Cranberry Cupcakes!

 As soon as I was asked to make cupcakes for this year's Yoga Day celebration with the Iyengar Yoga Association of MN, I knew I wanted to do something with cranberries.  But I don't think I've ever had cranberry cupcakes before.

At first I tried out a cranberry/orange recipe variation... That didn't turn out so hot.  I think I disliked them because of the orange extract that I used.  They tasted kind of like fake orange lollipops with some craisins thrown in.  Not terrible, but not what I was going for.  Unfortunately, I baked off 2 dozen before I decided this (we're still eating plenty of them).

Next I tried a basic vanilla cupcake recipe with a little orange zest and lots of chopped craisins.  Jackpot.  They were light, fluffy and flecked with red cranberries.  The frosting was the best part, though!  I used the cream cheese frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and added some of my homemade cranberry ginger jam (strained) for color and some pomegranate molasses for tartness.  I'll definitely be doing this again.  It was just enough tartness to get a little pucker in the back of your throat along with the hefty sweetness of the frosting.

Look how adorable they look in their bakery box!  I'm so glad I picked up a bunch of these at Michael's a while back.  They come in handy for transporting all sorts of food.  

Potato ~ Potato ~ Potato

Mike's birthday was last week- He requested no presents and no parties, so he got a casserole instead.  

This isn't just your average casserole, though.  (Maybe I should say "hotdish" now that I've lived in Minnesota for 10 years?) Mike loves potatoes in all forms, so I made a triple potato hotdish for his birthday breakfast.  

The bottom layer: mashed potatoes with peas

The second layer: Cascadian Farm Organic Spud Puppies.  Mike's love of spud puppies is surpassed only by his love for me, the kids and banjos, in no particular order.

The third layer: cheezy nutritional yeasty gravy.  Because if you're going all-out with potatoes, there's got to be gravy involved.

The fourth layer: crushed potato chips

This casserole barely made it onto the table.  I thought it would be nice to broil the top of the chips so that they browned nicely.  I wouldn't really recommend that you try this.  Potato chips are little grease bombs just waiting to catch fire.  I'm going to try to remember this next time we're camping and need to get a fire started. Luckily, my oven escaped going up in flames (all the other appliances have broken this month, so why not the oven, too?) and I was able to scrape off the little flaming charcoal chips and top the casserole with freshly crushed, unbrowned/blackened chips.  Despite the drama and distinct smokey flavor, this casserole was amazing!  Super rich, totally indulgent and very potatoey.  Then we had dessert!

Dessert had to be gluten free, soy free and vegan.  Not super easy.  Mike's been switching up his diet lately and soy is the latest thing to go.  He's not so strictly vegan anymore, but he's feeling really good- Hooray!

Chocolate Peanut Butter is a pretty rockin' flavor combination in any form and this was no exception. I made little peanut butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla balls to hide in the center of the GF chocolate cupcake batter (I use an adaptation of the GF cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World). Then I top with more batter and bake.  

The finished cupcakes were topped with ganache for a quick and easy frosting.  

Now I just have to think of another excuse to make that potato casserole.  I think the dog's birthday is coming up.  She'd want us to eat a nice breakfast in honor of her birthday, I'm sure of it.

PS- I was really lazy about posting this past week, but I've got tons of photos to share of springy meals and beginnings of this year's garden.  Look for them this week!

Birthday Update

Sorry for the serious blogging hiatus.  I think I'm ready to resume writing about food now that my appetite is back.  I've felt really weird for the past week- Not hungry, not thirsty.  Not full blown sick, but sick feeling at times.  No, I'm not pregnant.  I can read your thoughts, Mom.

Since my last post I celebrated my birthday!  Now I'm 29 and oh-so-much wiser.  I ate some seriously good food on my birthday.  Mike woke me up with hash browns and tofu scramble and chocolate cake for breakfast. Then Brandon brought me treats from Wisconsin (including a grasshopper brownie from Willy Street Co-op and his magical seasoned pumpkin seeds).  Then we had lunch at Everest on Grand (jackfruit curry and fried okra!). Then we feasted on these goodies at night:

There were homemade crackers and cashew cheese, salsa and Whole Grain Milling Co. chips, pickled asparagus, black olives and cupcakes.  Not pictured: home canned tomatillo salsa and 7-layer dip from 2 friends!

