I Heart Cupcakes

You may have noticed that cupcakes are kind of my thing, niche, passion, hobby, whatever you want to call it...I heart cupcakes, completely.

I've never been much of a cake person, but cupcakes have always fascinated me. The individual flare and creativity is endless...at least in my eyes there is. You can mix frosting, decorations, flavors, and cute cupcake liners too. Ahh...so excited already. So this weekend I tried another recipe...and I went vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free. Vegan Chocolate Cupcake with Raspberry Buttercream frosting.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes (taken from Crazy About Cupcakes )

Ingredients:

6 tbsp applesauce

2 1/4 cups water

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp white vinegar

2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose-flour (instead I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour)

2/3 cup cocoa powder

2 cups unbleached cane sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put liners into cupcake pan (s).

2. In large mixing bowl, mix together the applesauce, water, vanilla, and vinegar.

3. In another bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients.

4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the liquid mixture. Beat well.

5. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full (I would recommend filling completely full because the batter is a thinner batter). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting (you can find this on the back of any bag of powdered sugar and then I just added the raspberries as I mixed the other ingredients)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup soy margarine

1/4 soy milk

3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup raspberries

Directions:

1. Mix soy margarine and soy milk together. Blend well.

2. Gradually add the powdered sugar to the blended mixture.

3. Add the vanilla and raspberries gradually.* Blend well.

4. I added the berries whole, instead of mashing them, either way should be fine.

*I found that after adding the raspberries the buttercream frosting became thinner because of their water content. So I would try lessening the vanilla or soy milk ingredients to see if that makes a difference in the thickness of the buttercream.

To add a little playfulness and creativity, I found these raspberry looking candies in the bulk food section at the grocery store.

I hope you came to "heart" cupcakes as much as me.

Enjoy!