Super Moist and Decadent Chocolate Vegenaise Cake with Ricemellow Cream ‘Cheese’ Frosting

So you might be thinking: “Vegenaise? In a cake?!” But trust me, this cake will seriously knock your socks off!!! Adding the vegenaise makes the cake so moist and fluffy, it’s pretty much unbelievable.

I typically don’t do much baking, but it was my best friend’s birthday this weekend, and her favorite dessert in the world is vegan cupcakes. The reason I try to stay away from baking is because I have no self control when there are baked goods close by. These cupcakes are already gone if thats any indication, and my friend only ate one (where are the rest you might ask? Probably hanging out on my ass somewhere). 

So, Even though I’ve had quite a few baking mishaps, I decided to try to make her cupcakes from scratch. This could have proven disastrous, but I was extremely happy with the results. In fact, this is the best chocolate cake I have ever had! It’s so moist and fluffy; truly hard to believe that it’s vegan. With the ricemellow cream ‘cheese’ frosting, this cake tastes exactly like a hostess cupcake. It’s somewhat difficult to find the vegan marshmallow cream that I used. Lucky for me, Portland has a vegan grocery store. Here’s a link to where you can buy it online though :-). 
 
 Ingredients:
Cake
 2 cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
¾ cup vegenaise
1 cup soy milk or other milk substitute
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional, not shown in picture)
 
Ricemellow Cream Cheese Frosting
 one 8 oz container of tofutti cream cheese
1/2 cup Suzanne’s Ricemallow cream                                                                   1/4   cup powdered sugar (optional, do a taste test before you add this)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
 
2. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda

 3. In a large mixing bowl, combine vegenaise, sugar, soy milk and vanilla. Mix together with a high speed hand mixer, once a creamy consistency, add the dry ingredients and continue mixing until a batter forms. Fold in Chocolate chips if using
Pour batter into a greased 9x13 inch baking pan, or cupcake moulds, which are my favorite.

4. Cook for 25 minutes, test the cake to see if it’s done by inserting a toothpick into the center, the toothpick should come out clean with no cake on it. If cake is not done, cook for a few more minutes then test with a toothpick again. Once complete, remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting

5. In the meantime, in a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, ricemellow cream and vanilla, beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Do a taste test, if it’s not sweet enough for you, add some powdered sugar (around 1/4 cup). I think it tastes great without any sugar, but I don’t like things too sweet.

6. Frost cupcakes, you may need to refrigerate the cupcakes for a few hours if you want the frosting to really harden.