Vegan chocolate / banana / caramel cupcakes

Our monthly cooking club decided to cut me (and my stomach) a break this month. The theme was "All the cheese is in the movie" aka, we'd watch an overly cheesey movie but make all the food dairy free. I enjoyed the evening and think everyone liked the challenge. I decided to make some vegan cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. It's a great cupcake cookbook. I need to use it more often.

I've made the chocolate vegan cupcake recipe before (they were fierce!) so I knew that would be perfect. The cupcakes have a pretty round dome and are very moist. It's a very good cupcake.

I also had this banana caramel sauce that was given to us as a gift. I knew I wanted to use that. Then I decided to try the chocolate banana mousse that is also in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. So I decided to make a chocolate cupcake with a slice of banana and some banana caramel sauce in the middle, topped with banana chocolate mousse and banana caramel sauce. That's a mouthful!

The mousse is made with tofu which made me a little nervous. I'm weird about tofu. I love the Tofutti products, especially the Better than cream cheese and the Tofutti cuties. But, for some reason, working with tofu just kinda grosses me out. I think it's the texture on my hands. I'm weird. I know. This mousse is amazing. It's not as light and fluffy as the mousse my Mother in Law makes (which Hubby LOVES), instead it is quite dense and actually perfect for piping on top of a cupcake. It was very good and you would never have guessed it's dairy free.

Vegan chocolate cupcakes - from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside a few minutes to get good and curdled.

Add the sugar, oil, vanilla, and almond extract to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat till no large lumps remain.

Pour into liners, filling three-quarters of the way. Put one PB cup into each cupcake. Bake 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Vegan chocolate banana mousse - from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
1 (12.3 oz) pkg extra-firm tofu, drained
1/4 cup plain soy milk
2 Tbsp agave syrup or pure maple syrup - I used 2 Tbsp sugar because I was out of maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 (12 oz) pkg semisweet chocolate chips
1 very ripe banana

Crumble tofu into blender. Add milk, agave, and vanilla. Puree until smooth.

Add banana and puree until smooth. (leave this out for just chocolate mousse)

Melt chocolate in double boiler. Allow to cool 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the chocolate to the blender and blend until combined. Be sure to scrape down the sides a couple times.

Transfer mousse to airtight container or a bowl covered with plastic wrap.

Chill for an hour (or longer).

To Assemble cupcake:
12 chocolate cupcakes
chocolate banana mousse
banana caramel sauce
1 banana

After cupcakes are completely cooled, use the cone method to remove some of the cupcake.

Pipe a tiny amount of mousse into cupcake. Add a banana slice and replace "lid" of cupcake.

Pipe mousse onto top of cupcakes. Drizzle with banana caramel sauce.