Last night I was in the mood for baking! Unfortunately I was missing two key ingredients for any good cupcake recipe: eggs and butter. So.. I decided to venture out of my cupcake comfort zone and attempt to make a vegan creation.

Lucky for me, good ol' Martha had the perfect "Vegan Chocolate Cupcake" recipe in her Cupcakes cookbook. The only substitution I made was using apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar and honestly I think they turned out great.. for vegan cupcakes.

The best part was taking them to work and explaining, "ok guys, I made cupcakes last night and.. they're vegan."

One of my co-workers told me, "you should have said, 'I have cupcakes BUT there's a catch!'" and after she took a bite, she followed by saying, "so do vegans not eat frosting?"

Now, it's not that i'm against vegan cupcakes, I mean if you can't have dairy you can't have dairy. But because all of my cupcake tasters expect a sugar and calorie overload, I think they were just caught off guard.

Longer story short, they were actually pretty good little cupcakes! Although next time I make these, I am adding lots of frosting!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Makes 3 dozen mini cupcakes (or 12 regular)

The Cupcake:

1 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar will work too)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups water
Powdered sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line mini muffin tins with cupcake liners; set aside.

2. In a large bowl sift together cake flour, granulated sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

3. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, mix together oil, vinegar, vanilla and water until well combined. Add flour mixture and mix until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Note: batter will be very thin!

4. Fill each muffin cup three-quarters full with batter. Transfer muffin tins to oven and bake until a skewer inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean, 15 minutes for mini or 20 - 25 minutes for regular size cupcakes. Let cupcakes cool completely.

5. Dust cupcakes with unsweetened cocoa powder and powdered sugar just before serving.

*Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 1 month in airtight containers.