Vegan Cupcakes

Anyone who's ever been to Midnight Kitchen has probably wondered how they make such good desserts without using milk or eggs. Their cake is always so good, I've always wanted to try vegan baking. I really wanted to try to make these Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes but again couldn't get ripe avocados? Why don't grocery stores sell ripe avocados? What if I had an avocado emergency where I needed their good fats right away?

Anyway I just used that recipe sans avocado and added a few things to make sure they would be moist. And since I couldn't make that icing I made orange chocolate icing which was really good.

Ingredients
3 cups flour
6 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cups water
2 tbsp. white vinegar
2 tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl mix sugar, applesauce, vegetable oil, water, vinegar and vanilla.

3. Mix dry ingredients into the wet all at once and beat until batter is smooth. Pour into cupcake liners and bake 15-18 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

Now I don't exactly have a recipe for the frosting because I kept modifying it until I got the right taste and consistency. I did use an entire 500 g bag of icing sugar, the zest of an entire orange and juice of half an orange, and about 2 tbsp of cocoa powder. If you want to make the same icing use those ingredients and add water until desired consistency is reached.

Now they didn't exactly taste like the Midnight Kitchen cake but they were still good. Obviously a different texture than the Betty Crocker cupcakes but still moist. I would recommend this recipe for those wanting to experiment with vegan baking.