Fall is definitely my favorite season and with that comes cooler weather, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin patches and anything basic. Unfortunately it was over 100 degrees until the end of October but at least it has finally cooled off.
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Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love New York. I fell in love before I even visited and during my first visit back in 2012 I became obsessed! I love everything about the city... I never knew you could love a city that much.. it's actually a sick obsession lol. Since then I try and visit as often as I can.
During this visit I stayed with my friend, Lily who is attending Columbia Law School...super crazy proud of her!!! She lives by campus, which is on 112th st. so it was a different experience staying in a apartment a little bit further than where I like to hang out in the city. She also had class/ needed to study so I was able to walk around by myself and feel like I actually live there. This was a great experience because I was able to see if i still LOVED the city without staying in a nice hotel downtown and going to brunch every morning.. basically doing vacation type activities....
Well, I still am! :)
Chase is going to law school next year and he's applying all over the country but most of the schools are on the east coast (I've settled on living on the east coast not just in New York) so I'm really excited about this because it will give us the opportunity to live there for a couple years and have a reason other than just moving there because it's always been a dream. Also, I'm getting really sick of the California heat.. I know I will miss in when I have to shovel snow but grass is always greener.
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Cupcakes are one of my favorite desserts and they're so easy to make! I'm not vegan but I try not to eat dairy products as much as I can. It's easy to substitute ingredients for other things, for example I use bananas for eggs- to me it adds more flavor. I use almond milk instead of cows milk and vegan butter. You can substitute whatever you want, its really up to you.
The cake mix I used is gluten free. You can use any cake mix you want and whatever ingredients it calls for, either follow it exactly or substitute.
So for this recipe you can do the same or try making vegan cupcakes :)
Ingredients:
Cake Mix- King Arthur Flour yellow cake mix (I bought from target)
Non-Vegan:
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- 2/3 milk
Vegan:
- 1/2 cup vegan butter (I used Miyoko's from Trader Joe's
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil (I used olive oil from Trader Joe's... too lazy to go buy vegetable oil)
- 2 large ripe bananas
- 2/3 almond milk (I used the vanilla flavored also from Trader Joe's)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. I used my Kitchen Aid mixer, if you don't have one, a mixing bowl and either the hand held electronic mixer or what I did before I had a mixer was use a spatula and mix it by hand... not fun
3. Cut up the bananas into small pieces and mash them in a bowl
4. Add all the ingredients into the bowl.. I know there is a specific order but I never follow it
5. Place the batter into the cupcake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes (I baked them for 22 min.)
Once they're finished, wait 15 minutes for them to cool off before applying frosting (I'm inpatient and stick them in the freezer for a couple minutes)
I've tried making my own frosting before and it was a lot of work and did not come out good, so I just buy it. I used Vanilla frosting from target and added food coloring to make it orange.
Decorate them however you like :)
