vegan chocolate cupcakes.

This post should also be called the “I’m sorry we skipped orchestra 2 weeks before the concert to go see the CSO in Millennium Park” Cupcakes. That seemed a little to much though.

I’ve been looking for a dairy and egg free cupcake recipe all summer and haven’t been able to find one that doesn’t use really weird ingredients. I finally found one and it is amazing!! Seriously. So stinking good. Thanks to Google, Pinterest, and a lot of time I found this recipe on Oh She Glows! and let me tell you. It’s the best. It doesn’t even taste like the dairy and egg are missing. I made these a couple weeks ago for the orchestra bake-off we had (and I totally won).

This chocolate cake is amazing. It’s really rich and moist which is the best kind of chocolate cake. It’s a pretty foolproof mix. Just dump and combine. Love it. I made 2 batches of these in about an hour. It’s super simple and super delicious. Two of my favorite things.

These bake up really nicely. Make sure you let them cool and then you get to top them with an amazingly delicious, fluffy almond “butter cream” frosting. Seriously guys, it’s amazing. And it gives such a great flavor to the chocolate. There’s a nice balance between them. (And if you just want to eat the frosting with a spoon I will not judge you…I might have had some for breakfast this morning. Normal.)

Look at how amazing those look. I will warn you, because these are dairy and egg free you need to get a few special ingredients; non-dairy milk (I used Vanilla Almond Milk) and dairy and lactose free butter (I got a tub of spreadable and it worked out). But you can also make these with normal dairy milk and butter and I’m sure it will be just as delicious.

Make some cupcakes, give them all away, download the new Mumford and Sons album, enjoy your day.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

from Oh She Glows!

makes 12 cupcakes

1 cup non-dairy milk

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 and 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoons salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake tin with paper liners and set aside. In a medium sized bowl beat milk, sugar, oil, vinegar, and extracts until well mixed. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined, about 2-3 minutes. Spoon into the cupcake liners filling about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 20-23 minutes until the tops of the cupcakes bounce back if you touch them. Cool in the pan for 3-5 minutes and then remove and cool completely on a wire rack. When cool frost the cupcakes.

Almond “Butter Cream” Frosting

1/2 cup dairy and lactose free butter, softened (I used Earth Balance spreadable, but if you can find sticks I’d recommend that)

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 Tablespoons non-dairy milk

3 cups powdered sugar

In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the butter until creamy. Add in the almond extract and non-dairy milk and mix until combined. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and mix well in between additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. When all the powdered sugar has been added mix for about 3-4 minutes to make sure that everything is well combined. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Eat extra with a spoon…I mean, if you want.

vegan mango banana bread.

I’ve been wanting to make something vegan for a long time. Not because I am vegan (I love meat and eggs way too much for that) but because one of my professors is allergic to dairy and eggs and so is his family. He makes jokes all the time about people not making him dairy and egg free things and I always tell him that I’ll make him and his family something. He directs the orchestra at my college and I was late everyday last semester. In my defense, I had to work until orchestra started. At least I had a good reason and wasn’t involved in any shenanigans of any kind. Something always came up when I was leaving that I had to help with, so it just happened that way.

Anyway…I totally forgot where that was going…

Mango! I haven’t worked with mangoes. Ever. I’m doing two new things right now. Wait. No. Three new things. I’ve never made banana bread either. That’s pretty intense for me. This recipe is from Joy the Baker. Shocking, I know. Someday I’ll learn to make my own recipes. Until then I’ll just share awesome ones with you.

I got really worried when making this because the batter was really thick. I’m used to cookie dough and cake batter. This was way different. But after baking and growing a little bit it turned out really well. I’m pretty proud of it and I’m really glad to share it with great people.

Make some banana bread, have some friends over, and watch a movie about young love. And maybe cry a little at the end. It’s totally acceptable.

P.S. Is the only way you remember how to spell bananas because of that really inappropriate Gwen Stefani song? Yeah, I figured that was just me.

Vegan Mango Banana Bread

from Joy the Baker

makes one 9×5 loaf pan

3 medium bananas

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 fresh mango, sliced into chunks

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 9×5 loaf pan. In a large bowl mash the bananas. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla and whisk until combined. Sift in the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir everything until the wet and dry ingredients are incorporated. Fold in the mango chunks. The batter will be pretty thick. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle with granulated sugar if you would like to. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a knife interested into the top comes out clean. Cool in the pan for about 20 minutes and then remove the bread from the pan and cool completely on a cooling rack. Serve at room temperature. If gifting, wrap the cooled bread in plastic wrap and tie with a ribbon or string.

The bread will last well wrapped for up to five days.