What does a vegan eat on Thanksgiving? I’ll tell you what a vegan eats on Thanksgiving: cupcakes, and lots of cupcakes. Or at least that’s what this vegan does. There may have been some veggies, pasta, and pizza involved in this year’s extravaganza, but since dessert is the first and last thing I eat on any given day, I don’t always recall what goes on in between. I only recall being full. Very full. And happy. Thankful, even.
Anywhoo, this year the brothers and I fixed Thanksgiving nosh, which included the Tiramisu Cupcakes (119), a family favorite, and this recipe, which Mom had tried before but not Charlotte. It must have worked out well, though, because Little Brother requested an encore. The recipe couldn’t be easier: mix up a batch of Your Basic Chocolate Cupcake (37) and add 2 tbsps of instant coffee to the batter before baking. To top them off, fix the ol’ reliable Vegan Fluffy Buttercream (142) but substitute cold coffee or expresso for the soy milk. I’m a wimp when it comes to caffeine, so I declined the expresso option. Also, we didn’t have any expresso. I used decaf coffee instead.
The cake part of these was Awesome with a capital A. I’m not a fan of coffee as a beverage, but as a flavor in baked goods or soy ice cream, it’s fantastic. Especially paired with chocolate. Mmm. The frosting also would have been Awesome, but I was short of powdered sugar, so had to resort to plan B: make some more myself. Terry & Isa give instructions for this in VCTOTW 9: take granulated sugar, place in blender, whirr around. I think this would have worked out fine, except I didn’t whirr long enough. So my frosting had a grainy texture. Plus, I decided to go all reckless with the coffee adding and eyeball instead of measuring. Rookie mistake, I know, but I did it, and too much liquid ended up in the frosting, the result being runny. And grainy. Boo. It brought the overall score of this recipe down to merely awesome with a lowercase a.
However, the rest of the family ate these up with nary a care. And, uh, I guess I helped a little, too…
2 Comments
December 7, 2008 at 2:25 pm
wow! if i weren’t already inclined toward veggie life, i would be now after reading your most recent editorials!! and yes, the cuppers were VERY special!
December 7, 2008 at 2:31 pm
-almost as delicious as your company!