Vegan vanilla cupcakes with raw sugar icing

Dairy free // Egg free // Vegan

Now that the school year has started,

there's a demand for wholesome, delicious lunchbox snacks,

and one of the most popular items in our house are cupcakes.

But rather than being loaded up with white sugar, refined white flour,

butter, cow milk and eggs, 

this version uses stoneground wholewheat flour,

a modest amount of raw sugar,

plant milks, fruit oils & vinegar as a raising agent. 

They are moist, always reliable,

and can be quickly changed to other flavours with the addition

of coconut, grated orange zest, poppy seeds or ground nuts.

Sometimes they get topped with a small dollop of icing,

sometimes not,

but whichever version, 

they never seem to last till the end of the week in our house!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Raw Sugar Icing

Ingredients

2 cups (500 ml) plant milk

2 teaspoons white vinegar

350 gm plain stoneground wholemeal flour

3 teaspoons natural baking powder (we use Uncle Bob's)

1/3 cup almond oil

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup raw sugar

2 teaspoons natural vanilla essence

raw sugar icing

2 cups raw sugar

1 tablespoon non-dairy butter or coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

plant milk

PREPARE raw icing sugar by placing raw sugar into high speed blender & blitzing until powdered.

Transfer to mixing bowl, and stir in non-dairy butter or coconut oil, vanilla & just enough plant milk to make a soft dropping consistency.

method

Preheat oven to 180º c (350º F) & line 2 x 12 cupcake trays with paper liners.

Stir vinegar into the plant milk and leave to curdle (should take a couple of minutes).

Mix baking powder into flour and put to one side.

In a large bowl or stand mixer bowl, beat together the oils, sugar & vanilla.

Add a third of the flour and stir in gently. Add a third of the milk, and stir gently to mix.

Repeat the flour/milk alternating additions, adding a third each time.

Do not overmix or the batter will be tough.

Spoon mixture into the 24 cupcake cases, and bake for approx 15 minutes or until a finger impression bounces back from the surface.

Cool on wire cooling trays.

Ice with small blobs of raw sugar icing, adding sprinkles if desired.

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It's easy to make your own raw icing sugar, which gives a slightly darker colour to the icing but imparts a lovely caramel flavour, and of course is less refined than standard icing sugar.