My First Cuppies Say Hi

My little sister's birthday was this past week, which gave me an opportunity to do something that I've been wanting to do all summer: Make cupcakes!

I've had the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook for quite a few months and hadn't done anything with it until now. If you have read my blog before, you may have heard me speak of my incredibly picky sister, who will not eat anything vegan unless it contains lots and lots of sugar. It bugs me to no end, though I do realize she's entitled to her food choices...but closed-mindedness gets to me. She was open to the idea of me making her cupcakes, but she gave me many "requirements": The cupcakes can't have warm fruit, the cupcakes can't be chocolate, I don't know what ganache is but it sounds icky and I don't want that, I want "real" icing (because we all know vegan icing is fake). In the end, I kept what I decided a secret from her. I knew she would like the cupcake once she tasted it, but she might have rejected the idea if she heard it beforehand.

And this month is my one-year anniversary of being a vegan. So I guess they were kinda a little sorta a treat for me too.

So Teddy Graham cupcakes it was! While the cinnamon Teddy Grahams are indeed vegan, I would use Annie's Chocolate Bunny Grahams if I were making them for myself... and maybe do a chocolate cupcake base (the non-chocolate Annie's grahams contain honey). Annie's graham crackers are organic and don't have partially hydrogenated oils, like the wee Teddies. But I caved for my sister, since I know she loves Teddy Grahams.



I made a subtle cinnamon frosting for the VCTOTW Golden Vanilla Cupcakes. I've never been a straight vanilla girl, but Isa and Terry's vanilla cupcakes are incredible. My sister claims to hate cinnamon, so I told her the frosting was a brown sugar frosting and she never guessed the diff. She ended up loving the cuppies, though, so thank goodness! We had a pretty good time on her birthday, too.

We went to the movies and saw Mamma Mia. The beginning was cute, and I was into it for a while... But then it started dragging and the downright awful singing really started to get to me. I used to be a theatre major and am really critical of plays and musicals. The girl who played Sophie was a great actress, though. Too bad Meryl Streep annoys me... I used to love her and I did like her in The Devil Wears Prada, though, but the more movies I see her in, the more I realize everything she does is the same! I don't know about you, but I like for actors to surprise me.

For dinner that night, we went to Chili's, which I groaned about. I've hated that restaurant all my life, even before I was vegan. Normally I will sit and whine and not eat when I am forced to go there, but I decided to make an effort this time and came away with a surprisingly delicious vegan meal. I would even go as far to say it was a small feast. Here's what I ordered:

• Corn tortillas (request plain and dry - I think they're supposed to make them in the microwave when you order this way)
• Steamed vegetables (request steamed, plain and dry) - they gave me broccoli, carrots, and bell peppers
• Black beans
• Pico de gallo
• Guacamole

So there are actually some edible and rather tasty goods at Chili's for vegans, and our server was really nice and accomodating. I made my own cute little corn tortilla fajitas at the table by spooning some of everything into the tortillas. I was satisfied, and I busted out the cupcakes for our family after!



We ate them at the table at Chili's, and I think our server was kind of amused, haha. Yum! They were really delicious. But not as delicious two days later when eaten from the fridge. The teddy's head got soggy and I had to replace him with a new teddy from the box. And I may have snuck a few extra teddies onto my plate, too. I really hope my family eats the rest of the box before I do... I'm going to get cancer from those evil addicting bears.