Raw Wednesdays: More Cupcakes!

For Raw Wednesday this week I decided to attack a chocolate craving and try another recipe from The Little Rawdorable Cupcake Book That Could. Since I had the ingredients on hand, I decided to tackle the Cocoa Avocado Cupcakes and Pudding-Style Frosting.

Earlier this week, I discovered the cutest silicone cupcake molds at Ross and figured that, though I treasure my ramekins, these would make for a more festive and photogenic cupcake presentation.



I started by checking the recipe and upon seeing "cocoa" listed as an ingredient, began to wonder if that was the same as the "cacao" I usually see on raw food blogs. As it turns out, for our purposes, they do mean the same thing, but there is a matter of raw to be aware of in this case. So for these I used this.

For those of you interested, I learned some new things on Chocolate Linguistics.

The cupcakes and frosting went together easily and I had a bowl of frosting left over that made for a wonderful post-yoga pudding snack. The cupcakes look so adorable and taste amazing. They are the perfect post-work snack - not too sweet, but rich and chocolatey.



I don't have a functioning color printer at the moment, so I might need some help to participate in the Ellen Quest for Raw Cupcake Domination.

Also I caved today and bought all three e-books from Sweetly Raw. The last thing I need is one more dessert book, so apparently buying three makes it OK. And it does, especially if having them helps me to cut out refined sugars and flours and to try new things.

And here's a bonus kale salad with raw dressing:

The First Raw Wednesday

First off, I can't find batteries for my camera, so pictures are courtesy of my phone. So sad. But I will make sure I have some batteries next time so that my terrible photography is not blamed on the electronics.

Here is the first Raw Wednesday menu!

Green Smoothie: kale, banana, mango, raspberries, blueberries, flax oil, cashew butter.
I've been drinking Green Smoothies (fruit smoothies with spinach or kale in them) for the past year every morning for breakfast. This morning was no different, except that I totally botched it. I didn't blend long enough, so it was not as smooth as I normally like. Oh well, it was still good enough to consume.

Salad: spinach, walnuts, apple, strawberries, red pepper, broccoli, carrots, sprouts, cucumber
That seems a little anti-climactic. I'm not normally big on salads, but I was pressed for time last night and thought, what's more classically raw than a salad? Besides I wanted to try out Gena's Zucchini Dressing (scroll down). Awesome. I wolfed down my salad and felt content all day.

Chocolate Pudding
It turns out that avocado + cacao powder + sweetener = pudding! I've seen a lot of recipes for this, but I just sort of improvised. I used both dates and agave as sweetener, because I'm low on dates and need them for later. I soaked the dates first for a little to soften them, then used the soaking water in the pudding. Here's my recipe, but it'll probably need some tweaking:

Chocolate Pudding
2 Avocados
3 Tbsp Cacao Powder
3 Medjool Dates, soaked 1 hour
1/4 cup soaking water
1 Tbsp Agave

Blend in the food processor until smooth.


It's not terribly sweet, so add more sweetener if you like. I topped it with strawberries, but remembering that I needed coconut milk for my cupcakes, I decided to use up the excess. After measuring and setting aside the cupcake quantity, I took what remained and added a little vanilla, then whipped it up and poured it over the pudding and strawberries. Most definitely a winning combination. Too bad I started eating before I got any good pictures. You'll have to cope with what I did get on my phone.

What's For Dinner Loaf
This is from The Complete Book of Raw Food. Super easy to put together and really flavorful! I used a shallot and some green onions because both the organic market and I were out of red onions. Oh well, delicious and very filling nonetheless. I had more salad to go with it.

Vanilla Cookie Cupcakes
I bought Shannon Marie's cupcake e-book last week, but this was my first attempt at using it. I went for the classic Vanilla Cookie Cupcakes and I Am Grateful Frosting. They were easy to put together and taste amazing! I won't go so far as to call them healthy, but if you're trying to cut out the refined flours and sugars and have a serious sweet-tooth, these could be a lifesaver.

I don't have the adorable silicone cups, so mine had to go into ramekins. They look a lot less sweet and fresh, but they have lids, so I can take one for lunch at work tomorrow. Besides, they're smaller and I was able to form four cupcakes instead of two. I halved the frosting amount, and still have plenty of extra, so it'll hang out in the freezer until next time.

I was afraid I wouldn't be full enough today eating raw, but I was fine. I brought carrots, broccoli, and celery to munch on throughout the day, but didn't need all I brought. Overall I'm really happy with the way it went and already have a long list of recipes for upcoming weeks.

Raw Wednesdays

Raw Wednesdays is not an original idea and some of my favorite bloggers have been doing it for quite awhile (What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway ... on a Raw Wednesday). And some of my favorite bloggers do it all the time (Rawdorable, Choosing Raw).

It's a pretty simple concept: eat raw foods.

If you want to know all the whys behind eating raw, you're on your own. There's a lot of information out there and I'm not really qualified to discuss it all. The reasons people have for eating raw are as varied as the people who do it. My reasons have to do with loving food, but I'll take any health benefits that come along with it.

I've had, and even made, some killer raw dishes and I'm challenging myself to one raw day a week to broaden my horizons. Raw foodies have some brilliant ideas. The classic Green Smoothie has been a workday breakfast staple of mine for over a year now and I want to learn more from their creativity.

If you look into raw eating online, you'll see a lot of expensive, fancy kitchen equipment. I don't have a juicer, spiralizer, dehydrator or expensive blender, but I do have a food processor and I ordered a mandoline today. All that stuff is great, but not necessary to dip your toes in raw waters.

Today was the first of many Raw Wednesdays and it went really well. The next post will detail the menu and methods I used and I'll try to be faithful about chronicling my future raw adventures.