SisTot Vegans: Fair Trade Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the 4 year Old's Birthday Party

Here is the the kick-off blog piece for SisTot Vegans.

Kira-Satya, My 21 month old daughter, enjoying a cupcake.

I made these yesterday morning for my 4 year old’s birthday party. They were a fantastic hit, enjoyed by everyone. I surprised quite a few non-vegan folk who didn’t know that it was possible to make a superior tasting cupcake without eggs, animal based butter, and animal based milk. I enjoyed photographing my masterpiece.

I got the chocolate cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Save the World via Chow website. I did my own modifications for the recipe. Because the birthday party was for 2-6 years olds, I thought it would be a good idea to reduce the sugar that the recipe calls for by 50% and replace it with coconut sugar which has a low glycemic index and can prevent the crash and burn hyper kid syndrome that many birthday cupcakes are known to produce. I also ended up using 50% less sugar for the vegan butter cream frosting recipe as well (I used my own recipe for the buttercream frosting which I will share towards the end of this post).

What makes these cupcakes special is that they are not only vegan and organic; most of the ingredients I used came from brands that are much more ethical than many other brands selling vegan foods. This is because ‘cruelty-free’ vegan products often promote the idea that cruelty-free means no non-human animal may have been directly harmed or killed, but the way the ingredient were sourced could come from human exploitation and abuse which is common-place within a capitalist food system built on racialized and sexualized exploitation. My dissertation explored this phenomenon of “cruelty-free” vegan products that are marketed as compassionate and sustainable, despite the human suffering and pain that had gone into producing them…and the disturbing reaction of so many food companies and pro-vegan patrons who do not care about this. *I used coconut manna to make my buttercream frosting. I love coconut manna and everyone agreed that the frosting was fantastic because of the fullness of taste and texture that the coconut manna brought.

Buttercream Vanilla Frosting Ingredients

3/4 cup Nutiva Buttery Spread

1/4 cup Coconut Manna

1/2 cup Coconut Oil

3/4 cup of Confectioner’s sugar (I made my own using the Dry Vitamix blender container and putting in the Coconut Sugar)

Instructions: Whip all ingredients on high, using a mixer, until creamy and fluffy. Apply to cupcakes once they are cooled down.

Here are the brands I used for cocoa, sugar, coconut oil, shortening, vanilla, and coconut manna that were fairly traded, vegan, and hopefully caused the least amount of suffering (in comparison to other brands).

And here is the recipe book where the cupcake recipe is from by Moskowitz and Romero: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Click on the image to get it now!

Like what the Sistah Vegan Project Does? Donate and/or Find out about our upcoming projects and books. Also, download the Vegan Praxis of Black Lives Matters spring 2015 conference recordings and learn about our 2016 conference, ” The Role of Foodie+Tech Culture in an Era of Systemic Racism and Neoliberal Capitalism (Challenges and Possibilities).