NIGHT BAKING: Vegan-ish Cupcakes!

I went shopping after work today and brought back a giant haul of vegetables and after spending most of my early evening washing, peeling, chopping, dicing, and roasting, all I wanted was some cake!

I didn't have cake mix or any milk on hand, so I looked up some vegan recipes (since I do have almond milk!) and found one that was super simple and turned out really tasty!

Topped them with some adorbs Easter hard-shell candies I got the other day!

The recipe I used for the cupcakes is from ohsheglows and I used a different recipe for chocolate buttercream (which is what makes these cupcakes vegan-ish I used real butter but you can easily substitute it with earth balance if you're vegan).

To make 12 vegan chocolate cupcakes:

Preheat your oven to 350 and line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners (mine are Easter themed - kind of a big deal). In a mixer, beat together 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used an unsweetened vanilla almond milk), 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, and 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract (the almond extract is optional, but I had some, so I used it). Beat on medium speed until smooth.

Sift in 1.5 cups all purpose flour, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt and continue mixing until smooth.

This is what the batter should look like.

Divide batter evenly amongst cupcake liners (about 2/3 full) and bake for 22 minutes (or until the cake springs back when you press gently with your finger). Set aside to cool.

For the buttercream, I adapted a recipe for Chocolate Buttercream from savorysweetlife the recipe will make enough to top a little over a dozen cupcakes (I froze my leftover icing to thaw and rewhip for emergencies).

I made my verison of the buttercream by creaming 2 sticks of room temperature butter in a mixer on medium speed until fluffy (about three minutes). Sift in 3.5 cups of powdered sugar and 1/2 cup cocoa powder and turn the mixer on to low until butter and the dry ingredients are combined. 

Turn up the speed to medium and then added 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, and 4 tablespoons of Dark Chocolate Almond Milk (or you can use milk or heavy cream). Whip on medium speed until fluffy - about 3 minutes.

Then once the cupcakes are cooled, you can top them with your buttercream any anything else you've got laying around.

(I am in love with this icing! It's so fluffy and soft and isn't as sweet as some of the other butter cream I've had/tried making. Definitely give it a shot)

I did some with those hard candies. They're so adorbs. They look like mini gum balls.

And topped some with a salted-caramel-pecan concoction that one of the chefs at work made for me, turning it into a turtle-like cupcake of deliciousness.

But I know what you're thinking... "Joj. You're always going on and on about how much you HATE cupcakes!"

I do. Just so we're clear, I didn't enjoy the process of eating it at all. One bite of icing, one bite of cake... the ratio is all off kilter and it stresses me out.

But the idea of baking a whole cake and all of the extra cleaning that comes with that... it just wasn't happening. Remind me to invent paper cake pan liners. 

Bringing a box of stressful cupcake eats to work tomorrow!