Easy to make, unusually moist, chocolate cupcakes and no mixer required! Also no eggs, the recipe uses a combination of baking soda and vinegar to leaven.
In this recipe
-
Vegan chocolate cupcakes
-
measuring the flour
-
Simple frosting
-
How to store and freeze
BE PICTURED IN; CHARACTERIZED IN:
Have you ever come across a chocolate cake recipe that didn’t use eggs or butter and instead relied on vinegar and baking soda for the leavening?
Easy chocolate cupcakes with no eggs or dairy
What’s special about this cake recipe is not only that it’s incredibly easy to make, using ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, but it also results in a surprisingly moist and delicious cake (and cupcakes).
All without eggs or butter. (There’s butter in the frosting I use, but we’re talking about the cake.) I even tried adding an egg to the recipe and it wasn’t nearly as good as the batch without it.
Over the past week, I’ve made several batches of cupcakes using this method, including a few for my mom’s book club. (Hello, Mom’s friends!)
How do you measure flour for this recipe?
A quick note on measuring the flour for this recipe. Scoop flour into your measuring cup with a spoon until the measuring cup is heaped, then level with a knife. That should give you perfect cupcake batter every time.
A simple frosting for easy chocolate cupcakes
I used a Hershey’s frosting recipe and instead of loading the cupcakes with frosting, I opted instead to just drizzle frosting in patterns on top.
Do whatever you want with the frosting. I think the cupcakes are delicious even without the frosting.
If you want to make a completely vegan cupcake, use our vegan chocolate frosting on the cupcakes!
How to store and freeze these chocolate cupcakes
At room temperature, these cupcakes can be kept in a sealed container for two or three days. If your kitchen is warmer than 70°F, or if they’ve been at room temperature for more than three days, keep them in the refrigerator. At the end of the six days, if you find that the cupcakes are left, you can store the leftover cupcakes in the freezer.
These cupcakes can be frozen or frozen unfrozen for up to three months. For best flavor, eat them within a month of freezing. Whether with frosting or without: First place the individual cupcakes on a baking sheet in the freezer until they are just frozen.
If the cupcakes don’t have frosting, they can be placed in an airtight ziplock bag, removed as needed, allowed to come to room temperature, then frosted.
When the cupcakes are glazed, they can be individually wrapped in plastic wrap before placing them all in a ziplock airtight freezer bag. Take out as many as you like, unwrap immediately and bring to room temperature before eating.
Try these other vegan treats
- Vegan Banana Bread
- Vegan Pumpkin Bread
- Vegan French Toast with Caramelized Bananas
- Vegan Gingerbread People
- Vegan chocolate pudding
From the editors of Simply Recipes
Super Easy, Super Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
The coffee (and salt) will help intensify the flavor of the chocolate. If you don’t have coffee or don’t want to use it, just leave it out and use water instead. When using coffee, just use what is considered regular strength coffee (or slightly weak coffee) in America, not something super concentrated like espresso. If caffeine is a problem, use decaffeinated coffee.
If you want to make a cake instead of cupcakes, double the recipe. Pour the cake batter into two greased and floured 8-inch round cake pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a bamboo skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Check your olive oil and make sure it’s fresh and not rancid. Check your baking soda to make sure it still works (add a little vinegar to a teaspoon, if it foams vigorously it’s ok.)
ingredients
Cupcakes:
-
1 1/2 cups (188G) all purpose flour
-
1/4 cup (23G) Naturally unsweetened cocoa powder
-
1 cup (200G) granulated sugar
-
1 teaspoon baking soda (4G) (make sure it’s fresh!)
-
1/2 teaspoon (1G) kosher salt
-
1 Cup brewed Coffee (or 1 cup warm water mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee granules or espresso powder)
-
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
-
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon olive oil
Glaze:
-
4 tablespoon butter
-
1/3 cup (30thG) Naturally unsweetened cocoa powder
-
1 1/2 cups (168G) powdered sugar
-
3 tablespoon milk
-
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
method
Cupcakes:
-
Preheat the oven and prepare the muffin tin:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack on middle position. Prepare a muffin pan with muffin cases.
-
Whisk together the dry ingredients:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt vigorously until there are no visible lumps (cocoa tends to clump).
-
Mix the wet ingredients:
In a separate bowl, mix together the coffee (or water plus coffee granules), vinegar, vanilla extract, and olive oil.
-
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients:
Stir just until they just come together. Don’t roll over! The mixture should be thin and rather lumpy.
-
Scoop the batter into the muffin cups:
Fill the liners about two-thirds full.
-
Bake:
Place in the oven and bake at 350F for 18 to 20 minutes until a bamboo skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
-
Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes:
Remove from the pan and let cool on a wire rack. Once cool, you can eat it plain, sprinkle with powdered sugar, or drizzle or top with icing once cool.
For the glaze:
-
Melt the butter:
Melt the butter in a small saucepan and remove from the heat.
-
Gradually stir in the remaining ingredients:
Stir in the cocoa until smooth. Sprinkle in about a third of the powdered sugar, stir, then sprinkle about half of the milk on top. Mix in alternately the powdered sugar and either milk or vanilla, stirring after each addition until the icing is the desired consistency and smooth. If it’s too runny, add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add a little more milk or vanilla extract.
-
Frost Individual Chilled Cupcakes:
Place the icing in the corner of a zip-top freezer bag. Use scissors to trim away about 1/4 inch from the top of the corner. Then simply press the frosting from the bag onto the cupcakes in any design.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 295 | calories |
| 11g | Fat |
| 46g | carbohydrates |
| 3g | protein |
