and healthy to do that. 

He's an idiot. hahahahaha! 

So, maybe it's a better idea to have roughly chopped, toasted walnuts in your chocolate fudge, so that you give your boyfriend no chance to ask silly questions like that. Haha!

He loves my chocolate fudge. It's a happy thing to see him eat them piece after piece! Hohoho!

Where to buy:

1. Belcolade Dark Chocolate Chips

Really easy to use and so flavourful. I always buy the dark chocolate one with only cacao and sugar as its ingredients. :) Bought them from ToTT at Dunearn Road. 

Shepherd's Pie in a Jar! (and bonus lava cake in a jar recipe!)

My boyfriend made my dream come true by purchasing tickets to Universal Studios for not only me and him, but my favourite nephew!

It was a really special day for me (he even got us express passes!) and I was really happy, so I made all of us shepherd pies...in jars for easy carrying! ^^ 

This recipe is all-vegan, and I was actually a little bit nervous if my 7-year-old nephew would even eat it because the whole jar is basically filled with vegetables! I know some children hate vegetables. However, my favourite nephew finished it all! He also said it was very very delicious. He really gobbled it up. I was so happy!!! Hahahaha! 

The boyfriend finished it up too. I'm still so happy when I think about this. I want to get married soon and become a mother! Haha!

My mashed potato for the shepherd's pie has cauliflowers mixed in, and so, isn't too carbohydrates-dense! You can't taste the cauliflowers at all. They didn't even know there was cauliflower inside. Haha!

As like all savoury food dishes, it's very easy to modify this recipe. If you love vegetables, just put in any kind of vegetable you like. If you absolutely have to eat meat, you can put in some seafood or any meat you fancy. You can make your fillings spicier or non-spicy or maybe with cream sauce. It's really all up to you. Mine isn't a very traditional shepherd's pie... I didn't even bake it them actually...but oh well, it's delicious and cute!!!! Everything in a jar is cute! I've been making lava cakes in a jar too! No pictures, but if you need the recipe...oh ok! I will just do a quick one at the end of this post! ^^

Ingredients (Makes 4 small jars):

- 2 russet potatoes
- 1/3 cup cauliflower florets
- freshly ground pepper
- 3 teaspoons salt
- nutritional yeast (optional)

- 1/2 tbsp of olive or vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
- 1 cup of frozen mixed vegetables

- 1 celery stalk, finely chopped

- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 6 pieces of shiitake mushrooms, washed and sliced/chopped
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- freshly ground pepper

1. In a pot of heavily salted water, boil cauliflower till they are soft (about 15 minutes). Remove with a sieve and drain. Break cauliflower into smaller pieces. Pour 50ml of this water into a seperate bowl/cup and put it aside.

2. Using the same pot of water (you may have to add in more water now), boil potatoes until they are tender when pierced with a fork (about 20 to 30 minutes). Remove from pot, run them under cold water, peel the potatoes with your hand, and dry the peeled potatoes with a paper towel. Break them into pieces.

3. In a mixing bowl, throw in the cauliflower and potatoes and beat it with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy. You can also mash it with a fork/potato masher manually. Season with pepper, salt and nutritional yeast.

4. In a medium-sized pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and frozen vegetables and cook, stirring constantly, until softened (about 5 minutes).

5. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute.

6. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are slightly browned.

7. Stir in the 50ml of water you have used to cook the cauliflower earlier, tomato paste, and cook, stirring, until the liquid has almost evaporated, about 3 minutes.

8. Season with salt and pepper.

9. Divide the vegetable mixture into 4 empty jars. Each jar should be 3/4 full. Spoon the mashed potato-and-cauliflower into each jar on top of the vegetable mixture.

10. You can bake them if you want at 180℃ for 10 minutes. Be careful of the hot jars when taking out from the oven!

BONUS RECIPE!

Picture not mine. This is microwave chocolate lava cakes from another blog. Check out its recipe here! The jars that I used are about this size too though! ^^

VEGAN LAVA CAKE (Makes 2 small jars):

Dry ingredients:
- 65g all-purpose flour
- 65g sugar
- 15g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2g baking soda
- pinch of salt

Wet ingredients:
- 115g soymilk
- 55g canola oil
- 10g white or apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract/ paste

Other ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons vegan semisweet chocolate chips 
- powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 200℃. Lightly grease your jars.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients.

