End of the line. Well, end of the month at least. So, later today I’ll announce the very first Monthly Winner. I’m. So. Excited!! I can’t wait for you to see it!!
But, now I’m here to talk about the last day of August. My first “other” cupcake. It still gets a grade, but it won’t be part of the monthly or overall competition. The first one I chose is these Fall Acorn Cupcakes (recipe from Easy Baked). They are so cute! I couldn’t resist.
The cupcakes have a nice color and texture. Dense and moist. Not an overly exciting taste. Not as chocolatey as I was expecting (or wanted). The full-size has a better flavor, but the cocoa powder doesn’t allow for as strong a chocolate flavor.
The frosting is thick and extremely easy to pipe! It has a decent, sweet vanilla flavor. The shortening gives it a strange aftertaste. The recipe had called for butter, but I wanted to make it completely vegan, so I subbed shortening.
They are definitely better together than they are separate. A decent cupcake, despite whatever your feelings are on vegan. But, whether that’s your choice or your necessity, these are a good option. (Note: the decoration is not vegan, but it is very cute. And, you don’t have to eat it, so you could still use it. Or, get creative with other ingredients to make a similar vegan-friendly version.)
I would try them again with a different ingredient for frosting. This is the first time I’ve ever attempted anything vegan, so I’m not terribly familiar with butter substitutes. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment, I’d love to know!!
Scoring Sheet:
– Cupcake Taste: 3
– Frosting Taste: 2
– Overall Taste: 3
– Appearance: 5 (seriously. That decoration is soooo cute!)
– Ease of Making: 4
– TOTAL: 17
RECIPE (from Easy Baked)
INGREDIENTS: (makes about 24 cupcakes)
- 3 cups of flour
- 2 cups of sugar
- 1/2 cup of cocoa
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 tablespoons of vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cups oil
- 2 c. water
For acorns:
- 24 Nabisco Nutter Butter Cookie Bites
- 24 Hershey kisses
- 24 butterscotch or peanut butter chips
- 1/4 c. Wiltons milk chocolate candy melts.
FROSTING: (I made this with shortening instead of butter, to stick with the Vegan thing)
Ingredients:
- 1 stick (4 oz.)of salted butter (room temp)
- 1 stick (4 oz.)of unsalted butter (room temp)
- 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
- 3 t. vanilla (use clear if you want white frosting)
For directions visit Easy Baked.
*Tomorrow: Sour Cream Vanilla Cupcakes*
my year of cupcakes 
This is SUCH a fun idea for a blog. Oh my. Thanks for trying one of my recipes (use butter!!) I’m really enjoying all your posts- and so impressed that you are actually making all of these cupcakes! wow…!
Thank you so much!!!
My son is allergic to dairy proteins and since I’ve been breast feeding I’ve been using butter substitutes. My favorite, by far, is Earth Balance margarine. It comes in a butter flavor or olive oil flavor. It’s a little spendy, but there is no dairy and no hydrogenated oil. I have used the butter flavor for cookies and they were good, but slightly more crispy than butter. I haven’t tried it for frosting, but when I make the August winner I’ll have to substitute so I could report back. By the way, you can find it in whole foods like stores, or I have even found it in the specialty sections of a couple regular grocery stores, but I do live in Oregon so it may be easier to find here. Good luck!
Thank you!! That’s amazing!! Yes, please let me know how they turn out. I have seen Earth Balance, so I’ll try that next time for sure!
I know that my vegan friend swears by Earth Balance, and I have tasted her frosting and I personally enjoy it a lot!
Excellent!! Thank you! I’ll have to try that next time.