LoVe

Love= Chocolate, Coconut, Cupcakes, and Cookies.

Yup that just about sums up love. Interesting how everything starts with the letter "C" too, hum?

So Valentine's Day is here yet again. What to do, what to do? Make something chocolaty and coconutty and orangey? Why not. How about we start off with Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes, move onto Chocolate Chip Cookies, then finish things off with Blood Orange Almond Coconut Cookies? (Wow and still what is with all the "C's"?)

Here we go...

Chocolate Cherry Surprise Cupcakes

2/3 cup almond milk
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour (use white or white whole wheat)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cacao nibs (optional)
1/4 cup black cherry preserves

Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix the milk and apple cider vinegar together and allow to curdle for a few minutes.

Beat in the agave, oil, and extracts.

In another bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda, and salt (and if adding cacao nibs).

Add in the milk mix.

Fill cupcake liners with 2 tablespoons at first.

Add in a teaspoon or so of the cherry preserves.

Top with another 2 tablespoons (or until the batter is gone) of the cake batter. Bake 20 to 22 minutes. Allow to cool.

I opted for no frosting or anything on top of these cupcakes just because, but do feel free to frost as your heart may so content.

Cacao nibs, for those of you who are wondering, are what cocoa powder is made from. They are just broken bits of the cacao seed. They are very high in antioxidants and add a nice crunch to the cupcakes. If you may remember I topped one of my desserts last summer with some. They have a very strong taste when eaten alone, but in the cupcake they were great and added an even deeper depth to the chocolaty-ness to the cupcakes. The next recipe is from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, with a few tweeks.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup date sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup almond milk
2 tablespoons tapioca flour (or arrowroot powder or cornstarch)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat white flour (I used regular whole wheat out of white)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix the oil and sugar.

Add in the milk and tapioca flour and beat until there are no clumps.

Mix in the vanilla.

Add half the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the remaining flour.

Fold in the chocolate chips (plus an extra tablespoon of flour).

Drop walnut sized amounts on the prepared pans.
Flatten them slightly. Bake 10 minutes for chewy cookies or 12 for crispy cookies. (I baked them for 10 minutes.)

Let them cool. Yum!

My next recipe well I thought hey let me make something red for vday, but turned out to be a fail. These cookies did not come out the red color I was hoping for but they are still great and do have red zest throughout, so that kind of makes up for it. (No not really but I am trying to make myself feel better her!) Oh and plus they are gluten free!

Blood Orange Almond Coconut Cookies

1/2 cup blood orange juice
1 tablespoon blood orange zest
1/4 cup oil
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoon agave nectar
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup almond flour (meal)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon arrowroot flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Mix the juice, zest, oil, extracts, agave, and chia seeds together in a measuring cup or small bowl.

Combine flours, nutmeg. salt, arrowroot, and baking soda.

Add in the juice mixture (watch it bubble up somewhat, science!).

Form tablespoon sized amounts into balls, flatten them on the pan. Bake 20 minutes, turning pan during baking.

Allow to cool and a rack.

There you go! I hope you have a great Valentine's Day! I will leave you all with my favorite love quote...

The greatest thing you will ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. 

<3 What movie is that from?