GO BLUE Blueberry & Lemon Cupcakes: Celebrate Your Team Spirit!!

If you’re super passionate about your beloved sports teams, whether it’s college, high school or professional (or all 3 if you’re a typical crazy fan), you certainly don’t want to stop at showing your excitement by just displaying a bumper sticker, wearing a T-shirt or using a keychain. You are what you eat, so if you call yourself a crazy avid fan, then you’ve got to extend the fun and eat food showing your team colors!

Tasha Edwards, the Sweetest Vegan, knows that you simply must create fun food that represents your team in the healthiest and most delicious way that you can! Being an alumna of University of Michigan, she gets in the spirit of Blue and Yellow and creates these “rah-rah” cupcakes! Tasha has amazing looking vegan recipes on her You Tube Channel, see below, but we tweaked this one a bit to our own taste. Of course, if blue and yellow are not your team colors, then can I interest you in a yummy cupcake/muffin that’ll make you feel like you’re savoring the wonderful taste of spring—lemon and blueberry, a fabulous combination!!

I’m not sure why we can’t call this a muffin because it certainly seems like one to me. If the use of frosting is the determining factor, then I can attest, these are so good that frosting is unnecessary, except for the fact that you can get creative with it. We’ve made these with and without frosting and they’re awesome! Between living in UCLA territory and sending my daughter to the University of Michigan in the fall, making these Blue and Yellow cupcake/muffins was tons of fun! If your child is on an intramural sports team and cupcakes sound like a great year-end contribution to your team party, make these because they’re healthy and absolutely delicious—you can frost them with any color you like!

Blue & Yellow College Teams:

University of Michigan
UCLA
University of Delaware
Notre Dame
University of Rochester
University of Pittsburgh
UC Berkeley
Georgia Tech
Marquette
Navy
Villanova
West Virginia University

GO BLUE Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes

adapted from Tasha Edwards “The Sweetest Vegan”

Ingredients:

1 3/4 all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/2 cup fine baking sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup almond milk
3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup organic pureed pumpkin
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 1/4 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2) In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder.
3) In a separate bowl, mix together vegetable oil, almond milk, fresh lemon juice, pumpkin, and lemon zest in a separate bowl
4) Gradually add in the mixed dry ingredients with mixing spoon, being sure not to over mix.
5) Carefully fold in the blueberries.
6) Add the mixture to a muffin pan lined with paper cups or sprayed with a no stick spray.
7) Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Tasha’s Vegan Buttercream Frosting Recipe

Ingredients:

1/4 cup margarine or Earth’s Balance
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsp almond milk

Directions:
1. Beat together margarine and shortening until well combined.
2. Slowly mix in powdered sugar until fluffy.
3. Lastly add in vanilla extract and almond milk, soy milk or whichever non dairy milk alternative you decide to use.

Note: To get the various colors, use a few drops of liquid or powdered food coloring to get desired shades.

For a different recipe for vegan frosting using coconut cream, check out the frosting used in this very popular recipe.