Vegan Samoa Cake Pops

This will officially be my first vegan recipe post. I am by no means a vegan (easiest indicator might be the 12 pounds of butter that I keep in my fridge at all times), but there are sometimes requests from friends for recipes, or people who ask if I bake anything that accommodates their dietary restrictions, so I figured it would be good to get a couple recipes in my back pocket for such occasions. I would like to try a couple more vegan recipes, as well as gluten free. Sugar free will be a harder test for me, as I'm really not a fan of artificial sweeteners, but we'll see what I come up with.

For this recipe, I had been thinking about making Samoa cake pops since my Somoa cupcake recipe turned out so well and since I have a new found appreciation for this thing called a cake pop. But as it happened, a couple weeks back, I noticed Trader Joe's started selling coconut oil in the jar. I wondered if I could use that as a butter replacement in baking, even though I hadn't really seen any recipes that called for it (mind you, I don't actively peruse the web for vegan recipes, so I'm sure there are a ton out there that just haven't hit my radar). So yesterday I had these 2 unrelated ideas floating through my mind and decided I might as well try putting them together: Samoa cake pops + vegan. The use of coconut butter seemed like the perfect opportunity since coconut is already a flavor for Samoas. As well, not having much experience with dairy and egg free baking, I was worried about how well a vegan cupcake would present: Would it rise well? Would the crumb hold together or fall apart without eggs? Would it be dry or moist? Not knowing how all these factors would pan out, the idea of being able to smoosh the cake dough into a cake ball did alleviate a lot of my concerns about presentation. In simpler terms, it was a cop out.

But how to make the caramel vegan? I thought this was going to be a big stretch, and after doing a quick search, did not see any recipes out there for a caramel sauce made with anything other than butter and cream. But why not coconut oil and coconut cream? I mean, I'm no scientist, so don't have any reason to back my hypothesis that this might actually work, but I do have the tools and the gall to try it, so I did. I do not recommend making this vegan-ified caramel sauce for your first go-round at making caramel sauce though. There were a couple distinct differences in how it came together that unless you know what to expect, you would probably assume you botched it halfway through (well, at least I did). Most striking "problem" was that once the sugar had browned and I put the coconut oil in, the combination was not what they would literally call a "solution" - the fat floated on top of the sugar in a completely clear, separate layer. Butter usually incorporates itself with the sugar much more uniformly. I thought for a second that maybe there was just too much water to fat ratio in the coconut oil, but knowing that butter actually has a really high water content itself, I figured that wasn't the problem. In any case, since I had already gotten that far, I figured, why not? and dumped the coconut cream in. It reacted similarly enough to how I would expect regular cream to react in that it foamed up violently and I had to whisk it steadily to start incorporating it all. Instead of removing the caramel from the heat like you would if you were using dairy, I continued to cook the sauce over a low heat as I whisked it, as well as scraped the bowl as some of the caramel had simply hardened and was sticking to the whisk and the sides and needed to be re-warmed to soften up again.

After a couple more minutes of whisking and scraping, I decided that most of the sugar had transformed into the soft caramel sauce, but there were still chunks of hardened sugar attached to my whisk and the pan when I was done. I accepted that, and let the sauce cool. I still wasn't sure if it was a success, as the cooling process could have still had an effect on the outcome, but luckily, a couple hours later everything was still looking nice and caramelly, and un-separated. Success! Definitely tasted like a very coconutty caramel sauce.

That cake managed to turn out fairly well, too. I followed this recipe with a few modifications that I'll describe below. The end result was that it baked to a nice round top, but it fell once it cooled. The cake was VERY moist, and dense, but otherwise had a pleasant flavor and texture. I do think it fell apart much more easily than an egg bound cake, but it wasn't dismally crumbly.

The cake was so moist (and oily) that I don't think it needed a binding agent to form it into cake balls, honestly, but I wanted to get the caramel flavor incorporated, so drizzled a bit of the sauce over the cake crumbs to make them into the balls. I want to make sure nobody here who is reading this so far thinks that just because these are vegan that they are healthy. Pretty sure these were more oily than any other cupcake I've baked. Maybe coconut oil is one of those healthy fats or something (fingers crossed).

