Elvis Has Left The Building!

Last month I tried a cupcake recipe that I found on Bake & Destroy. Natalie that writes on B & D makes some of the most amazing recipes and I always love to just pop over and see what she has done now.

I saw her posting for the Elvis Comeback Special. A scrumptious banana chocolate shaving cupcake with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting, Drizzled with Chocolate Ganache and Topped with Cashews and a Cherry.

A great selling point with these cupcakes is they are Vegan. Now I have never cooked Vegan but after reading the recipe there was nothing that overtly special or hard about cooking Vegan. I have wanted to try Vegan cupcakes at the market for the simple fact that I think they will sell great.

So I made the cupcakes. And of course I forgot the soy milk and ended up using regular milk so the Vegan label went out the window but they still came out good.

These are now my most requested cupcake beating out the Cookies & Cream Cupcakes from "Crazy About Cupcakes".

There is just no other word to describe these cupcakes but scrumptious. They are amazing. My only complaint is they do cook up small but they are still wonderful. When I was pregnant I couldn't even smell peanut butter without it making me nauseous. Not only did the peanut buttercream taste delicious but I ended up eating the remainder of the frosting with a spoon! I topped mine with the sour cherry balls that Wilton makes. They worked beautifully.

Try the recipe for yourself....you won't be sorry!

And in the words of Natalie from Bake & Destroy, "Now, if you really want to go nuts with the Elvis theme, bake these in a gold foil cupcake liner and sprinkle each frosted cupcake with pain killers and muscle relaxers."

Classic!

Elvis Has Left The Building!

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup mashed over ripe banana
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
2/3 cup rice or soy milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup finely chopped dark chocolate

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your pan with paper liners.Throw your mashed banana in a blender or push it through a sieve to make sure there are no lumps in it.Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar into a large bowl, mix well. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the oil, soy or rice milk, vanilla, almond and mashed banana. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry, don’t over mix or you’ll get tough cupcakes. Small lumps are fine.Fill liners 2/3 full, top the batter of each cupcake with 1 tsp of finely chopped chocolate and use a toothpick to gently stir them in.Bake 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the Peanut Butter Buttercream:

1/2 cup margarine, softened
4 Tbs. shortening
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 & 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
2-4 Tbs soy milk

With an electric mixer, cream together margarine and shortening until smooth.
Add peanut butter, molasses if using and vanilla, beat until very smooth.
Beat in sugar, mixture will be very stiff.
Dribble in soy milk a little at a time, beating continuously until frosting is pale and fluffy.

Chocolate Ganache:

3 Tbs soy milk
1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Heat soy milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until almost simmering. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips. Set aside to cool about 10 minutes, then use a piping bag or a fork to shake chocolate all over frosted cupcakes. The ganache will set up when cool.

I topped this with chopped cashews, you could use any kind of nut or some sprinkles. A candied cherry on top and the king has left the building.