Vegan truffles

Aw yeah, you heard me right, it's vegan truffles! It's everything you like about truffles, with just three dairy-free ingredients. Pretty excited about this as a vegan/gluten-free wedding alternative! I think it will work to dust them with powdered sugar, sprinkles, nuts, etc instead of or in addition to cocoa powder, but I haven't tried that yet. This made 32 1" truffles.

3/4 c coconut milk (eg TJ's coconut cream)
10 oz vegan dark chocolate (eg TJ's pound plus)
extracts of choice, to taste
cocoa powder for dusting

Chop chocolate and place in a bowl. Bring coconut milk almost to a boil, then pour over the chocolate and add extracts. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Cover the surface with plastic wrap, and put in the fridge just until set (1-2 hr).

Line your truffle receptacle with parchment or wax paper, and put a bunch of cocoa powder on a plate and on your palms. Scoop out 1" balls of chocolate, roll between cocoa-dusted palms, toss around the cocoa-dusted plate to coat completely, and place in your lined container. Let set in the fridge.

Final(?) earl grey cake

The earl-grey-ified version of my standard vanilla cake, with raspberry-bergamot-ified cream cheese frosting. The only way Cat could think to improve it is by increasing the earl grey content, but I'm tempted to keep it as is. After setting in the fridge, the cream cheese frosting is sufficiently structurally sound, even with the berries in the middle.

cake:
1 c milk + 6 earl grey tea bags
2 c cake flour
1 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 stick butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 t vanilla
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325F and butter+parchment 2 8" round cake pans. Bring milk to a simmer, add tea bags, turn off heat, cover, and let steep for at least 15 minutes. Stir dry ingredients (flour through salt) together in a small bowl. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together, then beat in vanilla and eggs
until fluffy. Beat in the milk and dry ingredients in alternating additions. Pour batter into pans and bake for 25 min until a toothpick comes out clean.


frosting:
1 stick butter
8 oz cream cheese
4.5 c powdered sugar
3 drops pure bergamot oil, or to taste
handful of raspberries

Beat everything except the raspberries until fluffy. Tear raspberries in pieces and stir into part of the frosting.

Earl grey cupcakes with bergamot cream cheese frosting

It's wedding cake trial round 3! Conclusions: 4 tea bags is a good amount for this much cake, this particular cake recipe is too dry, and bergamot cream cheese frosting is awesome. The frosting was also really good on graham crackers with strawberries and whipped cream, so there may be a berry component to the final cake too.

cake:
2/3 c milk
4 earl grey tea bags
1 stick butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1.5 c flour
2 t baking powder
1 t salt

Bring the milk and tea to a boil in a small pot, cover, and let steep for half an hour until cool. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Cream the butter with the sugar, and beat in the eggs until fluffy. Combine the dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a small bowl. Mix the dry ingredients and the tea to the batter in alternating additions. Scoop into 24 mini and 6 regular greased or lined cupcake tins. Bake the minis for 13 minutes and the regulars for 18 minutes.

frosting:
1 stick butter
8 oz cream cheese
powdered sugar to taste (~3 c?)
3 drops pure bergamot oil, or to taste

Beat together until fluffy, and pipe onto cooled cupcakes.