Vegan Coconut Caramel Sauce
Adapted from Simply Recipes
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 tbs coconut oil
- ½ cup coconut cream

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium low heat, slowly melt sugar until it is lightly brown and smells caramelly (careful not to burn the sugar). Add in coconut oil until melted. Working quickly, whisk coconut cream into mixture (it will foam up). Keep whisking over the heat until most of the hardened caramel has softened and the sauce is incorporated. Let cool.

Vegan Coconut Cake
adapted from Culinate which was reprinting of a recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World



- 2 cups coconut milk
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 2½ cups flour
- 4 tbsp cornstarch
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup coconut oil
- 1½ cup sugar
- 4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350˚. Spray cake pan with a little bit of vegetable oil. No need to flour the sides or anything, since you're just going to destroy the cake anyway.
Mix together coconut milk and vinegar. Supposedly this would make soy milk curdle, but I don't think that the same principle applies with coconut milk. I did it anyway because I think the vinegar reacts to the baking soda.
Whisk together the dry ingredients.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat coconut oil and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract, and then reduce speed of mixer and in 3 parts, add flour mixture, alternating with the milk mixture until incorporated.
Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until top is golden brown and springs back when you tap the top.
Let cool. Cake will fall slightly.

Prep a bowl of chocolate for dipping. For the full vegan effect, make sure your chocolate does not contain any milk solids. Pretty sure most high end "semi-sweet" chocolates would qualify as vegan, but your standard nestle chips won't make the cut. Melt about 8 oz of them in a bowl (I just microwave them in 30 second increments until most of the chocolate is melted, and then I just stir it until the rest of the chocolate melts). I add in about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil at this point to make sure my chocolate doesn't bloom, which is a real problem I have when doing chocolate dipped items. The oil seems to help a lot.

Once cake and sauce are cool, demolish the cake and mix caramel sauce into cake until balls are easily formed out of the mixture (hey, use your hands! why not). Form roughly 1 inch sized balls of the mixture and lay out on a cookie sheet lined with wax or parchment paper. I typically freeze them for about 10 minutes so that they are a little more sturdy for dipping. Don't freeze for too long though. The next step involves poking the popsicle stick through the tops of each, so make sure they're not too firm to do that. Once the cake balls have their popsicle sticks, dip each one in the chocolate until covered, let the excess chocolate drip off, then roll lightly in toasted coconut. Put back on parchment until chocolate has set.

Samoa™ Cupcakes

I wish I could say that this cupcake flavor was inspired by the recent news of the Girl Scout cookie cut-backs. But alas, even though I think I'm a bit early for Girl Scout cookie season (at least I haven't seen any troops outside the grocery stores yet), but I had those delicious Samoa cookies on my mind. I don't really know why the Samoa's (or "Caramel De-lights") ended up at the top of my favorite GS cookie list considering I don't generally go for coconut goodies, but maybe the marriage with caramel and chocolate is just too much to resist.

I tried the traditional cookie recipe for this last year and absolutely loved it, and figured it could use the cupcake make-over routine. Not that the cookie needs improvement, it's just always fun to play with the flavors in a different form. The cupcake rendition does have an added frosting layer which you won't find in the cookie, but the cupcake doesn't have a crunchy cookie either. In any case, I think it's quite tasty. I chose a chocolate cupcake base to keep the flavors rich (but it might be good with a vanilla cupcake too), topped with a carmel buttercream, toasted coconut flakes, caramel swirl, and then a bittersweet ganache. So far, everyone who tried this one was very enthusiastic about it.

Makes approximately 18 cupcakes.

Preheat oven to 350˚. Line cupcake tins.

Toast 1 cup of sweetened coconut on a sheet pan for approximately 15 minutes, making sure to mix around the coconut every 5 minutes so to get the most even toasting. Set aside to cool.

Make Caramel Sauce (taken from Ina Garten):

This makes about 1-3/4 cups. You really only need about 1/4 cup for the cupcakes, but you can keep the rest refrigerated for a couple months (but I'm sure you could find reasons to use it up before then).

