For the past year I worked at a healthy food cafe as a barista during the times I was not working on my own cake business/youtube channel, and as much as I’ve loved working there, being surrounded by great people, great food, and lovely lattes, I’ve decided it’s time to move on to new things and start a new chapter in my life. The healthy food cafe was revolved around being plant-based and having no refined sugars or grains, so I challenged myself to create a dessert with those values in mind. I ended up creating a vegan, healthy, turmeric spiced cupcake, that I think is preeettty good, especially because it is vegan and healthy.

Whenever I experiment with vegan baking I feel out of my element. I’m pretty hesitant and uncertain, but when it all works out I’m pretty happy with the results, and the reward is that much better. I based these cupcakes off of a turmeric latte we had, with turmeric, cinnamon, and black pepper. I completed these cupcakes with some coconut oil, almond milk, and chia seeds — things that are often used at the cafe. I find the biggest challenge in vegan baking is the texture, and the taste. Texture is hard to nail when you have to swap out the fats, milks, and rising agents (eggs), but there is always a way. I decided to use coconut oil, almond milk, and chia seeds to replace the eggs, but kept the light and fluffy texture by using baking soda and vinegar. I was also hesitant to use all-purpose flour, so instead I used some healthier alternatives such as rye flour and almond flour.

When it came time to think about the frosting, all the research that I did led me to vegan butter-based recipes, and I have never seen vegan butter in my life. So I decided to whip something up from scratch and hope for the best. I used a mixture of coconut oil and cocoa butter to create more of a neutral blend of fat (since each oil on their own can be quite overpowering), and then for flavour I added maple syrup as a sweetener, and lemon juice for the familiar tanginess when you eat cream cheese frosting. Let’s just say I’m super proud of this healthy vegan cream cheese frosting.

Anyways, in the end I was super happy with the cupcakes — it’s flavour really reminded me of carrot cake without the carrots, which really makes me want to make these again with shredded carrots. My coworkers all said they loved the cupcakes, and I am left with mixed emotions as I think about moving onto new things in life, as I always do.

Here is the recipe: