It's Baking Season

Usually I start to do a lot of baking and cooking experiments during Fall/Winter. But with my training I've had very little time to do so. Sunday's is my only full day in the kitchen when I'm food prepping for the week.

Yes... I have a slight pumpkin addiction. & don't say "eww" to the Vegan Pumpkin Mac & Cheese till you try it! Or if you don't like pumpkin, then I understand. 

But I found this recipe & had to try it right away!

Gluten-Free, Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Glaze

Recipe adapted from Fitsugar.com

Makes 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients

For cupcakes:

1/3 cup oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup nondairy milk (soy, almond, or rice) *I used Unsweetened Original Almond Breeze

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup chocolate chips *I used Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips (dairy, nut & soy free)

For glaze:

1/4 cup brown rice syrup or honey *I used honey

1 tablespoon margarine or coconut oil, melted *I used Earth Balance Vegan butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch ground cinnamon (optional)

Directions

To make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Whisk together oil, sugar, nondairy milk, and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gently whisk flour mixture until well combined. Fold in pumpkin, but do not overstir or the batter will become gummy. Fold in chocolate chips.

Fill liners two-thirds full. Bake for 24-26 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool completely.

To make icing: Whisk together honey, margarine, vanilla extract, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Using a fork, drizzle icing atop completely cooled cupcakes.

There they are in all their glory! They came out so good! My PIC even liked them, "I was expecting them to taste like cardboard!"

The only thing I would do different is since I used mini chocolate chips, use 1/3 cup next time. These kind of chips are actually pretty sweet & it was a bit too much. Also... no matter how cute the cupcake liner is  NEVER USE DOLLAR STORE CUPCAKE LINERS! I got all excited because they had candy corn on them... had to have them! Bad idea. Had to cut the cupcake out of the liners to eat them.

Hope everyone has a great night!