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla 

Mix the water and sugar in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cover and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and boil uncovered until the sugar turns a medium brown, about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Watch it carefully at the end, as it will go from caramel to burnt very quickly. Stand back to avoid splattering, and gradually add the cream and the seeds scraped from the vanilla extract. Simmer until the caramel dissolves and the sauce is smooth and thick, about 2 minutes. Serve warm, or add another 1/4 cup of heavy cream and serve room temperature.

Make Chocolate cupcake:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 tbs butter 
• 1/3 c cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup milk

Mix flour, baking soda, powder and salt together in a medium sized bowl. In separate, heat proof bowl, melt butter in microwave (45-60 seconds). Mix in cocoa powder until mixture is paste-like and add in vanilla until smooth. Whisk in sugar, then eggs, one at a time until incorporated.
Mix water and milk together in small bowl. Alternating between flour and water mixtures, add each to the chocolate mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Mix until just incorporated. Fill cupcake tins and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool.

Make Caramel buttercream:

• 1-1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp milk
• 3 tbs caramel sauce

Whip butter until smooth. Slowly add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Once incorporated, add in milk and caramel sauce until mixture is light and fluffy. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary.

Make Chocolate Ganache:

• 3 oz heavy cream
• 6 oz bittersweet chocolate (or milk, if that's your preference), chopped uniformly
• 1 tbs butter

In a microwave safe bowl, heat chocolate for approx. 20 seconds and set aside. In another microwave safe bowl, put butter in cream and heat in microwave for 45 seconds, or until it just reaches a boil. Pour hot cream mixture over chocolate and let set for a minute, then whisk together until all the chocolate has melted and is smooth. 

Assemble cupcakes. Using a piping gun or bag, frost the cupcakes. No need for making it pretty, since the next step is rolling the frosted cupcakes in the toasted coconut. Then drizzle caramel sauce over the coconut followed by a drizzling of ganache. 

Enjoy.

Tropical Carrot Cupcakes

Easter came a bit early this month, but I figured it was ok to accommodate the flavor of the month to it anyway. And who doesn't love carrot cupcakes? Ok, I know one person. She discriminates against vegetables in her desserts, and as much as I love carrot cupcakes and cannot be swayed against them, in a way I can see her point.

But she's missing out on these ones! A nice little variation on the original, this one boasts a variety of tropical flavors. It has pineapple, coconut, macadamia nuts, and ginger, as well as the usual carrot and cinnamon. Topped with a lightly vanilla flavored cream cheese frosting that is loaded up with toasted coconut flakes.

I was inspired by the recipe posted on epicurious but cut out the candied ginger and put a dash of powdered ginger instead. I also did my own cream cheese frosting and just added the toasted coconut on top.

Preheat oven to 350˚. Line cupcake tins with wrappers. Will make approximately 36 cupcakes.
Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl:

• 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
  
• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 cup dry-roasted macadamia nuts, chopped
  
• 1 tsp ginger
  
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Mix wet ingredients together in medium bowl

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups finely grated, peeled carrots
• 16 oz canned crushed pineapple in its own juice (I actually used 20 oz.)
  

Gently stir wet ingredients into dry until incorporated. Spoon into cupcake tins and bake 20 minutes.

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese
2-1/2 - 3 C powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Trying not to make a mess, gently add in powdered sugar. After about 2 cups of sugar, add the vanilla and continue to add more sugar. I find that cream cheese frosting usually holds its own without any other liquid, but if it really seems too stiff, go ahead and add a smidgen of milk to smooth it out. But be careful, as it can get runny all too quickly.

To toast coconut, spread about 1-1/2-2 cups of flaked coconut evenly on a baking sheet. Toast in 5 minute increments on the higher rack of a 300˚ oven. I think 15 minutes total does just the trick, and 20 minutes is pushing too far, so keep an eye on it. At each 5 minutes, mix the coconut around to get the best distribution of browning.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost them. I had the pleasure of making mine look like little birdie baskets with robin's eggs (um, I really just was looking for an excuse to finally buy the robin's eggs, which I'd been eying all season but couldn't bring myself to indulge in). So, if you don't need to make them look seasonal, just sprinkle the coconut generously on top of the frosting.

Enjoy!