This past Saturday, John ran the PHUNT 25k trail race. I went to cheer him on and read a good chunk of “Armada,” by Ernest Cline while waiting for him to finish – so happy to read something that isn’t a text book! If you liked “Ready Player One” by the same author or have any interest in gaming/80s culture, you’d love this one. I heard RPO will be out in late 2016 in movie format too, I can’t wait to see it.
I made a big batch of these chocolate black bean cupcakes to take along to the race, as they’re a favorite in our house that I haven’t made in a long time! The original recipe is from an issue of Vegetarian Times magazine from at least 10 years ago. This recipe makes a dozen cupcakes that are high in complex carbs, fiber, and protein – a perfect sweet treat for after a long, tough run. Sometimes I substitute coconut oil in the icing, but since I didn’t have any storage options while we were at the race, I stuck with Earth Balance since coconut oil has such a low melting point.
Cupcake batter
- ⅓ cup soy margarine, melted
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs or ½ cup egg substitute (see a list of recommended egg substitutes here!)
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 Tbs. grated orange zest, optional (I added at least twice the amount of zest!)
- 1 15.5-oz. can black beans, drained, rinsed and puréed (I used dry beans and cooked beforehand, boiling for about 20 minutes)
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
Icing
- ½ cup soy margarine
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 4 Tbs. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
- 12 chocolate kisses (I omitted the kisses)
- Preheat oven to 375F. Prepare cupcake pan with non-stick spray.
- To make Cupcakes: Using an electric mixer on high, beat margarine, sugar, and eggs for 3 minutes, or until thick and creamy.
- Fold vanilla extract and orange zest, if using, into puréed beans. In a small bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, flour, and baking powder.
- Fold egg mixture into beans, then fold the flour mixture into beans by thirds. Fill cupcake tins two-thirds full. Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove, and cool on a rack.
- Meanwhile, to make Frosting: Using an electric mixer, beat margarine until smooth. Beat in confectioners’ sugar, then the juice concentrate until smooth. If too stiff, add 1 tsp. water at a time.
I equally enjoyed shooting a quick photo of these cupcakes – my winter semester class has ended (finished Biology with an A, woo hoo!) so I have a couple of weeks of freedom to get in little projects like that. 🙂 I’ve also been able to get some cross stitch in and plan out some quilting projects.
The weather is calling for lots of snow at the end of this week and I already have a couple of ideas in mind of things to cook if we’re stuck indoors for a bit. I don’t know what it is about snow that makes me want to cook even more than usual, but I know I’m not alone in this! 🙂 I think I’m going to try out homemade marshmallows for the first time, prepare a large amount of my new favorite chicken and broccoli curry dish for meal prep (and take some pretty photos of it!), and probably make one of the many fun pizza recipes we’ve been saving! 🙂
Leave a Comment