Chocolate Cupcakes Vegan Gluten-Free Soy-Free

I’ve been craving chocolate cupcakes since Moe’s birthday party well over two weeks ago.  Problem is, where does one find vegan gluten-free cupcakes on this side of BedStuy?  GrubHub and Seamless fail.  Not a single new cafe (Pantry, Breadlove, Liquid Oz) has a consistent supply of non-mainstream goodies.  I’m working on changing that, but alas, my baking Co is still in the works and this need is urgent.  After pouting for a day and a half, I broke down and made these.  Here’s the recipe.

 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Frosting

1/2 cup sunflower seed oil (or butter/oil of your choosing)
1 package Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free chocolate cake mix
2/3 cup applesauce
1/3 cup coconut milk drink (not canned coconut milk)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
4 tablespoons flax seed meal mixed with 6 tablespoons water (replaces 2 large eggs)
1/3 cup hot water
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Ganache

1 cup canned coconut milk
1 tablespoon coffee grounds
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces Trader Joe’s chocolate chips (vegan)

Preheat oven to 350.  Arrange 16 silicone muffin molds on cookie sheet and spray lightly with coconut oil.  (Or use cupcake pans with liners).
In the bowl of your mixer, add oil or softened butter and beat until creamy.  In the case of oil, you can skip this step since it is liquid.  Add cake mix, applesauce, milk, lemon or acv, and flax eggs.  Beat for about a minute on low, scraping down the sides.  Let it run on medium-low for about another 30 seconds.  Add hot water and vanilla and mix for another minute or so until mixed well and sides have been scraped.

Use an ice cream scooper to transfer batter to molds.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  With gluten-free flours it may be hard to tell that the cupcakes are done with the toothpick technique because they tend to be quite moist even after 20 minutes.  Trust that they are done and let them cool in front of the fan or AC if you are impatient.  I am. If using silicone molds, keep them cooling until you are ready to frost them.  If using a cupcake pan, let them cool for 10 minutes before transferring them out of the tin to a cooling rack.  Let them sit 30 minutes before frosting.

Heat the coconut milk until it begins to boil.  Remove from heat and dump in the coffee grounds and vanilla.  Let sit 15-30 minutes depending on how strong you want the coffee.  Pour through a strainer to removed the coffee grounds.  Bring the mixture back to a boil and pour over the chocolate chips.  Stir until creamy.  The ganache will be warm will cascade down the sides of the cupcakes, however, if you let it cool in the fridge overnight, you can scoop out a thicker icing that will be less drippy.

Makes 16 cupcakes.  You can eat 4 by urself and still have a dozen to share.