Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World    Publisher: Marlowe & Company © 2006 by Isa Chandra Moskowitz ISBN: 1569242739

Reprinted with permission from the author, Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Your Basic Chocolate Cupcake (p. 37)
Makes 12 cupcakes

The name says it all, a simple but perfect, tender, and all-around wonderful chocolate cupcake. Change the look, flavor, and even nationality (with Coconut Pecan Fudge Frosting, for German chocolate cupcakes) by topping with any frosting, glaze, or filling you can imagine. This recipe is the basis for so many great chocolate cupcakes in this book. We've been even known to whip up an unadorned batch and serve with a glass of cold soy milk when the need for good, honest chocolate cake arises.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F and line muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat till 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 till no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are okay).
3. Pour into liners, filling three-quarters of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely.

Sprinkles

Use Dutch-processed cocoa for darker cupcakes. Worth the effort to get, try these with a mixture of black cocoa powder (see ingredient section page 12) and regular cocoa powder for the deepest, darkest, and most ridiculously chocolatey chocolate cupcakes ever.