Easy, moist (vegan) chocolate cupcakes
This might just be the world's simplest, moistest chocolate cupcake recipe, and vegan to boot! Use your favorite frosting to top these cupcakes, or choose from the list below.
This recipe makes 10 regular-sized, or 12 small cupcakes. For a layer cake double the recipe and use two 8-inch cake pans.
Garden of Eating
I am not a vegan and the fact that these cupcakes are is purely coincidence. But it's definitely a happy coincidence for those of you who are vegans 'cause these suckers are good!
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Eve is the creator of The Garden of Eating, a blog about food--cooking it, eating it, and growing it. She has a legendary love of aprons and can often be found salivating over the fruits and veggies at one of the many farmers’ markets near her home in Woodstock, NY. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.
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I was looking for an easy, moist, not too intensely chocolatey cupcake recipe to make for my son's fourth birthday last week. I read a lot of different recipes before I hit on this one from Simply Recipes. It sounded perfect – simple, moist, and not too rich for my little guy's young taste buds.
This recipe reminds me of the first cake I ever baked as a kid (of course it was chocolate). I must have been about 9 or 10 and I remember it because the cake recipe in my kids' cookbook called for vinegar which struck me as odd even then. But it totally works!
It's no accident that this type of recipe was in a kids baking cookbook – the recipe is so simple and easy that a child can make it. No eggs to crack and beat, no butter to soften or melt – all you need to do is measure and mix!
I think the coffee in the recipe is essential to the flavor so don't skip it although you can use decaf if you're worried about the caffeine (I really would not worry about it unless you know from past experience that you're extremely sensitive to caffeine in baked goods).
I've included links to some frosting recipes (including a vegan option) below but I have not tested any of these. I would include my own frosting recipe but I don't use an actual recipe – I usually just melt chocolate chips, butter, a little heavy cream, confectioner's sugar and vanilla extract in a double boiler and whisk until it's smooth, adding what always feels like a shocking amount of powdered sugar throughout the process.
One note on the yield, Elise's recipe says it makes 12 cupcakes but I've made it twice now (it's that good!) and I feel that 12 is a little optimistic unless you want pretty small cupcakes. Ten is probably more realistic if you're shooting for a normal-sized cupcake.
But I've nattered on quite long enough. Without further ado, I give you the world's simplest, moistest chocolate cupcake recipe. And vegan to boot!
Easy, moist (vegan) chocolate cupcakes
Via Simply Recipes
Makes 10 cupcakes (or 12 fairly small ones) - if you want to make a cake, double the recipe and cook in two 8-inch round cake pans for 35-40 minutes
Ingredients
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup organic cane sugar (I use vanilla sugar – it adds an extra yum factor)
1 teaspoon baking soda
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