Vegan Cookies n' Cream Cupcakes

So a couple of our friends moved in across the street from us, and as a welcome gift-type thing, I decided to make them some cupcakes. However, they are vegan. So the cupcakes, in turn, became vegan. I found the recipe at CHOW and they turned out amazing. In fact, believe it or not, I’ve made quite a few different vegan cupcake recipes in my time, and these are by far the best I’ve ever had. They may be the best cupcakes I’ve ever had, period.

Why, you ask? What is my rating system for cupcakes? Well, let me explain. The reason these are so awesome is because 1) the frosting is incredibly light and fluffy. I am ridiculously picky about frosting, and I hate cupcakes overloaded with rich, sugary, dense frosting. I like to actually taste/enjoy the cake. This frosting is light, airy, and doesn’t overwhelm the cupcake, even with a pretty good amount on top. 2) The cake tastes really great by itself and doesn’t rely on the frosting for flavor. 3) There’s an awesome variety of textures in these from the cake, the frosting, the chunks of cookie in the batter, the fine grains of cookie in the frosting, and the cookie on top. It’s tasty. 4) Additionally, many vegan cupcakes can turn out flat, dense, and even brick-like. These don’t. They’re just as moist and fluffy as regular cupcakes.

Ok, enough of my jabber. Onto the cupcakes! I know you all want to make them, and by golly, you should.

NOTE: This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS - CUPCAKES

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract (I just used more vanilla because that’s all I had)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup wheat-free, dairy free Newman-O’s (or other vegan Oreo-like cookies), coarsely chopped (approximately 10 cookies—chop and then measure)

INSTRUCTIONS - CUPCAKES

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
3. Add in your chopped cookies (the pieces should be about pea-sized, they don’t have to be perfect) and stir in.
4. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
5. Frost and top each cupcake with half a cookie, as you’ll see in the pictures below.

INGREDIENTS - FROSTING
NOTE: This recipe made way more frosting than I used. I don’t like a lot of frosting on cupcakes, and I used way more than I’d usually use, and I still had about half of it left. I would definitely half this recipe next time, but don’t if you like copious amounts of frosting on your cupcakes.

• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening
• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine, like Earth Balance
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted if clumpy
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plain soy milk or soy creamer
• 1/2 cup wheat-free, dairy free Newman-O’s (or other vegan Oreo-like cookies), finely mashed (approximately 5 cookies—mash and then measure)

INSTRUCTIONS - FROSTING

1. Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.
2. Add the vanilla, soy milk, and your mashed cookies, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.

Your cast of characters, minus the shortening. Pretend it’s there.
This is the soy milk and the vinegar curdling. I took a picture so you’d know what to look for. It should be quite bubbly. That is all.
Your dry ingredients. If you don’t have a sifter (or just a really crappy one, like me), then you can just use a whisk to combine them and get out all the clumps. Works just as well!
The soy milk mixture, the sugar, and the vanilla. With some stray cocoa. Shh, don’t tell anyone.
Beat that until it’s foamy, like so. Don’t be afraid of the high speed on your mixer.
Aaand this is what your finished batter looks like after you add the dry ingredients, beat them together, and stir in the chopped cookies. The lumps are the cookies, so in this case, lumps are awesome!
If you fill your liners this full, you’ll have exactly enough for 12 cupcakes.
Mmmm, fresh out of the oven. And cooling on a wire rack, just because they’re pretty. Don’t try to frost hot cupcakes. It’s not going to be awesome. Trust me on this, I have done it before. Just wait.
Frosting time! This is your vegan margarine and shortening, and this is where the magic happens. This is why this frosting is so good. The combination of these two ingredients is so much lighter and fluffier in texture than regular old butter. At least in my opinion.
After the sugar, vanilla, and soy milk, and before the cookies. I almost forgot to add them! You can add these all at the same time if you like, or do like I did and wait to add the cookies until the very end. Delicious. You can’t tell from the picture, but the texture is so creamy and amazing. I promise.
And then, chop 6 cookies in half to have half a cookie with which to top each cupcake. It looks so cute! And it’s an extra treat. You could be really fancy and use a pastry bag to frost these, but I am not fancy enough for that. If you are, go for it.

Here, have another picture because these cupcakes are so awesome. Surprise your animal-friendly friends with some; they’ll love you forever. Heck, even surprise your carnivorous friends with some—they’ll never know they’re vegan. Enjoy!