Dairy, Gluten, and Egg-Free (Vegan) Cupcakes for Madi's Birthday

Tonight we made gluten, dairy, and egg-free (making them vegan as well ;)) cupcakes for Madi to bring to preschool tomorrow (can you believe she turns FIVE on Monday!?!?!?!?!).  I had "Googled" for a recipe that was vegan and gluten-free, and wasn't coming up with much, so I decided to take a vegan recipe that looked yummy and alter it.  We also made the buttercream frosting.  Yum!  There was a little batter left over, so we made a few mini cupcakes to eat after dinner.  Everyone really loved them, so I thought I would share the recipe.  They were slightly crumbly, but the texture/consistency was actually pretty good :).  The recipe I altered came from Chow.com.

http://www.chow.com/recipes/10794-basic-vegan-chocolate-cupcake

 

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1 cup soy milk (we don't do soy, even organic and GMO free when we can help it, so I used coconut milk instead)
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (we use Braggs)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (I just used an organic cane sugar)
• 1/3 cup canola oil (Canola oil is another thing we don't use in this house, so I used an olive oil blend I have.  I would have used organic unrefined coconut oil, but I didn't leave the milk out long enough to be room tempeture first, so the oil ends up getting clumpy and not distributing correctly) 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (make sure it's gluten free!)
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract (we used almond)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (We used 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill gluten-free mix, and 1 teaspoon of xanathan gum)
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting

**  We also crushed gluten, dairy, and egg free chocolate cookies and mixed a cup of the crushed cookies in to our batter, which is a variation suggested on the website the recipe came from

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
3. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes (I tend to take things out to early and they fall, so I actually did about 21 or 22 minutes, but it worked well :)), until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

 

 

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening (the store I went to only had crisco.  Bleh.  Nasty.  I used it because I didn't have time to go to a natural food store, but I recommend Spectrum)
• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine (We used the soy-free Earth Balance)
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted if clumpy
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plain soy milk or soy creamer (I wanted it to taste like cookies and cream, so I used 1/4 cup of coconut creamer in french vanilla (So delicious brand)

*** We added 1/2 cup of the crushed cookies to our frosting too

Instructions

1. Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.
2. Add the vanilla and milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.

**** Update.... I made these again today, but tried a different frosting recipe.  This time I found the one found here http://savorysweetlife.com/2011/04/chocolate-buttercream-frosting/, but instead of butter I used earth's balance spread, and instead of milk or cream, I used French vanilla coconut creamer.  OH MY GOODNESS was it good!!!

 

My cute little helpers

 





 

She sure loves baking!

 

Such a ham....

 

The "before" picture so you could see how they rise....

(P.S. If I am modifying a recipe, I always add apple cider vinegar to help it rise normally.  I didn't have to for this recipe, though, as it already called for it :))

 

Everyone comes running when you say the word "frosting"!

 

Ramya has discovered the joy of licking the beaters, and can barely contain herself waiting for it to be time!

 

 

This is how much the rose...

 

Ta-da!