Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

So, I know that you're probably afraid of the word "vegan" in the title of the recipe, but I want you to trust me here. I would never lead you astray and share something that I didn't think was completely scrumptous. While it's true that I'm a vegetarian, I would never compromise taste for my morals. Translation: try these cupcakes. They're seriously delicious and it's only a side bonus that no animals were injured in the creation of this chocolate deliciousness. My husband eats these by the handful and he's completely clueless that they're vegan.

I'm first going to walk you through the cupcakes themselves and then take you through the frosting, ok? Here are the ingredients for the cupcakes: 1.5 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1 cup water, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp white vinegar.



Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Go ahead and measure out your ingredients, it makes the process go much smoother.



Add your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, salt) into your mixer. Technically, you're supposed to sift them together, but I never have and they always come out moist and fluffy, so I hereby give you permission to not sift. I'm sure you're relieved. (I got a little excited and took the picture prior to the cocoa, but it should be in there at this point.)



Since I omit the sifting, I just give it a small turn in the blender before adding the wet ingredients.



Now, go ahead and add in the oil, water, vinegar and vanilla and keep mixing.



When the ingredients are combined, the batter is going to look a little bit runny. That's ok.



You want to get your muffin pan and grease it so that the muffins don't stick. I prefer to make mini cupcakes because they (1) bake faster, and (2) I can eat more without feeling guilty because they're just so little. To grease the pan, I use this.



It, well, it brings me joy. Who knew? Baker's Joy is a combination of flour and Pam so it doesn't leave the cupcakes greasy because no one likes a greasy cupcake.

So here's our greased muffin pan.



Now we're going to spoon the batter into the pan. You only want to fill them about 3/4 of the way up since they do expand. (I got excited and over-filled the first batch a little bit.)



For mini cupcakes, you're going to bake them for 10 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out dry) for full cupcakes, they'll bake for 15-20 minutes.

Here they are in all of their glory.



Hello lovely little cupcakes. I generally eat them as is, but let me show you the super simple fosting that makes them downright sinful. The ingredients are: 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cup vegan margarine, 1 Tbs vanilla extract, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, pinch of salt and 2 Tbs soy milk (I used Almond milk and it came out great). Of course, you can absolutely use real butter and milk here, but the vegan version definitely saves you calories and tastes amazing.



Put the powdered sugar and vegan margarine into the mixer.



And make sure that you start off with your mixer on the lowest setting otherwise the powdered sugar will end up everywhere. You can increase the speed as it starts to incorporate.



Once the sugar and margarine are creamed together, add in the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.



When it's ready it should look like this.



Now, gently spread the frosting over the cupcakes.



Now this final step is very important. Take a bite.



These cupcakes are so moist and chocolate, that you won't believe that they aren't artery clogging. The best part, your friends won't even know that they're vegan. It'll be our little secret.