Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes

This venture has Halloween written all over it - red velvet, orange icing and some themed toppers - I absolutely enjoyed making this one! This was my second attempt at a recipe I found on Food Gawker. It didn't quite work the first time but "second time was the charm"!!! The original recipe is vegan, I just kept it eggless. Oh! I have to thank Anusha and Archana for all the help and moral support ... thanks for being my guinea pigs chicas!

Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes
Adapted from Whisk Kid by Kaitlin
Serving Size: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

Milk - 1 cup (see notes)
All-purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups
Sugar - 1 cup
Cocoa - 2 tbsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Canola oil - 1/2 cup (see notes)
Liquid RED food coloring - (according to your color preference)
Vanilla extract - 2 tsp

In a large bowl, add the milk and whisk in oil, food color and mix well. In a another bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Now, sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, fold it in and mix only till the large lumps disappear. You can add the dry ingredients in 2-3 batches.

Preheat the oven at 350 deg F. Prepare a muffin tin with cupcake liners. I greased the liners a little bit. Pour the batter into the liners and bake for 18-20 minutes. Remove after the cakes clear the toothpick test and lay them out on a cooling rack. If they are not being served immediately, cover each cupcake in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I did this since I was frosting them the following day.

Vegan Frosting

Earth Balance butter - 1/4 cup
Tofutti cream cheese - 1/4 cup
Confectioner's sugar - 1 cup (see notes)
Vanilla extract - 1tsp
Food color (I used orange for Halloween)

vegan butter & vegan cream cheese

the cupcake toppers :)

In a bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese with a hand mixer. Slowly add the sugar in 2-3 portions and mix in the vanilla and food color (if adding any). Fill a decorating bag and get artistic (my hands definitely need tons of practice at icing..ugh!!!) Happy Baking and Happy Halloween!!!

Notes:

• Since the original recipe is vegan, it uses soy milk (with vinegar). I used an equal portion of regular milk instead. You can also use an equal portion of rice milk. Either way, skip the vinegar.
• I used corn oil instead, vegetable oil should work too.
• I did not have powdered sugar on hand so I went with regular granulated sugar. Well, I was supposed to powder it but amidst all the chit chatting, I forgot. Nevertheless, I am glad I went ahead with it cos the regular sugar provided a nice crunch to the icing.
• Again, I found 2 cups of sugar to be overly sweet, so brought that down to 1.