Chocolate Cake with Whiskey Buttercream Frosting

James found this great vegan chocolate cake recipe on the internet and I decided to go with it for a friend's birthday cake. I was amazed to see how simple this recipe is, and its delicious! I made two 9in cakes and assembled them with a whiskey buttercream frosting, truly one of the best frosting's EVER! I have to say the cake pretty much KILLED at the potluck. Hurray.

My only critique is that I don't know how to decorate a cake well. I think I'm getting better, but its still a little on the sloppy side. Next time will be better.

Stout Cupcakes 2.0

I made these on a whim after I tried the first stout cupcakes, and they turned out wonderful. I used coconut milk as the base because cupcakes with coconut milk are KILLER. That's not to imply that the previous posting was a bad cupcake, they were good, the second batch was just better. I left out chocolate because I felt it took away to much from the stout flavor, I replaced it with almond meal because almond meal is one of the best things you can use in baking. I used a 1/4 of stout for the beer flavor which was perfect after the cupcakes were fully baked.

For St. Patrick's Day I added a little festive green coloring.

I used the whiskey butter cream frosting on these cakes as well, terrific! I need to use that frosting for more cupcakes.

Vegan Stout Cupcakes

Set oven to 350

3/4 cup of coconut milk
1 tablespoon flax seed
Whisk flax seed and coconut milk together and let sit for 8-10 minutes. While waiting, in a separate bowl mix the dry goods together.

1 cup plus 2-3 tablesppons pastry flour
1/3 almond meal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
Set dry goods aside and add remaining wet goods to coconut-flax mixture.

1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 stout
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix all wet goods well and slowly add dry goods into wet goods bowl in two or three batches. Once mixed add mixture to baking liners and place the cupcake tray in oven for 20-23 minutes.

Stout Cupcakes 1.0 (Chocolate)

I couldn't help but get sucked into the St. Patrick's Day Holiday especially since I'm unemployed and need to occupy my time with something. I found a cool little shop in North Seattle that sells a lot of cheesy cake decorations (note the shamrock sprinkles). I took this recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and they turned out really well. My only critique was that the chocolate covered up some of the beer flavor. My one addition to these cakes was the whiskey butter cream frosting which is the best icing EVER.

Recipe:
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup shortening
2 -2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup whiskey

Cream margarine and shortening together and then slowly add sugar until consistency looks like large crumbs. Slowly add the whiskey and beat for 5-7 minutes or until frosting is thick and creamy.