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Would you believe me if I told you that I spent 5 hours this month plucking dandelion blossoms?! Well, I did. 🤪 And one of the recipes I used them for are these marvellous dandelion cupcakes with a lemony cream cheese frosting. Sooo goood!
This recipe was totally inspired by the beautiful pictures of Colleen's Dandelion Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting over at Grow Forage Cook Ferment, one of my favourite sites! But make it vegan and make it Maisy (in other words, how most of my recipes come about) 😁
And I have to admit that my aesthetics can't match Colleen's – but, more importantly, my dandelion cupcakes are frickin amazing!!
I made them for Mother's Day last week, and they are
moist
fluffy & dense at the same time
juicy
lemony
lightly floral
sweet
slightly "nutty"
& here to brighten your day and your taste buds!
The next time you see these bright and sunny faces in your garden, make these delicious cupcakes with them!!
A FEW TIPS FOR PROCESSING DANDELION FLOWERS:
- Pick the dandelion flowers in a sunny part of the day when they are fully opened.
- Everyone has their own preferred method, but during all those hours of plucking dandelion blossoms I found that it was the easiest to pull out the petals from the flower head when the flowers have been spread out for about 5 hours or so, and are starting to wilt. That way the floral bracts of most of the flowers will have "peeled back" so it's easier to get to the good stuff (the yellow petals). See pictures below!
- Instead of pulling out the petals by hand you can also use a pair of scissors to clip the yellow petals from the flower. A few bits of green won't hurt anything, but they are very bitter so try to keep them to a minimum.
- If you want, you can give the plucked or clipped petals a light spray of water in a fine mesh to remove any bits of dust of dirt before adding them to the batter. If you want, you can also put them into the batter unwashed, that way you preserve the pollen. It's up to you!
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| left: floral bracts spread outwards // middle: floral bracts curled downwards // right: bare flower head after plucking |
VEGAN DANDELION CUPCAKES with cream cheese frosting
Preparation time: 45 mins
Main ingredients: flour, vegan yogurt, dandelion blossoms
difficulty level: easy
makes: 12 cupcakes
suitable for: vegan, lactose-free, wheat-free, nut-free, yeast-free
Ingredients
Batter:
4 tbsp ground flaxseed + 4 tbsp water
3/4 – 1 cup (20 – 30 g) dandelion petals (from about 100 – 150 g dandelion flowers)
zest from 1 large organic lemon (or swap for zest from 1 organic orange)
1/2 cup (150 g) vegan unsweetened yogurt (you can use your own homemade soy yogurt)
1 cup (160 g) spelt flour (I use the 1050 type)
1 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup (55 g) light sugar
1/4 cup (80 g) agave syrup, runny honey or dandelion honee
1/2 cup (125 ml) non-dairy milk
1 packet (8 g) vanilla sugar
1/6 cup (20 g) sunflower seeds
Frosting:
1/4 cup (40 g) vegan butter
1/3 cup (80 g) vegan cream cheese
1 3/4 cups (200 g) icing sugar (I used homemade powdered xylitol)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice (or swap for fresh orange juice)
Instructions
First, prepare the flax eggs by mixing ground flaxseeds with water in a mixing bowl. Set aside for a few minutes.
In a small bowl stir together dandelion petals, lemon zest, and vegan yogurt. Set aside.
In a larger bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Once the flax mixture has thickened, add sugar, syrup or honey/honee, sunflower oil, non-dairy milk, vanilla extract, and vanilla sugar. Using a whisk or an electric hand mixer, cream everything together until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, and mix to combine.
Lastly, fold in the sunflower seeds as well as dandelion/yogurt/lemon zest mix. Use a firm spatula or a spoon to mix everything together to evenly distribute.
Spoon the thick batter into the paper-lined or greased muffin pan cups.
Bake in the preheated oven at 180 °C / 350 °F for about 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool in their tin for 5-10 minutes. Then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before covering them in frosting.
For the frosting, beat vegan butter until light and fluffy. Add vegan cream cheese, lemon juice and icing sugar, and beat until smooth. If the icing is too runny, add 1 tsp of flour, or more icing sugar.
Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes. Decorate with dandelion blossoms or other edible flowers like daisies, if you like. Enjoy!
TIPS & NOTES:
- If you're not serving the cupcakes immediately, store them in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to serve.
- Instead of the cream cheese frosting, feel free to use a simple lemon juice & icing sugar glaze, or skip the frosting altogether. The cupcakes/muffins are juicy enough on their own!
General Foraging Guidelines:
You should be 100 % certain you are identifying the correct plant. If you do not know what it is, DO NOT eat it! Do not pick if you're in doubt!
Don't harvest from contaminated areas such as busy roadsides, near industrial facilities, where dogs pee, along the edges of agricultural fields, old landfill sites etc.
Be mindful & harvest sustainably. Only pick from areas that have a plentiful supply, and never more than 1/4 of a plant, ideally only about 5 %.
Leave the harvesting area litter-free.
♥
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