4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix until just combined. Do not overmix.

5. Fill each jar 1/4 full. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of chocolate chips of the batter in the center. Fill the jars with more batter until 3/4 full or slightly less than that.

6. Place the open jars on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 12~15 minutes.

7. Remove the whole tray for oven. Wait for jars to cool down before handling them. Be careful they'll be really hot! Dust powdered sugar over your lava cake if you want to. Screw on the cap and they're ready to be given away as gifts for your loved ones! ^^

Sea Salt and Vinegar Double Potato French Fries

Hi!!!!

I spotted delicious-looking russet potatoes in the supermarket the other day, so I bought 5 home, wanting to make delicious food using potatoes! I've never made fries before can you believe it?? But when I saw the oven-baked fries in Chef Chloe's cookbook, I really wanted to try them!

I also spotted some purple sweet potatoes in the kitchen, so I tried to make fries with them too! They were so delicious!!!! They have this naturally sweet taste! So awesome!


Ingredients (serves 2):

- 1 large russet potato, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch fries

- 2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch fries

- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

- sea salt

- malt vinegar for drizzling (I actually used my trusty Apple Cider Vinegar for this though! Haha!)

- tomato ketchup (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 200℃. Lay a baking tray with parchment paper.

2. Submerge potato sticks in cold water and let soak for 15 minutes.

3. Drain potato sticks and pat dry thoroughly with a paper towel.

4. Transfer potato sticks to the prepared parchment paper-covered tray and drizzle with enough oil to lightly coat each stick. Season with salt and bake for 30 minutes, or until evenly browned with crispy edges. Turn potato sticks with spatula/chopsticks at the 15 minute mark. 

5. Remove from oven and lightly drizzle the vinegar over the fries to taste. Season with more salt to taste and serve with tomato ketchup.

I did this 2 times, once with oil and once without oil.

The one with oil turned out crispier and browner and really fragrant. They were gobbled up by greedy boyfriend and I instantly!

These pictures you see are the 2nd batch without oil. They taste more like baked potatoes. Haha! I think they still taste nice though, but not really like the french fries that we are more familiar with in the fast-food restaurants. 

It was a really delicious and satisfying hot snack on a rainy afternoon! The sweet potatoes were so sweet and delicious! I think it's a great idea to make them into easy-to-eat fries! ^^

I really want you to try them! They are insanely good! My boyfriend couldn't stop complimenting them and wanted more! ^^

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Baked Sprinkle Doughnuts by Chef Chloe!

And...it's another recipe for Chef Chloe's awesome cookbook!

I've always wanted to make baked doughnuts!!!

In my entire 25 years of life, in my house, there has never been deep-frying, so I'm not very good in the deep-frying technique. I can't imagine what people do with the leftover oil after deep-frying, and what a pain it is to clean not only the equipment, but the whole kitchen afterwards. Of course there are deep-fryers now that won't create an oily kitchen, but how many of you have one?? Haha!

I actually didn't make any glaze for my doughnuts because I made chocolate-flavoured ones. Over here, I decided to share Chef Chloe's original recipe though~! ^^ If you want to make my chocolate-flavoured doughnuts, use 140g all-purpose flour and 30g cocoa powder, and add an additional tablespoon of soymilk to this recipe.

I love the flavour of these doughnuts. There is a lot of nutmeg and it makes these baked beauties so doughnutty~ So if you hate nutmeg, be forewarned about this recipe! But if like me, you love the taste of all lovely spices, I've a feeling you will love these doughnuts too~! ^^

Ingredients (Makes 6 doughnuts):

- 170g all-purpose flour

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

- 65g sugar

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 170g soymilk
- 42g canola oil
- 42g white or apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla paste or extract

1. Preheat oven to 180℃. Lightly grease your doughnut pan.

2. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and ground nutmeg.

3. Whisk in sugar and salt.

4. In a separate medium bowl, whisk milk, oil, vinegar and vanilla.

5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk quickly until just combined. Do not overmix.

