Vegan Ginger and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

LADIES, GENTLEMEN, THEMS AND THEYS! THE BEST BAKING SEASON IS UPON US - AUTUMN/WINTER IS HERE!!!

I am so happy that summer is over. I hate being sticky and sweaty and especially in England, it has been almost unbearable. It's never this hot here and it makes me want to destroy a data centre with an Arthurian sword. Anyways, the temperature is coming down which means I'm baking great flavours and I'm back to sleeping in my jumpers and hoodies. I'm so excited for Halloween that my mother bought me some really cool sprinkles to use on my cakes and cookies. Just take a look at the little baby ghosts! They are adorable!

I've also got another trick up my sleeves. Before this, I have said that in order to make a great vegan cupcake, any apple sauce in place of eggs will do, but now I do not believe that is the case. Not all apple sauce is equal. I was once using the normal supermarket version but wasn't getting the texture and rise I wanted. Now, I am into using one by the brand 'Biona' which is more of a puree. It really does make the batter a bit nicer to use and it isn't as sickly sweet as the normal supermarket brands. The link is below if you would like to get yourself some (I'm going to need more pretty soon!). If you search the site I think there's a bigger one too...

So, let's take a look at how you can make these delicious and vegan cupcakes!

Part 1: Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 150g Mascavado Sugar

• 150g Vegan Butter

• 3x Tbsp Apple Sauce

• 150g Self Raising Flour

• 2x Tsp Baking Powder

• 1x Tbsp Vanilla Essence

• 2x Tbsp Powdered Ginger

• 1x Tbsp Golden Syrup

• 100g Vegan Chocolate Chips

How To

1. Preheat your oven to 200/C

2. Line your cupcake tin with 12 cases

3. Cream together your butter, sugar, honey, vanilla and apple sauce

4. In a separate bowl mix together all the other ingredients except the chocolate chips, making sure that the ginger is not clumping up

5. Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients

6. Mix in your chocolate chips

7. Fill each cupcake case about 2/3 of the way

8. Pop in the oven for 15-18 minutes

9. Poke a hole in each cupcake once they are out of the oven (optional, but I find it helps the cake cool and allows the icing to get into the cupcake)

10. Cool for 30 minutes

Part 2: Buttercream

Ingredients

• 300g Light Brown Sugar

• 1/2x Espresso Shot of Orange Juice

• 150g Vegan Butter

• 1x Tsp Your Choice of Food Colouring

How To

1. Grab a blender and blitz the sugar until it is a white powder. This is much nicer, I find, than using icing sugar in a cake with a lot of spice and chocolate because it isn't as sickly sweet

2. Put the butter and the orange juice into a mixing bowl and whisk it up until it too, is white

3. Add the food colouring to the butter and mix again whilst slowly adding in the sugar

4. Once completed, pop into a piping bag and pipe your cupcakes with it

Tip: if you're scared of making your buttercream too watery with all of the liquid added to it, you can swap out the juice of an orange for the zest of it in the same amount AND you can also swap out the teaspoon of food colouring for food colouring which is a powder. If you're looking to use a natural purple for food colouring then blitz some beetroot and add a bit to your buttercream. Be careful though! Too much and you could change the flavour of your buttercream altogether.

So I can honestly say that this is my favourite season and you can hopefully look forward to more bakes and cookings from me if you're into that. If you remember last year then you'll be able to see that the smells and flavours of this season have always fascinated me. I cannot believe we are finally here, the best season out of them all. Have a great run-up to Halloween and don't forget to get involved with my writing challenge! The link is available at the top of my profile page...