Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes! & Mini Doughnut Toppers

Since transitioning to vegan by far the thing I have missed the most is cupcakes and all the other kinds of baked goodies if I'm being honest. It's not like I had a whole cake or even a cupcake on a daily basis but you know when you can't have something you want it even more? Yeah. That. I did try to follow a vegan cake recipe a couple of days ago and though they were edible they definitely weren't photo worthy so I did a little more research and found my missing ingredient. Egg replacement! I got mine from Amazon but I think they're available in some supermarkets although you might want to double check that. It works exactly the same as actual eggs do and made for some pretty amazing cupcakes (and doughnuts) if I do say so myself! You can buy it here.

Ingredients;

Cupcakes -

• 30ml non dairy milk (I used sweetened soy milk).
• 100g non dairy butter (I used Pure sunflower spread).
• 100g caster sugar sugar (Tate & Lyle and Billingtons are vegan as are Sainsbury's own brand!).
• 1 teaspoon vanilla flavouring.
• 170g plain flour.
• 2 egg equivalent of your egg replacement (if using Orgran like I am, you'll only need 1 egg equivalent).
• 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder.
• pinch of salt

Doughnuts -

• 100g plain flour.
• 80g caster sugar.
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
• a pinch of salt, cinnamon and ground nutmeg.
• 100ml non dairy milk (see above).
• 45g of room temperature non dairy butter.
• 1 egg equivalent of your egg replacement.
• half a teaspoon of vanilla flavouring.

Icing -

• 110g non dairy butter.
• 350g of icing sugar.
• 1 table spoon of seedless strawberry jam.
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavouring.
• splash of non dairy milk

I know that's a butt tonne of ingredients but mostly you'll be using the same ingredients for all 3 parts - just a lot of them. It's all worth it though, I promise.

Method;

1. Preheat your oven to Gas Mark 4, 180 degrees celsius (350 fahrenheit).

2. Starting with the cupcakes, beat together butter and sugar until smooth.

3. Gradually add the flour and egg replacement until well combined and then add the vanilla and salt.

4. Mixing in a figure of a 8, add the milk until desired consistency. You might not need to use whole 30ml.

5. Pop in the oven for 12 -15 minutes or until lightly golden.

6. As they're cooling we'll move on to the doughnuts. Leave the oven on at the same temperature, were going to need it again in a minute!

7. Put your 45g of butter in a microwavable bowl and heat at 10-20 second intervals, taking it out and stirring it in between, until it has completely melted.

8. Add all of your wet ingredients to the butter and mix well.

9. In another bowl whisk all of the dry ingredients together and then gradually add all of your wet ingredients, mixing until just combined. 

10. Grease your doughnut pan with a tiny bit of vegetable oil or non dairy butter to stop them sticking and scoop the mixture into the moulds.

11.  Smooth over the top so that the dough is not overflowing and stick them in the oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

12. Leave to cool.

Icing;

1. Once your cupcakes and doughnuts have cooled, put your room temperature butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffly. Mix in your vanilla flavouring.

2. Gradually (for the sake of your kitchen) add 200g of icing sugar and combine. Add a splash of milk and carry on mixing! 

3. Pipe the icing on to the cupcakes and leave to one side.

4. In a microwavable bowl add a tablespoon of strawberry jam and heat at 10 second intervals, stirring in between until it has completely melted. Once melted, leave to one side to cool. This will make sense in a second!

5. For the doughnut icing; add your remaining 150g of icing sugar to a bowl and add very small amounts of milk until it's a "gloopy" and fairly thick consistency.

6. Add a splash of vanilla flavouring and continue mixing. It shouldn't be runny but have a little solidarity to it - kind of like yogurt in consistency.

7. Dip in half of your doughnuts and put in the fridge to set.
8. Now back to the jam. If it's still warm to the touch pop it in the fridge for a couple of minutes or if it has started to solidify again put it back in the microwave for 10 seconds and then put it in the fridge. It needs to be no warmer than room temperature.

9. When you have your jam at the right temperature - mix it in with your remaining icing.

10. Dip the rest of your doughnuts and repeat the same steps as before.
11. Assemble your cupcakes and leave everything to set and you're FINALLY done!

That is by far the longest recipe I have ever done but holy crap was it worth it. The cravings have been real and these were exactly what I needed. Everyone in my house is also extremely grateful that I spent a good 2 hours of my day making these. If you're wondering if they taste different because of the vegan replacements, surprisingly, they don't. The butter icing is a little less buttery but I was the only one who noticed and it didn't make them any less delicious. Actually, as far as cupcakes go, they were the best I've ever made!

If you try and make these (good luck) please, please let me know so I can send you a gold star or something because oh wow will you deserve it.

What's your favourite thing to bake? Do you prefer doughnuts or cupcakes?

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