Vegantastic!

      So as promised, here is a recipe for some awesome tasting vegan cupcakes! I actually made these for a bake sale that I was helping out with today at school for peace week and a flash mob that's happening next week (I'm so excited! It's going to be fun).

I have quite a few friends that are vegetarians/vegans and one friend that's allergic to dairy, so I was interested to find a recipe for a chocolaty treat that they can eat.  Personally, a lot of the time when I see vegan or gluten free baked goods.... I always think they look dry or kind of ...well....yicky; and I know that some of the things I see really are nasty to eat because I have tried them myself. (I was allergic to wheat and milk when I was a kid). So after some searching I have found a recipe that actually does taste really good - you would never even know that they don't have eggs or milk in them!
They are super easy to make and if chocolate-mint treats are up your alley, then this recipe is for you!

Make sure to give these chocolate peppermint vegan cupcakes a try!

Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes
*Recipe courtesy of marthastewart.com [10.]

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (cake & pastry flour works as well).
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place muffin cup papers into a 12-cup muffin pan.
2. In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In another bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and beat with a mixer until combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined. Note that this batter is a lot more watery than regular cupcake batter - so if it looks like chocolate-coloured water, don't freak out; everything is O.K.
5. Pour the batter into the muffin pan; filling each cup about 3/4 full.
6. Bake the cupcakes in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes until a toothpick poked into the centre pulls out clean.
7. Once cooked, transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack and cool completely before icing.
   

Vegan Peppermint Icing

Ingredients:

• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 cup margarine (most are dairy free!)
• 4 tsp peppermint extract (**Note: if your extract is strong, use less. Add a little to your icing and then give it a try - and add more to taste if you need)
• Green food colouring (optional)

Directions:

1. Place icing sugar, margarine, peppermint extract and a touch of green food colouring in a mixing bowl and beat together until smooth.
2. If your icing is crumbly and dry looking, add a pinch of water and mix it in. Repeat until your icing is the consistency that you like.  **Remember:  only add a very small amount of water at a time, or else you might ruin your icing.