Before I get into the vegan pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing, I’ve got to talk about Halloween and Weight Loss Wednesday. Halloween is tomorrow and I am yet again totally unprepared. I’m terrible at making costumes and dressing up, and September and October have been just flown by because I’ve been so busy. I’ve just started to get my routine back. If you’ve been reading JSA for a while, you’ll know that every Halloween, I volunteer for Meal Exchange in Canada with their program Trick or Eat. Students go house to house collecting food donations to help out food banks.
As a student, I’ve used food banks before. Groceries can get really expensive as a student, and during my undergrad, the Food Bank at the University of Ottawa gave us access emergency food baskets that would last up to three days in a judgement-free space. They didn’t care if you were a student or if you worked at the university, everyone deserves the right to food, and some students have to choose between textbooks and groceries. They shouldn’t have to choose.
Check out this video from Meal Exchange that talks about food security, and the problems with our infrastructure of the food system in Canada.
This year I’m a little late with the fundraising, but hey. Better late than never. If you are in Canada and you have time on Halloween, think of joining some fellow students in Trick or Eat, and if you don’t have time, set aside some non-perishable food items aside to donate either tomorrow night if people come to your house, or just to drop them off sometime. Even non-food-related things are important: diapers, feminine hygiene products, toothbrushes, shampoo, etc. These are all essential items that are expensive.
Please click here or click on the pumpkin below to sponsor me!
Thanks everyone for your support and I hope that you’ll also help out and give some food donations wherever you are!
In other news, today’s theme for Weight Loss Wednesday is the 2 month check in. I’ve only been participating in WLW for about a month because I was a bit late coming in, but this is about my 6 month check in for my overall fitness.
As a I mentioned before, my life is started to finally stop being so ridiculously busy and just being regular busy. I’m starting to get my groove back and I’ve started yoga again after about a month of inconsistent activity. Even after just two days of getting back into yoga, I feel stronger already. My body is so quick to pick up activity again and I feel less bloated, less tired, and a little more confident about myself.
I’ve also returned to eating mostly vegan for the past month or so and it’s really interesting to start to notice the changes from the lack of eggs or dairy. I’m about 90% sure I’m lactose intolerant because last weekend I had some pizza, and my digestive system was not happy. Indigestion, pain, ridiculous gas. As I ate the pizza, I almost immediately regretted it.
So good, but is it worth it?
I don’t know.
As you guys have probably noticed from my last month and a bit of posts, I’m really starting to commit to the vegan diet. I have a feeling that I probably won’t go 100% vegan because I don’t think I could go to family functions without feeling guilty of being some sort of burden to them and also I know I’ll have lapses of really wanting cheese or ice cream. But in the end, I have a feeling that it’s really great for my health in the long run.
My grandfather actually read my palm the other day (for my mom’s sake), and after poking and prodding my hand to look at the lines, he concluded that my health line has changed for the better and that I will also be making lots of money in the future.
I’m not huge on palm reading, but hey, sounds good to me.
This past year of being more conscious of what I’m eating and how often I exercise has really changed me, both inside and out. I didn’t think that I was losing that much weight because I’ve stayed around the 153 lb mark fairly consistently for the past 6 months, but one of Clara’s friends mentioned that I looked significantly smaller.
O.O
Okay. Cool. If the jeans fit better (which now that I’m thinking about it, they do) that’s all good to me.
To see what my other WLW friends are up to, click the links below!
NOW, finally to these cupcakes. I was afraid that because I used Daiya cheese that these would taste funny. I could taste the Daiya-ness of them, but I kind of liked it. I mean cream cheese frosting essentially tastes like cream cheese, but with the vanilla and pumpkin spice, this frosting was amazing. Even my non-vegan classmates loved it! One of my classmates generally doesn’t like cupcakes, but she said because the icing wasn’t too sweet she liked it so much that she used the bottom half of the cupcake to mop up the extra frosting on my containers, Greek-style.
Sounds good to me! =P
Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!
Vegan Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup vegan butter (like Earth Balance)
- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 6 tbsp almond milk (or other milk alternative)
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp pumpkin spice
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- FOR THE ICING:
- 1/2 cup dairy-free cream cheese (I used Daiya)
- 1/2 cup vegan butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar (add more if you like it sweeter)
- 1 tsp clear vanilla flavouring (regular vanilla extract is okay too, it just won't be as white)
- a pinch of pumpkin spice.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ªF
- Cream together the butter and sugar.
