Chocolate Eclair Cupcakes (that need a better name…)

Last weekend, my handsome husband and I had a friend over for dinner… Even though I love to entertain, we don’t do this very often b/c our house is usually a mess. Not dirty, just messy… like, Stuff. Everywhere. All the time. Its a constant work in progress for us to keep this under control, but we’re going on 2 weeks successful - hooray! So, I made a nice dinner: homemade kalamata olive bread with eggplant spread, then baked tofu with blueberry-chipotle bbq sauce (from theppk.com… are you noticing a trend of who my favorite chef might be?), corn on the cob w/ cilantro-lime vegan butter and kale-avocado salad… OMG - everything was so good, I’m even talking about it on my cupcake blog! For dessert, fresh peaches with homemade coconut whipped cream… YUMMERS!!
Why am I telling you this? Because I had A TON of coconut cream left… Ok, not an actual ton, but a whole hell of a lot! And I needed to do something with it. So, for lack of a better name, the chocolate eclair cupcake was born! I started with the basic vanilla cupcake from… you guessed it! Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Once they were cool I cut out the middles and filled them with the coconut cream, and replaced the tops.

Then I topped it with some melted chocolate… It was delicious!

Ready for topping!


The chocolate was super chocolatey and then the cream added this nice coolness… ah-mazing.  The coconut cream actually does not have a coconut flavor at all, its just a nice whipped-creamy delight.
Vegan coconut whipped cream
2 cans full-fat coconut milk
2 - 3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1 tsp vanilla
Chill coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight.  When ready, open cans and scoop out the solid coconut fat.  You don’t need the liquid part, you can reserve that for something else - or drink it!  Its delicious.  Using a hand mixer, whip the coconut cream until light and fluffy.  Sift in the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, tasting for sweetness as you go.  Make sure to fully incorporate the sugar each time so everything stays nice and creamy.  Once its sweet enough, add the tapioca flour and vanilla and whip again until super smooth, creamy and fluffy.  Enjoy on all kinds of stuff!  This recipe makes way more than you will need for cupcakes… so you can eat it with some fresh fruit, or just right off the spoon…
Chocolatey Cupcake Topping
1/4 cup soy milk
1/3 cup chocolate chips
dash agave syrup
Heat soy milk in a saucepan over medium heat - careful!  Do not let it boil.  Mix in chocolate chips and agave, and remove from heat as soon as the chocolate is mostly melted.  Continue to mix until smooth.  Let cool, mixing occasionally, to almost room temperature before topping cupcakes - you don’t want the chocolate to melt your whipped cream into a soupy mess.  Enjoy!  This is another thing that is delicious right off the spoon… Its also good if you dip a peanut butter Newman O in it… just sayin’.



The money shot

The next morning… Hello breakfast!