Blueberry Dragon Fruit Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes Recipe
This was a recipe created from 3 other recipes and entered in the SF Food Wars mini cupcake competition. Not only did it win 1st place but it also won photographer’s choice! The coolest part? The recipe is all vegan and beat 21 other competitors!!!
We started with a basic chocolate cupcake recipe from the ‘Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World’ book by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Terry Hope Romero & Sara Quin. Then, we combined a sweet, creamy filling from an old magazine, a decadent chocolate ganache recipe from a friend & added an elegant touch with fresh blueberries and dragonfruit.
Enjoy!
- 1 cup room temperature rice milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup evaporated cane sugar
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 1 ½ teaspoon good quality vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup good quality cocoa powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons of non-dairy butter
- ¼ cup of non-dairy cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 3/4 cup rice milk
- 1/4 c. non-dairy butter
- 6 oz. semi-sweet (non-dairy) chocolate chips
- 2 oz. unsweetened cocoa bar
- 1 fresh Dragon Fruit
- 1 small carton blueberries
- CUPCAKE INSTRUCTIONS
- 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a mini-cupcake tin with paper liners. Spray liners lightly with non-stick spray.
2. Place rice milk and vinegar in a large mixing bowl. Set aside to curdle while preparing dry ingredients.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together until fully combined.
4. Add the sugar, oil & vanilla to the rice milk mixture. Mix until combined.
5. Mixing on low, pour half the dry mixture into the wet mixture until combined. Pour the remaining dry mixture in until fully incorporated. Turn mixer off while scraping sides and bottom of mixing bowl. Mix again on low.
6. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way full. Bake 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool. - FILLING INSTRUCTIONS
- 1. Mix all ingredients on medium-high speed for 1 minute.
2. Pour mixture into pastry bag with tip in place. Set aside. - GANACHE TOPPING INSTRUCTIONS
- 1. Combine chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate and melt in microwave for 45 seconds. Stir. Heat again for 45 seconds.
2. Melt non-dairy butter.
3. Combine chocolate, non-dairy butter & rice milk in a mixer. Mix slowly until combined. - DRAGON FRUIT / BLUEBERRY TOPPING
- 1. Slice rough, outer edge from dragon fruit & rinse blueberries.
2. Slice dragon fruit into 6-8 slices. Lay slices flat and cut pieces into small triangles (like slicing a pizza). Set aside. - ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS
- 1. Poke holes into the middle of the cupcakes using a clean object about the size of a pencil.
2. Squeeze filling into cupcakes being careful not to overfill.
3. Carefully dip cupcakes into ganache topping, coating evenly.
4. Place a blueberry and a slice of dragon fruit on top.
5. Enjoy!
Member recipes are not tested by the CHOW food team.

Oops! For the filling: 8 tablespoons of non-dairy butter ¼ cup of non-dairy cream cheese 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ¼ teaspoon salt 1 ½ cups powdered sugar And yes, soy milk can be substituted for rice milk. :)
I'm confused. Which ingredients are the filling part?
sounds great! could soy milk be used instead of rice milk?
mmmmm yummy yummy death...relax people it's a cupcake recipe. So has anyone tried to make these at home? How did they turn out? These look so good but I'm a bit afraid.
Sades of grey people. You sound like to versions of Baptist telling each other "my God is better than yours!" (lol) This IS the Wrong place for this converstation but since it's been started... There are lots of places milk can be produced by ethical and unthical means. For example do you think all countries that produce the chocolate baking bar or chips are ethical. I can tell you that your may be suprized just how some of your non-animal products come to be cruel endorsing. Humans are animals too. Have you ever puchased or used any product from China? Do you know what goes on there??? Distgusting things to humans and animals! I bet if I looked around your home I could find some animal product related to animal cruelty in one form or another. Do you consume eggs? Have any leather shoes? Do you consume chocolate? Do you eat rice? Do you really know the sources of all your food products? Do you know all about the production of your household goods and their effect on you and the environment? What type of fridge do you have? Do you drive a car? (that harms animals too) Ever had a vaccine? Anyone you know use insulin? How would you feel about animals dying if you needed a new heart valve? Pigs died in the name of research of that you know. Pigs are smarter than dogs and just as if not more sensitive animals. If you want to be nit- picky I suppose a case could be made for yeast consumptions- all depends on how your willing to take you definitions. If it wasn't for their usefulness as food- cows would have become extinct by now. They are nice creatures (I've known a few personally) but dumb as door nails without human management. I am not sure which is worse- the species disappearing or being mistreated. (mistreatment being something that could be dealt with) I don't like animal cruelty. It should be sought out and dealt with I agree...like all of us we are often blind to our own follies- me included.It's easy to point fingers and feel superior to others. I am a vegan by choice- but I know better than to cast stones or think I am better or perfect. If someone asks me why I am vegan I will tell them why and what the side benefits are to health and spiritually. HOWEVER, the person asked a reasonable question in the place where you would expect such a question. The death comment was overly dramatic and possibly wrong. Not all milk is produced in labor camp conditions. My spiritually dictates that life is life no matter what the form. I pray and give thanks to the plants that I consume-that had to give up their life so that I might consume them.(yes- even the yeast) I respect my food to the best of my abilities. I am a consumer. You are a consumer. This is the way the world was made and is. The best anyone can do is respect their food-appreciate where it came from and give thanks that you benefit from this relationship. (yes animal cruelty should be stopped)-but all things living die... it's a matter of how the life was lived and the pain involved in manner of death that count most) That means your life, my life, the life of someone living in China and all the life forms from cows right down to yeasts etc. http://www.veganforum.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-3147.html http://www.chocolatework.com/chocolate-slavery.htm http://www.moggies.co.uk/articles/2003/china_cats.html *these are the issues to use your energy on not someone's milk consumption. So please think of what I said for a while and I hope you open your mind even if you think I am not completely right or wrong. It's simply one more way to view life in a sea of many right ones.
Of course it was your personal opinion. However I asked you a reasonable question in a civil way. Your gratuitous introduction of the subject of death was in my personal opinion rude and somewhat offensive. I find your attempted spin on your open mindedness faintly ridiculous. If you want to push your line of thinking there are more appropriate forums than the comments section of a recipe website.
My comment wasn't meant to be rude. It was simply my personal opinion. Call me narrow-minded but I actually think that being a vegan requires a person to be pretty OPEN minded about changing the life they are used to, to an entirely different way of cruelty-free living. It's not easy. I agree, hundreds of millions of people ARE surviving on dairy products which is extremely sad to me that people aren't educating themselves about where it comes from, who's funding the dairy industry and why and at what expense it is to the animals and our environment. This is dairy. Hence the comment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNikkqitEbU
Thank you for your first comment. I asked because I would have to go out and buy the vegan products but the dairy products are on hand. Your last comment about death is just plain rude and symptomatic of someone with a very narrow biased view of the world. Hundreds of millions of us are surviving on dairy products and are glad there are such things.
Couldn't tell ya. I haven't tried the recipe with dairy. I suppose it would work but If it won 1st place in a non-vegan competition, I wouldn't alter it. Besides, who wants death in their cupcakes?
This sounds delicious and I will have a go but is there any problem if I use real dairy products?