Cupcakes - no other title is needed!

I have a great belief that there's always a time and a place for cake! I've always had a sweet tooth, and cake to me is the ultimate comfort food. Any type is good (except coffee cake - yuck!), but I do have a particular penchant for a might fine cupcake.
Cupcakes have really been in fashion over the last few years, and it's not difficult to see why - the recipes tend to be simpler than a whole cake, take less time to cook and you can have variety and creative fun with one batch of mixture. A phenomena originating in the States, cupcakes have actually been around since the end of the 18th century, although their popularity really kicked in at the beginning of the 21st. There's two theories about the name - that they were originally baked in cups, or because the ingredients were measured in cups as opposed to weight. Either way, cupcakes are definitely superior to our little fairy cakes!
Of course, eating a plant based diet means no eggs, one key ingredient to the standard cupcake recipe. But does this mean then end to cupcake delights? Thankfully not!

We have a baking guru in our house - Ms Cupcake! She has the most delicious recipes, along with other larger cakes, that never fail to produce gorgeously light, melt in the mouth cupcakes. And I have to say that my daughter makes much better cupcakes than I do - or maybe cake just tastes better when someone else has made them!
Vegan cupcakes are actually much simpler to make than standard ones - it's just a matter of mixing up your dry ingredients, then your wet and finally combining them together in one big whoosh. There's no creaming or delicate stirring - in fact, over stirring is a definite no no as it overworks the gluten in the flour, making the cake heavy and dense. A lightly stirred batter results in light, fluffy cakes, no need for the leavening action of eggs.
Eggs also act as a binding agent; curdled milk also works well, that's dairy free milk of course! Most of Ms Cupcakes recipes use cider vinegar to sour the milk; that doesn't work for me unfortunately as due to my yeast sensitivity, I have to avoid fermented items. Lemon juice works as well, and gives a slightly tart contrast to the super sweet cakey flavour.
My daughter is often found whipping up a batch of these chocolate cupcakes and I have to say they are amazingly light and delicious, so much so I bet you might even prefer them to the standard cholesterol laden butter version. The recipe is pretty much the same as Ms Cupcake with a couple of slight alterations, but still completely dairy free and seriously delicious - give them a go and see what your tastebuds think. And just a little thought to leave you with - there's a mint choc chip cupcake which is just amazing…..
Chocolate cupcake (enough for 12 large cupcakes)

200ml non dairy milk
4 teaspoon cider vinegar/lemon juice
170g self raising flour
30g cocoa powder
200g caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
80mls organic rapeseed oil
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
Buttercream icing
75g dairy free margarine (e.g. Pure, vitalite)
1teaspoon vanilla essence
375g icing sugar
20-30mls dairy free milk
Preheat your oven to 180oC and get your muffin tins lined with cupcake wrappers. In a small bowl, mix the non-dairy milk and vinegar/lemon juice together and put to one side for 10 minutes to let it curdle a bit. In the meantime, get a large bowl and mix all the dry ingredients together until well combined. Add the curdled non-dairy milk oil and vanilla and mix together with a metal spoon really quickly (about 10 seconds) until just combined - it will be a bit lumpy.
Tap the bowl on the worktop to release the bubbles and stop the raising agents working too quickly then dollop the mixture into the cupcake cases, distributing equally. Pop the trays in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or so. Remove from oven and lay on a cooling tray until they are completely cold.
In another bowl, whisk the margarine and vanilla essence together until creamy then add half the icing sugar. Once well mixed, add the second half and mix well, adding a little dairy free milk to soften if too stiff. Decorate the cupcake tops with the icing and sprinkles of your choice.