Vegan Cupcakes

One fine afternoon, my friend Louisa introduced me to Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats, a bakery in Northwest D.C. She told me it was a vegan bakery, which was something new to me. I was curious although somewhat skeptical about how a bakery could produce delicious cookies, cupcakes and other treats without ingredients such as butter and eggs.

Consider me a convert. I tried a Red Velvet cupcake and a Cookies n Cake cupcake, both of which were incredibly moist! I also learned that the owner of Sticky Fingers, Doron Petersan, had won an episode of the Food Network's Cupcake Wars, beating out traditional bakers with her vegan creations. I was so intrigued and saw that she had just released a new cookbook that I decided to make the splurge.



The first recipe I've tried was for the Banana Chimp Muffins. I learned from reading through the book that some of the key substitutions for the moist ingredients were items such as:

- non-hydrogenated vegan margarine
- soymilk
- apple cider vinegar
- egg replacer

I was worried about finding the vegan margarine which was needed for the muffins but had no trouble finding this at my local grocer (no specialty store needed!)

How did the muffins turn out? I think these pictures should tell the story:

All gone! I can't wait to try the recipes for Sticky Fingers' famous treats (like the Cowvin Cookie and the Little Devils). As for vegan baking in general, I'm hooked! While I don't think you can make the claim that they're healthy, they at least seem better than traditional baking by stripping the cholesterol and saturated fats from eggs, butter and milk. The decision is a piece of cake!