Vegan Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

So operation use up all my perishables before my move in July continues!

I've been so caught up in trying to use up all my savoury items that I totally forgot my glut of baking supplies that I hoard, so I thought I would start and try and use it up.

I have a fascination with vegan food, I love the show Come Dine With Me and my favourite shows are the ones with vegan contestants because I love to see the creative ways that vegan cooking gets around the problem of not using any animal products. Especially in the case of using egg as a 'glue' in cooking, which is why the thought of vegan baking is so intriguing...

However I did want to use egg replacers or other fancy ingredients, which is when I stumbled upon this recipe from the lovely We Don't Eat Anything With A Face which uses grated apple hold the cakes together.  The only thing I did differently was add 3 tbsp of bicarb as I realised that I only had 60g of self raising flour and the rest of my supply was plain. On reflection the three tablespoons was a bit too much (I was quite scared that the cakes might actually explode in the over, they just kept growing!).

These cakes have to be the best chocolate cakes I have ever made, and the grated apple makes them really moist and yummy inside- I'm salivating at the thought as I write this!

I took them into work and told everyone that they were 'special' chocolate orange cupcakes and didn't tell them they were vegan.  After making 'mmm' noises, and making ridiculous guesses at what made them special, I finally told them that they were vegan and everyone was surprised.  Once colleague actually said that if he know they were vegan beforehand he wouldn't have had one, but will now think again about vegan cakes- then another colleague agreed!

If your reading this and thinking the same- please don't judge, keep and open mind about vegan cooking and try this recipe- it's awesome!

Looking Yummy

Yummier

Pretty Awesome

With the yummy icing- I licked it out the bowl after I made it!