Okay, now let's talk about the cupcakes in more detail.  You didn't really think I'd just leave it at "cupcakes" did you?

Brandon combined 2 of my loves: chocolate and Irish cream into a vegan cupcake.  He made vegan Bailey's Irish cream (recipe from the ppk.com) and then incorporated it into both the cupcake and the frosting.  The result was ridiculously good.  He also made vanilla cupcakes with strawberry frosting- also amazing!

And I got to sip this lovely Irish cream all night.  Literally sip, though, because I don't normally drink straight up coconut milk.  You might be guessing why my belly felt all messed up by now...

But there's more.  

The next morning Brandon and I met up with my friend Sarah for brunch at Pizza Luce- Yum!  I had the Portobello Florentine (as usual) and Sarah surprised me with a cupcake that she brought back from her Chicago trip the previous day- An Irish Car Bomb cupcake from the Chicago Diner!  Now I can say I've had one of their famous desserts, even if I've never been to the Diner :)

Later in the day I stuck with veggies and grilled up some mushrooms.  My birthday present is going to be a new grill because right now we have the little tiny kind that only fits about 4 veggie burgers- no room for corn or onions or mushrooms, etc.  I know I want a charcoal grill, but haven't decided between the classic Weber or the big cast iron smoker/grill.  I'll let ya'll know what I end up getting.  And you know there's going to be some serious grillin' happening this summer!

Quick cupcakes

Left: Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with French Sel Gris and Hawaiian Red Clay Salt

Right: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Ganach Drizzle

These are both based off the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World Gluten Freedom Cupcakes...with a few adaptations to fit my pantry and these flavors.  And to add more chocolate. 

Whew!

Today was a day we've been planning for about a year- It was the 90th Birthday Celebration for Mr. Iyengar put on by the Iyengar Yoga Association of MN.  Some people (Mike) might think it's a little weird to have a birthday celebration for someone who's not even in the same country as you, but it was a really fun event!  We had an asana class that was taught by Mr. Iyengar via a tape recording from years ago.  The we did a sutra recitation and shared a great meal together.  Common Roots whipped up some great Indian food made with local and organic ingredients- including some dairy free chai tea!  My contribution was cupcakes (bet you couldn't have guessed that one...).  Here they are looking all happy in the sunshine after being dipped in chocolate.

These are chai latte cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with ganache on top. They seemed pretty well received, although I think they weren't a personal best.  I actually think the gluten-free ones turned out the best!

It's quite the relief that this event turned out so well- I feel like either celebrating or sleeping.  I'm not sure which.

My second wedding...

I'm super excited to be doing the desserts for another vegan wedding!
This one is in September, so Fall flavors will be featured.

Flavors will be: S'Mores, Maple Walnut, Lime Margarita, and Pumpkin Cream Cheese.


The bride and groom will have a two tiered mini citrus cake covered in cream cheese frosting and lime zest. Aren't these flowers beautiful? Who can guess what kind they are? (No cheating, Erin & Holly!)


After a long hard day of sleeping out on the deck chairs, it was all I could do to whip up a quick salad for dinner. This one is with nappa cabbage, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapeños, and green onions. I dressed it with sesame oil, tamari, and rice vinegar. A bit monochromatic, but delicious nonetheless.

We have a visitor

I came home from work yesterday to find the kids spying on this little guy up in our apple tree. It was daylight then and he was chillin' in the tree, eating a cupcake.
Yes, I said eating a cupcake.
You see, when I burned those cupcakes last weekend, I threw a good number of them into the compost bin- wrappers and all. Apparently raccoons and squirrels like cupcakes, because we've found the wrappers in the yard and now in the apple tree. I think it's time to get a lid for the compost bin!

