RECIPE: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Some dear friends of ours are going to be serving as "need-greaters" in Thailand and Dominican Republic in the next few weeks.  They both have aversions to milk and to avoid this, they choose mostly vegan products.  My momma had a little tea for them and the regular pioneer sisters.  I was in charge of baking.  (Go figure!)

My hubby found me a great Milk-free cookbook at a flea market several weeks ago and I'm loving it!

Here's a yummy chocolate cupcake I made for the tea party.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
1-1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup hot water
2 Tablespoons coffee liqueur (like Kahlua) (or any extract you like)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line muffin pan with cupcake liners; set aside.

In large mixing bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together.  Add brown sugar (be sure to mix well to avoid any lumps).  In a separate bowl, mix oil, water and coffee liqueur together.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet in.  Mix together and evenly divide among the liners.

Bake mini cupcakes for 10 minutes or until done.

Bake regular cupcakes for 15 minutes or until done.

These are so soft and moist.  You'd never guess they were vegan.

I made a vegan frosting using margarine (dairy free), powdered sugar, Kahlua and water.
1 cup margarine, about 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons Kahlua and enough water to make the frosting soft enough to pipe.  It turned out really delicious!

Enjoy!