Vegan clementine blueberry cupcakes with candied blueberry compote
Baking as you can tell is something I’ve grown to love. There is something that is to be said about a perfectly chewy cookie, a beautiful cake, or a wonderful sweet flavor combination and during my chef days I probably would of never said that to myself. When your a savory chef you hate baking and for the most part that’s what I used to be like. The patience it takes to bake and the precision it takes to make beautiful pastry is something I never thought I would be able to do. So many bloggers have inspired me to bake beautiful pastry, with fresh ideas, classics, as well as amazing ideas drawn up from some of the most eager imaginations, with this inspiration I’ve even been able come up with my own favorites a long the way. These cupcakes are something I’m extremely proud of.
I made these because vegan baked goods are something I love to toy around with. Tofu Cheese cakes, cupcakes, cookies whenever I can I try to test some out. These are really beautiful. Sure maybe they aren’t regular cupcakes but they are wonderful none the less. I hope if you make them you’ll love them just as much as I did when making them for the Online Bake Sale to Aid Japan put on by thetomatotart.com. Sabrina owner and blogger at Thetomatotart.com and Clemence From France bid on these cupcakes and I’d like to take the time to say thank you so much for your donation. Sabrina is currently in a battle with Paypal to get the funds released and sent to Japan’s Second Harvest food bank. If you have time please click on this link The PayPal Saga, or Let’s Get Some Money To Japan and comment about how horrible it is to be holding these funds that the people of Japan so desperately need.
Clementines (Cuties) are small California mandarins. They are small tart and sweet and one of my very favorite snacks. These cupcakes came to be because I wanted to make My friend Virginia and her boyfriend Jimmy a dessert for Jimmy’s birthday. They both are crazy dieters but they love blueberries so I dreamt up this recipe with them in mind, for a special occasion. Unfortunately our plans fell through that evening and the cupcakes stayed at home, my family and I promptly devoured them anyway, this is one of my sisters new favorite desserts. But these are still something that Virginia would love and they are with her in my heart and mind, I love you dude.
So here’s the recipe I hope you make these and enjoy them as much as I do. You’ve seen these in photos before but here’s how to make them.
Vegan clementine blueberry cupcakes with candied blueberry compote
Ingredients
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 Clementine’s zested
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unrefined raw sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil or canola oil
• 2 Clementine’s juiced
Candied Blueberry compote
• 2 boxes of blueberries
• 2 tablespoons of water
• 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil or vegan margarine
• 2 juiced Clementine
• 1 pinch of Clementine zest
• 1/4- 1/2 cup of raw sugar (depending on your sweet preference and how sweet your berries are)
• 1 tablespoon of corn starch (optional)
The Way
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line with 18 paper baking cups.
In one small bowl add almond milk to it and the apple cider vinegar, the liquid will start to curdle and change into this weird swirly liquid that’s what it’s supposed to do. leave it there for about 5 minutes
In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond milk mixture, Clementine juice, vegetable oil.
Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Then zest Clementine into flour
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.
Spoon or pour the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
Okay so here’s the deal. I tried these like three different ways
1) I put the candied blueberries on the bottom
Result- too mushy from the liquid
2) I put some fresh blueberries on the bottom
Result- not as mushy but still a little mushy
3) I put fresh blueberries on top then pushed them in the batter a little so they were in the middle
Result- they came out probably the best
4) place blueberries on the top
Result- the look like blueberry muffins.
So over all I think the best way to go may be either omit the berries in the cake which I think is no fun. Or put them in the middle of the cake about 4-6 per cake for a little accent of goodness, or on top if you don’t mind berries coming out of the top of your cake.
Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 17 to 20 minutes.
Meanwhile take 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil or vegan margarine and melt it at the bottom of a small pan. Once melted add blueberries, zest, juice, and raw sugar melt and cook about 12-15 minutes till the blueberries are still somewhat intact but almost thickened a bit like jelly, if your berries are not thickening up or you’d like your compote to be thick add water and corn starch together in a separate bowl and combine till the corn starch is dissolved then add it to the blueberries bring to a boil for maximum thickening.
When times up for the cup cakes… you can use the tooth pick method on these also
Cool in the pan set over a wire rack.
Then wait till the mixture of berries is cooled as well. It will thicken more
Put the cooled berries on top of your cooled cupcakes and you got it
depending on how much liquid the berries have is how thick your sauce is going to be you can continue to adjust the thickening by reducing as well if you’d like to omit the corn starch, I’ve made it both ways i like without corn starch but if your cupcakes are going to sit for a while the corn starch might be a good option for you.
Enjoy!