Savoring Eliana: Fauxstess Cupcakes (Vegan)

I think we're all hurting a little from Hostess going out of business. People who haven't craved Twinkies in a decade are now feeling the pain worse than ever before. You can purchase boxes online for tens of dollars. I imagine people are stocking up, a lifetime stock because they never go bad. Phrases like "Be the Hostess with the Hostess" have been seen far and wide. Yes, America is hurting.
At the same time, I've been exploring more vegan options in my cooking and baking. One of my sisters was vegan for about a year, so luckily we own a handful of vegan cookbooks. I was perusing through one such cookbook when I encountered a Hostess knock-off recipe and was inspired to create my own version. So, yes, this recipe is vegan, but it also quite closely replicates the flavors of a chocolate Hostess cupcake.

For Cupcakes:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa flour
3 tablespoons of the darkest cocoa powder you can fine (if not, just use regular cocoa powder)
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup plain soy or rice milk
1/4 canola oil
1/2 maple syrup
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp vanillar

Filling:
1/4 margarine (or SmartBalance)
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 confectioner's sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Chocolate Icing
1/3 cup soy milk
4 ounces chocolate

White Squiggle Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tbls water

Mix together flour, cocoa powders, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a larger bowl, stir together wet ingredients and sugar until well combined.

Stir in dry ingredients in two parts, mixing gently. Beat for a minute until well combined.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers. Heat oven to 350. Scoop out about 1/3 cup batter into each liner. They should be 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 26-30 minutes, until tops are firm.

When they are done they should look like this, but you'll want to work on the frostings in the mean time

As it's baking, you'll want to begin making all three of the frostings. I like to start with the chocolate ganache because it has cooling time.

Bring the soy milk to just a boil. Remove from heat and add in chocolate, stirring constantly until melted.

Begin making the fluffy filling. Beat together the margarine and shortening until very well combined. Add sugar and vanilla and continue beating for a long time until very fluffy. Taste and see if it's yummy. Add more sugar if necessary.
Finally, time for white icing. Mix together confectioner's sugar and water. You want it to be as thick is it can be while still spreadable. Think tooth paste. Add in more sugar or water as needed.
Spoon both white icing and fluffy filling into separate bags. In the fluffy icing bag cut a 1/2 inch hole in the corner. In the white icing cut the smallest hole possible.

Hopefully by now the cupcakes are cooled, but if not, let them cool for 10-15 minutes outside of the tins. To assemble, poke a whole in the center of each cupcake and wiggle around to create a cavern. Fill with fluffy cream.