Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World

Need to drown your sorrows? May I suggest cupcakes. I think they pretty much cure anything! Particularly these ones.
My sister is getting married next month and mentioned that she wanted a vegan option on her cupcake tower, so I picked up Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes That Rule from Barbara Jo's Books to Cooks to give to her. Only now I can't give it away. Thank you Allison for the suggestion.

Buy this book, even if you aren't vegan.

For the sake of research, I decided to try a couple recipes: Banana Split Cupcakes, Golden Vanilla Cupcakes, Vanilla buttercream and Peanut Frosting
Of course there were adaptations made. I filled the golden Vanilla Cupcakes with morello cherry preserves before topping with the fluffy vanilla buttercream.
The recipe for these can be found here.

The Banana Split Cupcakes are my favourite though.

Banana Cupcakes
adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World

Ingredients

1 cup very ripe banana
1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup soy milk
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract



Preheat oven to 350.
Get cupcake pans ready with liners.


Blend the mashed banana for a few seconds in a food processor to get rid of any lumps. Add the remaining wet ingredients and blend until totally smooth

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar.

Fold the wet ingredients into to the dry ingredients and mix to combine; don’t over mix.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter.

Bake for 20-22 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup margerine
4 tbsp vegan shortening (I used Earth Balance)
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1-2 tablespoons ricemilk, soy milk etc

With an electric mixer, cream together margerine and shortening. Beat in Vanilla and peanut butter, then beat in sifted confectioners sugar. Thin if needed with rice milk.