Vegan Cupcakes. nom nom.

Happy Friday!!

Mini Vegan Chocolate Chip Cupcakes.
I was lucky enough to sample one of the leftovers and wish I had a dozen more! They were THAT good. nom nom.

Remember Wednesday... when my Bear turned 5? How could you forget? It's all I've been blogging about it seems. :)

Well, I wanted to bring in a special treat that day for his whole class to enjoy at his preschool. The preschool requires food to be store bought, so it presented a teeny cupcake problem to me. Dairy Free cupcakes aren't readily available at our local Publix, so I almost settled on bringing in a box of Oreos, when I came across an article on our local news site spotlighting a new start up: Guiltless Cupcakes. If you read the article, scroll down, she's below the Snarly Dog. ;) She's in Brandon AND she delivers!!

So, I contacted her for 2 dozen mini chocolate chip cupcakes, giving her only 1 day notice and she was super pleasant, very reasonable and absolutely willing to help me out with my short notice order.

Sometimes, as in this case, it's necessary to purchase specialty items and usually it's not so convenient.  So I really wanted to share this amazing resource with you.

I asked her to share a little bit about herself and Guiltless Cupcakes: 

I've always wanted my own bakery. I went to Johnson and Wales in Miami for baking and pastries, but moved home shortly after. I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I remember one day though, I was sitting in one of my classes and the professor was telling us, "Everyone that wants to be 'The Next Big Thing' comes to JWU. And everyone wants to own their own restaurant or bakery." I remember him going around the room asking us "What sets your bakery or restaurant apart from everyone else?"  Just like everyone else answered, I said I had no idea.

When I moved home, I continued with school at HCC but gave up my dream of owning a bakery. I had no idea what I was going to major in. I still baked here and there, but I left the desire in Miami. All of that was about to change. I had gone to my doctor a few weeks earlier for her to draw blood. She just wanted records of my cholesterol, blood sugar, etc. I remember not being nervous because I watched what I ate and I considered myself somewhat healthy. I had gone back the following week to get the results and what I had heard was devastating. Everything was through the roof. All of my numbers were out of the normal range and pointing closer to pancreatitis or diabetes. I was shocked. I remember thinking how could I be this unhealthy? I was in shape. I watched what I ate. Nothing made sense. My doctor didn't want to put me on any medication because I was young and she wanted to see if I could get this under control first. She handed me a packet of what I should avoid. "No read meat, no dairy, limit intake of eggs, no white flour, no white sugar." I remember crying on the way home because I was so stunned at the news. My mom came to the rescue though. She called a family friend who is a nutritionist and he came right over to inform me on what I could eat. Long story short, that was the day I started to eat vegan and it was the best decision of my life. I just quit everything cold turkey because I had 3 months to get this under control.

That's what sparked my business venture. I loved sweets. I could stop eating it for 3 months, but for the rest of my life? Absolutely not! I knew there had to be other people that were either in the same boat as me or had other issues. So I got to thinking and came up with Guiltless Cupcakes. At first they were just vegan. But as time went on, I started noticing my stomach would hurt after every time I ate. So I went back to the doctor, and come to find out that I might have celiac disease which is an allergy to gluten. So now Guiltless Cupcakes are dairy free, egg free, and gluten free. I guess you could say whatever health issues I go through, my cupcakes get a new make over.

I use all soy based products like soy butter, soy yogurt and almond milk. I get most of my flavor inspiration from Pinterest and experiment with them to make the cupcakes taste good and vegan.

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I give Guiltless Cupcakes my full recommendation. Tell her I sent you. ;)

<3, Tabi :D