Vegan Cupcakes

There were more..... I think 128 in total...

Those on the left are really banana bread.... my personal favorite.

I've been excited about vegan baking lately. Especially since I've discovered a cheap trick to avoid buying expensive egg replacers. I borrowed this recipe idea from CHOW, who borrowed it from 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World' (Moskowitz and Romero)- What a fun title :P

I wanted to make something special to contribute to our friend T's 30th birthday surprise party, that his lovely wife G organized in a large warehouse, complete with DJs and almost 160 guests. Congrats G on an awesome party no one will ever forget, least of all T. 

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 175C. Line a cupcake tin, or I used these reusable, yet disposable individual tins.

2. Stir the vinegar into the soy milk and set aside for a few minutes. This causes the milk to curdle a bit, and is the magic to eggless baking (and a lot cheaper than buying egg replacer). 

3. Add the sugar and oil to the milk mixture. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. I never used to understand why this was an important separation, but cocoa powder is much finer than regular flour, and doesn't absorb so much liquid, so unless you mix dry together before wet, you're going to have a heck of a time de-clumping those little bits of cocoa powder that stick together.

4. Mix the wet and dry ingredients well.

5. Pour into the lined cupcake tins, half full (or half empty, your call)

6. Bake about 18 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean. (after my 6th batch I had it down to an exact with my stopwatch, but every oven is different.)

The icing or frosting (whatever you like to call it) can be made in a lot of different ways. Since I was making quite a lot, I made two crucial decisions.... Not to ice the cupcakes until they'd arrived at their final destination (unless you consider tummy.... toilet.... am I taking this too far?) The second was to spare myself the hassle of covering them completely. Most people I've met that are not ::ahem:: American, don't like sugar overload, so just a dallop will do ya....

Therefore, this is the rough version of what I did with the icing: 

3 dl vegan margerine, softened

about 3 cups of confectioners (powdered) sugar

a tsp (tlk in Finnish abbreviation) of soy milk (or vanilla soy milk)

You can of course play with this, add cocoa powder, coloring, or follow a vegan butter cream recipe like this one, from CHOW.

I also made some of the cupcakes without cocoa, for those weirdos that don't like chocolate, and even a few cupcakes that I made with a vegan banana bread recipe. (I'll post that recipe in just a bit and add the link). 

That's me and Seyhan, making sure the crowd gets their fill. 
(Picture by Kevin Pollard)