Wedding Bells

(Nope, not for me) My friends Erin and Tony got married this weekend and I got to bake their desserts! This was really fun, really stressful, and really rewarding. Here's the making of the cheezecakes:

One got a crust of crushed pretzels, a touch of oil, peanut butter, and a little extra salt. The other got crushed chocolate cookies, sugar, and oil.


I pressed the crust into my mini-cheesecake pans with the back of my measuring cups. It worked great!
Then I poured in the filling: Vanilla cheesecake for the chocolate crust and peanut butter cheesecake for the pretzel crust (this was really just the vanilla batter with peanut butter stirred in).
Then they went into my (dirty and temperamental) oven for about 45 minutes total. {You'll notice an extra cheesecake in here, I'm sure. My recipe makes enough for 3 minis and I wanted a back-up cheesecake in case something terrible happened to one of them.
Here's the finished products: The chocolate crust/vanilla cheesecake got homemade caramel sauce, chocolate ganache drizzles, and pecans. The pretzel crust/peanut butter cheesecake got peanut butter caramel and white chocolate shavings.

I also baked about 200 cupcakes, but somehow missed taking a picture of them at my house. There were about 6 or 7 large bakery boxes full on my kitchen table. My house smelled AMAZING! I had to use my cake carrier turned upside down as a bowl to mix the batter.

Flavors were almost all from VCTOTW: Chocolate Raspberry (chocolate cupcakes filled with raspberry buttercream and topped with chocolate ganache), Spice with Cream Cheese frosting, Lime Margarita, and Mexican Hot Chocolate.
There were these beautiful hydrangeas, ferns, and lilacs waiting for me to use around the desserts when I arrived at the reception hall. I think they looked so beautiful- and everyone I talked to said they loved them. I even saw a couple of women having their pictures taken while taking huge bites out of cupcakes! Erin and Tony were so sweet and introduced me to everyone as their baker- so perhaps I'll get some more jobs out of this!

I was REALLY nervous about how this was going to turn out. Along the way I learned that I can't bake cupcakes on the bottom rack in my oven. Even if I lower the heat and take them out early, the bottoms will be blackened. I learned this after ruining about 48 cupcakes.

I also learned that Earth Balance now makes 1/2 butter, 1/2 margarine sticks. I learned this after buying 4 pounds of it and almost dumping it into my mixer for the frostings. Close call! Luckily I had a stockpile of REAL Earth Balance already in the fridge, so I was able to use that.

So what do you do when life gives you burned cupcakes?

You cut off the tops and make Margarita DingDongs! This are firming up in the freezer right now.

Mmmmm...Lunch

Ever since I was a little girl I remember starting the day by thinking of at least one thing to look forward to that day. If we weren't getting back our math tests that day or if it wasn't jump rope day in gym, I'd usually end up looking forward to my lunch. Of course, lunch was usually chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes & gravy, and chocolate milk in those days...


Tomorrow I will be looking forward to a repeat of today's lunch: A nappa cabbage, broccoli, and carrot salad (and lots of almonds, too) with a spicy sesame-flax dressing. For dessert: a gluten free version of the Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcakes from VCTOtW. The salad is super easy to pull together the night before or in the morning before work. I just thinly slice the cabbage and chop up the carrots and broccoli. In a separate container I splash in flax oil, hot sesame oil, tamari, and rice vinegar for an easy dressing.

The cupcakes are a big hit around here- I don't think the boys even noticed the cayenne pepper in them (and I tend to be heavy handed with the spice in Mexican Chocolate). To make them gluten-free I just subbed rice flour for the wheat flour, corn flour for the almond meal (I didn't have any), and added 1 tsp. of xanthan gum. They turned out great! Oh, yeah. I also added a sprinkle of chocolate chips on top because it sounded awesome- and was.

Rice CrispyCakes

I know I already posted a picture of this cupcake, but I really needed to work on the recipe before posting that up. But after sampling about 3 more tonight, I think I'm ready.

