Vegan Schmegan

Vegan Chocolate Cupcake with Mocha Vegan Buttercream
and Royal Icing Purple Pansy

I am newly obsessed with Netflix and more importantly Entourage. So last night as I was cramming the second season in - as to take full advantage of my one month Netflix free trial- I suddenly felt the urge to bake. Strange, but true. As I was watching I thought two things: 1. Is Hollywood really like that? I mean I am in the "business" and the New York scene is just so different. If I had an agent like Ari, I would have 7 TONYS by now! But I digress, the second thing I thought was what kind of cupcake would LA-ers like. I know they have their beloved Sprinkles, but they are expensive & designer, but not new agey. I know it is a gross generalization that the good people of LA are all into yoga, green tea, ashrams, and life coaches, but that assumption is how I came up with this brilliant vegan cupcake.

It is a chocolate cupcake with mocha vegan buttercream frosting and a royal icing purple pansy. This was definitely an experiment. I knew that I wanted to make a rich and delicious cake that seemed much more decadent than just a simple vegan cupcake, but what would put it over the top without sending it over the edge? Mocha frosting.

Growing up, there was a Friendly's on my way to the theatre where I spent all of my summer days. There were only a handful of things that I would get there; Loaded waffle fries, cheese quesadillas - for which my friend Katie made up a song that still makes me laugh today - Reese's peanut butter cup sundae (aka crack) and mocha chunk ice cream. I was young when I started digging on mocha chunk. I mean not the typical flavor a 10 year old requests, but it had an edge. I had added oomph that made the chocolate chunks pop in my mouth and completed the ice cream experience. So I thought why not make mocha frosting how hard can it be with instant cappuccino just begging to be used in my pantry - thanks Lizzie.

Here is the thing. I am allergic to chocolate. Like allergic. So I can't taste test my experiments which proves to be fascinating. So as I was measuring out the chocolate to make the frosting I thought I wonder how much insta-cap I should use? Well, if I remember correctly, Lizzie told me a little goes a long way. So for a 1/2 a cup of cocoa 1 heaping tablespoon should do. I hope. I have a brilliant "buttercream" recipe that I live and breathe by because it is so great to cake decorate with, but I wanted something creamier that would match the flavor so I looked into a vegan baking book for some insight. Now the go to when making a vegan buttercream is margarine, but it doesn't hold up. It gets all melty and doesn't keep its shape so I decided to use half and half. 1/2 cup of margarine and a 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening. Now you can guffaw all you want, but when you are eating the delicious cake with off the hook frosting you won't remember a thing.

It did the trick! It gave the "buttercream" a super shiny look, but still was able to hold up and look GORGEOUS. So much so that my meat eating, salsa dancing friend Carlos came over and was freaking out that I had such amazing looking and smelling cupcakes just sitting around. I offered him one, but instead he had a small teaspoonful of the mocha "buttercream" and was in heaven. He said it was rich and flavorful and the coffee was not too over powering. YAY!

The real test is tonight when I bring them to salsa and my friends have one. I am not going to tell them they are vegan and see what happens! I will do my best to get pictures tonight! Wish me luck.
This is the glass domed cake stand I wrote about last time

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