Cherry blossoms have bloomed in Vancouver, which means we are welcoming spring with open arms! To celebrate, we made these Easter Coconut muffins with Cookie Dough as “eggs” on top, all vegan!
The cherry blossoms are just in full bloom, and April showers have already begun here in Vancouver. Two days of sunny skies followed by 5 days of rain, just the typical weekly forecast. But to be fair, at least we got some sunshine, AND it’s getting dark later at night instead of witnessing 4pm sunsets. Wildflowers are in bloom, everyone is craving much-needed vitamin D, and trees are looking a little less bare. For me, this means morning smoothies instead of piping hot oatmeal, shorts instead of leggings, and finalizing summer plans, all while studying for upcoming exams.
April is always a difficult month for university/college students because we are confused people and we don’t know what to feel. One minute we are stressed to the maximum, one minute we are glad classes are over, and another minute we are anxious about summer plans that have not completely set in stone. Not to mention there are minutes when we question every single aspect of our lives, asking the question of our quarter-life crisis “what am I doing with my life?”, and then ponder about that for maybe 4 hours listing all the things that I can do and want to do, but don’t know whether if it’s a wise choice to take on… well at least these are the things I think about when I’m on a bus commuting somewhere. Every day I have a new list of hobbies I want to take up, things I want to improve on, and things that maybe I should not do. I guess if the idea stays in my mind for long enough, then that means my heart is telling me to do whatever the crazy thing I want to do, for which I’ll blindly follow through. And if I change my mind along the way or realize it probably wasn’t the best idea, well at least I tried. It’s a funny thing how plans can just collapse into nothingness. Just like that… if you allow your mind to. Welcome to the mind of Chew. Just making my life up as I trudge along. Just like everyone else who roam this Earth.
What’s next!? I don’t know. What now? That I know.
I really don’t know where I was going with that because I was just talking about spring and then I veered off to a different topic. But these past weeks I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the future and the possibilities of everything that has been taking over my mind (hello end-of-semester emotions + spring). To ease some end-of-semester stress, I’ve been writing some poetry and reading some inspiring books, and I forgot how much I miss writing! I haven’t done a creative piece in so long, and maybe I’ll share with you all soon! I’m so excited to write more this summer and just be inspired by Mother Nature and the spirit of Aloha. This is going to be one life-changing adventure, and I’m bringing you all along with me (in my camping backpack!).
Leung had the idea of adding a travel section to our blog, as we’ll both be heading off on our own adventures this May, and of course, we are inseparable so this gives us a chance to be a part of each others’ lives and being updated on things while we are away. I don’t think we’ve gone a month without seeing each other since grade 10 when we both went off with our families in the summer for vacation. What a blessing to have someone with you to confide in all the dang time?!
Okay, enough updates. The theme of today is just me rambling on about a lot of stuff because the current state of my mind is also muddled with a lot of stuff, so this is why this post reflect the muddiness that is my brain. Let’s talk muffins.
These are especially delicious when warm out of the oven because as they cool (if you store things in the fridge), the coconut oil will harden which yield firmer muffins. So if you eat them the next day, I’d advise you to reheat ’em in an oven! I had leftover cookie dough after making the “eggs”, so I just baked them off into a batch of cookies, and they turned out so dang delicious. So I strongly advise you to bake off the leftover cookie dough too (if you aren’t the type to eat cookie dough off a spoon. If you are the type to eat from a spoon, I admire you and please do that instead). These are so cute, and make wonderful spring or easter treats!
- MUFFINS
- 1 chia egg (1 tbsp chia, 3 tbsp water)
- ½ can coconut milk
- ¼ c. almond milk, warmed*
- ¼ c. coconut oil
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- ½ tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ¼ c. + 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1 c. shredded unsweetened coconut
- ½ c. quinoa flour**
- 1 c. flour
- CREAM CHEEZE FROSTING
- ⅓ block vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- ⅓ c. confectioners' sugar
- Splash of vanilla extract
- COOKIE DOUGH BALLS
- ½ c. flour
- Pinch of baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- Small splash of vanilla
- ¼ c. + 2 tbsp. cane sugar
- ½ tbsp. molasses
- 2 tbsp. coconut oil
- 1 tbsp. coconut yogurt***
- 3 tbsp. mini chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Whisk almond milk, coconut oil and vanilla together in a large bowl.
- Stir in the dry ingredients and mix just until combined
- Spoon into muffin pan and bake for 25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the cream cheeze frosting by whisking the vegan cream cheese with confectioners' sugar and vanilla until creamy and smooth. Set aside for assembly later.
- For cookie dough, cream the sugar, molasses, coconut oil, coconut yogurt and vanilla extract until well combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix until a cookie dough forms. Fold in the chocolate chips with a rubber spatula or mix them in with your hands. Form them into little eggs.
- Once muffins are done, remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
- Assemble with a dollop of frosting and adding 3 eggs on top for the finishing touch!
** can be substituted with your choice of whole grain/gluten-free flour, or additional regular flour
*** I found the coconut yogurt really worked well, but you can substitute it with almond milk if needed
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