A very Happy Chinese New Year to the all of you celebrating! Many moons ago, we were lucky enough to spend time in Hong Kong during the Spring Festival and the Chinese New Year. The streets and shops were decked and festive with decorations, streamers and lanterns, of course the food remains unforgettable to this day! These vegan almond cupcakes are an ode to the thousands of almond cakes scoffed back then. Now before we go any further, the Chinese “Almond Cakes” are actually scrumptious discs of almond biscuits or cookies with intricate designs on the top. The best almond cakes were in Macau, they were full of almonds and oh so… moreish but often containing heaps of sugar, fat (usually hydrogenated and palm based) and other additives. This recipe is lighter, captures the almond goodness and is very, very tasty, inspired from the Forks Over Knife website here.
My variations to the recipe are using a combination of oat flour and almond flour to intensify the almond flavour.
These vegan almond cupcakes are grain free, sugar free, oil- free, plant based and completely delicious!
For the Almond Cupcakes – We Need
- Almond Milk – 1 cup( I used the unsweetened version)
- Pitted Dates, soaked and chopped up – 3/4 cup (about 15)
- Almond Essence – 2 teaspoons
- Oat Flour – 1½ cup
- Almond Flour – ½ cup
- Apple Purée – ¾ cup
- Baking Powder – 2 teaspoons
- Baking Soda – ¾ teaspoon
- Water – a few splashes, if needed
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 175° Celsius. Line the cupcake pans with colourful paper or silicon cases, red being the preferred colour!
- Blend the dates, apple purée and almond milk until smooth.
- Mix the oat flour, almond flour, baking powder and soda together in a large mixing bowl.
- Whisk in the date – apple purée – almond milk along with the almond essence. Mix well until a smooth and lump free batter forms.
- Use a tablespoon to drop the batter into the prepared pans.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, until the surface appears cooked or a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. (I honestly think my oven runs too hot, because these were done by the 12 minute mark!)
- Take the pans out and cool the cupcakes for 5 minutes before serving. I found that the cupcakes did flatten after cooling.
Serve as part of your Chinese New Year celebrations and all through the year.
- I have used a mini 24 cupcake pan and my standard 12 cupcake pan for the batter. If not wanting to make cupcakes, would make a great loaf cake too, however baking times will need to adjusted accordingly.
- The tops look cracked when cooked, by all means bake a bit longer if wanting golden brown tops. I tried both ways as shown in the pictures.
- Garnishing with extra almond slivers is also a great way to serve these luscious Vegan Almond Cupcakes. I just didn’t get around to slicing any before making these!!
If you enjoyed these cupcakes, please look here for some delicious Hummingbird Cupcakes.
very nice..
Thank you 😊