Dark & Stormy Cupcakes: Vegan Version 2.0

Happy Summer Solstice, people! And happy belated Father's Day to all you dads and dads-to-be out there. Here in our little corner of the city, I decided to take a stab at some vegan baking to commemorate another great event: our friend Meredith's birthday.

Meredith, bless her, has been abstaining from both alcohol and baked goods this month, so I decided to let her indulge in both by tweaking the Dark & Stormy cupcake recipe from this month's baby shower. This was followed by a LOT of prosecco and some so-so tapas at 13.5 in Hampden.

(Just a quick note: Egg replacer can seem like a pain to dig up, but any store that carries vegetarian-friendly or gluten-free foods should carry some. I prefer Enger-G myself.)

****************************************************************

Vegan Dark & Stormy Cupcakes
(Adapated from Gosling's Rum)

(NOTE: Go ahead and double the recipe. This version makes approx 8 cupcakes.)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup ginger beer
1/4 cup Vegan butter (I used Earth Balance), at room temperature
2 tablespoons dark rum (Goslings) or 2 teaspoons rum flavoring
1 1/2 tsp egg substitute, or equivalent amount equal to 1 egg
2 teaspoons ground roasted ginger*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour or line 6 wells in a cupcake pan. In a large bowl, cream together vegan butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg substitute, rum, and ginger beer beat well. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Beat until the batter is light and fluffy. Fold in the ginger. Fill each well 2/3 of the way. Bake approximately 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the middle cupcake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Frost with dark & stormy frosting and top with a slice of candied ginger.

*McCormick makes it. Look for it in the spice aisle.

I went a little freehand with the frosting. Basically, I took some vegan-friendly vanilla frosting (Cherrybrook Kitchen makes a good-sized jar), and then doctored it with roasted ginger and about 1/4 cup of rum. Then I added vegan butter and powdered sugar, to make it more of a buttercream frosting.Frost the cupcakes after they've cooled completely. Top with some a light dusting of ground ginger and some pieces of candied ginger. Enjoy!