Raspberry Chocolate Vegan Cupcake from New Leaf Market

I have a pretty big sweet tooth and that's probably the toughest part about trying to follow a plant based diet. I have had some pretty darn good vegan ice-cream but baked goods are tough. 

 I discovered that the New Leaf Market in Half Moon Bay has some vegan offerings in their Bakery, including vegan cupcakes! 

Vegan Cupcakes @ New Leaf Market
photo by Nikki DeMartini

The selection of vegan cupcake flavors they had was impressive. There were five in all: German Chocolate, Raspberry Chocolate, Vanilla Bean, Mocha and Carrot Cake. I haven't had German Chocolate Cake in a long time so that one was really calling my name but I wanted to see what vegan frosting was like so I went with Raspberry Chocolate. 

Raspberry Chocolate Vegan Cupcake from New Leaf Market
photo by Nikki DeMartini

It's paper wrapper went all the way up to the frosting un-like traditional cupcake wrappers that usually just cover the cake portion of a cupcake. Some chocolate icing covering the top of the cupcake under the raspberry frosting that I hadn't noticed came off as I peeled the wrapper away. I licked some of  the thick chocolate icing off the edge of the wrapper and it was rich, dark chocolate delicious-ness!
The raspberry frosting wasn't as flavorful as the chocolate icing. I thought Raspberry frosting, vegan or not, would be bursting with tangy flavor but this one was not. It's sponge like texture reminded me of whipped yogurt and I couldn't tell if it was fresh or not. 

The deep, dark colored chocolate cake also wasn't flavorful. I've experienced lack of flavor with chocolate cupcakes before though so I don't attribute this to it being a vegan (cup)cake. It was a bit dry which may be because no eggs, milk or butter were used in the batter recipe?
Over all it didn't taste bad, it just lacked in the flavor department.
It's good to know that there are baked vegan goods at New Leaf Market! The vegan cupcakes cost about $2.00 dollars more than their regular cupcakes but that's a small price to pay if you're trying to live that plant based diet life style. 

Next time I'll try a different flavor, vanilla is usually a safe bet!