Irish Coffee Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and egg replacer.
3. In a small bowl, pour the boiling water over the espresso powder. Add the almond milk to the espresso/water mix.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fixed with the paddle attachment, mix the margarine and sugars on medium speed. This should be completely blended and look like small pebbles.
5. Add applesauce to the margarine mix and blend for about 5 minutes, or so.
6. Add the flour mixture, in small portions, to the margarine and applesauce mixture, then add the espresso mix to the rest of the ingredients and blend for another 2 1/2 minutes. Add the whiskey and continue to mix for another 2 1/2-3 minutes. Line two 12-count cupcake pans with paper liners (this recipe made 14 cupcakes for me, but you may be able to squeeze 16 out of it) and fill each liner 3/4 of the way full with your batter.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. These were done exactly at 20 minutes and had a beautiful, smooth finish to them.
8. Remove pans from the oven and set them on a rack. Transfer cupcakes to cooling racks after about 5 minutes and prepare your frosting while the cupcakes finish cooling.

For the frosting:
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fixed with the paddle attachment, mix the powdered sugar and margarine together.
2. Add in 1 tablespoon of whiskey, allow it to mix, add a second tablespoon of whiskey and mix.
3. If desired, add a third tablespoon of whiskey and mix. I required a third since sugar, without anything to “cut through” the sweetness aggravates me to no end. Oh, and I really love whiskey.
4. Frost your cupcakes!