Baking Experiment

I have a friend who can't eat, well, anything. Seriously, he can't eat butter or ground beef or a whole bunch of other really tasty things. Since all of my favorite recipes require butter, I thought he would never get to eat any of the desserts I bring to Bible study. But lo and behold, I came across a blog post saying that there was an acceptable substitute for butter. Are you ready for this? It's beans. Beans! Sounds disgusting in a baked good, right? Well, the blogger sang the praises of beans, so I thought it was worth a shot.

See? Black beans for a chocolate cupcake. And it already had applesauce as an ingredient, so that was a bonus for the moistness. 

OK, I had to use 3 bowls for this recipe. Yes. Three. Because your ingredients should never touch! Ever! (Am I the only person who thinks it's a little silly to mix things in separate bowls and then mix them again in a bigger bowl?)

The most interesting part of this recipe was trying to whisk the boiling water and the cocoa powder together in a measuring cup that is most definitely not big enough.

Now that takes some serious whisking skills, my friends.

And then I creamed the beans and the sugar together in my giant bowl. Looks appetizing, yes?

After the beans and sugar looked like wet sand, it was time to add the applesauce and the vanilla. At this point, it looked like some weird health food thing for people with funny allergies. Or perhaps something I was making for my friend's beagles. 

OK, looking a lot more like a cupcake batter here. This is when I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe it would work after all! You know what's coming, don't you?

No you don't! Because they actually turned out great!

Just look at those beautifully rounded tops awaiting my butter-free frosting!

At some point during all this baking and photographing, I took the time to make an "icing," which was really nothing more than powdered sugar and water. It ended up looking a lot like fondant, which is what those petals are supposed to be. My foray into marshmallow fondant making did not end well, though, I'm afraid. Those petals were all sticky and goopy by the time I brought them to my friend. And the icing? It was basically marzipan without the almond! Go figure.