Chocolate & Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Filling

Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry Filling 

Let me first start off by saying I had not originally planned on making a strawberry filled cupcake. Originally I set out to make cupcakes with a warm gooey caramel filling. The kind of caramel that reminds you of sundaes topped with warm caramel syrup. What I ended up with was a runny light colored soybean flavored mess. Nevertheless when your attempt at caramel flops miserably there's only one solution... fruit fillled cupcakes.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Recently I’ve been making millions and millions of fruit filled cupcakes. Well…. maybe not millions, but you get the point. I decided it was time to venture out in the cupcake world and try something a little different… but what? A few weeks ago I came across this post from My Baking Addiction. The idea of baking cookies inside of cupcakes sounded a little bizarre but I decided that I needed to try it anyways. I put my own 'vegan' spin on the original idea by combining my favorite cupcake recipe with my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough recipe. 

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

Lemon Cupcake with Blueberry Filling
Topped with Lemon Buttercream & a Blueberry Jelly Belly

From a young age I developed a strong fondness for anything blueberry flavored. In fact growing up my parents would take me "berry picking" and I would simply sit in the berry patch and eat handfuls of blueberries off the bushes. I definitely gained a reputation from a young age as a lover of all things blueberry

My all time favorite bluberry treat was always my mom's blueberry muffins (that she made on Christmas morning). Unfortunately many of my attempts to "veganize" her traditional recipe have failed miserably. I just can't seem to recreate a muffin that embodies the flavor, texture and look of that old familiar favorite. 

Lemon Blueberry Cupcake Sneak Peek

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

 Just a little sneak peak of what's to come on the blog later this week... Check back Friday for the full post

Chai Latté Cupcake Instructions

Chai Latte Cupcakes

Many of my girlfriends love to treat themselves to a chai latté here and there. It’s definitely a delicious combination of flavors and spices.  I first attempted to recreate the chai flavor in cupcake form here.  They were full of flavor and adorable looking. Since then they have become a very popular request and I often get questions about how to recreate these.  Here is a simple set of instructions on how to recreate this tasty flavor combination yourself.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Cupcake with Chocoalte Frosting 

When I went back to school this year (after a 2 year academic hiatus) I was a little nervous. Not only about the course workload but also about meeting new people.  Despite my worries I ended up meeting a pretty amazing group of girls. This week one of the girls decided to organize and host a potluck dinner for the group.  Once I confirmed my attendance I was of course assigned dessert duty.

Little Miss Cupcake Contest

Little Miss Monkey

For those of you who know me well, know that I have two obsessions in life: cupcakes and sock monkeys.  In fact my sock monkey addiction began long before my obsession with vegan cupcakes.  Since then, I have been splitting my time between baking cupcakes and making monkeys.  For some reason I never thought to unify these obsessions, that is until now…