Chocolate Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
October 30, 2010
We decided to have a delayed birthday celebration for our friend Amanda last weekend, and it was a perfect excuse to make these cupcakes. We made them a few weeks back for my brother-in-law but without the orange in the frosting. They were good plain, but the orange really added something special. The recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. This little book is full of fun recipes that we look forward to trying soon.
Here’s the recipe for “Your Basic Chocolate Cupcake”:
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar (we used turbinado sugar)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners.
Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil and vanilla to the soy 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 the wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain.
Pour into liners, filling three-quarters of the way. Bake 18 – 20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.
Here’s the recipe for the “Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting”:
1/4 cup nonhydrogenated margerine, softened (we used Earth Balance)
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, softened (we used Follow Your Heart)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest (optional)
Cream together margerine and cream cheese until just combined. Use a handheld mixer (this REALLY HELPS, I don’t recommend trying to stir the frosting by hand) to whip while adding powdered sugar in 1/2 cup batches. Mix until smooth and creamy, then mix in the vanilla and orange rind (we saved some for the top too!). Keep covered and refrigerated until ready to use.
Note: We found that HALF the frosting recipe was plenty (see photo). The first time we made this we did the full recipe and had a LOT of frosting and some left over. If you love frosting, maybe make the whole amount.
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