Vegan Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

This past valentine's day, I made these vegan cupcakes for my dear friend Cassie :) I love her for always being there whenever I need her and for being supportive. I know how hard it is for her for find vegan baked goods, because so many of the key essential ingredients that we use in baking all the time are things that she can't eat like eggs, butter, milk, etc. So, I searched long and hard for vegan cupcakes and I came across Chef Chloe's recipe.

Again, I kind of winged it at the end with the whole decorating. It was so much fun decorating these cupcakes and I felt that that was the most time consuming part. The cupcakes themselves were easy and quick to make. 

Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (or gluten-free all-purpose flour plus ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup coffee, water, or coconut milk
• ½ cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Frosting

• 1 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening (I hate using this so much!! But I had no choice..)
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 to 5 tablespoons soy, almond, or rice milk  

Garnish

• 1 ½ cups hulled and sliced fresh strawberries
• Powdered sugar

• Procedure

  Chocolate cupcakes:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) cupcake pans with 14 cupcake liners.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together coffee, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk until just combined. Do not over mix.
  4. Fill the cupcake liners about two-thirds full with batter. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.
  Frosting:
  1. Use a electric mixer, beat the shortening until smooth. (I suggest you let this shortening come to room temperature or at least NOT straight out of the fridge so it'll be easier to beat it...) With the mixer running on low, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon nondairy milk at a time, as needed, until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency. Beat on high for 2 more minutes until light and fluffy.
  Now, I don't know why my cupcakes didn't puff up as much as Chloe's did and I realize that I h ave constantly been having this problem with all my cupcakes.. not just vegan ones. I think that it's because I don't add enough batter to each cup because the ones that puffed up more were the ones that I put more batter in. However, I divided the batter in such a way that all 14 cups can be lined up. If you want to make them more puffed up, I suggest to just use 12 cups and see if you can fill it up all the way. The reason why I really needed them to puff up was so that I can slice off the top part of the cupcake and decorate accordingly to make it into a sandwhich effect. 
  From, the picture, you can see that some of my cupcakes have a chocolate top on them while others didn't. I cut the tops off of the ones that were really puffed up. The ones that weren't as puffed were just garnished like a normal cupcake. 
  So, to assemble the cupcakes, wait from them to cool COMPLETELY. Slice off the top 1/3 of the cupcake and put the frosting and freshly sliced strawberries. Place the top back on and put some more frosting on. Dust with powdered sugar for garnish. Again, garnish these cupcakes however you want! The white frosting with freshly sliced red strawberries make these cupcake look gorgeous instantly. Plus, confectioner's sugar always adds a little magical touch to them :)