Red Devil's Food (or Red Velvet) Cupcakes

Hello, Happy Valentine's and a million "absent-blogger" excuses I'm not going to bore you with.

No long introductory story, here's the cupcakes we made for my daughter's school Valentine's party yesterday.

She really wanted Red Devil's Food cupcakes, but being without a recipe, I improvised. This is a regular vegan chocolate "buttermilk" cake recipe that I combined with my old (not-vegan) Red Devil's Food Cake recipe. Turned out pretty good!!

I suppose everyone made these for Valentine's, so we aren't real original, but they were festive and fun. Enjoy!

Red Devil's Food (or Red Velvet) Cupcakes

2-1/2 cups white flour

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1/4 cup magarine

1/4 cup oil

1 cup non-dairy milk

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

4 tablespoon cocoa powder unsweetened

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon vinegar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 ounces red food coloring (or I've heard of people using beet juice but I've never tried it)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a cup pour the non-dairy milk and lemon juice.

Let sit for a while, this is like your "buttermilk".

Cream together the oil, margarine and sugar, then add applesauce.

In a small bowl mix together cocoa and food coloring until it's paste-like. Add it to the creamed mixture.

Mix the salt and flour together and add it to the batter alterately with the 'buttermilk' in a couple batches. Add vanilla extract.

Mix in baking soda and vinegar. Stir well.

Pour batter into greased or papered cupcake tins and bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Frost when cool.

Frosting:

1 - 2 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar

8 oz. vegan "cream cheese" (I use Tofutti brand)

1/4 C vegan margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 non-dairy milk

Chopped nuts or sprinkles as desired

Mix cream cheese and softened margarine together. Add 1 cup sugar to start, and vanilla and milk.

Mixture will be very soft, add more powdered sugar as needed to make a spreadable consistancy. Spread on cooled cupcakes. Garnish with chopped nuts or sprinkles if you want.

Hope your Valentine's was fun, and spent with people you love.