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.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
This looks amazing, Jen. I think both my husband and I are slowly becoming more lactose intolerant as we get older. Goat milk ice cream may be something we’ll try soon. Can’t wait to see what other non-dairy ice creams you come up with!
beantownbaker — June 19th, 2013 @ 10:23 am
Thanks! Like I said, coconut milk has been my go-to so far, but it’s definitely fun to try new milk varieties.
Looks incredible, I need to find a local goat milk supplier…
beantownbaker — June 19th, 2013 @ 10:24 am
Yea, I definitely want to find someone local to get my goat milk from. For now, I’m just happy that I can find it at all. Even back in Boston, it wasn’t on the shelf at my grocery store.
This looks amazing and I love that you used goat milk..so interesting!
i had to give up gluten a few months ago and just realized a few weeks ago that i also must give up dairy. i am not sure if it is lactose or casein that i am intolerant of, but i love that you are doing stuff that i may be able to eat someday! (also, we bathe Olive is goat’s milk. it’s great for her eczema!).
beantownbaker — June 20th, 2013 @ 6:58 am
Going dairy free isn’t too bad honestly.
Oh wow, bathing in goats milk sounds so luxurious!
Oh wow, this looks so perfect! I’d love to try this soon 🙂
Sounds delicious, I’ve not thought about using goats milk in ice cream before but would love to try it!
beantownbaker — June 24th, 2013 @ 8:24 pm
You should definitely try it!
Thank you so much for posting this!! I gave up cow dairy in the winter (makes me break out) and have been glaring at my ice cream maker, because sorbets are just not the same and coconut ice cream is good, but so coconutty! I’ve been wondering if I could make ice cream with goat’s milk and now I know I can! The canister just went into the freezer 🙂
beantownbaker — June 24th, 2013 @ 8:23 pm
Nice – glad I could help. I don’t find coconut milk very coconuty… I assume you drink goat’s milk so you’re familiar with the flavor? It definitely has a distinct taste.
Goat milk?? I bet it goes fantastic with chocolate. I love this combination, I can’t wait to try it, yum!!
In the ingredients, you say condensed goat milk, but the directions say heavy cream. Which did you mean? Really excited to try out this recipe!
beantownbaker — July 22nd, 2013 @ 1:14 pm
Sorry about that. I used condensed goat milk, not heavy cream. I’m updating the recipe now.
Hello,
I want to place an order from you to our store in The Netherlands.I want to know if you can ship here and accept credit card as a form of payment.
Reply back asap
Thanks
beantownbaker — September 4th, 2013 @ 9:27 am
I don’t sell anything.
My wife and I raise a couple of dairy breed goats for home milk use. I don’t find that the milk tastes goaty, it’s actually richer and better tasting than cows milk in my opinion. Although before we discovered that we should pasteurize the milk asap after filtering, we did notice a musky kind of taste…… but with pasteurization started within a minute or two after milking, our milk is just as good or better than the flavor of cows milk. I just ordered an icecream maker. We will definitely use this recipe. Thanks for posting it.
beantownbaker — September 25th, 2013 @ 4:15 pm
Fresh goat milk is not something I have tried. I would love to get my hands on some though!
I’m looking forward to trying this! We got hooked on Laloo’s goat milk ice cream several years ago, but it’s been increasingly difficult to find, and very expensive ($7.79 a pint as of 2 days ago). It would be great if I could find a homemade alternative.
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:36 pm
I agree – Laloo’s is good, but quite expensive. Let me know what you think of this recipe if you try it out.
GOOD NEWS!! Laloos is filling the pipeline and more flavors are coming soon to you your local Whole Foods store.
I have dairy goats so will toss in my 2 cents worth 😉 Not all goat milk is the same!!! If you like the goaty taste, go ahead and buy your milk at the store. Personally I find the goaty taste vile and disgusting! So for those who want to try goat milk but don’t like that nasty goaty taste, you want raw milk, and the breeds vary in taste a lot. Nigerian Dwarf goats have the highest butterfat and do not have the goaty taste. Their milk is really good! Nubians are second best. It would be worth your while to find a local source of nice raw milk from either of those breeds. Healthier too, as raw milk has all the nutrients nature intended.
With rare exceptions – goat’s milk should not taste goaty. I can’t comment about grocery store milk, but would urge you and your readers to look for direct-from-the-farm sources. There are a few goats with funny tasting milk – and those work great for making blue cheese! If a goat is healthy, has a good diet with the right balance of vitamins and minerals (very important!), and the milk is handled in a clean manner with quick cooling, it should have a rather sweet taste. I have Nubians and like Cindy above, appreciate the high butterfat. If you’re looking for a milk source – try realmilk.com. There’s also tips there for buying safe milk.