Vegan Pot Pie Cupcakes

Vegan Pot Pie Cupcakes

It isn’t a secret that our Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes are a hit!  They remain one of our top pin images on Pinterest and always rank at the top of our blog post views!  Due to allergies, our family has gone diary free and do a lot of vegan recipes so I thought it was time to try out a new recipe – Vegan Pot Pie Cupcakes.  Just as easy and delicious and the original!

Did you know that crescent rolls are vegan??  This a game changer for this recipe, but also for week night meals, appetizers and holiday meals!  Basically you make a filling, push some crescent rolls down in a muffin tin, add filling and bake for 15-18 minutes.  Cheese is totally optional.  We use dairy free cheese (our favorite is daiya).

Vegan Pot Pie Cupcakes Recipe

 

Ingredients

  • 1 serving of vegan cream soup (I used this version and subsituted vegan ingredients)
  • 1 cup frozen mixed veggies
  • 1/2 cup vegan shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 tablespoon of  dried thyme
  • 1/2 tablespoon of dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 2 (10 oz) cans Pillsbury crescent rolls

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 400.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the vegan cream soup, frozen veggies, cheese, herbs and spices.
  3. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin and place the Pillsbury crescent rolls into each cup, pressing into the bottom and up the sides.  You will have extras and can fill the cups or make extra rolls on the side!
  4. Evenly spoon the pot pie mixture into each biscuit cup. Slide into the oven and bake for 15 -18 minutes. Check at the 15 minute mark.
  5. Let rest for about 3 minutes and dig in!
ma’s famous chocolate cake recipe

ma’s famous chocolate cake recipe

Ma is 91 years young and makes an amazing chocolate cake.  She is my husband’s grandmother and she has so kindly been feeding me this cake for the past 11 years. The recipe has been in an old family cookbook for decades, but no one has ever been able to truly master her secret icing technique!  I was visiting Ma in Nashville earlier this month and she baked the cake with me step by step for the first time.  I documented with photos and got her permission to share with you.  She is already known for this cake, and I told her now she was going to be an internet star! 🙂

Isn’t Ma the cutest.  My grandmothers both passed away when I was younger and she scooped me up as her own granddaughter shortly after my husband and I started dating.  I just love her!

Ma and Me

Alright, let’s bake a cake!

So, the cake part really isn’t a secret.  Just use the easy boxed stuff!  You can use yellow, white or chocolate cake mix.  Follow the directions on the box to bake the cake.  Ma suggests Crisco for greasing the pans before adding the cake mix to bake.

yellow cake mix

Yellow Cake Mix Baking

Once the cakes have baked, then let cool on a cooling rack.  You can slice each of these in half if you would like to make more layers of the cake.

Ma Cutting Cake

Now, to the famous chocolate frosting.

STEP ONE: Mix all ingredients in a heavy saucepan. (Scroll to the bottom for recipe)

Chocolate Frosting Recipe Step By Step

Mix Ingredients Together

 

STEP TWO: Bring to a boil on medium heat, stirring.  Cook until soft ball forms in cold water (or 234 degrees on candy thermometer). We didn’t use a thermometer – Ma uses the old fashion trick.

Boiling Chocolate Frosting

 

Chocolate Frosting Tip

STEP THREE:  Remove saucepan from heat.  Place saucepan in pan of cold water.  (We used Ma’s sink).  Stir frosting until creamy.

Cooling Chocolate Frosting

STEP FOUR: Place parchment paper on cake plate or cake container bottom.  This will help so much with clean up! Spread between layers and on top of sides of cake. Frost two layers or four if you cut your bakes cakes in half.  (I only cut one in half, so I had three layers)

Frosting a Cake

(Don’t you love the minion paper towels! I felt like that little guy was judging my frosting technique!)

Layers of Cake

Chocolate Frosting on Cake

And there you have it!  The frosting was definitely tricky.  I think I need to make this a few more (dozen) times to even come close to Ma’s perfect version. It’s all about timing with the frosting during boiling/cooling/icing.

Choclate Frosting Cake Recipe

Please don’t judge my lopsided cake!  I love to cook, but I don’t bake very often.  My first cake in quite some time and I didn’t line the layers up just right.  You can use toothpicks if you need to hold it together.

As you can see this is messy!  But a delicious clean up.  Once you have it all iced, slide your cake knife under the cake to lift a tad so you can pull out the parchment paper.

Lopsided Chocolate Cake

Let cool and then enjoy! YUMMY!

 

Ma’s Famous Secret Chocolate Cake

Ingredients: 

  • 3 cups of sugar
  • 3/4 cup evaporated milk
  • 1/4 cup of water
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1/4 cup of cocoa
  • 1 pinch of baking soda

Directions: 

Mix all ingredients in heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil on medium heat, stirring. Cook until soft ball forms in cold water (or 234 degrees on candy thermometer). Remove from heat. Place saucepan in pan (or sink) of cold water. Stir frosting until creamy.  Spread between layers and on top of sides of cake. Frost two layers or four if you cut in half.  Cool and enjoy!

Tips for this recipe – see photos and text above
Lower fat alternative – you must be kidding!

Heather made Ma's Chocolate Cake

I was so proud of myself and my little lopsided cake.  I will do better next time.  Practice makes perfect, right?

Chocolate Frosted Cake Cut

 

A big thank you to MA for sharing her kitchen and cooking expertise with me and her recipe with all of us!

Enjoy!

Heather Johnson - The Creative Stack

falling for fall

falling for fall

It may be that this week in the Queen City temperatures are only reaching the low 80s, but there is a crisp in the air and I am the first to admit that I am pretty excited about the upcoming fall season.

world with fall

photo credit

 

To get us all in the mood, I have found a few recipes that make me think of sweaters, bonfires, football and crisp air in the mornings!

 

1.  Thank you Crazy for Crust for sharing this recipe!  This is definitely going on our list of things to try this fall!

pumpkin toffee bar

 

 

2.  Fall can still be refreshing with this caramel apple sangria I saw on Family Food Finds.  I can almost taste it now!

caramel apple sangria

 

e.  I love figs.  Have you ever tried figs on pizza rather than tomato base?  It is amazing!  Well, here I found a Fig Bruchetta by Style Me Pretty.  JACKPOT!

fig bruchetta

 

4. And now for soup.  Who doesn’t love soup and who doesn’t love lasagna.  I mean, here we have both together by Cooking with Ruthie.

lasagna soup

For other fall recipes previously on Sunny Slide Up – check these out!

And we can’t forget Heather’s Football Party ideas!  Here and Here

Anyone else ready for the colder weather?

falling for fall

 

Mandi Heilig - Dry Ink Designs