Luca’s Cupcakes come from a mom’s clever idea for her child, Luca. A quick and healthy snack to make when you don't have much at home. For all intents and purposes, this recipe is vegan; there are no eggs, milk or butter. The recipe was actually created by chance – when some key ingredients were missing.
No butter, no eggs, no milk cupcakes. It’s possible!
These cupcakes are proof that you can make delicious cupcakes – even without the eggs and butter. The consistency of the dough is slightly moist, thanks to the presence of citrus fruit juice and chocolate. You can use the basic cocoa mixture to make cupcakes in a muffin tin, or you can make a plumcake, bundt cake or a classic cake shape with it!
Cupcakes frosting?
Since this is a vegan cupcakes recipe, we thought we would also provide a frosting recipe without butter, made by whipping coconut milk instead. Obviously, a special coconut milk is used for this recipe – the canned version. You can find it at the supermarket in the vegetable milk section, to drink at breakfast instead of cow’s milk for a lighter, super-filtered and almost fat-free alternative. Not bad, right? How do you make coconut fronting? Just leave the can closed in the refrigerator for one night and take it out the next day. Use only the thick part, setting the liquid aside. This works perfectly as a sort of vegetable cream with a hint of coconut. Add sugar to taste, even if the natural flavor goes very well with chocolate cake.
The Recipe: Luca’s Vegan Cupcakes
Ingredients for cupcakes:
7 oz flour, 1 cup finely chopped brown sugar, 2 ½ cups vegetable milk (spelt, coconut or oat), ½ cup orange or lemon juice, 2 tsp baking powder, ½ cup seed oil, 3 oz bitter cocoa, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 oz chocolate chips
How to make vegan cupcakes:
Sift the yeast with the flour and cocoa. Mix everything with sugar. Separately, mix the oil with the milk and orange or lemon juice. Mix the liquid with the dry mixture using a spatula. Add the vanilla and pour the mixture into a muffin tin with paper cups (or greased and floured). Bake at 350°F for about 25-30 minutes. Once cooled, decorate the cupcakes with coconut cream using a pastry bag or a spatula.
Variants
If you want, add fruit to the basic cupcakes mixture (i.e. blueberries, raspberries, apple or pear cubes). Another idea? Put a spoonful of jam or dried fruit cream, hazelnut cream or peanut butter in the center of each cupcake. Then pour a little bit of the mixture into each muffin mold, followed by a teaspoon of filling in the middle. Then cover with more of the mixture.
The frosting can also be enriched, with cocoa powder for fully chocolate-flavored cupcakes, or you can flavor it with fruit syrups from raspberries, sour cherries or strawberries – this will change the color, too! Another syrup that might go well with both cream and coconut is mint. Mint and chocolate are a match made in heaven!