Do you remember my recipe for
Chocolate Black Bean Cupcakes? No? If you're new around here, go back and take a look at these little beauties. They're my favorite little cakes to bake, because they taste just like "real" chocolate cake, and because they're so good for you. Ingredients like black beans and prunes aren't normally found in cupcakes, but don't be afraid! These are really quite delightful. I recently made them for our daughter's birthday, with some super-naughty orange buttercream frosting, and topped them with little organic gummy bears - not because she's a little kid (she
has a little kid), but because I'm currently quite smitten with gummy bears myself. Then the cakes were so darn cute they needed an appropriately cute presentation. So I pulled a bunch of colorful dishes out of the cupboard, stacked them up, and ta-da!, we have the cutest darn cake stand ever. I stacked them so all the lips and notches nestled together, making it a lot sturdier than you might think. Do try this at home.
Make the
cupcakes.
And then the
Orange Buttercream Frosting
1 stick Earth Balance "butter" - softened to room temperature in your mixing bowl
1 pound organic powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp orange extract
1 T Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
almond milk
Add powdered sugar to softened "butter," along with the salt, orange extract, and Grand Marnier.
Mix with a hand mixer, adding almond milk
very gradually - just a few drops at a time - until the frosting is smooth and spreadable. This amount will be too much for one batch of cupcakes, so either make a double batch of cakes, or refrigerate or freeze the extra frosting for future cake embellishing.
