Glazed Chocolate-Avocado Cupcakes

Glazed Chocolate-Avocado Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Marni Molina

I've got a cold and don't know if I'll be up for a Sunday Night Dinner post tonight. So just in case, I'm posting these delicious cupcakes I made yesterday.

The recipe is from the September 2008 issue of Vegetarian TImes and it's definitely a winner. It employs avocado to replace the eggs, which works fantastic in chocolate recipes (as I learned from Chocolate of the Gods). They are moist, rich, and not too sweet.

Cupcakes:

• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour (I used unbleached)
  
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
  
• ¾ tsp baking soda
  
• ¾ tsp salt
  
• 1 avocado, pitted & peeled
  
• 1 cup pure maple syrup
  
• ¾ cup plain soymilk
  
• 1/3 cup canola oil
  
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze:

• ¼ block silken tofu, drained & patted dry
  
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
  
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1/8 tsp salt
  
• 4 oz semisweet vegan chocolate chips, melted

1. To make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Puree avocado in food processor until smooth. Add maple syrup, soymilk, oil, and vanilla and blend until creamy. Whisk avocado mixture into flour mixture.
   
2. Spoon batter into prepared cupcake cups. Bake 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out with some crumbs attached. Cool.
   
3. To make glaze: Blend tofu, maple syrup, vanilla and salt in food processor until smooth. Transfer to bowl. Dip tops of cupcakes in glaze, pulling straight up from glaze to form peaks.

There was lots of leftover glaze.  It didn't last long, but I'm thinking next time could serve double-duty as a glaze and filling.

Speaking of cupcakes, last weekend I made the red velvet and low-fat vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I took them to a weekend spiritual retreat to share with a bunch of omnis. I had every intention of taking pics of them, but the weekend went by in a flash and before I knew it, they were but a distant memory. I got nothing but positive feedback on them, though. VCTOTW is a new book for me, and I can't wait to explore it further.