Orange Quinoa Cupcakes

Vegan Orange Quinoa Cupcake

With all these blooming flowers and official spring we couldn’t be happier; there are always certain winter fruits that I miss during warmer weather and orange is one of them, while I can find them at any grocery store I sure cannot get their natural sweetness and so here is one last orange recipe to close this lovely season.

Cupcakes or muffins? All my life I had it all wrong thinking I disliked cupcakes, and honestly I do dislike traditional cupcakes because of the amount of dairy frosting on top, I was the only child who took out all the frosting and ate the rest no joke! I understand cupcakes are more airy and have more fat than a muffin but it doesn’t necessarily have to be so heavy and the cream.

Anyhow, these cupcakes are nice and airy with the help of your magical hands and some other ingredients and most importantly that not so filling nor heavy orange frosting, which you’ve already seen in my Carrot bread

Orange Quinoa Cupcakes

Vegan

Makes: 12 cupcakes

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ cup AP flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp organic cane sugar
• 1/2 cup cooked quinoa (equals ¼ cup uncooked)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup freshly blend orange juice (save pulp)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, soft
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 Tbsp Orange pulp
• 2 Tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
• zest of 2 oranges
FROSTING
• 1/2 cup raw cashews (soaked overnight)
• 1-2 Tbsp orange juice
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1-2 tbsp Agave sweetener

Instructions:

1. After you have all your ingredients lined up and prepped, pre-heat your oven at 400F and spread your molds with coconut oil. Now, mix all dry ingredients (but sugars) and set aside. Also, separately mix orange juice and milk and set aside
2. Cream that sugar and coconut oil until well combined and it has a bit of frothiness
3. Now add wet ingredients to the butter and sugar and slowly add/beat the flour in, make sure everything is well mixed so you have formed enough air to have a soft fluffy cupcake
4. Lastly add orange zest and mix gently by hand to incorporate it in the mix
5. Now it is ready to fill those molds, fill them with 2 ½ heaping tablespoons
6. For the frosting, you cimply blend all ingredients and let refrigerate until muffin are fully cooled; personally I let the frosting rest in the fridge for 24 hrs and decorate the next day
7. Bake 5 minutes at 400F and quickly reduce the heat to 350 for 25 more minutes
8. Let rest in mold for 5 minutes and then place them in a cooling rack
9. Frost/decorate and share