Over the past three years I've struggled with making desserts that are both non-dairy and delicious.  I've tried several cake and cookie recipes, substituting non-dairy ingredients, and have had mixed results.  The non-dairy versions are often dry or sometimes vary greatly from their original counterparts.  Lately, I've been admiring photos of fancy cupcakes and asked Sharyn where I could find the non-dairy recipes.  Inspired, I took her recommendation and bought the cookbook Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:

In the past week, I've made three dozen cupcakes, trying three different varieties and using up a full bag of powdered sugar in the process.  We started out with the basic Golden Vanilla Cupcake with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting.


So inspired by the pretty cupcake photos, I bought a box of disposable pastry bags and a big frosting tip.  I added some color to the frosting and piped away.  Next time, I'll use a little less color to avoid the pepto resemblance.


The cupcakes looked so pretty on the plate that I felt like applying a watercolor effect to this photo.  Either that, or I was just dizzy after consuming all that sugar.


Next, I tried the Cookies n' Cream cupcake which is a variation of the Basic Chocolate Cupcake recipe.  The frosting is the same Vegan Fluffy Buttercream frosting as I used on the pink cupcakes, but without the color and the addition of half a dozen Oreos.  Since I didn't plan on piping the frosting for these cupcakes, I cut the frosting recipe in half and still had plenty to cover all 12 cupcakes.  Then, because I was afraid of shorting anyone on chocolate goodness, I topped each one with a mini-Oreo. 

Side note: Oreos are non-dairy, did you know that?  Can you even believe it?

To try to balance out the sugary goodness, I picked a slightly healthier cupcake for my third batch, the veggie-packed Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting.  I'm not sure if I did everything right with that batch because I ended up with only 9 cupcakes instead of the 12 that I thought I was making.  Either way, the nine I had disappeared quickly.  So quickly, that I didn't get a photo.