A Cupcake Adventure

For Lent, I'm giving up all processed sugars, except for on Thursday when I make cupcakes for the cleaning woman. Then, I can try a little of the batter because... well, once I forgot to add sugar and if it weren't for the batter tasting, all would have been lost! Oh, the travesty! Plus, it's great to relish in the vegan light of safe-batter-tasting.

Today I made some Banana Split Cupcakes from VctotW and I thought that they were pretty killer. I even made some buttercream frosting to go with them; my first attempt in Deutschland as shortening is very difficult to find. In fact, I did not use shortening, but coconut fat, which you can find in any health food store or in an ethnic foods section at a well-stocked grocery store.

Here's the story:

Coconut fat comes in a block, so I thought that I ought to melt it, leave it in the fridge and let it become a little bit solid again. It turned from a white, solid mass to a clear liquid when I cooked it over the stove. Then...

1) I realized that the fat I'd left in the fridge had turned back to solid.

2) I made it liquid over the stove again and set it aside

3) I went out for a few hours.

4) I came back, stirred it up a bit, made the frosting.

The first few cupcakes I frosted turned out really well, then the frosting warmed very quickly by my hands, through the bag and the last couple ended up looking messy.



Before frosting. Some sunk in a little because I chose to not stir the pineapple and chocolate in too much.


The frosting!

Then the Putzfrau came and she was all, "But I sent an SMS to Herr Gies and asked him to tell you that I wanted donuts today!" WTF, woman?

I made a few anyway. The recipe needs tinkering. Recipe from Lolo's blog.