Jubjub turned one yesterday! Jubjub is the name for my iguana tattoo. We went to the park with some friends for a pre-Christmas gathering so I decided to make some cupcakes for all my pals (and for Jubjub).
Photo from just under a year ago of a freshly hatched iguana!
(No one tell my parents about Jubjub, please).
The cupcakes were vegan blackforest-esque chocolate cakes stuffed with cherry jam and topped with coconut frosting and fresh cherries. Yum!
Summer is here in Australia! And what a better way to celebrate than cupcakes with your bff!
These are just plain jane vanilla cupcakes with a tropical flourish. I have a pineapple themed silicone ice cube tray that I used as a chocolate mould. I dyed white chocolate with food colouring, and added Flo Coat so that the water-based dye could mix with the oil-based chocolate. I don’t think I added enough Flo Coat though as the chocolate still seized up.
I drove an hour to the next town to eat these with my best friend. A lovely summer’s day! Hooray!
Today we threw a surprise baby shower for my friend Rachel. She loves salted caramel so I decided to make salted caramel filled cupcakes. The tricky part was making vegan salted caramel so our vegan friends had something to eat!
I decided to experiment with coconut cream as it’s quite fatty and would hopefully act like dairy cream. I didn’t stop to think about how strong the coconut taste would be, but it’s actually quite nice in a cake, thankfully.
For the cupcakes, I used a simple vegan vanilla recipe. After letting them cool for awhile, I cut out the middle of each cupcake and scooped a spoonful (or two) of chilled salted caramel filling into the middle. I then topped with a teal frosting made of copha, margarine and icing sugar.
The baby shower went really well and now I am chock full of food!
Coconut Salted Caramel Filling
Ingredients:
270ml can of coconut cream
1 tbsp margarine
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp arrowroot powder
1/2 tsp salt (extra to taste depending on how salty you want it)
Method:
1. In a small saucepan, combine coconut cream, margarine, sugar and essence and bring to boil while stirring constantly.
2. In a separate small bowl, add a small amount of water to arrowroot powder. Slowly add the arrowroot mixture to the caramel mixture while still stirring.
3. Add salt. Lower heat but continue evaporating off liquid until the caramel is quite thick. When it’s just at the thickness you want it, take off heat and allow to cool. Caramel will thicken more as it cools.
4. Serve warm over icecream or chill in the fridge to use to stuff in cupcakes.
Kim Makes Things 