Vegan Blackberry Frozen Yogurt

I've been on an ice cream kick lately. I'm sorry if this is unseasonal for you, but it's been almost uncomfortably warm here the past couple weeks. My biggest pet peeve with Gainesville is that it goes from winter to summer almost overnight (and the same with summer to winter)! Oh how I miss spring and autumn...



But the warm weather means I can finally bust out with my ice cream maker! I got this for my birthday back in October. And by "I got it", i really mean I ordered it on Amazon in October, and didn't receive it at my doorstep until Christmas, at which time it was much too cold to play with it. So I put it away in the back of the cupboard and the back of my mind and patiently awaited the glorious day in which I could make my own ice cream.



And my patience has been rewarded.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups blackberry juice*
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2/3 cup grenadine**
1 1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt

*I squeezed fresh blackberries through a strainer to get blackberry juice. I'm not sure where you can buy it straight up like that. You can substitute cranberry or pomegranate (or any other dark fruit juice) if you don't feel like going through the hassle of squeezing blackberries. Just make sure it's 100% real juice!

**I just used simple cherry grenadine because that's what I had on hand, but you can make a fruit syrup to replace it by simmering fruit juice over a burner until it has reduced down to 2/3 cup.

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan, heat juice and sugar and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Take off heat and add lemon juice. Stir.

Pour into a bowl and add soy yogurt and grenadine. Mix well. Chill in refrigerator for about three hours. Then add to ice cream maker and let it do its thing!

Vegan Blackberry Spice Cupcakes

I know there's been a lot of cupcakes on this blog so far, but fall/winter is a time of plentiful birthdays, so I've been making a lot of them for friends. There's some history behind these cupcakes that I'd like to share with you.

Every year, I have a giant feast where I make a wonderfully decadent five-course meal in which I invite my closest friends, and the cake is the grand finale of the meal. At one such dinner, one of my friends who sat at the opposite head of the table from me, had been blown away by each course, just sat in total amazement with each bite he took.

When the cake came out, he just couldn't contain himself any longer. He started talking about how wonderful this cake was, how it was just the best food he had ever tasted. It was hard for him to find words for what he was experiencing. Finally, he came out with it: this cake was interstellar.

These cupcakes are the vegan version of this cake. I have modified this recipe to fit a vegan cupcake format. Hopefully you'll think they're interstellar as well!



This is the mess I make in my kitchen as I cook.



This is after I've hollowed them out.



Here's with the blackberry filling. If you're not a big fan of frosting, you could just eat them this way. They're gorgeous and not too sweet.



Here's the final product sliced down the middle. Recipe below.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) vegan butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup almond milk

12 oz blackberries
1/4 cup sugar

8 oz vegan cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup vegan butter, softened
1 lb powdered sugar

Directions:

In a small bowl, mash the blackberries with a fork until a lumpy liquid is formed. Stir in 1/4 cup sugar and let sit for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, sift dry ingredients together. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix butter and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract.

Mix the flour mixture into the sugar mixture. Then add almond milk and mix until uniform texture is achieved.

Pour into greased muffin tin and bake for about 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into each cupcake comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire cooling rack to let cool completely.

Once cupcakes are cooled completely, cut around the edge of each cupcake at a 45 degree angle about half-way down the cupcake so a cylindrical pyramid shape comes out of the top of each one. Then spoon blackberry mixture into each depression up to the top of the cupcake.

In a medium bowl, mix vegan cream cheese and vegan butter until smooth. Add in confectioner's sugar and mix until incorporated.

Ice the top of each cupcake. Enjoy!