Vegan Vampire Cupcakes

Halloween is coming up soon, and these are the perfect treats to make for your friends and family! I have created vegan vampire cupcakes, and they are a ton of fun to make. My boyfriend, Rhys, and I made this how-to video to show you guys exactly how to make these. I hope you enjoy it!

* For best quality, switch video to 1080p HD

Again, if you aren’t concerned with these being vegan, feel free to replace vegan margarine with regular butter. I often bake vegan cupcakes but not-vegan frosting. I love my vegan cupcakes, they are so light and moist, but I enjoy the flavour of real butter in my frosting. It’s a bit of an endless debate, really- vegans say eating butter is bad, as it is a dairy product from factory farmed cows, etc. While there are also arguments about the horrible things the palm oil (found in Earth Balance, and other vegan ‘dairy’ products) industry is doing in Indonesia and other countries. Destroying forests and wiping out the populations of animals native to these forests doesn’t seem that vegan to me either…how do we ever win?

Anyways! Make these cupcakes with whatever ingredients make you feel the best, and just enjoy them! Happy Halloween!

Vegan Vampire Cupcakes
By Koko, October 27, 2012

Tasty vegan vampire cupcakes, perfect for Halloween!
Ingredients:
Almond Milk – 1 cup
Apple Cider Vinegar – 1 tsp
Organic, Unrefined Sugar – 3/4 cup
Vegetable Oil – 1/3 cup
Vanilla Extract – 1 1/2 tsp
All Purpose Flour – 1 cup
Cocoa Powder – 1/3 cup
Baking Soda – 3/4 tsp
Baking Powder – 1/2 tsp
Sea Salt – 1/4 tsp
–
Icing –
Butter, or Non-Dairy Butter – 1 cup
Icing Sugar – 4 cups, sifted
Vanilla Extract – 4 tsp
Almond Milk – 4 Tbsp +
Red Decorating Gel –
Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
Whisk together the milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract to the milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain.
Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
Icing: Beat 2 cups icing sugar with “butter”, until smooth. Beat in vanilla and 4 Tbsp almond milk. Add in remaining icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add 1-2 Tbsp almond milk until desired consistancy is reached.
Pipe onto cupcakes and decorate with red gel.