Back in the early days of this blog I kept very close tabs on what posts were getting the most pageviews. I had a little widget in the sidebar that displayed photos of my top five most popular posts and one day I noticed that they were all chocolate. I totally thought I’d cracked the code. Post nothing but vegan chocolate recipes. That’s what everybody wants. I might have to eat a few extra brownies to make it happen, but I was willing to take one for the team. Looking at this site now, I obviously reconsidered. I eventually realized (1) I couldn’t handle all that chocolate, and (2) you guys really just wanted dinner recipes. It’s probably better for all of us.
But I did go on a mini chocolate frenzy, and these cupcakes were one of the recipes that came out of it. I’ve made them a handful of times since first posting them and I decided it was time to give the photos an update and make a few tweaks to the recipe. I can tell you this about these cupcakes: if you want to impress people with how delicious and decadent vegan desserts can be, make these. I’ve served them at a bunch of gatherings, often to people who didn’t even know they were vegan, and gotten nothing but compliments and declarations on how rich and decadent they were. I adapted the cupcake recipe from this basic vegan chocolate cupcake recipe. (It was one of my first vegan baking wins and I was pretty darn proud of myself!). To veganize the cupcakes I swapped out milk and butter with vegan milk and butter (easy!) and use a flax egg in place of the chicken egg. A flax egg is super simple: ground flaxseeds + liquid. It gells up and takes on an eggy consistency. For extra richness, I added some chocolate chips into the batter.
The frosting is much like a basic buttercream frosting, but with vegan butter and the addition of peanut butter.
Tips for Making Amazing Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
You can use natural (runny) or conventional peanut butter for the frosting. The conventional kind works better if you’re looking for a classic buttercream style frosting. I usually end up using natural because that’s what I buy. The frosting will be glossier (like in the photos) and not quite as firm, but every bit as delicious. If you decide to use natural peanut butter, I recommend chilling the cupcakes (especially during the summer), until ready to serve. Did your cupcakes fail to rise? Old baking powder is probably the culprit. Test yours by sprinkling some in a glass of water. It should fizz. If it doesn’t, toss and replace it. Not all sugar is vegan. In the United States, most granulated sugar is processed with bone char. Look for organic sugar (which doesn’t use bone char) to keep the recipe vegan. For vegan butter, try Earth Balance or vegan I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! For vegan chocolate chips, try Enjoy Life brand.
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