Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Cupcakes

So cupcakes. These aren’t SUPER peanut-buttery, so don’t expect a BAM THIS IS PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE SWIRL cupcake. This is more of a deliciously fluffy and moist chocolate cupcake with a kiss of peanut butter. The peanut butter frosting is a balance of sweet, peanutty, and smooth. Basically for this cupcake I focused on the crumb of the cupcake after watching all the available episodes of Cupcake Wars on Netflix.

I’ve been alive for 24 years and I’m still getting to know who I am. I like to think that I’m a fairly confident person who doesn’t really care what other people think. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I am not witty. Clever comebacks will never be a thing for me. I identify with being smart, but there are many things that I don’t know and am open to learning about. I know I won’t do something I don’t believe in. I am hyper-rational to a fault and it affects how I connect with people because sometimes I can’t be sympathetic in situations that would normally call for empathy.

Sometimes I think I know myself until something happens and my gut reaction is something that is completely unlike what I think is me. The thing that triggered this whole realization was hearing about people I liked talk about me behind my back. Normally when this happens, I like to think that I don’t really care because people gossip all the time, but for some reason, they really affected me. It was a very confusing realization that I cared what these people thought.

A good friend of mine told me about it so I’d know, and she knew that I would probably just brush it off and just get over it. Normally that would be the case, but I couldn’t help but feel irrational anger and hurt about it.

After hearing about it, I talked to some people whose opinions I trust: some of them are hyper-rational like me and advised me to do what unbiased me would tell myself; while some were supportive and tried to explain why these people said the things they said.

It took a couple days for me to gather my thoughts about it, and basically I’m over it. Nothing they say is going to affect what I plan on doing (aside from inspiring this extremely vague post). I’m still going to be me. Mostly confident, with a IDGAF attitude, really geeky about food photography and writing about what I care about, not witty except for the rare occasion where my humour coincides with good timing, resulting in a seemingly witty remark.

…yup.

So peanut butter and chocolate swirl cupcakes.

Lisa Le

Yields 24

Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Cupcakes

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Ingredients

For the Peanut Butter Batter
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter (nothing but ground peanuts)
• 2 Ener-G egg replacers (1 tbsp + 1/4 water)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk alternative
For the chocolate batter
• 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 Ener-G Egg replacers (1 tbsp + 1/4 cup)
• 1/2 tsp vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 all purpose unbleached flour
• 1/4 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 cup milk alternative
For the Peanut Butter Buttercream
• 1 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup milk alternative
• 2 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar

Instructions

For the Peanut Butter Batter
1. Whisk together oil, sugar, egg replacer, and natural peanut butter.
2. Sift in baking powder, flour, and salt.
3. Incorporate milk alternative 1/3 cup at a time and whisk until incorporated.
For the Chocolate Batter
4. Whisk together oil, sugar, egg replacer, and vinegar.
5. Sift in salt, baking powder, flour, and cocoa powder.
6. Incorporate milk alternative 1/3 cup at a time and whisk until incorporated.
To make the cupcakes
7. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
8. Add liners to two cupcake pans (24 cupcakes total). Place both pans on an angle, using a ramekin or something of similar height underneath one side of the pan to sit on an angle.
9. Fill half the cupcake cavities with the peanut butter batter and it should sink to the bottom edge of the cupcake liner.
10. Add the chocolate batter quickly and then remove the ramekin from underneath the cupcake pan.
11. Use a chopstick or a toothpick to swirl around the peanut butter and chocolate batters until you like the way it looks.
12. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when you poke it into a cupcake.
13. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Remove from the pan as soon as you can and let cool completely.
To make the frosting
14. Use an electric mixer and beat the shortening and peanut butter until light and creamy. Add the icing sugar and milk alternative and beat until light, fluffy and incorporated.
15. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe a rosette on your cupcakes! You can be a bit more generous with your icing than I was with the pictured cupcakes because I had a fair bit left over, but I wanted to feature the peanut butter and chocolate swirl in the cupcakes so I was a little skimpy on the frosting.

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https://thevietvegan.com/vegan-peanut-butter-chocolate-swirl-cupcakes/

Lisa Le