Speculaas Cupcakes with Almond Frosting (Vegan)

In Holland we have Sinterklaas on December 5th. (Click here for the meaning of Sinterklaas.)

We eat a lot of pepernoten, little Dutch cookies (which I will bake for you next week).

I deceided to make some nice cupcakes with speculaas kruiden, also a traditional cookie for this time of year.

For those of you who want to know more about speculaas, please read this post, a lovely girl explains speculaas in English, which I couldn't have done beter.

 

 

 

Speculaas cupcakes:

1 1/2 cup self rising flour

1 tsp speculaaskruiden (Verstegen or Homemade, see end of topic)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown caster sugar

1 egg (Egg Replacer)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup oil

4 tbsn water (you can also use milk)

 

Mix all in a bowl en mix untill smooth. Than put everything in a prepared cupcake pan with liners.

The cupcakes are ready when the toothpick comes out dry.

 

 

 

Almond frosting

1/4 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup soymilk 

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

pinch of salt

 

First,  in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the sugar, flour, salt together. Add the milk and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally until the mixture has thickened into a paste and slightly bubbly at edges.

Then transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed until cool. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter; beat until thoroughly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

For decoration, I sprinkled some speculaas with almonds cookie crumbles on top.

 

 

 

 

Home made Speculaaskruiden:

Spices used for Speculaas (a Dutch cookie).

Speculaas blend (Speculaaskruiden)

30 gr cinnamon (kaneel),

5 gr cloves (kruidnagel),

5 gr nutmeg (nootmuskaat),

3 gr white peppercorn (witte peper),

3 gr ginger powder (gemberpoeder),

1 gr cardamom seeds (from the green pods) (kardemomzaadjes).

Grind in a coffee grinder or mortar.