I will admit to dragging my birthday out each year for so much longer than the one day that it pretty much turns into a birthday week. This year’s birthday week began with the Healthy Oatmeal Pancakes I posted a few days ago, and it continued to include a family dinner, Thai food and after-dinner drinks with friends, and a trip to the famed Sprinkles Bakery for birthday cupcakes.
A few days ago, my friend Sarah treated me to birthday cupcakes to-go from Sprinkles. It was my first time at the bakery, and I was super excited to try their vegan red velvet cupcakes. (Sarah ordered chocolate marshmallow.) The cupcake was pretty good… I thought the frosting was extremely over-the-top sweet, but I liked the actual cake. And thus the Sprinkles cupcakes inspired today’s creation:
Healthy red velvet cupcakes!
Note: the red velvet cupcakes in the photos are frosted with my Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting, which I swirled onto each cupcake with a piping bag. If you don’t have a piping bag, you can use a plastic bag with a small piece of one corner cut off. Or just spread the frosting onto the cupcakes. I am partial to cream cheese frosting on red velvet cupcakes, but feel free to use any other frosting recipe if you wish.
Healthy Red Velvet Cupcakes
- 1/2 cup spelt or all-purpose flour (or Bob’s gf plus 1/4 tsp xanthan gum)(65g)
- 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (15g) (not Dutch)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup xylitol or sugar of choice (90g)
- handful mini chocolate chips, optional
- 1/4 cup mayo-style spread, such as Vegenaise (58g)
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup beet juice (60g)
- 2 tbsp water (30g)
- 1 tsp natural red food coloring, optional if you want them redder than the ones in the photos
Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a muffin tin with 6 liners (or double the recipe for 12). In a large bowl combine first 5 ingredients (and chips, if using). Sift very well. In a separate bowl combine remaining ingredients and whisk until the mayo spread is completely smooth. Now pour wet into dry and stir until just combined. Immediately pour the batter into the pan (about 2/3 full each) and bake 14 minutes, after which time cupcakes should have risen and domed. Let sit 10 minutes to cool before removing from the mufin tin.
Any of the following mayonnaise spreads will work in this recipe: Earth Balance Mindful Mayo, low-fat or regular Vegenaise, or homemade cashew mayonnaise… Although I can’t vouch for every single mayo spread out there, the recipe should be fine as long as your mayo includes lemon juice or vinegar and a fat source such as oil or cashews. If you are using homemade mayo, I recommend omitting any onion powder and mustard that might be called for in the recipe.
View Red Velvet Cupcakes Nutrition Facts
And below, the real Sprinkles vegan red velvet cupcakes that inspired today’s recipe:
Questions of the Day:
How did you celebrate your most recent birthday? Or how are you planning to celebrate your next one? Anyone else like to drag out their birthdays to last all week?
Link of the Day: Crustless Pumpkin Pie
I didn’t know that Sprinkles had vegan cupcakes!! And you are looking absolutely GORGEOUS in that photo at the bottom- share more pictures with us, you’re stunning! 🙂
Aw thanks 🙂
Hey! 🙂
I have wanted to make you a question flr a while… In some recipes, you say things, such as:
– 3 tbsp. Oats (15g)
– 1/2 cup flour (180g)
Isn’t one tbsp. oats 15g y itself? In all the places I have checked, they agree it is 15g per tbsp, so I don’t get it. The same happens w/ the flour… Isn’t ONE cup 180g? I mean, when you put the measurements in there, maybe you are saying the grams of the whole measure tool (cup, tbsp, tsp.) and not the ones meant for the quantity the recipe requires? I wouldn’t say you’d do that, but I don’t know… I have actually been held from making some recipes ‘cuz I don’t know the reason of such a big difference, so I just step away in fear it might go wrong…
Also… Go on with being awesome lol! Loove your recipes, I have tried loads of them and most have gone well (just not the coconut butter – this kills me a bit everyday I see a recipe of yours with it, for they are all overwhelming!, or breakfast cookie dough – the latter had a texture I just could not handle).
The hot chocolate is just the best I have ever had. When I were a kid, I would go to a hot chocolate place and it tasted just THE SAME! Cool, because it closed and I am desperate to taste my childhood LOL
The resee’s peanut butter eggs, cookie dough dip (although I knew what it had and so it got in disadvantage) and pb cookie dough balls, as well as the chocolate frosting, the 5min oatmeal and the cookie dough baked oatmeal were all damn great. The cookie dough dip could not be swallowed so easily for me lol, maybe just because I am not so into cookie dough (really, what’s up with America and uncooked goodies? Damn, people in here don’t even know what it is, the first time I knew that was a few months ago = what the hell, who eats raw cookies? LOL)
Oh, and the ultimate chocolate pie is on the fridge right now, begging to be tried (and devoured). I made the vegan whipped cream to top it, buut it looks like roughly mashed potatoes (not creamy mashed potatoes, smashed-by-hand-making-a-tower-in-your-plate-and-being-lumpy-just-to-joke-meanly-at-your-disappointed-face mashed potatoes!) and I am kind of sad because the pie looks awesome and cool and delicious but has puree on the top D: I think I ruined it. The agar basis was just fine! Was it because it was done with soy milk (yep, soy milk. The yellow soy milk wich has the colour of a potato. GREAT.) ? Or because I tried it before it was on the fridge? (Please please pleeeease!)
