Veganism Takes the (Cup)Cake

Ok, so I'm not quite ready just yet to fully embrace veganism in its entirety, but this New York Times blog post -- about a vegan chef, Chloe Coscarelli, winning a cupcake baking contest on the Food Network's TV show Cupcake Wars -- offers some additional motivation. The blog post notes that veganism has become an increasingly popular dietary preference in recent years, with various celebrities helping to endorse healthy eating habits and animal-friendly lifestyles. But what makes this recent vegan coup extra special is that it proves that vegan food has the potential to actually taste good -- better, in fact, than non-vegan food. And not just vegan food, but vegan baking, often considered the not-so-tasty Achilles heel of a vegan diet. Even when pitted against three non-vegan bakers who had the advantage of being able to use non-vegan baking ingredient staples, including eggs, cream, and butter, Coscarelli's creations managed to impress the Food Network cupcake judges the most. (Two of her winning cupcake recipes are available on Coscarelli's blog, here and here.) One of the judges, Candace Nelson, explains in the NYTimes blog post:

“Of all the shows we’ve done, the thing I hear the most is, ‘Were those vegan cupcakes really that good?’ ” Ms. Nelson said. “People are in sort of disbelief that this vegan chef beat out the rest of the competition. My answer is yes, they were delicious. It was everything we were looking for in a cupcake.”

Today I did buy my first box of Ener-G's Egg Replacer and my first tub of Earth Balance's buttery spread - two key ingredients for vegan baking. Am looking forward to trying these products out and experimenting with some vegan baked goods very, very soon!