"No Eggs, No Problem" Cupcakes

Last weekend for the 4th of July, I made a flag cake like I made last year to take to a party. Once again, the flag cake was a big hit! The cake is frosted with white chocolate buttercream, which is super yummy. Since I had some frosting leftover, I promised Steve I'd make him some cupcakes.

I started planning what I was going to make and was just about to start when I realized we were out of eggs. Trying to figure out if we were going to borrow some eggs from the neighbors or just forgo the idea of cupcakes completely, I realized we had everything we needed for some fabulous cupcakes.

A couple of years ago I had made these chocolate cupcakes. With no eggs or butter, I'm guessing these would be considered vegan, although I'm no expert on the subject. Since we had a box of Thin Mints sitting in the freezer (one of the perks of my job!), I crushed a few up and added them to the batter. At that point, these were officially not vegan! I frosted them with the white chocolate buttercream and garnished with a Thin Mint.

So, no eggs? No problem!

{Photo by Steve Koo}

Egg & Dairy Free Chocolate Cupcakes
from The Repressed Pastry Chef

3 cups flour
2/3 cups Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder (or brand of choice)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups cold water
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (pepper)mint extract
2 tablespoons white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar and salt together. In a separate bowl whisk together the water, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, mint extract and vinegar.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/3 of the dry ingredients with 1/2 of the wet ingredients. After the mixture is thoroughly combined, add half of the remaining dry ingredients with the remaining wet ingredients. Combine thoroughly. Lastly add in the remaining dry ingredients.

Once the mixture is thoroughly combined, continue to mix for another 2-3 minutes. Pour into cupcake liners. Tap the pan against the counter to break any air bubbles that exist.

Bake for 20 minutes (cupcakes) or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Note: This recipe makes a very large quantity. I made a 1/3 batch and yielded 8 large cupcakes.