Vegan Swedish Fish Cookie Recipe

It's 98 degrees in my kitchen, but it's worth it because now I have Swedish Fish Cookies.  I may, however, die before I have a chance to eat any.  It's so hot.  So very, very hot.

 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup vegan butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening (I used Crisco)

3 tablespoons water

Zest of one orange

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon orange extract

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup Swedish Fish (cut in half)

 

 

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine, shortening, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the water, vanilla, orange extract, and orange zest.  Mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Add the Swedish Fish.

Shape the dough into walnut-sized balls and place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. 

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-10 minutes.

Makes approximately 36 cookies.

Vegan Cranberry-Orange Cupcake Recipe

Another family Thanksgiving tradition, along with Cherry Delight, is cranberry sauce, so I took that inspiration and made these Cranberry-Orange Cupcakes.  They turned out lumpy but delicious.  

As always, if you don't have coconut oil and/or rice milk, feel free to replace them with a suitable analogue (for example, vegetable oil/soy milk).

Ingredients

1/2 cup coconut oil, warmed until liquid

1 cup demerara sugar (or raw sugar)

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 ½ cups rice milk (warmed to room temperature)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon pure orange extract

zest of one orange

¼ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sliced cranberries (fresh or frozen)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a muffin pan with 12 paper baking cups.

Beat together the coconut oil and sugar. Mix in the rice milk and cider vinegar. Add the orange and vanilla extracts. Add the orange zest, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until well combined.

Slowly incorporate the flour taking care not to over mix.

With a spatula or spoon, stir in the cranberries.

Portion out the batter into the pre-lined muffin pan.  I ended up with a bit more batter than I needed to fill the cupcake cups; fortunately, the batter is egg-less so you can lick the bowl as much as you want.

Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  (Mine took about 30 minutes, but I think my oven has issues).

I topped my cupcakes with this Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe, and for a bit of added decoration, I put a sugared cranberry slice on top.

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Vegan Jaffa Cake Cupcake Recipe (Orange Marmalade Filled Cupcakes)

My family loves Jaffa Cakes, and every time I visit England I have to smuggle back at least a couple dozen.  I came up with this recipe as a possible way to satisfy my family's cravings during those long spans between trips.

These cupcakes aren't 100% like Jaffa Cakes, but they are still quite yummy.  They are best served cooled because the marmalade filling is very hot straight out of the oven.

Ingredients

1/2 cup coconut oil, warmed until liquid

2/3 cup demerara sugar (or raw sugar)

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 ½ cups rice milk (warmed to room temperature)

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon pure orange extract

zest of one orange

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup of vegan chocolate chips

Approximately 1/4 cup of Sweet Orange Marmalade

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a muffin pan with 12 paper baking cups.

Beat together the coconut oil and sugar.  Mix in the rice milk and cider vinegar. Add the orange and vanilla extracts. Add the orange zest, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until well combined.

Slowly incorporate the flour taking care not to over mix.

With a spatula or spoon, stir in the vegan chocolate chips.

Portion out the batter into the pre-lined muffin pan - filling only about half-way.

Scoop a spoonful of orange marmalade into the center of each cupcake and fill the cupcake cups with the remaining batter.  They don't rise a lot, so I filled the cups almost to the top.

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out relatively clean (it might have a little marmalade on it).

Makes 12 cupcakes.  

I iced my cupcakes with this Vegan Orange-Chocolate Frosting.

Vegan Chocolate-Orange Frosting Recipe

I came up with this recipe to frost my Vegan Swedish Fish Cupcakes, and it was surprisingly easy to make.  I had only ever made cream cheese frostings before and always assumed that chocolate frosting would be a pain to make.  That's why they have such great tubs of it at the grocery store, right?  I was horribly mistaken and will probably never buy another tub of chocolate icing again.

I used this recipe from Hershey's as my inspiration, but ended up tweaking it quite a bit because I'm apparently incapable of just following a recipe without "improving" on it.  Still, it turned out lovely and tastes a bit like a Terry's Chocolate Orange.

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegan margarine
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup rice milk (or an appropriate analogue)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon pure orange extract

Melt the margarine. Stir in the cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, while beating. 

If the frosting is still thick, add a few more drops of rice milk. Stir in vanilla and orange extract.

Makes about 1 ½ cups of frosting.

Vegan Swedish Fish Cupcake Recipe

They said it couldn't be done, but I did it.  I made vegan cupcakes with Swedish Fish*, and they are absolutely delicious. 

There's a lot going on in these cupcakes, but it all works.  I created an orange cupcake base for my cupcake because I thought it might nicely accent the ummm.... cherry flavor?  Are they cherry?  I just don't know, but I thought red flavor would go well with orange.  This basic vegan cupcake recipe is the one upon which I was built.  My recipe is much different, but I like to give credit to those who came up with the original ratios.

If you don't have coconut oil, you can substitute it with canola or vegetable oil.  Ditto if you don't have rice milk.  It can also be replaced with an appropriate analogue if necessary

Ingredients  

1/2 cup coconut oil, warmed until liquid

2/3 cup demerara sugar (or raw sugar)

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 ½ cups rice milk (warmed to room temperature)

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon pure orange extract

zest of one orange

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup of small Swedish Fish

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a muffin pan with 12 paper baking cups.

Beat together the coconut oil and sugar.

Mix in the rice milk and cider vinegar. Add the orange and vanilla extracts.

Add the orange zest, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until well combined.

Slowly incorporate the flour taking care not to over mix.

With a spatula or spoon, stir in the Swedish Fish.

Portion out the batter into the pre-lined muffin pan. They don't rise a lot, so I filled the cups almost to the top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

I iced my cupcakes with this Vegan Orange-Chocolate Frosting.

* Swedish Fish are vegan.  PETA says so.