Anyways, sorry for the ranting really. I just wanted to ask for tips for solving my cook problems, give you some feedback and tell you how I loooove your blog! Really, it is great, so keep it up 😉 you are making me (as you teached me vegan isn’t boring and made me take a closer closer look at the life of someone who is vegan, happy and not obsessed – some vegans are kind of rude for non-vegans) reduce my animal products intake!
Oh and congratulations for always having a smile, you look really cute (is this odd? Just to say, despite those who make critics, you are talented, an awesome cooker and also pretty 😉 )
OOOH I am really sorry for the speech, I really did not mean to! 🙁
For some reason my 1st comment doesn’t show up in my computer as it does now (tablet)… Just warning in case there are problems with the website… Can you actually see it?
Ohhh and now I just got it, it days it’s “awaiting moderation”. It is problem due to its large nature lol… Sorry! (And I have to apologize again for the rapping, I do not want to bore you…) 😉
Hi,
I’m not sure what you mean. This recipe lists flour as 65 grams and does not call for oats.
I was not talking about this very recipe, but I felt like I should comment in this one, not only because it was in several posts, but also because I din’t know if you would answer to comments on older posts, for I have already seen many unanswered comments in older posts… I am sorry if it was inconvenient! 🙂
I think what you mean is that sometimes in recipes it will call for… let’s say 1 cup of flour and she may list that as 145 grams, but the measurement on the actual flour would say 120 grams = 1 cup. Is that what you are getting at? If so, I think that’s the beauty of sharing ingredient weights. Most of us don’t sift our flour or fill the cups perfectly so the standard American measurement in cups/tbsp/etc won’t be as accurate.
This is a pretty good explanation for the reasoning behind it: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/dining/tipping-the-balance-for-kitchen-scales.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 But long story short, in experiments it’s been shown that one baker may use twice as much flour in what they deem as a “cup” just from the way that they scoop it.
Sorry if I’m stepping on your toes Katie. I just saw the comment and (at least I thought) could relate and provide some insight. 🙂
That is basically it, but I was not sure of that, once the grams she lists are exactly what people say to be the single unit (eg – 3 tbsp flour, 15g, when most people say 15 grams is ONE tbsp…) I just did not get that part, for it happened several times. i was wondering if that is just a coincidence or the parentesis include the 1 cup/tbsp/… content in grams, despite the amount the recipe requires). Btw, I am sorry for the no use of abvs, that is just because the ‘ is hard to reach and I get lazy, so that happens to make me sound fancy lol, just saying because it might look snob or something 😛
Looks amazing! Hope you’ve been enjoying your birthday!
xx
youngmildandfree.wordpress.com
That’s a beautiful frosting swirl on top of those cupcakes! I hate it when cupcakes are too overloaded with sweet frosting – yuck! I’m not big on my own birthday celebrations but I love to go over the top celebrating others’!
You are reminding me I never actually got any cake in celebration of my recent birthday. That’s gonna change!
I am so happy to see you are including the Gluten Free option on so many of your recipes. I don’t have celiac, but am very sensitive to gluten. I initially started following your blog for your sugar free cookies, after I was diagnosed with diabetes. I continue to follow it, and try many of the recipes because they are healthy and so tasty.
THANK YOU!!!!!!
How funny my birthday is actually today! I’ll totally have to make these soon, have a good birthday whenever it is!
happy birthweek katie!!! these cupcakes look so good (i might have to make them… NOW!)
i was wondering if you’ve ever had cinnamon ice cream. i looked through the ice cream category and didn’t find it… maybe post a healthy recipe?? (*cough cough*) its really good but what i’ve tried isn’t vegan. 🙁
Maybe just add cinnamon to my regular ice cream recipe? I love your idea for cinnamon ice cream… if you don’t try it first, I might :).
I’m wondering if a pomegranate juice, like POM, would work in place of the beet juice since it’s so much easier to get….
Great idea. I didn’t have either, but I had a can of tart cherries, so I used that juice and put a cherry in the middle of each cupcake before baking. Happy Valentine’s Day!
For my last birthday (my 12th birthday), my parents only took me to dinner to my favorite restaurant to eat tacos. And then, 2 days later, I had my birthday celebration. This time with cake, family, and friends! And cake. (Did I mention there was cake?). LOL. But… that was 11 months ago. 😀 My next birthday is in less than a month! And I have a feeling it’ll involve a healthy cake recipe… 😉
P.S. I love your blog, Katie. 🙂