In case you missed it, last week Endangered Species Chocolate announced that our “Help a Hawksbill” campaign raised $3000 for SEE Turtles. THANK YOU to all of you who liked and shared our campaign to help get us to that donation amount. We love being able to work for a place where we get to spread awareness and help organizations like SEE Turtles, all while enjoying delicious chocolate!
To celebrate our donation, I whipped up some “turtle cupcakes” to share in the office. For this batch, I chose the fast prep route and fancied up a gluten free boxed cake mix. With that said, maybe you have a homemade gluten free chocolate cupcake recipe or a vegan recipe that you would want to use – that’s entirely up to you! As for the “turtle” toppings, I took a colorful, playful route with a candy topping, but there are a lot of great options out there to experiment with! A good one would be to place 5 pecan halves in a star like pattern, place one square of our new Dark Chocolate with Caramel and Sea Salt filled chocolate bar on top of the pecans, and slightly melt in the microwave to adhere. Then just pop them in the refrigerator to set, and you have a chocolate caramel turtle to adorn your cupcake (or just eat right away)!
Or a recipe of your choice! You can also start with a boxed cake mix, like I did.
IN ADDITION:
You will need one, 3 oz Endangered Species Chocolate 72% cocoa chocolate bar and 2 Tbsp Heavy Cream (or Almond Milk/Coconut milk if making a vegan version)
MIX:
In 30 second increments, heat the chocolate bar and heavy cream (or alternative) in the microwave until soft enough to be beaten smooth. Set Aside.
Follow the instructions to mix your cake batter. Before pouring into a paper lined cupcake tin, add the chocolate cream mixture and gently stir.
Fill the cupcake tin, and bake according to your cake mix instructions. Set aside to let cool
Frost
For buttercream frosting (non-vegan), beat 2 sticks of butter until smooth. Add 1 tsp vanilla. Gradually add 2-4 cups powdered sugar, until stiff peaks form. You may need to alternate with heavy cream if the mix feel too dry.
For vegan frosting, replace the butter with “vegan butter”, or another soft fat source like low melt point coconut butter.
Smooth frosting onto each cupcake
Decorate
As seen in the photos, I went with a colorful gummy candy from my natural food stores bulk bins. The body is one full piece, and the legs are one piece cut into fourths. For the head, I split one Annie’s fruit tape in half and rolled it into a small ball.
Nuts, chocolate covered nuts, dried fruit and fruit gummies would all serve well to create your “turtle”. Get creative, and enjoy celebrating these glorious creatures!
