rawktober: day fourteen

Please excuse my absence these past few days. I've been busy hanging out with family, drinking way too much wine. Don't worry, I'll make it up to you with a recipe post on the raw carrot cake I made! I hope your Thanksgivings were less detrimental to your health, but, if you're in the same boat as me, here's a recipe for a little post-holiday detox juice.

     Note: I don't make my veggie juices sweet, but if ya can't handle the bitterness ("what bitterness?" I ask), feel free to toss in an apple!

rawktober: day thirteen

Thirteen's a weird number. It looks weird. Like it's missing a letter. It's missing a "t," right? I mean, isn't it pronounced thirt-teen? 

It's bothering me.

Moving on.

Here's a slightly delayed post about my Thanksgiving dinner[s]. As you can see in the picture, I was occupied with my wine and it wasn't safe to have my laptop nearby. I make enough of a fool of myself as it is. This was my first holiday as a raw vegan (my Eastern-European family and family friends are still having a hard time accepting my veganism, and raw veganism is way up there on the wtf factor list), so I BYO dinner'd it. I decided to try out ATV's sweet potato dumplings (YUM!) with a few modest modifications that my taste buds can't do without - aka herbs & spices.

vegan eggnog cupcakes with dandies and spiced chai frosting!

Diet failed. Time for some cupcakes instead! (Who cares about being healthy in the holidays anyway?) I decided to spent my whole afternoon baking, and made a crust as well as a frosting for these cupcakes, although I'm sure that either are omittable!

Serves 12

the cupcakes:
1 cup Almond Noel nog (or any vegan eggnog)
1/2 cup rum (+more to drink with leftover eggnog whilst baking)
1/4 cup oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups spelt flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
dandies (vegan marshmallows)

the crust:
3/4 cup nuts (pecans, cashews, walnuts, almonds)
1/4 cup soaked dates
1 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp honey/agave (if needed; or additional molasses)
pinch of nutmeg, cardamom, cloves
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
coconut flakes (optional)
1/4 cup candied ginger (optional but recommended)

the frosting:
1/4 cup Earth Balance buttery spread
2 tbsp eggnog
1 tbsp rum
pinch of nutmeg
2 1/2 cups icing sugar (or more, if needed)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup powdered chai tea


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In your food processor, grind the nuts, then add the remaining crust ingredients and process until it is like a paste. Push 1 or 2 tbsps of the "crust" into lined mini-muffin tins.
Combine first 4 ingredients of the muffins in a small bowl, and combine the others in a large bowl. Whisk the wet into the dry (the mixture will be fairly runny), and add coconut flakes if desired. Spoon a little less than 1/4 cup measures of the mixture into lined muffin tins; add one marshmallow (or more) to each cupcake and cover with remaining mixture. Bake for approx. 15 minutes, until the cupcakes spring back at the touch and a toothpick comes out clean when they are poked. Be careful not to overbake; the crust may burn slightly (though it will not necessarily taste bad, it will be very hard).
Meanwhile, prepare the frosting by combining all the icing ingredients in a blender, food processor, or electric whisk. 
When the cupcakes are cooled, use a toothpick to claw little wormholes through their middles and spoon the frosting into them, as well as glazing the muffin tops. Next, if you still have cupcakes left ( and haven't eaten them all up in the process like I did), eat 'em up!

Note: Recipe can also be made into an "eggnog pie". Simply spoon the crust, muffin, and frosting batters into a pie pan instead. in the same order as above. (Being ambitious as I am, I made both cupcakes and a pie! Deeeelish)