Vegan Chocolate Death Cupcakes

I have a friend who just turned 30 and shares my love of The GRIT Restaurant Cookbook. I decided to make the GRIT's "Chocolate Vegan Death Cake" into cupcakes for the big bash. I was a little worried about how their ultra-moist cake batter would stand up as cupcakes, so I used a variation for the batter I found on the baking Blog Coconut & Lime. I love that Blog. After baking one batch, I realized that we needed more cupcakes. I ended up using whole wheat flour for the second batch because I ran out of all-purpose. I thought it would be weird, but I actually liked it. The folks at the party did too.

The Grit recipe follows:

Cake:

4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 cups sugar

1 cup cocoa powder

1 tablespoon baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

1-1/2 cups vegetable oil

2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

3 cups strong brewed coffee

1/4 cup cider vinegar

Icing:

1 (12 oz) package fim silken tofu

3 cups vegan chocolate chips (many semisweet brands contain no dairy)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 3 9-inch round cake pans, dust with flour, and line bottom wiht parchment or wax paper.

Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add oil and vanilla extract. With electric mixer on low speed, blend until fully combined. With mixer on medium speed, gradually blend in coffee. When mixture is smooth, add vinegar and blend on low speed just until combined. Divide batter evenly into prepared pans.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or just until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center of layerscomes out clean. Remove from oven and cool 15-20 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from pans and allow layers to cool completely before icing.

Icing: Drain excess fluid from silken tofu, crush and place in a medium saucepan with chocolate chips. Stir together over medium heat until chocolate is very soft. Transfer to food processor and puree until fully blended. Cool to spreadable consistency and frost between layers, and top and sides of cake.