When life gives you motorbike accidents, make cupcakes!

Chocolate whiskey cupcakes with fluffy vegan buttercream

It was rainy, very rainy on Friday morning. So rainy, that it came as only a muted surprise to me when I recieved a phonecall at 8.15am informing me that R had fell off his motorbike on his way to work.

Thank Goodness, he was wearing all his bike gear and waterproofs, so bar a bit of whiplash where he hit his head too hard off the road, he had nary a scratch on him and was more shocked than anything else.

The age-old remedy for shock is something sweet.

 So once we etablished he was ok - it was the bike that needed fixing (u_u) - I pulled out my trusty copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and whipped up a batch of simple chocolate cupcakes with Isa and Terry's trademark fluffy vegan buttercream icing on top.

The substitutions I made were as follows:

• I used wholemeal flour because I genuinely prefer wholemeal flour in chocolatey baking.
• I used corn oil to give mp cuppies that dark chocolate look.
• I used chocolate rice milk in place of soya milk. In retrospect, if I was to do this again, I would cut the sugar down by about 2 heaped tablespoons, because the milk is sweetened already and I found the resulting cupcakes good, but tooth-achingly sweet when combined with the icing.
• I replaced the 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract prescribed in the recipe for whiskey extract - as another remedy for shock, is reputedly alcohol! (n_n)

These cupcakes went down extremely well with all in the house. A well-deserved treat for all under the circumstances.

And as R had survived unscathed, I felt it only right to make Evel Knievel cupcake toppers - as once the concern passes, it is only right for the gentle mocking to begin...

Which leads me to:

The Skint Vegan Top Tip of the Day:

Cupcake toppers are a cheap, simple yet effective way to personalise your cupcakes to the intended recipient. Half an hour spent printing out some suitable images, gluing them onto card for reinforcement and then cutting-out and attaching my little banners to cocktail sticks with some sellotape leads to a visually striking adornment. I think you will agree, with minimum effort my toppers have come a long way...  (-_o)