You’ll Think It’s a Reese’s

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a decade already! So, in 2011 I had the bright idea to go into business for myself, and not just any business. I wanted to open a cupcake shop. Now, as we all know a brick and mortar location is very expensive so I started out of my kitchen only advertising on Facebook.

I started off with three basic cupcakes: chocolate with chocolate frosting, vanilla with chocolate frosting, and red velvet with cream cheese frosting. I was only doing three flavors because when I started I only had two cupcake trays. One was for a dozen and the other was a half dozen. Orders came in pretty steady and I was soon able to buy more pans, including a jumbo and a mini pan. Also, at this point everything was mixed by whisk because I didn’t have a mixer.

Since orders had been steady for a while and I had more pans (still no mixer) I decided to add more flavors. I added: strawberry with chocolate frosting, key lime with meringue instead of frosting, chocolate with peanut butter frosting, and for those odd folks that like savory flavors I created a Ranch cupcake with jalapeño cream cheese frosting. Business was good!

I had been in business about four months when my roommate began dating a new woman. She would come over and visit for a few days at a time. Most of the times she was around were her days off not always his. None the less, her and I would talk and hang out while I mixed, baked, and packaged orders.

One day while finishing orders my roommate’s girlfriend stopped by. While she was awaiting his return from work I asked her opinion on candy bar inspired cupcakes. That conversation started us on our favorite candy bars; mine being a Heath Bar and hers was Reese’s. It turned out that on that particular day I had made a batch of chocolate peanut butter cupcakes so of course I offered one. My thought being that cupcake already should taste like a Reese’s.

It was then that she brought to my attention that she had never eaten one of my cupcakes. I learned that she was vegan and could not have any of my cupcakes. That made me ask where she got cakes and cupcakes from. You won’t believe this… She had not had a cake or cupcake since she was a very little girl. I felt so bad for her. Here I was using my great grandma’s delicious recipes and this poor woman couldn’t enjoy them.

This is where my excellent research skills came into play. I not only had to find a tasty recipe; I needed to find vegan ingredients in Bullhead City. Not an easy thing to do! After calling what felt like every store in our zip code I was able to find a tiny health food store in the next town that had vegan ingredients.

Next, I found a few recipes and began testing. I had never eaten anything vegan let alone tried to bake vegan before. The first couple of recipes didn’t taste so good but then I found one that really tasted like a good old chocolate cupcake. The peanut butter frosting was a way easier recipe to find a delicious version of.

Now for the recipes:

For the cake you will need-

1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

2/3 cup almond milk

1/3 vegan applesauce

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl, if you have a sifter use it. Then add the wet ingredients gradually, stirring until combined thoroughly. Line muffin tins and fill half to three-quarters full.

Bake for 20 minutes at 357 degrees.

*Makes 8

For the frosting you will need-

1 cup creamy peanut butter (room temperature)

1/2 cup vegan margarine

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 tablespoon coconut milk (soy is also alright)

Super easy one bowl frosting! Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and use a mixer or fork to blend all the ingredients together. Heck, I used a whisk.

Well there you have it, the best vegan Reese’s cupcakes. Enjoy!