A Vegan Cupcake Story

This is a vegan food lover's story and how the gift of food keeps on giving. I can count on one hand the number of times someone has baked for me. More like on one finger the number of times someone has baked for me since becoming vegan. There is just something about someone else's baking. It somehow takes on this magic aura and yumminess that is unattainable when one bakes for oneself.

It's no secret: I love confections of all kind. I take great comfort in all things sweet and all things from the oven. So when Mr. Thyme came home last week with a plastic carton and handed it to me saying it was for me, I nearly cried. "Seriously?. . .  For me? OMG! What is it?" (In a nano-second I lifted the lid to see this amazing frosted huge cupcake!) "This is for me?" "Yes." I was still in shock, then had to have all the details. I was my skeptic self, "So this isn't left over from an office party or something?" "No. It's from so-and-so (a fellow vegan) and she thought you might like it." I thought, Might? Look at it! It's a giant cupcake AND it's frosted with chocolate icing! What's not to like already? Of course, best of all, she is a vegan, too! (And how incredibly sweet is it of her to think of me and I did send her a personal note with many thanks--I was just so touched by this kindness--to think of sharing her baking with me!) And then, dessert for the next two nights was taken care of.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I loved it! I hated to see it go. But. . . now I wanted more than one! I wanted the recipe--I wanted it now, not next week (which is actually this week)! So I was left with this craving for a banana chocolate chip frosted cupcake for way longer than should be allowed. Until yesterday when I was on a mission: Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Walnut Giant Cupcakes. When I have my mind set on something, it's pretty hard to distract me. I was craving the exact cupcake I had savored last weekend--here it was Wednesday, and I still had nothing baked. I wanted the texture, the chocolate, the walnuts AND the frosting!

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon and the big tins come out. I was in a funk--sort of down. Really not in the mood for much of anything other than creating those cupcakes again--that would surely make me feel better. So let the research begin. And I had come across several recipes with banana and chocolate chips--some were cakes, some were breads, some were cupcakes. Nothing really 100% a facsimile of what I had enjoyed--I could tell. But I was determined. A little from here, a little from there, and viola--a new recipe. Fingers crossed the taste will be the same. And. . .what you see in the photos is a result of my food lust: pure and simple.

Then Mr. Thyme came home. . . recipe in hand. By then, my version was in the oven already baking. How utterly strange the way things work out. And to top it off--when I looked at her notes and the recipe source--I had the recipe the whole time--her adapted version of that cupcake was in a cookbook I already owned! I had to laugh--mostly at myself and my silliness and obsessive nature. Go figure. Had she not baked this amazing cupcake, and had Mr. Thyme not brought it home for me--I would have never had the pleasure of its delight. My iteration of the cupcake was delish! I love banana anything. But back in my mind was the special quality that cupcake held as I ate my "gift" cupcake--one half at a time. Make someone's day. Bake for a vegan!

Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Walnut Giant Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
pinch of cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted vegetable margerine
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup Florida Crystals (or regular sugar if you must)
3 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons warm water
2/3 cup unsweetened soy milk mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ripened bananas, mashed up
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (*these are optional, but what's the point?)
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray two pans of Texas-sized muffin tins. (This batter will fill ten.) First, prep your soymilk and vinegar (to make buttermilk). Next, prep your egg replacer, set aside. Measure your dry ingredients and place in a large mixing bowl and whisk together. In another bowl, beat the margerine and sugars together until creamy or really crumbly. Add the egg replacer and vanilla. Beat mixture until smooth. Then about a half cup at a time, add the flour, mixing for about five seconds after each addition. Then fold in the bananas, chocolate chips and walnuts. Fill the muffin tins about 2/3's full. In your empty tins, add a bit of water--this helps the other muffins bake up higher. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool before frosting. Enjoy!

Chocolate Frosting

4 tablespoons Earth Balance Butter
4 tablespoons vegan shortening
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the shortening and butter in a bowl and mix until creamy. Mix in the cocoa until well incorporated and smooth. Add the vanilla extract and powdered sugar and blend well until creamy--the way you like it. If you want more fluff, add more powdered sugar!