Week 17 Dish 2: Vegan mulled wine chocolate cupcakes

I was inspired to make this recipe after a friend made a non-vegan version. I tried them yesterday and they were really delicious! Hope you enjoy them...

Makes 12
Ingredients
175 g plain flour
20 g cocoa powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
150 g soft brown sugar
1/2 tsp mixed spice
50 ml oil
175 ml mulled wine
Juice and zest of one orange
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 decrees C and line a muffin tray with cupcake liners (I used silicon cupcake cups).
2. Sift all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then all the rest of the ingredients and gently fold together until smooth.
3. Divide the batter between 12 cupcake cups and bake for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tray before removing and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Original recipe: Vegan mulled wine chocolate cupcakes
More Christmas themed recipes to come, hope you're excited! (Hint: pies and logs)

Week 17 Dish 1: Vegan mini gingerbread men

Christmas is almost here! This week I have had a few christmassy things going on, including netball Christmas dinner and Christmas bop (Christmas party at the union - we call them bops). They have really gotten me in the festive mood! That's why this week I decided to bake some Christmas themed treats :D. I made these gingerbread men for a secret santa gift for one of the girls on my netball team - she really loved them so I hope you all do too. I used a little cookie cutter but you can use whatever size/ shapes you like, and good fun for kids to cut as well as decorate so perfect for a family project!

I got 60 (!!) mini gingerbread men out of this recipe, but of course it depends on your cookie cutter size
Ingredients
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup treacle
1/4 cup soya milk
1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each ground nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Method

1. In a large bowl whisk together the oil and sugar. Add the treacle and soyamilk and blend well.
2. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add this to the wet ingredients and mix until a stiff dough is formed. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
3. If the dough is in the fridge for more than 1 hour, let sit for 10 minutes for 10 minutes to warm up first. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line two baking trays with grease proof paper.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out the shapes with your cookie cutters and place on the baking trays. Bake for 7-8 minutes (it took 7 minutes in my fan oven but may take a little longer in a conventional oven - they should be soft even after cooling). Cool for a couple of minutes on the tray then move to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

Original recipe: Gingerbread cut out cookies