Recipe: Vegan “Orange Velvet” Cupcakes

Sometimes, food doesn’t turn out the way you planned, but sometimes it’s not the worst thing in the world.

My boyfriend’s birthday is this weekend so I decided to surprise him last night with birthday cupcakes. He loves red velvet but I wanted to try something a little different, especially with Easter coming around.

That’s when I had a bright idea: Why not use orange food coloring instead and make orange velvet cupcakes with green frosting? They could look like Easter carrots!

While the color didn’t turn out quite as planned, the cupcakes were still delicious. Here’s a tip: If you stick with the original red velvet recipe, it’s going to turn out to be a brownish shade of whatever food coloring you add. However, if you are looking for more of a buttermilk cupcake, you can skip the cocoa powder and the colors can be a lot more vibrant.

Ingredients 

• 2 1/2 cups sifted flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 tsp gel food coloring (try any color!)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup “buttermilk” (Try 1 cup soy milk or coconut milk + 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp white vinegar
• Vegan cream cheese frosting recipe: Find it here

Directions 

Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners (or more if you’re making mini). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the dry ingredients – flour, salt, and cocoa powder, in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, combine the vegetable oil and sugar using a hand mixer or other electric mixer. Add in the applesauce and mix half in at a time. Mix in the vanilla and whatever food coloring your heart desires. Remember, if you’re not a big chocolate fan and you decide to forego the cocoa powder, the colors will end up even more vivid when you bake.

This is where it gets a little tricky. Add in about a third of the dry mixture to the wet, mix, add a third of the “buttermilk,” mix, and continue like this until everything is combined.

Now it’s time for everyone’s favorite science class activity: Combine the vinegar and baking soda, let it foam, and spoon into the bowl. Mix for another few seconds until it’s well combined.

Spoon this mixture into the cupcake tins, making sure to fill them a little more than halfway. Here’s an example of how high I filled them, and it was still a bit too high on some of them, where they kind of spread out from the pan. Keep an eye on this.

Throw them in the oven and check on them after about 20 minutes, though it could take up to 30 depending on how high you filled them. Make sure a toothpick could come out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool before you do any frosting. I had some fun frosting these and used some pretty bright colors, but use whatever you like. Add extracts for fun flavors, too.