Almond Joy Cupcakes: Part I

There are probably two things worth mentioning on this post:

 1) The idea for these cupcakes did not come to me out of the blue – rather they were inspired by my girlfriends Hostess Cupcakes that I mentioned in an earlier post.

2) I needed a fun birthday cupcake for my now 2 year old. I don’t know that Almond Joy flavor would have been her first pick. But – ahem - it’s my favorite candy.  And since I birthed her, I figure there’s no shame in a little something for Momma.

This weekend my middle ‘baby’ turned  2, so while baking has never been my #1 expertise, this was a good excuse to try out some new vegan sweets. Since no one could come up with a different idea, I went with one of my all time favorite flavor combinations: chocolate and coconut.

I wanted more than a chocolate cake with coconut frosting, but couldn’t find a recipe that was exactly what I envisioned. So I combined a recipe for the cake, one for the frosting, and winged a filling on my own.

Since we knew we would be having friends over to celebrate, 2 batches were in order. This was good so that I could make one batch ahead of time and if something went awry I would be able to tweak things.

Starting with the filling, I tried to adapt one of our all time favorite raw balls, Coconut Cream Pie. I mixed some almonds, coconut, raisins and coconut oil.

 

 

 

Mixed up the chocolate batter, dropped in the filling

 

 

 

and went to The Hubs for a taste test. ‘Good, but the filling could be a little sweeter’. I thought so too, in addition to needing more filing in the center. Not a bad start, however.