Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes and a Facebook page

Supergolden Bakes has been included in Channel 4’s Best UK Baking Bloggers amongst some very good company. This unexpected and delightful bit of news has given me a metaphorical kick up the backside to finally launch the blog’s Facebook page.

If you enjoy reading the blog and want to keep up with new posts, please pay a visit and show the new Facebook blog page some love!  I plan to update it with new posts but will also slowly put some of the older posts on there, together with downloadable PDFs for easy printing/reference.

To celebrate all this, I am posting a super-easy and delicious recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes. Anya and I whipped these babies in less than 10 minutes. We were entertaining some of her school friends and since one of them has an egg and dairy allergy these cupcakes are vegan. Not that you would know this when tasting them – they are very rich, moist and utterly delicious.

For the cupcakes
Dry ingredients
220g plain flour | 1 3/4 cups
160g light brown sugar | 1 cup
30g cocoa powder | 1/4 cup
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
_______

Liquid ingredients
200ml unsweetened Almond Breeze | 1 cup
90ml coconut oil, melted | 1/2 cup
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp Camp coffee syrup (optional – replace with vanilla)

For the frosting
400g icing sugar | 3 1/4 cups (more if needed)
60g cocoa powder | 1/2 cup
90ml coconut oil, melted | 1/2 cup
1 tbsp vanilla paste
Really hot water (as needed)
Sprinkles or berries to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C | 350 F. Line your muffin tins with cupcake cases. This makes around 16-18 cupcakes.

Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Mix all the liquid ingredients in a large measuring jug and pour into the dry ingredients. Use a whisk to thoroughly mix the two together. That is all! So simple a child could do it. The batter will be fudgy and thick.

Fill the cases with the batter – about halfway up. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Mine were ready after 16. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, put the icing sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla paste and coconut oil in the bowl of your mixer. Whisk on low speed until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. It won’t look pretty but fret not, this will come together beautifully once you start adding the hot water.

Put some water  (should be very hot – not boiling) in a jug and pour a small amount into the frosting while whisking at high speed. Keep adding water very gradually until the frosting comes together and forms soft, glossy peaks. The consistency is more liquid than traditional American buttercream, but it pipes beautifully and looks very glossy.

Put a star nozzle into your piping bag and pipe a generous amount of frosting on the cupcakes. At this point you can decorate them. If you put the cupcakes in the fridge the frosting will harden slightly.