Authors: Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero
Publisher: Da Capo Press–Lifelong Books (Member of Perseus Books Group), 168 pages
Book Review by Laxmi Chaandi
Like their other book Vegan Pie in the Sky, Moskowitz and Romero have scored another big win with this one also, which has 75 yummy recipes for all of you vegans or vegetarians (and non-veg people too) out there.
This book also has amazing close-up, crisp and clear photos of numerous delights. All the ingredients needed to make these cupcakes are commonly available and the directions are very easy to follow.
For example, in the list of ingredients for the “dulce sin leche” cupcakes, even if you do not understand Spanish, all the items you need to make a batch of 12 of these cupcakes are easily obtainable from supermarkets. With my knowledge of Spanish, I understand that “dulce” means sweet, and “sin leche” means without milk. So coconut milk is being used instead. This is for those people who have trouble digesting foods containing milk.
The book is simply organized into recipes for basic, classic, fancy and “frostins and fillins” cupcakes. But before it gets you into the collection and mixing of the ingredients, the book presents to you a very important page with metric conversions, so you don’t end up using too much or too little of any ingredient. It also prepares you with information on what ingredients are ideal and which ones to avoid.
Your basic group of cupcakes range from simple golden vanilla and chocolate cupcakes to “sexy low-fat” vanilla cupcakes with fresh berries to vanilla cupcakes with agave nectar and gluten-free vanilla cupcakes (if you’re one of those concerned about gluten).
Then you have your classics. What fruits, vegetables and nuts do you like? Bananas, carrots, cherries, pineapples or walnuts? There’s a recipe for all of these and other cupcakes with these goodies. Do you relish mouth-watering soft chocolate, Boston cream pie or peanut butter? Do you like the awesome smell of mint? Do you like chocolate as well? There’s a recipe for chocolate mint cupcakes. Make it, and while you’re at, make the chocolate cherry crème cupcake as well. This looks really mouth-watering with vegan fluffy butter cream frosting on top!
The third section – on the fancy cupcakes – was most interesting one for me. It was a very exciting discovery process to learn that you can make cupcakes with almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias and pistachios. And, more cupcakes with coconuts, which I simply love, along with coconut water, coconut milk and bits of toasted coconut. (I am nuts about nuts, and I have this idiosyncrasy about topping my food with nuts and other crunchy stuff just before eating it to make it taste more delicious).
In this group of cupcakes, you will also find yourself lucky to discover recipes for exotic one-of-a-kind cupcakes containing or topped with such good soft stuff as apricot, coconut or rum glazing, cinnamon icing, lemon butter cream, mocha hazelnut mousse filling, orange pudding and rich cashew butter frosting. Yum yum.
In the fourth and last segment of this wonderful book, you will find adorable cupcakes with the toppings and the fillings that will make your guests love you and make you a star chef or baker. For example, it can show you how to take a basic chocolate cupcake a standout by topping it with coconut pecan fudge frosting. You can also use blueberries and make a mousse out of them to make a cupcake topped with not-too-sweet blueberry mousse. Or use fresh raspberries to create a raspberry butter cream frosting and top an ordinary vanilla cupcake with it. Berry delicious.
The authors Isa and Terry deserve top marks with for this unique collection of highly creative recipes for out-of-this-world cupcakes. Get your copy now, get cookin’ and enjoy tremendous satisfaction from making these unusual cupcakes.
