last year's valentine's whatever cupcakes

i posted this on another blog last year. just wanted to give you the recipe from the book i used 
and show you that you can improvise on a whim if you are desperate enough.

let us see…

i have the bare-bare-bare minimum of ingredients in my cabinet, and i want to make SOMETHING for valentine's day.

i have vegan cupcakes take over the world, an amazing recipe book that i’m going to try to use here. “your basic chocolate cupcake” looks like a winner.  here is the recipe, word-for-word:

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
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. preheat oven to 350F and line 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, and vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat till foamy. in a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. add in two batches to the wet ingredients and beat till no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are okay).

3. pour into liners, filling three-quarters of the way. bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely.

somehow, i manage to have all the ingredients for cupcakes, but i have no frosting, no shortening, no jimmies… nothing.  i have about half a bag of confectioner’s sugar.  

what the hell.

to make a jacked-up, but quick buttercream, i beat together 2 cups (the rest of the bag) of the conf. sugar, half a stick of earth balance, approx. 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons of soy moo, and a dash of sugar-free white chocolate syrup that i happened to have in my cabinet.
it was definitely NOT as thick and nice as it would have been if i had shortening, but it was yummy, and it would do.

fucking great… i forgot that my piping bag was toast.  i ended up taking a ziplock baggie and putting it into a drinking glass with the ends folded over. i scooped the buttercream into that, sealed it, and cut the corner of the bag.  yeh, ghetto, but whatever... works great.

as for toppings, i had enough flour and half a bag of chocolate chips to make a very tiny batch of cookies.

the end result?