Vegan Coconut Cupcakes and Climate Change

These coconut cupcakes were made by one of our TREE AID colleagues, the recipe was inspired by the cookbook "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World?" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero which you can buy from our bookshop. It makes me happy to put up a vegan recipe as most people think once you cut down on diary and animal products you are restricted to only eating lentils and salad. However, there are loads of ways of making amazing cakes suitable for the vegan diet!

Veganism or simply reducing the amount of diary is a great way of cutting down your carbon footprint. In fact, a vegetarian who eats lots of diary can have a bigger carbon footprint than a meat-eater. We shouldn't be too harsh on restricting our lifestyles, but being aware of how our lifestyles contribute to climate change is really important. This is even more poignant when we realise that the people who are most affected by climate change are those which have contributed the least.

So try this vegan cupcake recipe and see if cakes can taste just as good dairy free! The recipe below is slightly modified from the cookbook to how our colleague, Lynne, at TREE AID made them. There are 4 tree ingredients, coconut, papaya, cocoa, and almond.






Ingredients

230g all purpose flour
75g cocoa powder
1 ½ tspn baking powder
¼ tspn salt
4tbsp coconut oil/ vegetable oil works just as well
240ml coconut milk
175g granulated sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 tspn coconut extract/almond extract
115g unsweetened shredded coconut

Recipe

• preheat oven to gas mark 4 or 180 degree
  
  
• in a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
  
  
• Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over a very low heat. Once melted, turn the heat off but leave it in the pan on the stove so that it stays warm and does not solidify.
  
  
• In a separate medium bowl mix together coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, and coconut extract. Stir in the melted coconut oil. Add the flour mixture in batches, beating well after each addition. Mix until smooth, then fold in the shredded coconut.
  
  
• Fill cupcake liners two-thirds full. Bake for 24-26 mins. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
  
  
  For Topping:
  
  Lynne simply melted vegan chocolate over the top mixed with a small amount of water and topped them with chunks of dried papaya. Delicious!
  
  Lynne's Tip: Use extra coconut milk for a more intense flavour.