Dark Chocolate Cupcakes (GF & Vegan)

I have heard many people compare gluten-free (GF) vegan baked goods to cardboard and can't help but think 'Have you tried my dark chocolate GF vegan cupcakes?'  OK...so maybe that comes across the wrong way, but seriously, these things are most definitely not dry and often remind me of an Oreo in cupcake form.  Here is a picture of these chocolate cupcakes that I made for my son's 4th birthday.

I cannot take full credit for the recipe, as I used the one on the back of the dark cocoa powder container, but I believe the ingredient substitutions that I use truly make this cupcake my absolute favorite treat for birthday celebrations.  The recipe on the back of the container makes 24 cupcakes, but I cannot have that many extra cupcakes sitting around the house, so I halved the recipe and wrote it down on my recipe card.  (Yes, I still use hard-copy recipe cards in my kitchen.)

Substitutions

• To make this vegan, I choose to use Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer.  Follow instructions on the bag.
• To make this gluten-free, I use my homemade gluten-free all-purpose flour blend.  I suppose the pre-made mixes would work well here too, but I use my own to avoid the gums and fillers most blends have in them.
• To make this corn-free, I keep a jar of mixed baking powder in my pantry.  Just look for ones that don't have cornstarch if you get a store-bought version.
• To reduce the amount of oil, use unsweetened applesauce instead of vegetable oil.
• To make this dairy-free, I use 1/2-cup full fat coconut milk (see brand above), for the half recipe.

And that's it.  Besides the above substitutions, I make this recipe as written.  I usually make them in cupcake form, but they would also work well in a donut pan.  (I think, as I haven't tried it yet.)  One last thing to make note of, I once tried reducing the amount of sugar in this recipe, and they did not turn out as spectacular as they normally do.

Oh, I totally forgot about the icing.  I don't typically make homemade icing, though I have a vegan friend who has made this Easy Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting recipe before and it tasted amazing!  I like to buy pre-made icing (for convenience), so I usually get Miss Jones Vanilla Frosting, which is my favorite but I haven't been able to find it as readily as I did last year.  Target used to carry it, but not so much recently.

The other brand I like to get is Simple Mills Vanilla Frosting.  I can usually find this one at Whole Foods.

If you decide to make this recipe, I hope it works out for you as well as it did for me!  (I plan to make these for my son's 2nd birthday, which is coming up in a couple months! Woohoo!)