Where's the Cream Filling?

I was in the mood for something chocolaty and creamy. After perusing my cookbooks, I came across the "Fauxstess cupcakes" in VWAV. I previously skipped these because they looked like alot of work. After actually making them, I realized that while there are quite a few different pieces, they're really not that difficult to put together.

You basically make the cupcakes, and beat together the cream filling while they're baking. When the cupcakes come out of the oven and cool a bit, you poke holes in the center and pipe in the filling. You then make a chocolate ganache, and dip the cream-filled cupcakes in (upside down) to seal the top. VWAV adds the extra step of making a white icing to draw the squiggles on top. I didn't find this necessary so I skipped it.

There are a couple of hard to find ingredients, but because this was a spur of the moment baking adventure, I made do with a couple of substitutions. The cake batter calls for black cocoa powder. This wasn't at my local health food store, so I just used regular cocoa powder. Also not at the store was soy milk powder, which is needed for the creme filling. In a moment of genius, I thought about using finely ground coconut flakes (unsweetened) instead of the powder. The texture of the flakes changed, and they became almost paste-like instead of a powder, but that didn't seem to matter. My genius paid off, because the slight hint of coconut flavor in the filling is amazing. The texture of the cream turned out quite wonderfully as well.

The fruits of my labor:


So good.