Giant Monster Cupcake

In case you didn't know, everybody's favorite uzbek-speaking vegan just arrived in Khyrgyzstan yesterday. She'll be there for 7 weeks learning the language, doing field work, and eating her secret stash of Larabars. A few days ago, the other brutal Feldman (that's me) and a bunch of her friends threw Erica a surprise early birthday/going away party.

For me, the major plan for the party - the big surprise - was a gigantic fucking cupcake, or to be more precise, a double bundt cake made in a pan shaped like a gigantic fucking cupcake.

Here's the badass cake pan I used:





I used Isa Chandra Moskowitz's chocolate bundt cake recipe from her Veganomicon book, or rather, I used it twice, for the top and bottom of the cupcake.



I decided to add chunks of peppermint dark chocolate to the batter, and make a peppermint frosting to finish it off. Here's the beautiful chocolate - I used that endangered species brand.



I did have some issues with the baking - I'm not gonna lie. Usually I bake tiny little things that are done in 20 minutes or so. The bottom half of the cake was in the oven for almost 2 hours, in the end, because it just wouldn't bake through. It ended up a little too chewy on the edges but much more edible than I'd feared.



And the top - the creamy cakey part - turned out beautifully. It was still in the oven for about an hour and a half, but I was more careful this time.



The whole assemblage:



Here she is getting frosted with the peppermint frosting... don't you dig the pale green color?



Fully frosted.



And the finishing touch... drippy chocolate ganache! Isa Chandra says that peppermint frosting is nothing without chocolate ganache, so I obeyed. Here you can see that the cupcake is bigger than my and Erica's heads! Photo credit for the next two by Jenni Warner.



Cutting it into slices was a daunting task.



Erica was indeed surprised!



And then, all that remained...



This cake was a huge pain in the ass... but I can't wait to make it again!