Black Forest Cupcakes - Vegan!

I decided to look up eggless cupcakes, as I am trying to find recipes I will be able to shrink for a project in the future. Eggs, especially when there's only one egg, limit the amount of changes you can make to a recipe, unless you're willing to waste half or more of an egg. I had not previously been aware of using vinegar as an egg substitute, but quickly realized that there are several vegan sites out there that utilize this technique. I was thrilled, as the whole powdered egg substitute thing kind of freaks me out. Anyway, long story short, I found a chocolate cupcake recipe that sounded scrumptious, and went from there. It's quite an easy "dump and stir" recipe, no crazy techniques required. Here is my edited recipe

Black Forest Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350° - Makes 1 Dozen

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. flour

1 c. granulated sugar

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1/3 c. cocoa powder (the better quality of the cocoa, the better they will taste!)

1 T. instant coffee

1/2 c. oil

1 c. water

1 t. vanilla extract

1 T. vinegar

24 maraschino cherries

24 chocolate chips*

12 cupcake liners

Preparation:

Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients all at once and mix until moist and well blended.

Place the cupcake liners in the depressions of a cupcake pan. Fill each liner 1/3 full of batter.

Remove the cherries from their juice and carefully insert one chocolate chip inside each cherry. Drop two cherries into each cupcake, and add remaining batter, not allowing them to exceed 2/3 full.

Bake at 350° for 18-22 minutes or until an inserted fork comes out clean. Leave cupcakes in pan for five minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool. Cool completely before frosting.

Best-Ever White Icing

Ingredients:

4 c. confectioners' sugar

1 c. shortening

2 T. water

1 t. vanilla extract

1/3 c. chocolate chips*, optional

Preparation:

In a large bowl, combine sugar, shortening, water and vanilla. Beat on low speed to combine, then on medium-high for five minutes to ensure smoothness. Add additional water if needed. Stir in 10-12 drops liquid food coloring, if desired. Smooth over cupcakes.

Place chocolate chips in a plastic bag. Microwave for 30 seconds. Knead the bag, and microwave for additional time if not liquified. Snip a corner of the bag and pipe onto the frosted cupcakes in a zig-zag design.

Enjoy!

*Note, to make this truly vegan, you should make sure the chocolate chips used do not have milk/milkfat in them, or just skip them, as they're optional.

*Original cupcake recipe

*Original icing recipe