I really tried to preserve the texture of a rice crispy treat in this cupcake, but found that it's nearly impossible to keep rice crisp cereal crisp when encapsulated in cupcake batter. So I've settled for ooey gooey melted rice crispy treat centers inside of gluten free cupcakes. If you call that settling.



Unlike most cupcake baking, you have to make the frosting first, as it serves double duty.

Ricemellow Frosting

1 cup Ricemellow Creme
2 Tbsp Earth Balance margarine
2 Tbsp vegan shortening (I like Earth Balance's)
2 cups of sifted powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
dash of ground cinnamon

Cream together the Earth Balance and shortening in a mixer. Then add the Ricemellow Creme and mix until well combined (it will be gooey). Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix slowly at first, then on med-high speed to fully combine. Last, mix in the vanilla and beat until smooth. Keep this frosting at room temperature until ready to frost the cupcakes.

Rice Crisp Centers

1 tsp oil (for greasing muffin tin)
1/2 cup of Ricemellow Frosting
1-1/2 cups of brown rice crisp cereal ( I like Erewhon's Organic)

Grease a mini-muffin tin. Fold rice crisp cereal into the frosting until it forms a sticky ball. Press rounded tablespoons full of the mixture into the mini muffin tin and refrigerate until firm (1-2 hours is fine). Now these are fabulous just as they are, but they make great centers for cupcakes, too.

Rice CrispyCakes

1 1/3 cups rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch (or cornstarch)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 cup soymilk
1/3 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp ground flax seeds

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Combine dry ingredients (flour through xanthan gum) in a mixing bowl and whisk to combine. In a separate bowl or jar, combine soymilk, oil, vanilla, and flaxseeds. Stir this really well to activate the gumminess of the flax. Then add the liquid ingredients to the dry and stir until thoroughly combined. Spoon about a tablespoon of batter into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Then place one mini rice crispy treat on the batter. Then fill the liners with the remaining batter. This should make 12 cupcakes. Immediately place these in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes*. Let cool almost completely before frosting. This is one case where the cupcakes should be ever-so-slightly warm when frosting because the gooey Ricemellow Frosting looks really pretty when slightly melted. And it gets really thick, so it doesn't hurt it to melt a bit.

*Note: It is tough to tell if they are done because the crispy treat will block a toothpick inserted into the cake. So you might want to do one cupcake without the treat inside, just to serve as a "doneness tester". Or you could just live dangerously. I can tell you from experience that children (and adults) will still love these even if they are undercooked- and there's no eggs to worry about!

This is my official Cupcake Hero entry for the month. I always seem to wait until really close to the deadline to enter, even though I knew my entry idea the moment I read the theme ingredient of marshmallows. Hmm... What does that say about me?

Unfortunately, I seem to have just missed the deadline for "Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free". But I might just send it in anyways for kicks.

Birthday Week

I haven't posted this week, but it's not because I haven't been cooking. Here are some of the highlights:

Coconut Curry Tofu. On Sunday I taught a class on cooking leafy green vegetables and had 3/4 of a can of coconut milk and 1/2 can of diced tomatoes left over. So I mixed them together with some ginger, garlic, lime juice and red pepper flakes and marinated tofu in it overnight. The next day I baked the tofu until crispy, added the marinade to steamed potatoes, carrots, kale, and onions, and served it all over brown rice. I was so impressed that the kids liked this one. It was really rich from the coconut milk and very filling.
This is out of order, but these are the rockin' good pancakes we had on Saturday after our maple syrup tapping adventure. After seeing all that sap, we really needed some pancakes!
I baked these cupcakes for the Cupcake Hero contest. The cupcake batter contains brown rice crisp cereal and the topping is basically the marshmallowy goo that would hold together a rice crispy treat. I call them Rice Crispy TreatCakes. They're gluten-free, too! I used RiceMellow cream for the marshmallows.

And last but not least: My birthday cake.
I didn't decide what flavor I was making until half-way through my birthday. I was thinking about an Italian Cream Cake, but wanted some chocolate somewhere in the cake. Then I saw an apricot almond cake recipe that looked good. So this is kind of a combination of all three ideas.
Vanilla cake with chocolate-cream cheese filling, apricot jam filling, and vanilla-coconut cream cheese frosting.

