Delectables with Dan: VEGAN S'MORES CUPCAKES!

I've not done many Vegan things on Delectables with Dan, but I've decided to branch out and try a few Vegan things for the blog! We're going to kick that section off with a delicious Vegan S'mores cupcake! You can find all of these things either in your local grocery store, you can easily make it non-vegan as well. If you don't want to make the cake from scratch any chocolate or devil's food cake boxed mix will do! 

Ingredients
250g all-purpose flour 

85g cocoa powder 

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 tsp sea salt 

375g raw cane sugar**
255g unsweetened applesauce  

120g almond butter softened

1 1/2 tbsp vanilla essence 

355ml cold water

**Not all sugars are vegan; most are made by a bone-charing process, if you can't find raw cane sugar, organic sugar will work for the Vegan diet.**

Pre-Heat your oven to 180C (350F).

In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients together and blend them together well with a cooking spoon. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients with a hand mixer; it might be a bit difficult to mix them together by hand. Pour the wet ingreidents into the dry and mix gently, being careful not to overmix the batter or it will deflate like your boyfriend after a cold shower. Once you've done that, pour the mixture into your cupcake pan, either with liners or well-greased cupcake pan. (This mix makes roughly 2 dozen cupcakes.) Allow them to bake for 25 minutes; make sure they are done before you remove them.

VEGAN VANILLA BUTTERCREAM ICING 

450g organic icing sugar**
2 tsp vanilla essence 

3 tbsp vegan butter
60ml or 4 tbsp of soymilk 

**Regular icing/powdered sugar isn't vegan I've read and heard this from several vegan friends of mine.**

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the icing sugar, vanilla essence, vegan butter and soymilk using an electric mixer. Start out low, moving up to medium if needed. The icing will be thick, but you don't want it too thick.

Make sure that your cupcakes are completely cool before taking the next steps. For this you will need:
sugar-free chocolate syrup
10g crushed graham cracker crumbs 

vegan mini-marshmallows 

You can use any tip that you want to ice the cupcakes, just make sure that it allows for a nice thick dollop of icing to coat the top of the cupcake. Starting on the outer rim of the cupcake's surface begin icing in a clockwise motion, creating a small hill of icing. With the flick of the wrist, ice a nice cute little "curl" of icing to complete the icing. Allow the icing to sit for a few moments before moving on to the next step.

After you've allowed the icing to set for a few moments, it's time to add the chocolate sauce. No s'more would be complete without chocolate. Sure, the cupcake is a chocolate one, but who's ever said they've had enough chocolate? If you're not big on chocolate, you can easily use a vanilla cake for your cupcake. Carefully squirt chocolate sauce over the top of the cupcake in a semi criss-cross movement. You don't want the chocolate sauce to run over the edges of the cupcake or coat the icing. You just need the tiniest drizzle of chocolate. Allow the chocolate to set a minute before moving on to the next step.

Once the chocolate has set as much as it can (it won't become hard) sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over the surface of the chocolate. This can get a bit messy with crumbs going every which way, so don't stress about that. It can't be helped. You want to give the cupcakes a light dusting, not completely coat the tops with the crumbs. Once you've done that, take a few mini marshmallows, preferably 4-5 in a small group and carefully press them into the centre of the cupcakes.  Together, the icing and the toppings work to create the perfect s'mores cupcake! 

You can also create a two-layer s'mores cake with this recipe; ice the centre of the cake as you would using the buttercream and adding a thin layer of the graham cracker crumbs to create a nice light crunch when you bite into it. Ice the outside of the cake with a thin layer vanilla buttercream icing, you don't want it becoming too sweet! Along the top of the cake create little swirls of the buttercream icing similar to you could do with the cupcake tops. Once you've allowed the icing to sit, drizzle with the chocolate sauce, allow it to set, then do the graham cracker sprinkles and finish it off by topping the icing towers with mini-marshmallows.