My good friend Emily had a birthday a couple of weeks ago, and since she lives in Maryland, I was not able to properly celebrate with her. But she flew to Texas to attend AnimeFest with me and the rest of my crew. Of course, I had to make her something special. The poor girl gets tortured by pictures of my food on a regular basis, I can't deprive her of the chance to taste it. So, the search began for the perfect recipe. If you've read my previous post, you'll know I love searching for flavors and recipes that suit the person's taste or personality to a T. I decided on cupcakes because they are easy to transport and share with other con friends.
Emily had an interesting challenge in the search for a recipe. She is allergic to dairy. With baked goods, it's generally not too difficult to use non-dairy butter and milk, but I wanted these to be special. I wanted them to taste like something she can't normally have. So, I searched Pinterest for ideas. (Side note: Pinterest, dairy-free does NOT mean healthy. Don't give me this paleo, sugar-free, all natural nonsense. I want junk food sans milk, is that too much to ask?) I found a recipe that just sounded awesome. Cookie dough cupcakes with a frosting that was cookie dough meant to be eaten raw. I loved the frosting idea, but the cupcake recipe seemed a bit boring. I wanted a flavor to compliment the frosting. What goes with cookies? Milk! .....oh, wait, no dairy..... hmmmmm .....IDEA!! In many a Mexican restaurant, I've ordered horchata, a rice milk drink with cinnamon and vanilla that tastes very sweet and creamy. I recommend trying it, it's a bit like an iced vanilla latte without coffee. And because it's made with rice milk, It's already non-dairy. So, I settled on horchata cupcakes with cookie dough frosting. Emily loves her treats as much as I do, so this wonderful sugar bomb combo was the perfect recipe for this sweet girl.
One of Emily's favorite anime characters is Seitarou Tanabata from Nanbaka, who has blue hair and is named after a star festival. He is her star child, so I decorated the cupcakes accordingly.
When I combined these two recipes, I was worried that the combination of two very sweet recipes could become cloyingly sweet, or the horchata flavor wouldn't be present in the cupcakes, or, worst of all, the inferno known as Texas in August would melt the frosting because it's coconut oil based. But all of my worry was for naught, they were a hit. the general consensus was that they were cookie dough ice cream in cupcake form, and if that doesn't sound delicious to you, then you are reading the wrong blog.
Okay, here's my recipe for the cupcakes:
Sprinkles of Kim:
-Because I was only making the cupcakes and not the frosting, I halved the recipe for the horchata
-I cut the sugar in the horchata to 1/4 cup rather than 1/3 because with the very sweet cookie dough, I didn't want the sweetness to be overpowering
-I put extra cinnamon in the horchata because the cinnamon flavor really compliments the cookie dough
-Dairy-free butter, of course
And now for the frosting:
Sprinkles of Kim:
-I left out the chocolate chips because I realized that the ones I had contained dairy. Oops.
-Instead of scooping the dough, I made little balls and flattened them and laid them on top of the cupcakes. It gives a better distribution of flavor.
-I used almond milk rather than coconut milk because that's what I had
-I added a bit of extra oat flour (which you can make by running regular oats through a food processor) to thicken the dough. I would probably not have to if I was making this recipe in the winter because coconut oil has a really low melting point.
If you have someone in your life who can't/doesn't consume dairy, I would highly recommend these cupcakes. No one would ever know it's dairy-free, they're just flat out good. They really are the sweet treat worthy of one of my sweetest friends!
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