Cake Bess

In an effort to spend more time doing activities that feel good (as opposed to feel bad but make money, which gets a lot of my time these days), I purchased a new cookbook, breaking a long-time rule about not buying cookbooks because I never use them.  At our house, I am the weekday chef, the one who can make a more-or-less balanced dinner in 15 minutes or less.  Cookbooks are the LWW's domain, since she has the patience and obedience to put up with ingredients like arrowroot powder, the world's least measurable substance.  I am too cheap and oppositional to follow a recipe to the letter, unwilling to buy things like coconut extract, which comes in handy about once a decade.  But I digress.

This weekend I got my hands on a book that I have secretly coveted for a while, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (pictured below) to honor the LWW's return from Nerdtastic Annual ABA Conference, San Antonio, TX.  I chose Banana Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Buttercream frosting as the inaugural recipe, knowing her love all things fruity, even though I tend to think fruit in a desert is a waste of space. 

You may judge the results for yourself.

Pre-icing.  Isa tells you to stir melted preserves and chocolate bits into the top of each cupcake before baking, a classy touch.  Makes the final product taste deliciously like a banana pb&j.

Welcome home, babe!

(One final note, though I am on the fence about including this photo, since I kind of think the unsprinkled tops look like cow pies -- there's no hiding the color of peanut butter icing.  My -- and maybe your -- cheap trick for icing is to fill a ziplock with the stuff and snip off the end.  Pow, instant pastry bag!  Shine up the old brown shoes, etc.)