Happy belated Valentine's day!

As yesterday was, shall we say, the king of chocolate holidays! I decided what better to post than a recipe involving said ingredient! I have met very few people in my life who actually profess to hate chocolate, I mean who can really resist the delicious, smooth flavour of a chocolate treat? Well this little treat involves chocolate, but even better for me? It does not involve dairy or soy! Yay, in fact it is completely vegan! A moist (and yes this is the ONE place where that word is okay), flavourful, sinfully delicious and great for making as either a cake or cupcakes treat.

Vegan chocolate cake/cupcakes

   (dry ingredients)

1 c. all-purpose flour, sifted

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/3 c. plus 2 tbsp. baking cocoa, I love Sparrow's breakfast cocoa

3/4 c. sugar

(wet ingredients)

1 cup rice milk or almond milk (if you don't have a soy allergy you can use soy milk!)

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

            1/3 cup oil (here I have used olive oil, coconut oil, vegan butters melted, or canola oil)

                                    

Set the oven for 350F.  In your dry ingredients bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.  Set the dry ingredients bowl aside. 

In the second bowl combine the rice or almond milk, vanilla, apple cider vinegar, sugar, and oil or butter substitute.  Stir this mixture a bit until the sugar begins to dissolve.  Then combine the liquid ingredients into the dry one.  Mix well, until all the lumps have gone and the mixture looks shiny.  

Pour your ingredients into prepared cupcake tins. or a small cake pan, such as a single 9" round which has been greased and floured,  I managed to make a dozen good sized cupcakes, if you want more than that I suggest doubling the recipe.   

Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes. The cake will need more like 40 minutes depending on your oven. Check on them a few minutes before that, you want to be able to stick a toothpick into their centers and have it come out clean.

I used this delightfully simple icing recipe for the frosting:

Frosting

1/2 c. soy-free vegan butter

4 tbsp. cocoa

5 tbsp. rice milk

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

4 c. powdered sugar

Melt butter in saucepan over heat, when it is melted incorporate the cocoa, vanilla, and powdered sugar...Adding milk as needed until it is the consistency you want.