Recipe Overview: The base is a basic chocolate cupcake (pg 37) filled with Peanut Butter Cream filling (pg 151). Then it is topped off with Rich Chocolate Ganache (pg 143) and then piped with more Peanut Butter Cream Frosting (pg 151). I added my personal touch with vegan sprinkles.
Preparation:
With my first attempt done and fairly successful I came at making this cupcake as if I were a pro. However, I was quickly brought down to reality when I decided to "shake up" the ingredients in my sifter without thinking that "hey ... this might actually sift and get all over the place." I had cocoa powder from one end of the counter to the other. Goal for next time is to keep the mess down.
After the sifting mess cleaned up, I finished mixing the ingredients, filled the cupcake liners (football ones again for Superbowl), and put the cupcakes in the oven. The recipe called for 18-20 minutes, so I thought that I'd settle on 19 minutes. However, it wasn't quite long enough so when I opened the oven too soon the cupcakes kind of deflated. However, since I was going to fill them with peanut butter filling it really didn't make too much of a difference.
Once the cupcakes were out and cooling, I took to the peanut butter filling. It was fairly easy to make. I had let the peanut butter stand out for a little bit to get nice and soft , which it made it easy to mix. The next part was filling the cupcake with the peanut butter mixture. In trying to be on top of my game here, I decided to invest in a simple cake decorating kit which included a filling tip. I got a little too ambitious and my first cupcake exploded with peanut butter. Once I got the knack of it, this was easy.
The chocolate ganache was fairly easy as well. I took vegan chocolate chips and melted them down with a little soy milk. I think I put a little too much soy milk in though since the ganache was kind of runny. But still .... ok.
Lastly was the peanut butter frosting, which is essentially peanut butter filling but a little more sugar for stiffness. As long as I kept the frosting cold, everything worked out ok. I used a rounded tip to pipe spirals of peanut butter. However, as I was piping the spirals I could not help to think I should have used a star tip. The peanut butter had a brown, smooth texture that kind of made the frosting look like a nice turd on the top of my cupcake. Thank goodness I had the sprinkles to jazz it up a little bit. Lesson learned ... brown icing must have a star tip.
Results:
Despite the cocoa powder explosion, the slightly runny ganache, and the poor decision in frosting techniques, they came out just as the name would say ... heaven! They were SO yummy that I ate two in one sitting. Now, I have to say I was pretty scared to even try one because peanut butter and I are rarely friends. The last time I had a desert with peanuts in it I couldn't walk for an hour because of the pain. However, due to the vegan-ness of this cupcake I had no problems (phew). I do need to find a better chocolate to use for the ganache topping. The chocolate I used tasted a little more nutty than I would have liked. The nutty flavor was probably extenuated even more in that I used soy milk for the base. I'm sure this is just a matter of experimenting and finding the right chocolate though.
I also brought these cupcakes to church along with the strawberry tall cakes and non-vegan cupcakes. I didn't tell anyone the difference and between the cupcakes and EVERYONE said that the vegan ones were better. My church ladies were loading their purses with them at the end of the afternoon. The next day I brought the same batch to work, but told people of the difference. I'm really surprised to how many people thought the vegan would taste bad. They just bypassed them and didn't even want to try. Little did they know what they were missing out on ... and left more for me to enjoy. Thoughts While Baking:
While baking these suckers I was very nervous for two reasons. One was that I desperately wanted to eat the whole jar of peanut butter and had to make sure to contain myself. The second was that my hubby was competing in a jujitsu competition. Knowing how important this event was to him, all I could think about is hoping that he would place or get to a good round. Unfortunately he didn't make it past the first round, which put him in a fairly grumpy mood for the rest of the weekend. Oh well ... life goes on and there are always more cupcakes to look forward to.
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