The frosting is something I made up on the fly and am very happy with. I didn't want to do it chocolate on chocolate, and we have been getting tangerines at the grocery store for the last few weeks. As with most frosting recipes, you have to judge based on humidity how much liquid to use any given day. Wash you hands well ahead of time and drip the water from your finger tips for the best control.
Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 tablespoon espresso powder
3/4 cup superfine (caster) sugar
1 cup room temperature water
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with wrappers (usually makes 12 to 15 cupcakes depending on fullness of cups). Mix together flours, baking powder, salt, espresso powder, and cocoa in a bowl until evenly combined. This will aid in an even texture for the final cupcake and making mixing faster.
Add water, oil, and vanilla and mix with whisk until fully incorporated and a smooth batter is made. Fill cupcake wrappers 3/4 of the way full with the batter. If you desire a higher yield to the recipe, fill cups 2/3 full with batter.
Bake for 18 to 21 minutes, until cupcakes spring back when touched lightly. When finished, remove from pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Note: If you do not have espresso powder, you can substitute cooled coffee for 1/2 cup of the water. You can also omit it and add an additional tablespoon of cocoa, but the coffee gives it a rounder, richer flavor
Orange Frosting
Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
juice and zest of 1 tangerine/clementine or 1/2 navel orange
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt
droplets of water
In small to medium sized bowl, using a hand held mixer, mix together shortening, orange extract, juice, zest, and salt. Slowly incorporate powdered sugar. Once full incorporated, test the frosting for texture. It should feel slightly satiny with very little graininess. If it appears grainy, add a few droplets of water at a time, mixing after each addition, until it reaches the desired texture. Frost fully cooled cupcakes and allow to stand for 1 hour before putting in storage containers. Viola!
A few notes on this recipe.
I always use unbleached all purpose flour. The bleaching process is unnecessary, and there is not substitute for the fine milling of all purpose flour. For my whole wheat flour, I either use whole wheat flour that I run through the food processor to make slightly finer or whole wheat pastry flour. You have the most control with the food processor, but it takes time and can be a mess. The pastry flour is slightly more expensive and not all stores carry it, but it is very convenient.
Superfine (sometimes referred to as caster) sugar can be hard to locate. I have only found one local grocery store chain that carries it. You can either substitute granulated sugar or get your food processor back out. To be perfectly honest, this recipe works best with superfine or food processed sugar. You can process the 3/4 cup for this recipe for about a minute and call it a day. Just make sure you leave the plug in the feeder tube, or your will get a dust cloud.
Finally, there is no need to use any kind of mixer on the cupcake portion of this recipe. The baking powder stabilizes and gives them loft, so there is no need to beat air into the batter. Also, do not use a stand mixer on the frosting, as it will not engage the mixer's attachments, and it will have an uneven final texture. I tried to make frosting that way once, and 10 minutes later, I got out my hand mixer.
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