I have to confess I have never made birthday cupcakes.  I’ve baked bread, cookies, rolls and muffins; but never birthday cupcakes.  For my mother-in-law’s birthday two weeks ago, I ordered mini cupcakes from a  fancy specialty vegan and gluten free bakery.  The cupcakes looked beautiful. Unfortunately, nobody liked them.  All I got was, “they taste healthy”.  I was very disappointed.  We had to drive far to get them and order them a week in advance.

With another family birthday coming up, I wanted to bake some myself and surprise everyone with delicious  cupcakes. I searched online for vegan birthday cupcake recipes  and modified and combined a few.  I just made these yesterday and they are all gone! Yes!

I hope you like these too. Happy Baking!

Ingredients:

for the cupcakes:

wet:

• 1 cup warm organic coconut milk
• 1 Tbsp organic apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup organic coconut oil
• 1 cup organic coconut sugar
• 2 tsp organic pure vanilla extract

dry:

• 1 ½  cups all-purpose sifted flour
• 2  tsp baking powder
• ½   tsp baking soda
• ½  tsp salt 
• ½ cup organic rainbow sprinkles

for the frosting: 

• 1 cup organic shortening 
• 2 ½  cups of organic powdered sugar
• 1 tsp organic pure vanilla extract 
• 1 tsp organic pure vanilla extract 
• 1 cup organic dark chocolate hazelnut spread “vegan Nutella” 
• More organic rainbow sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a muffin pan with 12 paper baking cups (make sure to prepare muffin pan before you start mixing the batter).
2. Combine warm coconut milk with apple cider vinegar and let stand until curdled (about 15 minutes)
3. In a large bowl, combine  the dry ingredients (except the sprinkles). 
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut milk mixture, coconut oil, coconut sugar, and vanilla.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Make sure not to overmix the batter.
6. Fold in the sprinkles without over mixing so the sprinkles won’t bleed their color. 
7. Spoon the batter to fill the prepared cups ¾ of the way, dividing evenly, without overfilling because they will rise.
8. Bake for 20 minutes. 
9. Let cool a few minutes in the muffin pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 
10. Frost with vegan Nutella frosting, then top with more sprinkles.

Frosting:

Beat the shortening, vanilla, and vegan Nutella in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add the powdered sugar until everything is combined well. If the frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar.

Notes:

I love everything coconut, so I used coconut milk, coconut oil, and coconut sugar, but you can choose any nondairy milk, oil or sugar.

If you are not fond of chocolate or Nutella, you can use your favorite vegan frosting.