vegan cookies 'n' cream cupcakes

When I was a kid, my favorite ice cream flavor was cookies 'n' cream. (I don't know what it is now- maybe rocky road or chocolate chip cookie dough or butter pecan, or maybe it's still cookies 'n' cream- I can't decide) Anyway, I've had my Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World cookbook now for over a year, and I finally made the Cookies 'n' Cream cupcakes. What took so long? I don't know- I guess I was busy trying to bake the best chocolate chip cookies.

Check out the picture (and be sure to wipe up that drool off your keyboard):

These cupcakes are so good that this post deserves to have another picture:
These cupcakes were dense, moist, and super duper chocolate-y. I added crushed vegan chocolate sandwich cookies (Newman Os) to the chocolate cupcake batter. The batter was heavy and thick when I mixed it all together. The cupcake is a contrast in textures: it's a mouthful of soft, rich, heavenly chocolate cake with this unexpected shock of crunchy cookie pieces. Add to that a vanilla buttercream mixed with more crushed sandwich cookies, and you have an explosion of flavor in your mouth. (Should I quit grad school and be a food writer? I think so. Do I have you salivating?) And, you can't really see this in the picture (or in real life), but the cupcake liners have Care Bears on them. How cool is that?

The secret to good chocolate cupcakes? Listen closely and commit this to memory. It's almond extract. Maybe it's not really a secret, and it's certainly not now, since I'm broadcasting it. This recipe called for a 2 to 1 ratio of vanilla extract to almond extract, but I just use equal amounts of both. If you're feeling frisky, you can just omit the vanilla extract and use all almond extract instead.

One of my friends said that these cupcakes were probably the best ones that I've ever made, and another seemed surprised that vegan cupcakes could taste so good. I admit that I get a little nervous and I'm not likely to try out vegan recipes with obscure ingredients and substitutions, but this cookbook is simply amazing. The recipes are simply, the ingredient lists don't have any weird stuff, and the cupcakes are so good that you won't miss the milk, butter, and eggs.