Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Saturday marked a huge moment in my life. For the better part of a month, I was working on putting together the event known as "Party in the Park".  It was a very important day for the Monroe Park Campaign and due to the incredible amount of hard work from my teammates and several dedicated volunteers, we were able to pull it off without any major hitches. It's amazing how many people came out to celebrate with us. It was a genuinely good day, full of smiles and laughs and, of course, plenty of dancing. 

We did, however, underestimate the amount of food we needed. What do you do when you plan for a crowd of 150 and 350 show up instead? You bake what you can, and hope for the best. I caught this little blunder about a week in advance and was able to arrange for a few people to bring a couple dishes with them to the park. RVASugar Mamas were able to chip in last minute and FNB pulled through with some vegan baked goods as well. I figured I might as well bake something because, hey, who's going to say, "No" to cupcakes? Well, apparently no one could say no to my cupcakes and they were devoured before I could even get them all to the table. Since they were such a big hit, I thought I would pass on the recipe. I know there are probably a few of you readers out there that would die to try this one out.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

(Courtesy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)

1 1/2 cups Cake flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 cup and 1 Tbsp Vegetable oil
1 Tbsp Distilled white vinegar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/4 cups Water

Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners. Sift together the dry ingredients: cake flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

With an electric mixer, beat together the oil, vinegar, vanilla and water until well combined. Slowly add in the flour mixture. Mix until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed (Tip- the batter will be very thin).

Divide batter evenly among the lined cups (Tip- using an ice cream scoop is an easy and reliable way to ensure consistent cupcake size).

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let cupcakes sit for 2 or 3 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Let them cool completely before frosting.

Frosting
(Courtesy of the Joy of Vegan Baking)

1/2 cup Natural peanut butter
1/3 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup or more Nondairy milk
2 1/2 cups Powdered sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla

Cream together the peanut butter and cocoa (Tip- it's best to use fresh peanut butter with this recipe, otherwise the oils will separate and make it more difficult to frost and harden). Slowly add in the milk. Beat until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, salt and vanilla. Gradually pour a little more milk in at a time to reach a good spreading consistency.

No comments:

Post a Comment