Delivered.

My kids can’t wait for their friends’ birthdays. These days the absence of a birthday party means the delivery of birthday cupcakes. Cupcakes delivered right to the front door of the birthday girl or boy. It’s a great excuse for a social distance visit. We’ve been missing our friends, missing the celebrations but not letting that get us down.

So we say: bring on the cupcakes! Bring on the birthdays!

One of our friends is vegan and she loves chocolate. So we were in search of a great chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting. Since I’m not vegan, I don’t have a lot of tried and true vegan recipes. So the search was on for a recipe where I could replace the eggs. For the icing, I just made my typical buttercream icing but used vegan butter instead of dairy butter. These are the best vegan cupcakes I’ve tried. They are so rich, dense and chocolatey. Even my mom friend texted me and asked – are these really vegan?!

Here’s to celebrating birthdays during these crazy times. Food really does connect people – especially when cupcakes and kids are involved.

Chocolate Cupcakes (Vegan) with Chocolate Frosting (Vegan)

Yields: 10 cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients:

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp white or cider vinegar

1 cup spelt flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 Tbsp Dutch cocoa powder or additional unsweetened

3/4 cup sugar, unrefined if desired

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, optional

1/2 Tsp + 1/8 tsp salt

1/2 Tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Line a cupcake pan with liners.
3. Whisk first 5 ingredients, including the vinegar, together in a large bowl. Let sit at least 10 minutes.
4. Sift all remaining ingredients in a separate bowl.
5. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir just until evenly mixed.
6. Fill batter to 2/3rds of the way to the top.
7. Bake 20 minutes on the center rack. Let cool.
8. Once cool, frost with your favourite icing.

Chocolate Vegan Icing Recipe

Note: I find the taste of vegan butter very strong and salty. So, I added more cocoa powder and vanilla than I would had I been using regular butter. If you would prefer to start with 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla and 1/4 cup cocoa powder you can adjust to taste from there.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup vegan butter

3 cups icing sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

1/2 cup dutch cocoa powder

2 Tbsp of non-dairy milk, such as Almond Milk

Directions:

1. Combine the butter, icing sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder and milk to a medium bowl. With a whisk, mix together all ingredients until combined well and icing is smooth.

Assembly:

Ensure the cupcakes are cooled completely.

Add icing to a piping bag, with your favourite tip. Pipe icing onto cupcakes and add a few sprinkles of your choice.

Source: I found the vegan cupcake recipe on a blog called @chocolatecoveredkatie.com. Best vegan chocolate cupcakes I have tried. The vegan “butter” cream recipe is an original. I just substituted butter for a vegan butter substitute.