The chopped up walnuts don't work too well with my frosting tips, so it got glopped on.
Two things of relative import: I do believe we have reached our one year blogaversay! Yay! It has been a very very delicious year, and it is very VERY exciting to go from being excited that we hit 20 hits in a day to averaging about 100 hits every day. So, thanks! It is pretty fabulous.
Thing two: Oh sweet sweet merciful weather gods, it is hot here. Hot and sticky sticky humid. Thus, no baking, and I’m slowing down posting to stretch out my current queue.
Anyhow, while Mels was visiting a few weeks ago, I made Vanilla Bourbon Cupcakes with the Toasted Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting…and it was every bit as delicious as it sounds.
I’m not going to include the recipe as I baked it, because the centers fell because I added too much bourbon.
Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk minus two tablespoons
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup earth balance margarine
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons bourbon (I used Jim Beam because a subtlety of flavor wasn’t very important and wouldn’t really come through the cupcakes)
Preheat the over to 350 and line the cupcake tin, and whisk the soy milk and vinegar and let it sit and get curdled.
Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and mix.
Sifting together the dry ingredients.
Cream together the margarine and sugar until fluffy and well mixed, and then mix in the vanilla extract and the bourbon.
mixing in extracts and bourbon
The instructions say to alternate beating in the flour mixture and soy milk mixture, an instruction I occasionally follow. Because I used margarine and not oil, it doesn’t make sense to NOT follow it–you can’t really mix things together properly if you don’t.
Once you’ve smoothed most of the lumps, fill the cupcake liners 2/3-3/4 of the way full and bake for 20-22 minutes until a knife poked in the middle comes out clean.
Frosting!
Ingredients:
1/4 cup earth balance margarine
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnut halves
I love this frosting. LOVE it. It is without a doubt one of the best frostings I have ever had.
Toast the walnut halves by putting them in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat (I don’t have one, so I just used a normal pan and kept an eagle-eye on the burning situation). This should take 5 minutes. Once they start smelling extra delicious and getting a little browned. Let them cool and chop finely.
Beat together the margarine and cream cheese until just combined. Beat in the powdered sugar in 1/3-1/2 cup batches, until smooth and creamy. Then, add the vanilla and fold in the chopped walnuts.
The finishing touch on this is a bourbon glaze, which I easily adapted from the Rum Glaze in VCTOTW.
1/4 cup bourbon
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons margarine
Simmer the rum and sugar over medium low heat. Once the sugar has dissolved and has started bubbling. Reduce heat and cook for another couple minutes, then remove from heat, stir in the margarine and vanilla. Once it has cooled a little, spoon over the cupcakes.
Cupcake of deliciousness.
Seriously, these are REALLY good.
Mels
Gibbs
Alex
Happy Blogiversary :D
[...] cupcakes is a rum syrup, which is taken almost verbatim from VCTOTW, the same one I adapted for the Vanilla Bourbon [...]
Only found your blog. Im doing a vegan VIP lounge area this weekend and Im going to try this, but with a couple variations. imm going to put the glaze on first as to soak in cake and im going to chop the walnuts and as an after thought half with and half without…on top that is. Thank you SOOOOO much!!!Oh and I have a sponsor of 12 yr old scotch, so Im going to use that instead of bourbon as to tie in the sponsorship…will let you know the outcome…THANKS AGAIN.