- Add the pumpkin puree, milk, and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
- Sift in pumpkin spice, baking powder, flour, and salt and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Divide among lined cupcake pans and fill 2/3 full (they poof up a lot).
- Bake for about 12 minutes if you're baking mini cupcakes, 15-16 minutes if you're baking regular sized cupcakes. To test that they're ready, use a cake tester/toothpick to poke in the middle. They're ready when moist crumbs cling to the stick as you pull it out or when it comes out clean.
- Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
- To make the frosting, whip the cream cheese, vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla flavouring and pumpkin spice together until light and fluffy. Transfer to a piping bag and ice the cupcakes. Keep refrigerated because it'll spread at room temperature because I reduced the amount of powdered sugar.
Kristin says
Love!! Always interesting to see the food infrastructures in other countries.
As always, ty for the awesome content & pics!
Pinned!
K-
Tessa says
I’ve recently begun to explore the possibility of going vegan, and I find it pretty overwhelming. I love your recipes: they help me to figure out what I should be subbing in for what. I wonder if you have thought about switching out white granulated sugar for coconut/date sugar or other sweeteners? I’m not a very experienced baker, and I try to steer clear of white sugar as much as possible. Do you know if that switcharoo makes a big difference in baked goods?
Lisa Mai says
Thanks Tessa! I’m glad there are other people exploring veganism along with me =) Typically, you can swap any type of sugar for another as long as it’s in the same state, i.e. granulated date sugar for white granulated sugar, or agave nectar for honey. So liquid for liquid and granulated for granulated should be fine. Also be aware of how the flavour of the sugar will affect the baked good. Sometimes its better, sometimes it’s not. The only other thing you should consider is that some sugars are sweeter than others. I haven’t used anything but turbinado sugar, which I have found is not quite as sweet as white granulated.
Lisa Mai says
Sorry, I keep doing that. 350F. I didn’t make the recipe with regular sized cupcakes but if I were to make an educated guess about 14 cupcakes because I ended up making about 36 mini cupcakes.
Marilyn says
I noticed that the ingredients, sugar and butter were omitted from directions of the cupcake batter. I am baking them now and fingers crossed that they are still needed!
Lisa Le says
Hi Marilyn, not sure what you mean. The first step is to cream the butter and sugar?
Elle Magnuson says
Hi Lisa,
Your cupcakes look awesome!
I’m just wondering if you know of good vegan icing as well?
Lisa Le says
Hi Elle,
The icing in this recipe is actually vegan =)
Christina says
These look great! Are they fluffy like a cupcake or more dense like a muffin?
Lisa Le says
Fluffy =)
Lucas says
Where is the oven temperature?
Lisa Le says
Hi Lucas, sorry I answered in a previous comment but never actually put it in the recipe cause I’m a doofus. Its 350F =)
Mariah says
I just made these and they were delicious! It made about 10 full size cupcakes and they had to be cooked for 23 minutes.
Lisa Le says
Glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for leaving your experience, it’ll definitely help others!
Miranda says
Hi there,
I’m from the UK so names of things are slightly different I think. What sort of flour did you use? Was it plain flour etc? Or self raising?
Thanks!
Lisa Le says
Hi! It was just all purpose flour :)
Zuzu says
I was purely a chocolate dessert fan until I made these. They are delicious! I usually get 12 cupcakes. The person who said 23 minutes…that sounds close. I have made them 3x already. Once I had to throw them out because the canned organic pumpkin had grit in it. Sad!!! I use a different brand now. I’m back here making them again today, and again for Thanksgiving which is in 2 days. Thank you for sharing this!
CW says
I made this recipe with some minor adjustments and my kids and I liked them!.
I made these using left over roasted pumpkin and a stevia/ brown sugar mix. You only need half as much to get the sweetness with that mix. I also used fibre enriched self-raising rather than plain flour. But I still used 1/4 teasp baking powder. I used olive butter and the spices I used were 1/4 tsp all spice/ 1 tsp cinnamon as a simple substitute as I’m in Australia and pumpkin spice is rare.