With Valentine’s Day coming up, why buy roses when you can make them (and eat them) yourself? I guarantee they won’t be as delicious as these guys.
It has been on my mind lately to dream up my own unique Valentine’s cupcake for the holiday. I thought of using rose water, rose petals, pistachios, lemon, lemonade, pink pink pink… but nothing really felt right. The inspiration for these came when I opened the fridge this morning. Rosé. My aha! moment. There was a half-drunken bottle of rosé wine in my fridge, staring right at me, and my cupcakes were going to get drunk off the rest of it.
And oh man, are they happy and drunk. I got the strawberries soaked and drunk in it, and got the flour in the batter drunk on it (3/4 of a cup, yo!). The strawberries were lonely in their little plastic carton and wanted to party, so I combined everything together and made magic. (Yes, it’s true, the inspiration came from just staring in my fridge. I think I spend too much time in the kitchen.)
The batter tastes and looks just like the strawberry cake mix out of a Betty Crocker box. But I can assure you, it’s free of those nasty chemicals and tastes a billion times better. So if you’re a strawberry cake fan, this is definitely for you!
If you’ve never baked with wine or made fancy frosting roses before, don’t fret. Take my hand and we’ll plunge into vegan strawberry rosé-soaked cupcake fields forever.
These turned out ridiculously amazing. I was throughly impressed. With or without the frosting, they are deeelicious. They’re super pretty to look at, and will impress any guy or gal from head to toe. I’m tellin’ ya, don’t waste your money on a dozen roses. Just bake a dozen roses instead! And eat them. ALL.
Happy (early) Valentine’s Day! Because I love you.
Vegan Strawberry Rosé Valentine Cupcake
Ingredients:- 3/4 cup rosé wine
- 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- optional: pinkish red gel food coloring
- 1 cup strawberries, diced
- 1 cup rosé wine
- 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening
- 1/2 cup Earth Balance
- 3 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 3 Tablespoons reserved strawberry rosé wine marinade
- pinkish red gel food coloring
- In a small bowl, marinate the diced strawberries in the wine for at least 30 minutes prior to folding into batter. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- Whisk the rosé wine, vanilla soy milk, and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl. Set aside for several minutes to get curdled.
- Beat together the wine soy milk mixture with the oil, sugar, and vanilla.
- Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until no large lumps remain.
- Add in the food coloring gel until you reach your desired color. I preferred mine to be a lightish pink (about 4-6 drops).
- Strain the strawberries from the wine liquid (but reserve) and add to the batter. You will use the strawberry wine mixture for the frosting.
- Fill cupcake liners near the line (you should have enough batter to evenly distribute into 12 liners), and bake 20 minutes (I have a hot oven and it bakes quickly... if you do not, just bake em a little longer).
- Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.
- Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy.
- Add the sugar, reserved wine marinade, and food coloring. Beat until well combined.
- Fill a pastry frosting bag fit with a rose petal decorating tip (see examples here) with the frosting, and pipe on a rose design (see tutorial here) for each cupcake. Viola! So pretty and easy!
