Hump Day Treat: Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I decided to fix you girls a little hump day treat!

Tuesday afternoon at approximately 2:45 PM, it occurred to me that my mom had gotten me a cake on my first day of kindergarten (um, 19 years ago). Preston was getting…nothing. Big sister guilt set in and I flew into action! I busted out Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World to see what I could whip up. Luckily, we had everything for basic cupcakes on hand except powdered sugar, so I zipped down to the corner store to get some. (Oh and turns out, we did have it….a lot of it actually.)

Whether you’re vegan or not, VCTOTW is an awesome little cookbook, but I thought vegan cupcakes were appropriate given this morning’s post about lactose intolerance. All the cupcakes are dairy and egg free, and there are some low-fat and gluten-free recipes as well. All the cupcakes all delicious, creative, and fun. And if you really want to use animal products, you meat-eater you, you can sub in regular milk and butter. I’ve made them both ways, and it really makes no difference–they’re mind-blowingly good either way!

I made these cupcakes while watching Oprah’s “Farewell to Dr. Oz” episode. I pretty much cry during any and every episode of Oprah. Alcoholic soccer moms? Overweight teens? Nate Berkus making over a dorm room? I’m a mess no matter what. Yesterday’s episode was no exception. All these people whose lives Dr. Oz has saved were on, and I was sitting here in an apron, wiping away tears, wondering when the hell I became a Desperate Housewife.

Anyway! This is one of my favorite cupcake recipes of all time! The peanut butter frosting tastes like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and it’s simply incredible. I made them senior year for a project (I channeled Giada; I think the video is still floating around on YouTube somewhere), and both me and my friend Cara Binder still use the recipe, to rave reports every time. So…have at it!

Chocolate Cupcakes

(Makes 12 cupcakes)

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract (you can use all vanilla if you don’t have almond, but I really think the almond makes it better!)

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with liners.

Whisk together soy milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.

Add sugar, oil, and flavor extracts to the soy milk mixture and beat together until foamy.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Add in two batches to the wet ingredients and beat until no lumps remain.

Pour into liners, filling three-quarters of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

While cupcakes are baking/cooling, get down to business on the frosting. I am going to go ahead and warn you right now that you might want to start chewing some gum before you make this frosting, because it’s SO good and the temptation to eat it straight out of the bowl is insane. If you start, you won’t be able to stop, and you will end up with the worst/best/worst again stomachache of your life. Consider yourself warned!

Peanut Buttercream

1/4 cup margarine, softened (NOT melted; if you melt it, you will need a bag of powdered sugar to make it the right consistency)

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1 and 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 tbsp soy milk, plus a little extra

Put everything except soy milk into a bowl.

Combine with an electric mixer. Once it’s well-blended (it will be very stiff), add a tablespoon of soy milk and blend some more. Add a little soy milk/keep beating until you reach the right consistency. It should be very light tan and fluffy.

Get the cooled cupcakes ready to frost away!

Taste if you dare! You may not stop once you start.

No animals are harmed in the making of these cupcakes! But…your diet might be, so go easy!!

Tagged as: baking, cupcakes, Hump Day Treat, recipes, Shed Kitchen