Before I became a vegan, my two favourite sweet things to make were Chocolate Mousse and Choc Pecan Brownies. I would get requests for both from our friends and family and it always made me feel good to see people enjoying them. I still haven’t come up with a really great vegan chocolate mousse but after 8 years, I think that I have finally come up with a brownie recipe that rivals my old one.
Since my cupcake obsessed brain wants to turn everything into a cupcake, I decided to do the same thing to brownies and I am very happy that I did.
I love how easy this recipe is. Melt some stuff, stir in some other stuff, add pecans and choc and cook. You don’t even need a mix-master, just a whisk and a spatula. Done! Even the icing is easy. This is the first time that I have made vegan ganache & it is even easier and faster than buttercream. Melt, mix, cool & pipe.
- Cupcakes
- 125g vegan margarine
- 50g cacao
- 125ml almond milk
- 400g can of vegan sweetened condensed milk
- 130g brown sugar
- 100g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp bi-carbonate soda
- 2 flax eggs (30g golden flax meal with ⅓ cup water)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 200g vegan dark chocolate (chopped into small pieces)
- 150g pecan pieces
- Ganache Icing
- 200g vegan chocolate (chopped into small pieces)
- 1 cup coconut cream
- Chocolate Swirls
- 100g vegan dark chocolate
- Cupcakes
- Pre-hear oven to 175°C,
- Combine margarine, cacao, almond milk and condensed milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until margarine has melted and all ingredients are smooth and well combined.
- Transfer into a large bowl.
- Stir in sugar, flour, vanilla and bi-carb until combined.
- Mix golden flax meal with water and as soon as it starts to thicken, add to batter and mix until combined.
- Add chopped chocolate and pecans to batter and stir until combined.
- Add batter to cupcake wrappers and bake for 25-30 minutes. Check each five minutes after the first 20 as every oven is different. As soon as a cake tester comes out clean, they are ready. Remember though that you might be sticking the tester into melted chocolate so test a few,
- Ganache Icing
- Place chopped chocolate in a bowl. The smaller you chop it, the easier it will be to melt.
- Use only the thick part of the coconut cream and discard the liquid (or use in another recipe). One can should be enough. If the weather is really hot, the cream might be liquid and you might need to put the can in the fridge overnight so it firms up.
- Heat the coconut cream in the microwave until hot.
- Pour hot coconut cream over chocolate and stir until all the chocolate has melted.
- Cover and place in the fridge until it is firm. I would do this the night before.
- When the ganache is firm, use a mix-master to whip the ganache until smooth. Place into a piping bag with a large star piping nozzle.
- Once the cupcakes are cool, pipe a small amount of ganache on top of each.
- Add your chocolate decoration on top of the ganache.
- Chocolate Swirls
- Chop chocolate finely and melt in microwave.
- Pour into a small disposable piping bag.
- Allow it to cool for a few minutes. You still want the chocolate to be melted but it is easier to pipe if it cools slightly.
- Cut the tip off the end of the bag.
- Pipe chocolate shapes onto baking paper. Any kind of squiggle or shape works for these.
- Either leave the piped chocolate on the bench or place into the fridge until set and chocolate hardened.
- Once they are ready to use, peel the chocolate swirl off the baking paper and add to the top of the piped ganache.
I have mentioned this in previous cupcake posts but I always use an ice-cream scoop to measure the cake batter into cupcake wrappers. I use one of the old style ones with the release handle and it makes the job quick and easy.
I also prefer to use the more upright cupcake wrappers in a thin cardboard rather than the traditional wrappers. The reason is that the traditional wrappers can be very fickle about peeling back from the cooked cake. If you under cook them slightly then they do it. If you keep them in a sealed plastic container, they do it. It doesn’t always happen but with the wrappers than I now use, it never happens and that make me happy! The other great advantage of these wrappers is that you don’t have to use a special pan. Then just sit on a flat tray and won’t lose their shape. I love the range of colours and patterns they come in too and I try to use one which will suit the type of cupcake I am making.
I usually photograph for my blog on our front balcony. This is also where we feed several wild birds on feeding platforms but they will often wander around the balcony and come into the house looking for food. El Chapo, the noisy miner below is always after the sweet stuff. His face is either covered in pollen like in this photo or the white, powdery nectar that we leave out for them. Meg the Magpie isn’t there for the sweet stuff but was asking me to feed her.
They are so cheeky. Even as I type this post in our office which is at the back of our house, I have had to stop twice to fee Nick the Magpie and Mary Astor the Pee Wee. Both of them have wandered through the house to find me so I will feed them.
I bought 6 and 12 pack cupcake boxes online and they look so much prettier than delivering them in plastic containers. These were on their way to my work last Thursday. It can be scary baking for people outside your family, especially when you write the recipes yourself but the people I work with are so nice and always have lovely things to say which is music to a bakers ears. I particularly love that even though none of them are vegan, every cupcake gets eaten.
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