Sweet Shannon's

While snapping a few shots down at the boardwalk the other day, I made sure to take a few of my favorite display. Sweet Sue's Bake Shop & Coffee Bar was all decked out for the holidays with a gingerbread and cupcake theme. Someone sure knew how to get my attention.

Rawified gingerbread and cupcakes have brought most of my readers to my site. In fact, it was my raw gingerbread house and cookies for Santa that prompted Dhrumil Purohit to invite me to join his We Like It Raw Squad.

This year, I opted not to make another gingerbread structure (been there, done that). Instead, I decided to combine my raw cupcake craze with this gingerlicious (I just made that word up) tradition.

The result was the cutest raw gingerbread cupcakes, iced with white frosting (gingerbread just has to be highlighted in white piping) and decorated with little raw ginger men, dried fruit pieces and a fresh cranberry on top. They look like they'd be right at home at the corner bakery.

Unfortunately, this is a traditional bakery where everything is actually baked (no dehydrators here). Wouldn't it be nice if it were an unbakery? It would be even nicer if my name was on it.

Okay, now I'm being naughty (as opposed to nice). I definitely don't have the time and money to make it happen, much less have the customer base around here to support it. I guess I'll just have to pretend in my kitchen at home (seriously, I sometimes pretend I'm running my own unbakery, while creating raw treats in my kitchen. It's probably a lot less stressful than the real deal).

And, you can, too. Here's another cupcake recipe, as my holiday gift to you.


A Trio of Gingercakes
1 cup pecans,
ground into flour
1 cup almonds,
ground into flour
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 cup date paste
1/2 Tbsp. blackstrap molasses
1-2 Tbsp. agave nectar
ginger, to taste
pinch of sea salt

In a bowl, combine the nut flours, flax, ginger and sea salt. Stir with a whisk or use an electric mixer.

Next, add the date paste and molasses (I like to mix the two together before adding them to the flour). Whisk/mix, paying close attention to the consistency of the batter. Add agave, to taste. Whisk/mix to combine. The batter should be moist enough to hold its shape, but dry enough to still have a crumb-like texture.

Divide the batter in thirds to make a trio of cupcakes. Form them into cupcake shapes, and decorate to your hearts content. I used this whipped icing, raw gingerbread men, dried fruit and fresh cranberries. Happy holidays :-)