MoFo #30: Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Finally a pumpkin post! MoFo achievement unlocked! ;) I made these cupcakes tonight for tomorrow's lab meeting. Our lab doesn't normally have food at meetings, but it's Halloween... And I found the cutest cupcake wrappers at Target that I *had* to buy and use. I followed this recipe, except that I will reduce the frosting amount since I'm not going to pipe the frosting. I appreciate the fact that this recipe was written by a Houston blogger and chef Jody (known for her JodyCakes vegan baked goods).

I also wanted to use this post to share a few vegan baking tips. I'm not an expert baker, but these are a few things that have helped me. Use an oven thermometer! They're cheap and it really helps. My current oven is off by at least 50 degrees. (*sigh #renterproblems) I keep little boxes of plain soy milk around for baking, but I have made many baked goods successfully using powdered soy milk. These boxes are 1 cup volume. (I've also seen vegetable broth and other non-dairy milks sold in 1 cup boxes.) I also keep individual portions of unsweetened natural applesauce around for baking, since these single serving cups are ~1/2 cup volume. I keep my powdered sugar and brown sugar in air-tight containers in the fridge, so that they don't dry out. I keep baking items (baking powder, baking soda, extracts, etc.) grouped together too, but they're in the spice cabinet. In general, my pantry is sorted in clear acrylic containers so I can see how much stuff I have. This helps when it's time to consider making a recipe or to write a grocery list, it's easy to see if there's enough flour or sugar.