Saturday, March 3, 2012

Peanut Buttercream filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Peanut Buttercream Topping

My roommate had a birthday party last night which put me in the mood to make cupcakes from VCTOW. I made Peanut Buttercream filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Peanut Buttercream Topping. And they're vegan.


Yup. They were awesome but I think I should have left out the almond extract and put vanilla instead. The taste was just a liiiittle off.

Anyway, these are the best chocolate cupcakes you could ask for - super chocolately, fluffy, sweet - and yet strong enough to take a filling AND topping without breaking too much (but just a little bit, I'll admit).

For the cupcakes:

1 cup soy milk (I use coconut milk)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

For the peanut buttercream filling:

1/4 cup margarine, softened
2 tbsp shortening
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tbsp molasses, optional (I used maple syrup)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1-2 tbsp rice milk (or whichever dairy-free milk you have)

With electric handheld mixer, cream together margarine and shortening at medium speed till smooth. Add peanut butter, molasses, and vanilla and beat until very smooth, 2-3 minutes. Beat in sugar; mixture will be very stiff. Dribble in rice milk a little at a time, beating continuously till frosting is pale tan and very fluffy.  Adjust the thickness of the frosting by adding rice milk or more confectioners’ sugar in small increments, if necessary.

To fill each cupcakes, poke a gentle hole in the middle of each cupcake with your finger, and kind of press on the inside to make the hole wider. Be VERY gentle as the cupcakes may crack on top. Use a wide, circular frosting tip to pipe the frosting into the middle of each cupcake. You should have about 1/3 of frosting leftover - you'll use this up in the next step.

For the chocolate peanut buttercream frosting:

Leftover peanut buttercream
1/4 cup margarine
2 tablespoons shortening
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt (optional)
2-3 cups powdered sugar (or to taste)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (or to taste)
2 – 4 TBSP plain milk

In a large bowl, cream the leftover peanut butter cream, margarine, and shortening. Beat in vanilla and salt. Sift in sugar and cocoa, beating at low speed until combined. Turn the mixer to medium or high and whip the frosting for about 2 minutes. Mix in milk to thin out to desired consistency.

Using a star tip, pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. You should have just enough to give the cupcakes a nice topping. Add sprinkles if desired.

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