Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

I love to bake, and cupcakes are the perfect size for portion control (I can't be trusted to slice my own size piece of cake).  After tasting the sinfully delicious vegan cupcakes from Sticky Fingers Bakery in DC, I was inspired to make my own!  So I bought a copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, the same authors of Veganomicon and The Post Punk Kitchen blog.

There were so many recipes I wanted to make: S'Mores cupcakes, Banana Split cupcakes, Tiramisu cupcakes...but for my first try I made a peanut butter cupcake with chocolate ganache frosting.  Then I made Oreo cupcakes.  This time, I made a chocolate cupcake with chocolate chips and peanut butter frosting.  They were a big hit with my hubby's bandmates who gobbled them right up, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you.

Click "read more" to view the recipe:

Basic Chocolate Cupcake

Ingredients:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
**1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips** optional

Directions:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

2.  Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.  Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract, and other extract if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat till foamy.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat till no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are okay).

3.  This is where I mixed in semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter.  I used vegan chocolate chips (I found them at Whole Foods, but other brands can be found at any store...Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips are vegan).

4.  Pour into liners, filling three-quarters of the way.  Bake 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting them.

Peanut Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

1/4 cup margarine, softened

2 tablespoons shortening (*I used Crisco)

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tablespoon barley malt syrup or molasses, optional

1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 & 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (*I didn't sift)

1 to 2 tablespoons rice milk, soy milk or soy creamer

Directions:

1.  With an electric hand held mixer, cream together margarine and shortening at medium speed till smooth.  Add peanut butter, barley malt syrup or molasses, and vanilla, and beat until very smooth, 2-3 minutes.  Beat in sugar; mixture will be very stiff/crumbly.  Dribble in rice/soy milk a little at a time, beating continuously till frosting is pale tan and very fluffy.