Makes 1 dozen cupcakes
Delicate vanilla cake dotted with real vanilla bean. Glossy chocolate ganache messing up your fingers. It’s the simple things in life! This is basically the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World cupcakes, only made a teeny bit more awesome.
For the cupcakes:
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped
For the ganache:
1/3 cup almond milk
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
Bake the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
Whisk the almond milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside for a few minutes to get good and curdled.
Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.
Beat together the almond milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla extract and vanilla bean in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix until no large lumps remain.
Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool.
In the meantime, prepare the ganache.
In a small sauce pan, bring the milk to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer and add the chocolate and syrup. Mix with a rubber spatula for about 30 seconds. Turn heat off, continue stirring until the chocolate is fully melted and the icing is smooth.
To assemble:
Let ganache cool for about 10 minutes. Dip the top of the cupcake in the ganache and then set them on a cooling rack. Spoon the remainder of the ganache over cupcakes. Let set in a cool room for an hour or so, or place in the fridge to set. Serve to happy people!
seriously…omnomonom. i cant wait til i get home for thanksgiving break so i can test these out! thank you for being awesome.
these are TO. DIE. FOR!!
Do you mean Vegan Cupcakes take over the World cupcakes? Not VCIYCJ?
Anyway, they look amazing. I love seeing the little bits of vanilla.
Oops, fixed!
These look super delicious!
Mmmm, Almond Milk <3
I was wondering: I've been using Oat milk and cream in my cupcakes lately, Have you tried it?
So fancy, they look gorgeous!
These look fan-freaking-tastic! It makes me wish vanilla beans were less expensive…or that I had more money to spare to buy said expensive beans…
These cupcakes look absolutely mouth-watering! Do you think 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste could be subbed in for the vanilla bean?
These look so light and delicious….and that ganache! LOVE.
I have a reel ‘hate-on’ for cornstarch; can I assume that arrowroot can replace that in equal amounts? Thanks!
make that “real”
OOh cool beans! Definitely worth a bite!
Can anyone tell me; a half-cup of choc chips equals how many ounces (can get choc here but not chips)? Thanks!
by weight, i mean, not volume. thnx. for this and for future reference.
I would say that those are absolutely perfect.
Vanilla beans are the best in those cupcakes. I’ve been working my way through a windfall of beans and all my vanilla cupcakes are now vanilla BEAN. And to Laura in Taos – I’ve used arrowroot in them and they turn out fine.
Wiping drool from keyboard…
OMG drooling!
Does it have to be maple syrup? Will agave work?
I’ve just made these and they are perfect! Thank you! I’ve been looking for a cake recipe for my son’s birthday (he can’t eat egg, dairy, or soy). I made them with vanilla frosting though, as he doesn’t like chocolate – using confectioner’s sugar, shortening, vanilla, and a little bit of juice. Our test batch hasn’t lasted long 🙂
Would this work as a sheet cake too?
These are gorgeous! The texture looks just right and with such a very fine crumb.
The cupcakes turned out great but the ganache was a total fail for me :(. It was all runny and wouldn’t set, wouldn’t even adhere to the cupcake when dipped in the ganache (after letting both cool). Will definitely do the cakes again, with a chocolate frosting.
I made these and they were amaaaaazing! Thank you. 🙂
I made these for dessert tonight, and my friend had three! So good!
all my omnivore friends LOVED these. sign of success!
I love the ganache cupcakes. It always make my mouth watering and eat almost all of the ganache my mother’s used to bake when I was a kid. I think I should bake some for my kids too.
I have to update my original post. The ganache had been a fail for me the first time, but this time it worked wonderfully. Deelish!
yum yum yummmmm. i’ve been experimenting with vegan recipes (i just became a vegan last week!) and these are duh-lishhh-usss
Can I make this into a cake without changing anything?
Oh My Ganesh! I made these as penifores (sp?) instead for my jiu jitsu peeps to eat at a tournament. SUCCESS! Thanks again for another vegan baked deception win 🙂
@ Allie, yes you can. I’ve used this recipe for cake, you might have to up the frosting though.
I’m pretty new to baking and multi-step receipts and thus not very good with figuring out substitutions. I’m allergic to almonds. Would it be better to substitute soy milk or coconut milk (or some other type of non-dairy milk) for almond milk?
Soy milk will work just fine!
Will rice milk work instead of almond milk ?
Served these at a party to my omnivore friends who LOVED them. They disappeared from the plate. The ganache frosting is very easy, perfect if you’re busy and don’t have time to fool with making a traditional frosting.
I made these last week, and they were delicious! I brought them to my lab meeting and everyone loved them, including the omins, not that I doubted it as any cupcakes from VCTOW have always been a huge hit, I’m always being asked for the recipe.
how many cupcakes does this make?
Made these over the weekend. To be honest this was my first recipe from this site that I really found disappointing. The cake was bland and seemed heavy and oily. I don’t know if this happened to anyone else, but I followed all the directions to a T.
chocolate chips aren’t vegan are they? they are made with milk
semisweet chocolate chips are just made from cacao tree. no milk.
too much cornstarch? my cupcakes turned out really dense, and i was expecting a light, fluffy cake so i was disappointed. The flavor was amazing though, and it pairs really nice with the ganache (which i used agave instead of maple syrup and it was great).
Actually, most semi-sweet chocolate chips (and most chocolate in general) test positive for dairy, as does most soy milk (curse you FDA!!). Why? Trace amounts are added, or the manufacturer uses ingredients purchased from other vendors that have trace amounts, or “additives” like calcium proprionate, calcium lactase or lactylate, and caseine or caseinate, etc. etc. etc. are all derived from dairy. Sad but true. I’m not 100% vegan (more like 95%), but I am 100% dairy intolerant so I have to pay extra special attention to this stuff, and tend to get foods tested a lot. You’d be surprised at the ingredients that are dairy derived. And also at how many things that the FDA deems “dairy free” have dairy in them. AND suprised at the number of things that shouldn’t have dairy in them but test positive for dairy anyway.