A Vegan Pistachio Birthday

Green Tea and Pistachio Cupcakes!
 Jason's birthday was last week and he wanted Green Tea and Pistachio cupcakes from one of our favorite books. The recipe is in Color Me Vegan by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. I regrettably do not have a picture of these incredible cupcakes. They were beautiful  and delicious. They were gone, all 12 in maybe 2 days. I actually changed the recipe a tiny bit. Elena and I were disappointed to learn (after crushing tons of pistachios) that the nuts only went on top of the cupcakes. We decided to add some to the batter. I used a quarter cup less flour and added pistachios.


Green Tea and Pistachio Cupcakes from Colleen but modified slightly ...

Cupcakes

• 2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 sugar
• 2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp powdered green tea
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup nondairy milk (we used a coconut almond blend)
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Green Tea Frosting

• ½ cup Earth Balance
• 1½ cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 tsp powdered green tea
• 3 to 4 Tbsp nondairy milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp almond extract
• ½ cup ground pistachio nuts, for topping 

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Combine flour, sugar, green tea powder, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Create a well in the and pour in milk, coconut oil and vanilla. Stir all ingredients.
Divide batter among the 12 prepared muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool on a rack.

With an electric hand mixer or using a fork, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar, green tea powder,  a little milk, vanilla extract and almond extract. Beat for a few minutes adding more milk, if needed. Cover frosting with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 1 hour, up to 2 weeks. When ready to use, frost each cupcake and top with ground pistachios.


We did save a little ground pistachio and used it in a cookie and another cake that we made. The cookies were one of the best cookies that I have ever tasted.  I searched online and found the recipe on Vegetarian Times.com.  So darn yummy. I highly recommend trying this recipe. We sprinkled pistachio on top but made the batter per the recipe.




Chocolately cookie topped with pistachio

I invited my dad and Jason's brother over to celebrate on Sunday so I needed a cake. The cupcakes were gone and guests expect cake at a birthday dinner. We used this white cake recipe from My Vegan Cookbook Blog and added pistachios! We had a little left so why not? We used the same icing from the cupcakes but thinned it out a little so it was more like a glaze. The result is below. Jason is not a little girl nor a ballerina. Elena used her candles for his cake.

Masculine Pistachio Vegan Cake

Have a pistachio evening!
Christy