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| Plate of delicious treats. |
I was going to veganize a recipe for Grand Marnier Cupcakes (chocolate cupcakes filled with Grand Marnier ganache and topped with a Grand Marnier buttercream) and just plain old chocolate whoopie pies, until I received a request for lemon cupcakes. But I waaaant that Grand Marnier!! Solution? Grand Marnier whoopies!
Onwards...
Vegan Gluten Free Whoopie Pies - adapted ever so slightly from The Sensitive Pantry
(I am too scared to make my own GF flour since this is my first foray into the kingdom of GF, so I purchased a 'muffin and cake' GF flour.)
Preheat oven to 375
2 c GF flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp instant coffee
Sift all those dudes together and set aside for a minute
1 c 'milk'
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Mix together in a measuring cup and also set aside.
6 tbsp Earth Balance, softened
1/2 c sugar
Beat these together until light and fluffy. Add in the flour mixture and the milk mixture in 2 batches each. Beat in 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp chocolate extract (if you have it. You could just add more vanilla if you don't).
Place in rounded tablespoon scoops onto parchment lined baking sheet. The original says you should get about 28 - 30 cookies out of this. I got 24. That's always my problem. Oh well.
Bake for 8 - 9 minutes, remove from oven and let cool.
Grand Marnier Ganache
2 oz soy creamer
6 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped
1 tbsp Grand Marnier
Heat the cream and then add the chocolate and stir until melted. Stir in the Grand Marnier. Allow to cool a bit and then spread about a teaspoon or so on the flat side of half of the cookies. You'll have some left over - that's okay, because you can heat it up a bit later and drizzle it on the tops!
Frosting
Traditional Whoopie Pie frosting seems to be primarily made of shortening. I hate the mouthfeel of shortening so we're just going to with a regular vegan buttercream dressed up with some Grand Marnier and orange peel.
1/2 c Earth Balance, room temp
2 c icing sugar
finely grated zest of 1 orange
2 tbsp grand marnier
1 tbsp soy creamer (or and alternate milk if you don't have the creamer)
Beat the Earth Balance until fluffy, then add half the sugar and a bit of the creamer. Beat until relatively smooth, then add the rest of the ingredients and beat until it's normal frosting consistency. Pipe onto the ganache side of the cookies.
Place the other half of the cookie on top and gently mush down. Eat! Share! Enjoy!
So, the lemon cupcakes. I pretty much just made Isa & Terry's vanilla cupcakes but added lemon peel; I also made a lovely lemon curd to fill 'em with and then just a small amount of lemon buttercream to pipe on top to cover up the curd. I actually made two batches, and made a marshmallow frosting to grace the top of the first batch, which was quite delightful also, but I can't remember how I made it. It used Ricemellow Creme is all I recall. I'll make it again at some juncture just so I can share it, because it was really good.
Lemon Cupcakes (adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World Vanilla Cupcakes)
1 c almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 c flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c canola oil
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp lemon juice
finely grated zest of a lemon - a tablespoon or so
Preheat to 350 and line your tin with papers.
Mix the milk and vinegar and let sit for a few minutes. Meanwhile, sift together all the dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre and add in all the wet ingredients and stir until fairly well combined, though not all the lumps have to be totally gone because no one likes a tough cupcake. Place in the oven and bake for 20 -22 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool about 5 minutes in the tin before removing and letting them hang out on a rack till completely cool.
When they're cool, dig out some holes because you're going to fill them with a tsp or so of lemon curd! Yum!
Lemon Curd - From VegNews
3/4 c coconut milk
1/2 c fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp turmeric
1 tsp lemon zest (I added more because I like SUPER lemon, probably almost a tbsp)
Over medium heat in a small pan, whisk together everything except the zest. Once it's warm, turn the heat down to low and keep whisking until it's pretty thick. Take it off the heat and mix in the zest. Let it cool before spooning into the cupcakes! *Note: this starts off a fairly innocuous colour but it WILL turn the most obnoxious shade of yellow you've ever seen. I can only assume this is due to the turmeric, so if you don't care about colour, you could probably leave it out if you don't have it on hand.*
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| It's cool if it goes over the top a bit, the frosting will cover it up! |
Lemon Buttercream - I only made a half recipe because I only wanted to pipe a bit on; if you want mountainous swirls, double it!
1/2 c Earth Balance, room temp
2 c icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp soy creamer
1 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
Beat the Earth Balance till fluffy. Add half the sugar and beat until mixed in; add everything else and beat until smooth and frosting-y. Pipe onto cupcakes. Om nom nom.
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| I added a little yellow gel colour to the frosting because I thought it would be pretty! |
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