6. Using a pastry bag or plastic bag with the tip cut, pipe batter into the prepared doughnut pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let sit 5 minutes before unmoulding.

Chocolate Glaze
- 1/8 cup semisweet chocolate chips 
- 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon soymilk
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Old-fashioned Glaze
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon soymilk

Optional Toppings:
- rainbow or chocolate sprinkles,
- chopped toasted almonds,
- shredded coconut,
- mini chocolate chips

To make the Chocolate Glaze:
In a double-boiler or microwave, melt the chocolate chips and milk together. Whisk in powdered sugar until smooth. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes before glazing so that the glaze thickens and any powdered sugar clumps dissolve.

To make the Old-Fashioned Glaze:
In a small bowl, whisk the powdered sugar and milk until smooth.

To assemble doughnuts:
Dip each doughnut into the glaze, covering the top. Twist the doughnut as you remove it from the glaze to give it a nice finish and prevent dripping. Immediately sprinkle the topping onto the glaze and let set.

Hope you like them~! ^^

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Peppermint Iced Cake in a Pot!

That day would be my first day meeting a new friend. He's a vegan and when I think of vegans, I just want to give them something from nature. Hahaha! This image of a potted plant couldn't get out of my head, so I decided to just trust what I have in mind, and make it!!!

I ended up making a mint iced cake that looked like a pot of plant!

This might be a little troublesome to make as it involves 3 different layers, but I assure you, whoever you're making this for, they will be really happy to receive it!

I was looking for containers that looked like flowerpots, and I found these $2 beautiful clay cups from Daiso!!! Very happy!

Now that we have our 'flowerpots', we can start making this delicious iced cakes~! ^^

The ingredients listed here are made for 2 pots! ^^

Bottom Cookie Layer

Ingredients:

- 50g all-purpose flour

- 20g cold vegan butter

- 1 tbsp granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 220℃.

2. Rub butter into flour until its like huge cookie crumbs.

3. Toss in sugar.

4. Transfer to baking dish or tray and bake for 12~15 minutes, until thoroughly baked.

5. Remove from oven. Spoon into 2 pots. This will be your bottom layer! ^^

Brownie Layer

Ingredients:

- 40g vegan chocolate chips

- 24g all-purpose flour

- 7g cocoa powder

- 1/4 tsp baking soda

- 21g brown sugar

- pinch of salt

- 42g soymilk

- 21g oil

- 4g vinegar

- 1 tsp vanilla paste/essence

1. Lightly grease 2 muffin tins and preheat oven to 150℃.

2. Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or microwave oven. To make a double boiler, just place your stainless steel bowl of chocolate chips over a smaller pot of water. Melt over gentle flame.

3. Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking soda.

4. Stir in brown sugar and salt. Mix well.

5. Mix all the wet ingredients (soymilk, oil, vinegar, vanilla essence) together.

6. Mix melted chocolate into wet mixture.

7. Pour dry ingredients into wet and mix gently. Stir until just combined for a tender crumb. Do not overmix.

8. Pour mixture into 2 muffin tins and bake for 18 minutes.

9. Remove brownies from muffin tins and slice brownies into half to make 4 discs of brownies. Put 1 disc on top of the cookie crumb layer in the pot. Do the same for the other pot. 

Peppermint Cream

Ingredients

- 40g vegan whipped cream (about 20g whipping cream)

- 3 drops peppermint essential oil/extract

1. Stir peppermint essential oil/extract into whipped cream.

2. Spoon in whipped cream on the first brownie layer and top the cream with the other brownie disc.

3. Put a plastic wrap over the pots and freeze cakes in freezer until ready for consumption.

These are delicious straight from the freezer! The whipped cream would develop a texture like ice cream, but it would be very light and refreshing. ^^

For a cute touch like mine, get 2 stalks of mint leaves, wash the stalk gently, careful not to wet the leaves. Dry on paper towels. When you're ready to serve, stick a stalk of mint leaves into each pot!

Don't stick on the mint leaves into the pot and place them into the freezer to cool. If you do that, when you take the pots out again, the mint stalk would just flop and will be unable to stand straight and tall!  

Hope whoever you are making this for would love it!!! Thanks for reading~!!! ^^

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