Chocolate Peanut Butter Oreo Vegan Cupcakes

Note as of 12/9/08: I am also submitting this recipe to Iron Cupcake Earth Challenge: Chocolate for the month of December 2008, in addition to a few others. Please vote for me at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner starting Monday, December 29th at 8PM (open through Friday, January 2nd at 12PM)! I will be posting a few other cupcake recipes, so vote for those as well. The more votes I receive, the greater the chance I have at winning awesome cupcake related prizes! Thanks!

Prize providers include:

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+SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY: http://www.acupcakery.com/index.html
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+the CUPCAKE COURIER: http://www.cupcakecourier.com

+TASTE OF HOME books: http://www.tasteofhome.com

+Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers: http://www.1800flowers.com

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Holy moley, are these the best damn cupcakes I have ever made in my life. I am not joking. I ate three of these babies yesterday. Each one accompanied by a nice cold glass of soy milk. Even my stepmom, who happens to be the person with the biggest sweet tooth that I know (she knows her sugar!), came home in the middle of the night and left me a post-it note commenting on how great they are -- "Oh my goddess! That was the best cup-a cake-a I ever ate in my life! You could bake these for a living!" Need I say more?

 Ok, first things first, are these new or have I just been out of the loop? 

From the looks of it, I'm assuming they're new since I can't find them ANYWHERE online. A few weeks ago as I was walking through New Leaf scanning the isles, these caught my eye out of nowhere. I gasped. NEWMANS?!?! PEANUT BUTTER OREOS?!?!?!?! I about died. Yeah, and the best thing about it was that I snagged the LAST PACKAGE (well, I would have hoarded a few more packages if possible but that's okay, at least I got lucky). And they were on sale for $1.99. Without a second thought I immediately knew what I'd be doing those babies--making chocolate peanut butter oreo vegan cupcakes, of course!

Thanks (again) to Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, they have made their recipes possible and modifiable for me to be creative and create this amazing concoction. So I advise you, all of you, whether or not you're obsessed with peanut butter (and chocolate together) as much as I am, that you need to make these IMMEDIATELY. If these peanut butter Newmans-O's are nowhere near you, I feel sorry for you. For all I know, there may be peanut butter Nabisco Oreos? You're probably not dealing with vegan at that point, but, hey, you've gotta work with what you've got. Hopefully these things will start to be more available on the market. I am expecting these to be sitting there in the same shelf space at the natural foods grocery store the next time I visit. 

The recipe for these is very similar to the cupcake recipe I posted yesterday. Actually, it is the same recipe, just modified, since I added peanut butter oreo's to both the batter and the frosting and there's no coffee or mint. The recipe uses the entire box of oreos, so resist the temptation to eating a few in the process! (I actually ate one before I started, and it worked out perfectly. I had the exact amount to use in the batter, frosting, and topping!) 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oreo Vegan Cupcakes

1 cup soy milk (chocolate, preferably)

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar 

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 oreos, chopped (about 1 cup chopped)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper or foil liners. 

2. Whisk together soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat till foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat till no large lumps remain. Stir in the chopped oreos.

3. Pour into liners, filling three quarters of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oreo Buttercream Frosting

1/4 cup margarine, softened
1/4 shortening (I prefer organic which has no partially hydrogenated oils)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (sifted if there are clumps)
2 & 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons soy milk (chocolate preferably)
1 & 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

5 oreos, chopped

Cream together margarine and shortening until well combined. Add the cocoa powder and incorporate well. Add the confectioners sugar in about 1/2 cup batches and beat well (to avoid dusting your kitchen), adding a little splash of soymilk after each addition. When all ingredients have been well incorporated, add the vanilla and beat until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes with a hand mixer, 7 minutes if mixing with a fork). Stir in the chopped oreos.

Once cupcakes are frosted, top each cupcake with half of an oreo and enjoy with a glass of milk or soy milk!

For more amazing chocolate peanut butter combo recipes, please visit The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery. Kristina has created the greatest website in the world, because obviously, it's dedicated to peanut butter and chocolate. She immediately stole my heart. She was even so sweet enough as to create a post about my blog! Thanks Kristina, you rock!