I Bet You'll Love These Cupcakes

I never learned to play Go Fish, or Old Maid. My dad taught us black jack and "pisha pasha" the Yiddish name for the card game War. As a child I read the dictionary and played massive amounts of ping pong so by the time I was ten it was only natural that I utilize those talents by betting on 21 games, and throwing spelling bees.

Granted, I was never a girl scout or a brownie but when troupe 753 was going to a dude ranch for a weekend they asked 11 year old GiGi to go. Yee haw! My parents gave me some money and I guess they expected me to ride them there horsies and breathe some country air. I never saw the light of day and lost all their money playing pinball and betting on knock hockey - there was no ping pong - or else I would have come home with Mom and Dad's next mortgage payment.

My uncle J.  a Harvard grad, did time in Sing Sing for embezzling. My great grandmother baked lemon meringue pies for the customers in my great grandfather's gambling house. My sisters ex-husbands, and fiancees have been hunted down by bookies and bookies have called her home to ask if she wanted to bet in tandem with her beaus. My one husband wound up tens of thousands of dollars in debt spending money and betting on jobs that never materialized. 24 years ago I quit smoking 2.5 packs a day on a bet. I'll look the other way when we drive by the stinky dilapidated San Pablo Bingo parlor. It's just too enticing. I always liked the B-52s. I bet you didn't know that Swedish Fish were vegan! Go fish!

These are uber kid friendly and great for summer fun!

And yep I pinkie bet you can't eat just one.

Please don't jump ship after that ridiculous poem.

Make your standard Vegan Vanilla cupcake. Reach into the Veganville archives and you'll find one. Pour the batter into navy or some sort of blue hue cupcake liner.

Frosting and Decorating

1 Stick of Earth Balance (room temp)

2 T vegan shortening

3.5 C  confectioner's sugar

1 T-1/4 C of rice milk, or soy or hemp or almond

1 1/2 tsp non- alcoholic vanilla or flavoring of your choice

 3- 5 drops blue food coloring

several toothpicks or a thin knife

Swedish Fish, of course

Cream the Earth Balance and the shortening together until fluffy. Add the confectioner's sugar and beat for about 3 minutes. Add rice milk, and flavoring and beat another 5-7 minutes until fluffy. Remove bowl from stand, or mixer from bowl.

With a toothpick take a small amount of coloring and swirl it into the frosting. Trust me a small amount takes you a long way. Throw out the toothpick and use a spoon to mix the color into the frosting until thoroughly combined. If you want a deeper blue, repeat the process using a fresh toothpick each time. Do not, I repeat do not, frost a warm cupcake or cake for that matter EVER. Wait until the cupcakes are cool.

Frost and top with 1 Swedish fishy per cupcake. Bingo! It's a winner. They are perfect to eat while hanging with your toothless pals at OTB. Just saying.