Rule #1 of baking: always have enough ingredients on hand for a do-over.
Rule #2: always hope it doesn't come to that.
My friend was having a Halloween party and I really wanted to contribute something festive. Since my fellow lychee martini fan always thinks the lychees look like eyeballs, I decided that bloody eyeball cupcakes were in order- made with lychees!
I admittedly got a late start: at about 9pm the prior evening I gathered my ingredients and got to work making VCTOTW lychee cupcakes (p. 122).
When I mixed the wet ingredients with the dry, it seemed disproportionate. I assumed that I'd miscalculated when doubling the ingredients, so Irandomly scientifically added more liquid. The batter remained thick, but I put them in the oven and hoped for the best.
In case you're wondering, these are not the best. After cooking for an extra 10 minutes the center still wasn't cooked. I did try them, but they were indeed undercooked, pasty, and inedible.
Because I clean as I go, I had to re-gather the ingredients and hand wash (I love my dishwasher) all of my bowls, utensils, measuring cups and spoons in order to start over. Round 2:
I knew I'd measured everything exactly, but the batter was still stiff. It didn't pour like traditional cupcake batter, but instead had to be scooped in like soft cookie dough.
It would seem that's just the nature of this recipe.
No doubling/no math: this time I'd made the recipe as printed. I only had so many special Halloween cupcake liners!
Thankfully, they cooked in the expected time.
10:47pm- when my apprentice ceased to be of any help.
Because I needed something substantial to hold my eyeballs, I skipped the recommended coconut glaze and instead made half a batch of buttercream frosting (p. 142) using my leftover coconut milk.
I iced the cakes and then got to work on the eyes. This is where there was a break in the photography because I really wanted to get done and go to bed.
I used the top half of a lychee for the the eyeball, and a defrosted frozen blueberry for the iris/pupil. I mixed cranberry sauce with water in the Magic Bullet for the blood (yes, in hindsight cranberry juice would have been more efficient).
Early the next morning I delivered them to the party location, the underground dungeon of doom, where I traded them for two mini-cupcakes as they were being prepared.
The dungeon:
Complete with an impressive vegan spread:
So much delicious food.
Sugar cookies! Green and orange pumpkins, ghosts and cats. I only ate about 50 of these.
As seen above, VCTOTW vanilla mini-cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting, festive sprinkles, and a Sweet & Sara marshmallow.
My eyeballs: they turned out spooky enough, but I didn't love the taste of the cakes. Despite all the sugar, the flax made an unmistakably "healthy" tasting cake.
French bread:
fresh guacamole (good friends don't make friends eat cilantro!!)
AFR baked falafel (p.121-122)
AFR quinoa salad with black beans and toasted cumin seeds (p. 31-32)
Queso, hummus, and chips:
And, last but not least: vampire's blood jello shots!
Besides my bloody eyeballs (the cupcakes, not my actual tired, bloodshot eyes), this was all the work of one busy and generous Willy Wonka, who invited us into his dungeon for an evening of great friends, excellent food, and mediocre horror. Thanks, JD!!
Rule #2: always hope it doesn't come to that.
My friend was having a Halloween party and I really wanted to contribute something festive. Since my fellow lychee martini fan always thinks the lychees look like eyeballs, I decided that bloody eyeball cupcakes were in order- made with lychees!
I admittedly got a late start: at about 9pm the prior evening I gathered my ingredients and got to work making VCTOTW lychee cupcakes (p. 122).
When I mixed the wet ingredients with the dry, it seemed disproportionate. I assumed that I'd miscalculated when doubling the ingredients, so I
In case you're wondering, these are not the best. After cooking for an extra 10 minutes the center still wasn't cooked. I did try them, but they were indeed undercooked, pasty, and inedible.
Because I clean as I go, I had to re-gather the ingredients and hand wash (I love my dishwasher) all of my bowls, utensils, measuring cups and spoons in order to start over. Round 2:
I knew I'd measured everything exactly, but the batter was still stiff. It didn't pour like traditional cupcake batter, but instead had to be scooped in like soft cookie dough.
It would seem that's just the nature of this recipe.
No doubling/no math: this time I'd made the recipe as printed. I only had so many special Halloween cupcake liners!
Thankfully, they cooked in the expected time.
10:47pm- when my apprentice ceased to be of any help.
Because I needed something substantial to hold my eyeballs, I skipped the recommended coconut glaze and instead made half a batch of buttercream frosting (p. 142) using my leftover coconut milk.
I iced the cakes and then got to work on the eyes. This is where there was a break in the photography because I really wanted to get done and go to bed.
I used the top half of a lychee for the the eyeball, and a defrosted frozen blueberry for the iris/pupil. I mixed cranberry sauce with water in the Magic Bullet for the blood (yes, in hindsight cranberry juice would have been more efficient).
Early the next morning I delivered them to the party location, the underground dungeon of doom, where I traded them for two mini-cupcakes as they were being prepared.
The dungeon:
So much delicious food.
Sugar cookies! Green and orange pumpkins, ghosts and cats. I only ate about 50 of these.
As seen above, VCTOTW vanilla mini-cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting, festive sprinkles, and a Sweet & Sara marshmallow.
My eyeballs: they turned out spooky enough, but I didn't love the taste of the cakes. Despite all the sugar, the flax made an unmistakably "healthy" tasting cake.
French bread:
fresh guacamole (good friends don't make friends eat cilantro!!)
AFR baked falafel (p.121-122)
AFR quinoa salad with black beans and toasted cumin seeds (p. 31-32)
Queso, hummus, and chips:
And, last but not least: vampire's blood jello shots!
 |
| photo: JD Gut |
Looks like an awesome spread. Haha, love the creepy dungeon walls. As for the cupcakes, you have some serious determination. I would never make a second batch no badly how the first failed, ha! They do look seriously creepy. I haaaate lychees but I imagine they make a perfect eyeball. Yuck.
ReplyDeleteGood call on the vampire jello shots too! I've had vegan jello shots once and they were um...interesting. How come my friends can't pull together stuff like this??
Abby,
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet post and great party review. I thank you for going out of your way to make the lychee cupcakes. I still think they came out really well. I'm happy you came. It was really fun to all get together for a fully vegan evening in the underground dungeon of doom.
oxox
oooh creepy!
ReplyDeleteToo lifelike! Now I'll really never be able to eat a lychee again! I'll stick to the martini form...
ReplyDeletefoodfeud- there wasn't enough time to make it to Vegan Treats and back; I had not choice! My friend (fittingly- Sandy) loves lychee martinis with me, but it was her that initially suggested the eyeball connection.
ReplyDeleteMVG- It was amazing! I wish I was eating those sugar cookies right now.
glutenfreehappytummy- success!
Pecan- let's make a date!