Halloween Cupcakes

Vegan

Woooooh! Spookily scrumptious cupcakes for you in all their vegan gorgeousness

This recipe makes 12 chocolate orange and 12 chocolate mint cupcakes. They are easy to make - just get all your ingredients and equipment out beforehand and go for it! You will probably have a bit left over too with which you can just make extra (or do what I did: make muffin sized extras without frosting).

Halloween vegan chocs like the chocolate skulls pictured below are pretty widely available too!

Serves:

24 muffins, 12 of each

Time:

1 hour or less

No nuts

No sesame

Ingredients:

480ml/17fl oz soya milk
2 tsp cider vinegar
300g/11oz granulated sugar
160ml/6fl oz rapeseed oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
220g/8oz fine plain flour
80g/3oz cocoa
1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp orange blossom water
1 tbsp orange zest
2 tsp peppermint essence

Frosting
200g/7oz tbsp vegan margarine
400g/14oz icing sugar, sieved if lumpy
Orange and green food colouring

Optional decorations
12 tsp orange marmalade
Halloween-themed small vegan chocolates OR other themed decorations
Thin strips of orange peel
Crystallised orange segments
Fresh mint leaves
Edible glitter

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Get 24 cupcake liners ready in your cake tins; use orange and green if you have them.

2. Whisk the soya milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside for 2-3 mins to curdle. Add the sugar, oil and vanilla and whisk up a froth!

3. In another bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, bicarb and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture bit by bit and mix with a handheld whisk to break up any lumps. Try to keep the mixture as light as you can by not losing all the air bubbles.

4. Divide the mixture into two roughly equal amounts – there will be some of each left over so don’t panic!

5. For the chocolate orange mix, add 2 tsp orange blossom water and 1 tbsp orange zest. For the chocolate mint cakes add 2 tsp peppermint essence.

6. Pour mix into the cake liners filling them ¾ full and bake for 20 mins. If you don’t have different coloured liners, try to remember which is which. You’ll know they are ready when a toothpick is inserted and comes out dry. Remove the cakes from oven and place on rack to cool.

7. While they are cooling prepare your frosting. Beat the margarine with a wooden spoon until pale and fluffy. Add the sugar, bit by bit, and keep beating. This may require some elbow grease! Divide the frosting into two equal amounts. Add 1 tsp orange blossom water to one and 1 tsp peppermint essence to the other. Add orange and green food colouring respectively at the same time to each to avoid confusing them.

8. Assemble the orange cakes. Warm the marmalade in a small pan until runny and discard any large pieces of peel. Cut a small disc out of the top of each cake and fill with 1 tsp of the warmed marmalade. Replace the disc and gently push into place. Pipe a swirl of frosting onto each cake. Add any extras you want to decorate the cake with: chocolate Halloween shapes - such as skulls - strips of orange peel, crystallised orange segments and/or edible glitter.

9. The mint cakes are simpler, just pipe the green frosting onto each cake and add any chocolate decorations, glitter and/or a small sprig of fresh mint to each. Happy Halloween!