Vegan Orange - Chocolate Cupcakes

 

I stumbled upon this recipe when looking for any fruit and chocolate based cupcakes and oh boy, I am glad that I did. This is almost a 5 star recipe, in my opinion. I should however admit that in the middle of baking, my heart sank seeing the sinking tops of the cupcakes. I had zeroed in on this recipe and was in no mood for further recipe hunting. I gave up and thought that I may have to fall back on any standard banana chocolate one. However by the end of baking they rose again, leaving a big happy smile on face. And so if the cupcakes sink in the initial stages of baking following this recipe, I guess there is no need to worry.
The taste and the texture of the cupcakes are fabulous. You can also add a tsp. of orange zest to enhance the orange flavor. The recipe had nuts in them but instead I chose to go with chocolate chips as this was a chocolate based theme. This is basically a cake recipe and suggests to use a 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan. I decided to use a muffin pan instead since I was planning to bake cupcakes for the marathon.

Ingredients: (Yield 16 cupcakes)
1/2 cup soy milk at room temperature (or milk for a non vegan version)

2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup mixed chopped nuts (optional)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup orange juice

2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (or chopped nuts)

 

Method:
* Grease the cake tin / muffin pan you are going to use and keep it aside. Or liners can be used for the muffin pan. 
* Whisk milk and vinegar in a bowl and leave aside for 3 to 4 minutes.
* Preheat oven to 375 deg F / 190 deg C.
* Sift flour, baking soda and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. Add sugar and mix well.
* Mix orange juice, oil and vanilla and add it to the vinegar mixture. Beat just to combine.
* Add the liquid ingredients to dry and whisk to combine forming a non lumpy batter.
* Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. I halved the original recipe to get 8 cupcakes and mine were done in about 25 minutes.

See how beautiful the texture is.

 

This is going to be a part of BM # 37 under the theme of "Chocolate Based Muffins / Cupcakes".

 

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