Halloween: Vegan Chocolate & Coconut Muffins with Vegan Jelly

Halloween is almost here *squeals* and it's time to start baking halloween treats! I am trying to cut out dairy as much as I can from my vegetarian diet so the frosting, cupcakes and jellies are all 100% vegan. 

Firstly, the jellies as it is best if you set them in the fridge overnight. I used the Molecule R kits from IWOOT. I used the noodle version as the syringe made it easier to dispense the jelly into my moulds. I followed the instructions on the packet and I used cranberry juice as the flavouring along with some vegan red food colouring. I had a silicone mini gingerbread man mould already that I used to make the decorations and I used the kit as it should be used to make red noodles! I left them to cool then put them in the fridge overnight - they don't keep that well so I wouldn't leave them for more then a day or so in the fridge. 

Now onto the muffins, I found a recipe online and I adapted it as I didn't have some of the ingredients and I'm so happy with how they turned out because I personally don't like really sweet cupcakes (that's one of the reasons I don't ever make them or eat them). The muffins are a little dense, they are not like cupcakes or non-vegan muffins but I think they are just as good. Here are the ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of plain white flour

1 cup of white sugar

1/4 cup of cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/3 coconut oil

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar 

1 cup of water

Step one: I measured out the solid coconut oil and melted it, you just want it to be liquid (don't let it boil) - it melts very quickly and leave to cool slightly off the heat. 

Step two: Measure out the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl and mix. If your flour or sugar are lumpy then sift them into the bowl. I used powdered hot chocolate as we didn't have any cocoa powder so the taste wasn't as chocolately as it would have been with the actually cocoa powder. We usually have the Cadbury Bournville Cocoa Powder for baking which is great! Some hot chocolate powders and cocoa powders have added milk powder in them already so you need to find one that is just cocoa. 

Step three: Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones we already have in the bowl. Pour in the melted coconut oil, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar and water and mix well! Don't worry you don't taste the vinegar - just the chocolate and coconut. 

Step Four: Pour the mixture into your muffin/cupcake cases, I used cute halloween cases! Make sure the mixture is as even as possible in each one but don't worry if they aren't perfect! I filled my cases 2/3 full and then baked for about 20 - 25 minutes in the oven at 170 degree celsius on the fan setting. 

Step Five: To test if they are cooked push a wooden cocktail stick through the muffins in different areas and if it comes out clean each time then they are cooked, if not then leave in for a few more minutes but keep an eye on them! When baked leave to cool completely otherwise the frosting and jellies will melt and slide around. 

Now onto the frosting and this was definitely a trial and error process that became very messy, very quickly and if I made these again I wouldn't add the frosting as I don't really like frosting anyway but it does make the muffins looks more traditional/non-vegan. 

I used icing sugar, vegan butter (I use the Pure non-dairy sunflower spread) and various flavourings from Taylor and Colledge pastes - I used the peppermint and vanilla flavours. I had to experiment with differing amounts of butter to icing sugar to get the thickness and amount that I wanted so I don't have any measurements, sorry!

Finally for the presentation, for some I left them without any decoration and others I added the frosting and jellies which I think looks so cute with some pre-made coloured icing on to make them more colourful. For two of the muffins I crushed some chocolate biscuits (non-vegan) into small red baking bowls and added the muffins. You can present them any way you like! 

Will you be making some halloween treats? What do you think of my vegan recipe? Have you tried any of the Molecule R kits?

Coconut Oil + Chocolate Chip Cookies Ft. MyProtein

Happy Easter! If you follow my beauty, lifestyle and fashion blog (here) then you may have already seen my blog post all about MyProtein which included products kindly sent to me from the lovely people at The Hut Group (here). I am finally getting round to publishing my recipe for the coconut oil and chocolate chip cookies I mentioned in that post. I adapted the recipe from this website - I halved all of the ingredients as well.

Tools + Ingredients: 

- Scales

- Mixing bowl or food processor 

- Spoons

- Measuring cups 

- Baking Trays 

- Greaseproof paper

- Approx. 1/3 cup of solid virgin coconut oil (mine is from MyProtein)

- 1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla - I used the Taylor + Colledge extract 

- 1 cup of plain white flour

- 1/2 of cup brown sugar

- 1/2 Tsp bicarbonate of soda

- 1/4 cup of granulated sugar/regular sugar

- 1 egg

- 3/4 cup of milk and dark chocolate

Step One: Measure out and combine the flour and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl.

Step Two: Beat the solid virgin coconut oil until it is smoother and less solid in a food processor - it will be so much quicker and easier than doing it by hand. Then add in the brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract (optional) into the food processor as well and beat until combined, smooth and creamy. Beat the egg and add it to the food processor and mix. 

Step Three: Gradually add the flour mixture into the food processor - do this slowly otherwise it might not be as smooth or evenly combined. Add in what ever chocolate you want, make sure it is in small pieces though. Also the amount of chocolate is up to you, I would suggest a good amount as mixing the chocolate in can be difficult because the mixture is very thick and sticky and some cookies can end up having very little chocolate in them. 

Step Four: After mixing in the small chocolate pieces use a tablespoon to place the mixture into small discs onto a baking tray (covered with greaseproof/baking paper). I made the mistake of adding too much mixture for each cookie and they tuned out huge so half a tablespoon or even a teaspoon amount of mixture will make a good size for each cookie. 

Step Five: Bake for approx. 8 to 15 on 180 Celsius or 170 Celsius for fan (also cut the baking time by a couple of minutes for fan assisted ovens as ours is). Check to see if the cookies are baked through by poking a cocktail stick into a few of the cookies, if it comes out clean with virtually no bits on it then they are cooked. Leave to cool slightly and eat! This recipe made about 10 large cookies. 

What do you think of the coconut oil and chocolate chip cookies I made? Have you been baking over the Easter weekend?