Happy New Year!

What could be better to celebrate the arrival of the New Year than delicious cupcakes?   Afterall, I am not a big fan of champagne, in fact my celebration last night instead involved martinis and wine in its place.  And of course the cupcakes!  

I chose last night to go out early for a nice dinner in good company, then spend the rest of the evening in my pjs with a nice big bowl of home made kettlecorn, a good martini good cupcakes, and away from all the drunken crazies driving around on NYE.  Maybe staying in makes me boring, but I thoroughly enjoyed being comfy (dressing up to go to dinner was enough for me)!  I think I am getting old, because I was in bed by 11 and was sound asleep by the time the ball drop was happening on TV!  I hope you all had a wonderful New Years spent with the ones you love whether it was spent staying in or going out and I hope that none of you are nursing too bad of hangovers if you had a little too much fun!

Now back to those New Years cupcakes...I will admit that I am really more of a fan of a big grand layer cake the cake lover that I am, but I couldn't resist making something cute with some festive confetti sprinkles I recieved last week as a gift!  To me they screamed "Happy New Years!"  I think this is because I can remember having New Years Eve parties at my house as a youngster with my friends and they always involved throwing confetti of some sort!  I can remember finding confetti under the couch in the summer half a year later, it was never quite cleaned up.  Good times, confetti will always hold a special place in my heart!

So cute mini cupcakes with confetti in my mind were the perfect dessert to celebrate the coming of 2012 with!  I used my vegan vanilla almond cake base which is my favorite because it is so fragrant and also holds significance because it was used for both blogaversary and birthday cakes.  I folded the confetti sprinkles into the batter this time, as well as sprinkled them on top of the creamy vanilla almond frosting.  The cupcakes were quite delicious, fragrant with the scent of vanilla and almond, soft light cake and creamy frosting, remeniscent of birthday cake!  I will admit that I enjoyed way more of them than one probably should, but least I shared some as well. 

I have included my recipe below because it should not be limited just to New Years, so feel free to make it when you are in need of cupcakes!  I would like to wish you all the best in 2012!  Happy New Years, lets make it a great one!

Mini New Years Cupcakes
(Vegan Vanilla Almond Cupcakes)

Makes 12

Cupcakes:

3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup maple sugar or granulated sugar

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup lite organic coconut milk or almond milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
seeds of one vanilla bean

1 tsp almond extract

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup confetti sprinkles

Frosting:
1 8 oz pkg tofutti cream cheese
3 Tbsp agave nectar

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
a pinch of sea salt
plant based food coloring (if desired)
confetti sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and position rack in center of oven. Line two 12 hole mini muffin pans with foil liners. Whisk flour, baking soda, sea salt, and sugar in a large bowl to blend well. Whisk oil, milk, vanilla extract, vanllla seeds, and almond extract together in small bowl to blend well, then whisk into the flour mixture until well blended. Whisk in lemon juice vinegar and stir quickly, then fold in 1/4 cup confetti sprinkles. Transfer cake batter to prepared tins, filling 2/3 full and bake 10 minutes until tester inserted into center of one comes out clean. Cool cupcakes completely
To make frosting, whip cream cheese until smooth, then add agave, vanilla and salt beat until smooth. Beat in a few drops of food coloring if desired.  Using a pastry bag and large tip, pipe the frosting into swirls on top of each cupcake and sprinkle with confetti sprinkles!