It was everything I wanted in a birthday cake. And don't feel sorry for me because I baked my own birthday cake- Getting to bake the cake was like a birthday present.

Cookin' with Jack

I agonized over this month's Cupcake Hero Contest. The theme ingredient is liquor, which we generally avoid in our house. But I really wanted to do an Apple-tini Cupcake with Caramel drizzle on top. I visited a couple of liquor stores to find an apple flavored liquor, but they all had scary artificial colors added to them and required buying a huge $16 bottle of booze that I'd never drink. Then I had to go out of town on Thursday, so I just gave up on this month's contest.
I was ecstatic to learn when I returned that the deadline was extended until today. I searched the liquor stores for some other ideas, but returned empty handed and uninspired. With only hours remaining I remembered the Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie from "How it all Vegan" by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. I bought a small bottle of Jack Daniels to make this pie about 3 years ago...and still had the leftover whiskey in the cabinet. Surely this heavenly combination of whiskey, pecans, and chocolate could make a winning cupcake...


Butter Pecan Cupcakes with Whiskey Buttercream and Chocolate Drizzle

1 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1.5 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 cup Earth Balance, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. Jack Daniels
1/4 tsp molasses
3/4 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. ground flax seeds

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, potato starch, xanthan, bkg powder, bkg soda, salt, pecans). In a separate bowl, mix together melted Earth Balance, vanilla, JD, molasses, sugar, and flax seeds. Then whisk together dry and wet ingredients and distribute in cupcake liners. I filled them pretty full and got 9 cupcakes, but I like a puffy rounded top to my cupcakes. It would make 12 smaller cupcakes.
Cool completely before frosting.

Whiskey Buttercream
This doesn't make a ton of frosting because it's super rich and pretty potent-tasting. If you want a thick frosting, just double the recipe.

1/4 cup Earth Balance, softened
1 tsp whiskey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Cream together Earth Balance, whiskey and vanilla. Add 1/2 the powdered sugar and mix until no lumps remain. Add remaining sugar and mix until smooth.

Chocolate Drizzle
3 Tbsp non-dairy milk
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Over a VERY low heat, heat milk until steaming. Then remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until completely melted and smooth. Refrigerate until thickened slightly, but still drizzle-able.



***I know that making my entry gluten free will greatly reduce my chances of winning and of many people making these cupcakes. But I figure that if I keep posting these recipes, eventually folks will realize that although gluten-free baking seems incredibly intimidating, it can be done (especially with a good recipe)! Plus, this is a Cupcake Hero contest and anyone who is gluten free will tell you you're a hero if you bake these.

Serious Sugar Rush

Don't read this post if you are trying to lose weight, have diabetes, or are trying to eat healthy. This post will do nothing but make you want to eat cupcakes and cheesecake all day long.
Today I hosted a wedding dessert tasting for my friends/clients who are getting married.
Here's what we sampled:

Margarita Cupcakes
Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
Orange Pudding Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream, Chocolate Ganache, or both
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Chocolate Raspberry CupcakesThe inside shot: Filled with Raspberry Cream and topped with Chocolate Ganache

After all those cupcakes, we still had to find room for dessert...


Here are the His and Hers Cheesecakes:Peanut Butter Cheesecake with a Salty Pretzel Crust, Peanut Butter Caramel and White Chocolate Shavings

Turtle Cheesecake with a Chocolate Cookie Crust
It was tough, but they narrowed it down to their favorites! Don't you wish you were invited to this wedding?

Comfort Food

It's cold outside and windy today, with a forecast of getting colder and windier. I think it's fitting that I have pictures to post of really comforting foods.

First up is the grilled cheeze sandwiches and fire roasted tomato soup that we ate on Tuesday night. We usually cook meals from scratch, but Tuesday nights are always super busy. And Vegan Gourmet is on sale his month! A grilled cheese sandwich is always a treat and makes me feel like I'm in the third grade again. The fire roasted tomato soup is by Imagine Organic, so I take no credit for it being good. But I'm impressed that something from a box tasted so rich and flavorful.

