You asked for it and here it is, the recipe for Josh's chocolate birthday cupcakes!  They were very well enjoyed, easy to make and they rose very well.  While my decorating skills won't win any reality shows, my moist chocolate cupcakes may just make you think twice about eggs, milk, butter and other toxic animal products?

Josh's Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes


    1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (Use organic if you can)
    3/4 cup turbinado/raw sugar
    1/4 cup cocoa powder (good quality/organic)
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    1/8 teaspoon salt
    3/4 cup nondairy milk (I used flax milk)
    1/2 cup vegetable oil
    3/4 cup vegan yogurt (I used Wholesoy Vanilla Organic)
    3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
    3/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

    Preheat oven to 350f, line cupcake pans with papers or oil and flour a cake pan of your selection.

    Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, add wet one by one and stir until thoroughly mixed, ladle into pans and bake 12-15 minutes +/-, depending on your oven, test by inserting skewer, when it comes out clean, they are done.  Cool in pan for 15 minutes and remove to cool completely on wire racks.  Frost however you want, but keep it vegan!

    I just made a simple white icing with Earth Balance, confectioner's sugar, flax milk, and vanilla in regular icing proportions.

Being Vegan is for the dogs!

Ok, well, not just for the dogs! My 2 1/2 year old Saint Bernard and my 9 1/2 year old Great Dane are both vegan. Stillwell (the Saint) has been vegan for most of his life and I switched Belize over to a plant based diet about a year and half ago. I cannot justify killing an animal to feed an animal and if I won't eat something I am surely not going to feed it to my dogs.

There are a couple of sound vegan dog foods on the market; V Dog (http://www.v-dogfood.com/) is probably one of the best, though hard to find so I often feed Natures Recipe Healthy Skin Vegetarian formula because I can large bags of it nearby. With more than 300 total pounds of dog, you can imagine I go through some big bags.

Like so many times when we want treats and our outside choices are limited, dog cookies are loaded with horrifying additives and animal products. Milk Bones are certainly not on the menu, I wouldn't give them those if they weren't vegan. I love my dogs and want to spoil them as much as anyone, so after visiting some dog bakeries I have come up with a vegan dog cookie that is tasty (Yes, I tried it...), nutritious, easily made with items already in your pantry, and adaptable for any size dog.

Stillwell's favorite cookie (He's the finicky one!)

*You can make more or less of these proportions, the recipe is very flexible.

2 cups Rolled Oats
1/4 cup Blackstrap Molasses
1 cup Natural peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8-1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 Tablespoons vegan cane sugar
3 Tablespoons unbleached flour
Hot water (if needed)

Preheat oven to 375f
Mix everything in a large mixing bowl until it is a thick, chunky paste. Form into balls applicable to the size of your dog (mine are ping pong ball size), placing onto parchment or silpat lined cookie sheet and bake until browned and dry looking on the outside.

If the cookies don't form easily into balls add VERY small amounts of hot water to the mix and reattempt.

Cool on rack completely and store in an airtight container high away from the reach of your dogs.

They love these cookies! Please let me know what additions you made and share a photo of your furry friends!