Healthy Vegan Swedish Semla Cupcakes

Healthy Vegan Swedish Semla Cupcakes. Today is the day. Fat Tuesday (or Shrove Tuesday), one of the most beloved days in Sweden. Swedes traditionally eat ‘semlor’ (Semla singular, semlor plural) on Fat Tuesday, and last year on this day alone Swedes consumed about 6 million semlor. There are just over 10 million people in Sweden to put that in perspective for you haha. The beloved and traditional semla is a cardamom flavoured bun with almond paste and whipped cream filling. YUM. During ‘Semla season’ last year about 50 million semlor were consumed…that’s a lot of semlor.

Another fun fact about semlor… the Swedish king Adolf Fredrik on Fat Tuesday year 1771 apparently died as a result of indigestion and a stroke from eating a massive feast and 14 semlor in one evening. So what are you waiting for? Try one of these tasty semlor that are filled with healthy ingredients!

Healthy Vegan Swedish Semla Cupcakes

Healthy/vegan/gluten free version of the beloved Swedish semla. Yum!!

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Servings: 12

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Swedish, Vegan

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Cardamom Cupcake

• ¾ cup natural almond butter I used my homemade almond butter that is 100% roasted almonds with just a pinch of salt
• 4½ tsp cardamom
• 400g can chickpeas drained and rinsed leaves about 240 g chickpeas
• 2½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• pinch of sea salt
• ⅓ cup maple syrup
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp baking powder

Almond Paste option 1

• ¾ cup roasted almonds
• 5 dates
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• dash of ground cardamom
• splash of pure vanilla extract
• ¼ cup water

Almond Paste option 2

• almond butter
• dates or maple syrup
• cardamom
• vanilla

Toppings

• oat cream for whipping or whatever else if you have a preferred whipping 'cream'
• roasted almonds chopped

Method

 

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Set out 12 cupcake cups on a baking sheet.
2. Throw all the cupcake ingredients in a food processor and mix until smooth. Taste the batter to see if you would like to add more sweetener or spices. Then scoop the batter evenly into cupcake cups (I recommend using silicone cups to prevent creating more waste with paper cups, also they're so easy to pop the cupcake out later).
3. Bake for about 20 minutes, until they are golden brown. Let cool.
4. Make the almond paste option 1 by adding all of the ingredients to a mixer and mix until you get a thick paste. Adjust the flavouring to your desire.
5. OR make the almond paste option 2 by mixing almond butter with dates and a dash of cardamom and vanilla in a food processor. Or if you would like to just mix in a bowl you can mix in syrup instead of dates. Sweeten and add flavouring to your desire.
6. Whip the oat cream.
7. Once the cupcakes have cooled you can put a spoonful of almond paste on the cupcakes, topped with the whipped cream and almond slivers on top. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Notes

If you’re not serving all the cupcakes at once, don’t top the cupcakes you aren’t going to be eating right away with anything. Store the cupcakes undecorated, and top them when they will be served. 🙂  The cupcakes taste great on their own also btw! They also get softer and more moist the second day. 🙂