The picture's not much to look at, but it makes me remember how yummy it all was for a 15 minute dinner.


I baked batches of cupcakes for 2 events: a game night for friends from work last night and a cupcake tasting for a couple whose wedding desserts I'm baking. The lucky couple narrowed their flavor options down to some really awesome flavors, mostly from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Here they are naked (the cupcakes, not the couple!):

And here they are frosted:
These are the mini cupcakes for the game night festivities. We had:
orange cupcakes with orange frosting
orange cupcakes with orange frosting and ganache
spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
Mexican chocolate cupcakes with no frosting (sugar, cocoa, and cinn. instead)
Mexican chocolate cupcakes with ganache

I also baked some gluten-free chocolate raspberry cupcakes, but the dog ate all but 4 mini cupcakes (Yes, she ate an entire dozen full sized cupcakes). The centers of these sank, so I filled the center with raspberry frosting and coated them in ganache. They ended up tasting pretty good.

Now I just need to do a couple more flavors for tomorrow!

Wake Up and Smell the Cupcakes!

I gave up drinking caffeine about 9 years ago for health reasons. Occasionally I'll have a bit of white tea in the morning if I need a little bit of a pick-me-up, but mostly I avoid any caffeinated beverages. The only reliable source of caffeine I've have are the super dark chocolate squares that I keep stashed in my desk drawer at work.

Even decaf coffee will keep me awake if I drink it in the evening.


So when the theme for this month's Cupcake Hero was coffee, I thought I might use coffee flavoring or decaf coffee as my themed ingredient. Instead, I went all out.

I decided to use chocolate covered espresso beans. I figured, hey, this fits with my "I don't drink caffeine" pledge. I had a few ideas for how to use them and ended up testing them all.

After sampling four cupcakes and snacking on I-don't-know-how-many chocolate espresso beans from the bag, I started to feel funny...and very alert. Not just white tea alert. More like all-night-college-caffeine-fest alert. And jittery. And thoughts racing. And heart beating out of my chest.
My racing thoughts and taste buds told me that the winning coffee cupcake would not have crushed beans in the batter, crushed beans on top, or whole beans in the center... It would have all three! Of course!

Then I scrapbooked for, oh, about five hours and worked a ton of sudoku puzzles at lightening speed.

When things started settling down, I realized,"Oh, shit! These cupcakes don't even have frosting!" Normally I wouldn't even consider something this shape to be a cupcake without frosting. I'd call it a muffin.
But don't even think about calling these muffins. With rich, moist vanilla cake and so much chocolate and coffee beans you'll vacuum the stairs twice, these are not muffins. If you're craving a topping, I recommend a classic coffee drink topping, whipped cream (or Soyatoo whipped topping).
So here's the recipe:

Chocolate Espresso Bean Cupcakes
Makes 24 mini cupcakes or 12 regular

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup nondairy milk
1/3 cup oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1 cup chocolate covered espresso beans (I like Sunspire)

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Reserve enough espresso beans to fill each cupcake cup. Put the remaining espresso beans in a baggie and smash them with a rolling pin, hammer, or baseball bat until they are in little pieces, but not powder (I suppose you could use a coffee grinder, but this is great therapy). Divide the smashed beans into two piles. Then combine dry ingredients, including 1/2 of the smashed espresso beans, in a mixing bowl. In a separate jar, combine wet ingredients. Then quickly stir together the wet and dry ingredients until just mixed. Spoon enough batter into each cupcake liner to fill 1/2 full. Then lay an espresso bean on top of the batter. Top each cup with a few more tablespoons of batter so that the beans are covered and cups are 3/4 full. Then top with remaining crushed beans. Bake for 10 minutes (mini cupcakes) or 15 minutes (regular sized cupcakes).

Let cool just a bit and then taste them while still gooey. So good! Let cool fully and then taste the firm chocolate bits and crunchy beans. So good! Top with whipped cream if you like, or serve them just as they are.