Seduction, My First Venture: Vegan Coconut Lychee Cupcakes

My first foray into Vegan baking began a year ago.  My step-father's birthday was approaching and since I was enjoying my newly Vegan lifestyle of only a few months, I didn't want to slip up and eat traditional cake.  It had been a while since I sank my teeth into a creamy, dreamy, light and airy forkfull of moist crumbs.  Oh cake, why must you be the evil temptress for whom I have no will to overcome?  I needed to avoid this wicked temptation and decided to bring along dessert myself.

Vegan baking was completely new to me.  I was able to easily Veganize many of my meals, substituting tofu (wonderous thing) and seitan (even more wonderous) as the protein source in most of my favorite recipes.  But how was I going to bake a cake sans eggs?!  So, like most others facing a brain racking question, I Googled for an answer.

As other newbie Vegans can surely attest, Vegan baking looked alien and completely overwhelming.  Mind you, I had almost no experience baking a cake from scratch, except for the one recipe my Mom taught me for Flan Cake (a layer of rich decadent Filipino-style Flan nestled on top of a cloud-like sponge cake).  Nope, I was a box mix kinda guy, substituting liquor and exotic fruit juices, and adding pudding mix into the batter in hopes of creating an end product that didn't seem so, well, "box-y."

With all this new information in front of me, I decided to give it a go.  But instead of a full-on cake, I thought I'd ease into it with a cupcake.  Google (bless your webbed heart) steered me towards the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  Upon browsing, I noticed a recipe for Lychee Cupcakes.  Since my parents are from the Philippines, I am fortunate to have been exposed to savoring each bite of the juicy and tantalizingly sweet flesh of the lychee nut.  Lychee cupcakes sounded perfect.  Since I'm not a fan of glazes, I decided to top the cupcakes with a Shredded Coconut Buttercream instead of the recommended Coconut Milk Glaze.  I also made a few more alterations to the original recipe, trying to add more lychee flavor.

Well, it turned out good.  Not great.  But hey, it was my first venture.

Vegan Coconut Lychee Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream Frosting

(Based on Lychee Cupcakes with Coconut Glaze from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups All-Purpose Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Sea Salt

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup Canned Lychees, drain and reserve syrup

3/4 cup Lychee Syrup (reserved from can)

1/4 cup Coconut Milk

1/2 cup Canola Oil

1 cup Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Sift together dry ingredients into a large bowl.  Blend wet ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour wet ingredients into the well, and stir until combined.

Fill cupcake liners with batter 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.  Cool cupcakes on a rack.

Lychee Coconut Buttercream Frosting:

1/4 cup Earth Balance Vegan Margarine

2 cups Powdered Sugar

1/4 cup Lychee Syrup (reserved from can)

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut

Using an electric hand mixer, cream margarine until light and fluffy.  Add powdered sugar in stages.  Mix in  lychee syrup and vanilla.  Lastly, fold in shredded coconut.